Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1899-05-24
VALOR'S LAST SLEEP.
GREAT ARMY BURIED IN NATIONAL
CEMETERIES.

i
Historic Arlington, on the Bank of
the POtOmac-Origin of the Custom
of strewing Flowers On the Graves
of the Blue and Gray.
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac Of the dead.
To the women of Columbus, Miss,
Is attributed the honor of being among
the first to decorate with flowers the
graves of soldiers and sailors who fell
in the civil war. To their praise be it
said, they scattered their beautiful |
offerings with impartial hands alike
over the graves of those who had fought |
for the south and those who had died |
for the north. 1t was this touching Incl (
dent that suggested to Francis Miles
Finch the fine poem entitled "The Blue
and the Gray" the last stanza of which
is:
No more shall the warcry sever
Or the winding river be red;
They Danish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgment day;
Love and tears for the blue,
Tears and love for the gray.
The custom gradually spread through
out the south-April 81 being the date
selected for it's observance. General
John A. Logan when commander in
chief of the Grand Army of the Repub-
lie received, it is said, letter from
German residing in Cincinnati in
which the statement was made that 1t
was springtime custom of the people
| in the German fatherland to decorate
with flowers the graves Of their soldiers
The writer suggested that the custom
be adopted in the United States The
idea met with the approval of General
Logan, and in 1858 he appointed May
| 80 as the date of its observance.
1t is said that the date, May 80, was
selected not only because of the album
dance of flowers at that season of the
year, but also because on that day the
last soldier of the civil war was mus
tered out of service. The custom of
having parades was not introduced I'M
til 1882. Each year there are fewer old
soldiers to join in these professions, and
each year there are new graves to re-
ceiye the loving tributes of flowers and
tears from the living.
There are IS national cemeteries scat
tered throughout some % states Of the
Union, and in them lie the remains Of
$50, 600 soldiers. Virginia has 16, in
which are buried rs, 900 men; Tennessee
comes next with 7, in which are 81, 24S
dead; Mississippi has 3, with 25, 497 !
| Georgia 2, with 3,S69; Louisiana 4,
with 2O,S61; North Carolina 4, with
10, $780, Missouri 8, with IA, 151. 1t
will be seen that these seven states con-
tain within their borders more than
half of all the national cemeteries and
that in them are buried above two
thirds of the entire number of soldiers
who sleep in government grounds In
the cemeteries of no other single state
are there above 10000 soldiers buried.
The smallest number of men (43) are in
the battle-ground cemetery. District Of
Columbia, and the largest number (16,
939) are in Arlington cemetery, Virgin
la. Sixteen thousand six hundred and tif.
ty-six are buried at VicksbuIg, Miss
16, 558 at Nashville, Tenn, and 10, 25e
at Fredericksburg, Va.
| The cemetery of Arlington, which il
just across the Potomac river from
Washington, was established May IS,
1864. The property belonged to General
Robert E. Lee and before the war was
one of the finest homes in the south.
About 4, 900 of the dead buried there
are unknown. Beneath single stone
less than four yards long and about two
wide ellie the remains of Q, III soldiers
collected from the battlefield of Bull
Run and the route Of the Rappahannock
after the war.
Arlington is indeed place for tender
memories, for thanksgivings and fol
prayers, but it is no place for pride and
vainglory. Standing among those grass
grown graves and looking at that DESC
lated home, one Observation-Disclosures
perhaps than ever before-what wal
means and what victory costs-early
Deaths ruined homes and crushed
hearts. One has only to stand within
the shade of Arlington to learn that
war means all this and more, and when,
with sympathy born Of a common sor-
row, we remembered that there were
soldiers Of the gray as well as Of the
blue whose graves that day would be
flower strewn and tear moistened we
felt that no sermons could plead more
eloquently for peace and charity than
did those lowly mounds.
These men have left as priceless
heritage; let us see that we are worthy
of it. General John B. Gordon puts II
well, "Let us remember that those who
wore the blue and those who wore the
gray are brothers now in the truest
sense and that both will stand together
in defense of the Union and see to i,
that law and liberty shall live and
that this republic of ours shall move
onward and upward forever in its be.
nign mission to humanity. "-Forward.
Local Prejudice.
Il = IL