The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-05-29

! And thirty seven years after William Shafter
and Joe Wheeler, General Wilson and General
breckenridge. upon the same battlefield and
under the same flag, led troops from North and
South. both white and black, upon a foreign
soil in a campaign of mercy for the higher
civilization of the world. while the sons OF
ermont and Maryland, Dewey and Schley,
swept two oceans with their flags and by the
thunders of their great guns blew from the
seas the medieval msrule of Spain. We are
no longer a province but a nation, whose
mighty Christian influence the powers OF the
world must reckon with And even Samoa can
not be Germanized or Anglicized, nor China
dismembered without our consent.
But our present recognition by the nations of
the world and our present ability to handle
the lever of aggressive civilization was made
a possibility by the men who from 81 to 60
poured out their lives to make free nation
unit forever.
war, the seventh New York militia We're
ordered to Washington to defend the capital
When their train reached Philadelphia they
learned that below Havre de Grace. Md. the
railroad had been destroyed by the Confed-
crates or their friends. They accordingly took
the steamer Boston at Philadelphia and pro-
ceeded down the Delaware River, out upon
the Atlantic Ocean, to Cape Henry, up the
Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis Md. at which
point they found the Eighth Massachusetts, in
command of Colonel Benjamin F. Butler
They learned that the track between there and
Baltimore and Washington had been destroyed
including three bridges, and eight locomotives
had been dismantled and their parts piled in
one confused heap in the roundhouse. Upon
the rehabilitation of these engines and the re-
pairing of tracks and bridges the fate OF
his men into line and gave the command:
The men who understand the mechanism and
construction of a locomotive step six PAGES
to the 'front.'. Every officer and man of Com
pany E. recruited from the engine workers of
Taunton. Mass, stepped to the front, and in
one hour and twenty minutes engine No. 174S
was out on the track under her steam,
and in two hours and half the others were
and part of the Eighth Massachusetts were
off their way to the capital. When they
came to the broken bridges a similar call pro-
t=if Irfi hi1la
who, pulling two barns to pieces in in
credibly short time. bridged the chasm from
from the time the first engine run out
at Annapolis the two regiments were pulled
Vermont. who received them with tears of
joy, said God bless you. boys. You have
saved the capital of your country" The bat
teries OF Confederate guns, ready to lombard
the capital, were limbered up and stole back
to Dixie recognizing that the day was lost.
not to soldiers of the republic but to the plain
men who unromantic mechanics had served
their generation so faithfully that when the
emergency OF the nation was upon them they
We're equal to the crisis
And there was time when an cleo
trcian. an engineer a chemist, plain me-
chanic in any line needed by the Govern
ment that our volunteer ranks failed TO pro-
duce him
Gentlemen the faithful service of one s
generation IS the highest loyalty to God He
served his generation and fell asleep" So 1t
has been with most Of your comrades. and. SO
IL shall be with You. Now. after this, what
then? Another life is before US. And the
services Of this the seedlings of that.
Where will you spend eternity? If death ends
all, why seek to perpetuate the memory of
your comrades on Tuesday? Every bouquet cast
upon soldiers grave Is token of his i'm
mortality. And a voiceess sentiment within
US tells US that they know what we are doing
for their memories
There day when you came home and
victory was upon your banners and honor of
your fellows fell upon you on every hand for
your battles were we'll fought and your work
well done.
There will be another gathering, representing
a higher fealty. to the unit of which is the
Kingdom of God. What shall be your welcome
there? May the wars of that kingdom be so
well fought that ye shall hear We'll done good
and faithful servant. enter into the joys of thy
Lord But in this war. like in the other
no victory is won, for which do not enlist
Enlist for this higher and better patriotism
serving In your generation in this highest
sphere and finally coming with victory into
the everlasting kingdom.