Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-10-31
D. A. R. R WANT Il
"A MONUMENT,

"a MONUMENT.
An Appeal to State Pride
Address delivered by Mrs. C.. E.
Armstrong, state regent of Iowa,
at the first conference of the Iowa
Daughters OF the American Revo-
luton, October 10, 1899. at Clinton,
Ia. Printed by order Of the confer
ence.
One hundred and eighteen years ago
this very day the ancestors from whom
we SO proudly claim our descent, were
participating In the closing scenes Of
the revolutionary war, on the now his
toric grounds of Yorktown.
That desperate struggle of seven long
years against oppression and treason
unparalleled, amid discouragements
which have been unsurpassed, was
rapidly approaching contamination.
The proud CORVALLIS has delivered
his sword to our gallant Washington
in recognition of the humiliating fact
that British arms have been compelled
to surrender before American valor.
The thirteen independent colonies are
now to become the free and United
States OF America and welded together
as they were, by mutual interests and
tsympathies and that far stronger bond,
mutual suffering, it was hoped that
henceforth there would be union of
hearts and hands, union of lakes and
lands, which nothing would ever be
able to sever. But that hydra headed
monster, state right, had already shown
his forked tongue and before half a
century had winged its rapid fight the
thlrty-six states, which then composed
| the union, We're engaged in that most
horrible of all internecine strife-civil
war For four years the screech and
roar and carnage of battle filled all this
| land with horror and confederate and
union forces We're mown down and de-
pleted as snowhakes melt and disap-
pear before the noon day sun, while the
descendants of the revolutionary faith
ers adjusted for all time the burning
questions which those flonored sires
had left unsettled.
Six of the battles of the civil war oc-
Cured near Chattanooga, all of them
being fought for the possession of that
| city, as most important stragetic
point. Just mention Chicamauga
Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and
Missionary Ridge to any soldier and
watch the kindling of his eye as mag
nation carries him back to those stir
ring times
The first and by far the most import
ant of these battles was fought on the
fields of chicamauga Sept. 10 and 20.
| 1863.
| While the thunders of cannon were
rolling over the low lands and reveber-
| ating from the mountains which look
down on Chicamauga the Americans
north fought against the Americans
/ south for two entire days in what is
now generally conceded to be the most
stubbornly contested battlefield of the
| civil war.
History gives no account Of any bat
| tie, since firearms We're invented where
more gallant and desperate fighting
| was done than on that Sabbath day
thirty-six years ago.
| All but four of the states lying east
of the Rocky mountains had troops en-
gagged in the contest and nearly all the
great armies were represented. The
result of the two days fighting was
THAT thirty three per cent of the troops
/ actually engaged in the battle were
killed, wounded or missing and many
organizations came out of the conflict
with the loss of every other man who
entered 1t.
| If you will but recall the fact that
Waterloo, the most desperate and
bloody battle chronicled in European
| history, resulted in no such casualty as
i hot IL, ND h,c tn
lalthough considered unusually sanguin-
airy, sustained loss of only fourteen
and one half per cent, you may realize
| in some slight degree the awful
| slaughter of this two days carnage.
| Just twenty-six years after this now
famous encounter there occurred an
event unprecedented in the history of
war and one which would be impossi-
bic in any other country than our own.
The Blue and the Gray again met,
face to face, on the old battlefield at
/ Chicamauga. Not in malice not in
strife, were they now convened but
every vestige of animosity and revenge
! having been obliterated from their
memory by the now absorbing love of
country and the old flag they now met
| in true, fraternal love that unitedly
| tney might celebrate the SlOrleS and
triumphs of this most desperately
! fought battle. For singularly enough
the loss on each side had been nearly
equal and each side had been equally
victorious. The confederates having
secured and held the Chicamauga fields
while the union forces gained Chatta-
nooga, their objective point.
Listen to the thrilling words of one
of the many orators on this occasion:
when last we gathered here thous-
ands of men from Maine to Texas
/ heard the long roll beat off for the last
time. They died that Chicamauga
might live forever and in the blood OF
tens of thousands of brave men Chica-
manga was baptised into Immortality
| The battle cloud has lifted and over
these glorious fields rises the anthem
| of peace. As 1t swells over the senti-
Melting mountains and floats away over
lakes and oceans the sweet strains tell
that the men of the north and the men
/ of the south shall learn war no more.
The bow of promise and concord is
gently bending. assuring us that peace,
like benediction, shall rest upon this
/ land for evermore.'
That the meeting Of these old soldiers
/ at Chicamauga was not without its eff