St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-05-24
VALOR'S LAST SLEEP.
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And ylorx ot,arda with solemn round


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 ~ being the date
selected for its 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 it
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 1868 he appointed May
80 as the date of its observance.
1t is said that the date, May 30, 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-
ceive the loving tributes of flowers and
tears from the living
There are rs national cemeteries scat
tered throughout some % states of the
Union, and in them lie the remains Of
$780, 600 soldiers. Virginia has 16, in
which are buried rs, 600 men; Tennessee
comes next with 7, in which are 81, 24S
dead; Mississippi has 3, with 25, 497
Georgia 2, with 23, 500; Louisiana 4,
with 20,s61; North Carolina 4, with
1895; Missouri 3, 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 10, 600 soldiers buried.
The smallest number of men (43) are in
the battle-ground cemetery, District of
Columbia and the largest number 16,
93s) are in Arlington cemetery, Virgin
ia. Sixteen thousand six hundred and tif-
ty-six are buried at VicksbuIg, Miss
16, 55S at Nashville, Tenn, and 10, 25S
at Fredericksburg, Va.
The cemetery of Arlington, which i:
Just across the Potomac river from
Washington, was established May 49,
1864. The property belonged to Genera
Robert T. Lee and before the war wal
one of the finest homes in the south
About 1900 of the dead buried ther,
are unknown. Beneath single ston,
less than four yards long and about tw,
wide ''lie the remains of iii soldier
collected from the battlefield of Bull
Run and the route of the Rappahannocl
after the war.
Arlington is indeed place for tende
memories, for thanksgivings and 70
prayers, but it is no place for pride an,
vainglory. Standing among those gras
grown graves and looking at that desc
lated home, one understands-bette
perhaps than ever before-what wa
means and what victory costs-earl
Deaths ruined homes and crushe
hearts. One has only to stand With
the shade of Arlington to learn tina
war means all this and more, and when
with sympathy born of common sol
row, we remembered that there wer
soldiers of the gray as well as of tn
blue whose graves that day would b
flower strewn and tear moistened W
felt that no sermons could plead NOR
eloquently for peace and charity tina
did those lowly mounds.
These men have left us priceless
heritage; let us see that we are worth
of it. General John B. Gordon puts
well, "Let us remember that those VIII
wore the blue and those who wore tn
gray are brothers now in the trues
sense and that both will stand togethc
in defense of the Union and see to
that law and liberty shall live an
that this republic of ours shall mo,
onward and upward forever in its b.
uign mission to humanity. "-Forwar'
Garlnnds For All.