The Oskaloosa herald., 1901-06-06
In MEMORIAM.
Major Lacey's Tribute to the
Fallen Comrades.

ur6sb, uelVer6O Uy maJOr JOHu f.
Lacey at Forest Cemetery in Oska-
loosa:
COMRADES AND FELLOW CITIzENs:
This is a day in which for time We
turn our thoughts to the dead. The
world is a home and grave" said
Pericles,, twenty-three hundred years
ago in his great Grafton over the Grecian
soldier dead. That Grafton stood as a
model for twenty-three centuries until
Lincoln placed his brief Gettysburg
speech by its side where they will re-
main forever as models OF patriotic
oratory.
General John A. Logan was moved
by high inspiration when he conceived
the thought of setting aside this nation
al holiday to commemorate the heroism
and patriotism of our soldiers and sail
ors who have fallen by land and by sea-
1t is flower festival for the dead,
Forty years ago to-day OsElaloosa was
filled with stirring and excited throng
1t was then small village of only 1000
inhabitants. But the people were astir
as they have never been since. Sumter
had been fired upon. The war was be-
gun. Our county had raised a COM
pany to respond TO the first call of three
months men, but the company had not
been accepted but had now been re-
enlisted for three years and assigned to
the Third Iowa Infantry.
The people of the county had turned
out enmasse to bid the boys good bye
and God speed. Down by the South
Spring Mill one hundred men were
drawn up in line to receive the parting
cheers and tears which mingled to-
gether.
This day never comes that | do not
recall that event as | then stood with
my brother at my side and received
the blessing of father and mother as
we turned our faces to the south.
That brother fills soldiers grave
but his form and face and that of his
comrades come to my memory after the
lapse of forty years. But grief burned
faster than tears could drown in those
days.
There was that premonition of dan
ger among the people of the days OF
marching, nights of walking, perils by
wood and flood, perils of battles and
disease which only too well were full
filled as time rolled by.
In these years all that were left of
that company of vigorous and sturdy
young men were consolidated with the
Second Iowa at Atlanta, and as l ad-
dress you to-day, but four of these men
still live among you. The others are all
gone to the great unknown, or are scat
tered far and wide over many states.
| make this brief recital of fact in
order to revive in the memory of the
old and to touch the imagination of
the young with some faint IDEA of the
times that we celebrate to-day.
The sacrifice was great. One million of
men of the youngest, sturdiest and the
best lay in their graves when in 1866
the flag once more hoated over a re-
united country.
We should recall these times not in
anger, but with rejoicing that out of the
din of contest arises the hum of in
dustry and out of the bloody feel Is OF
1861 spring the May flowers of 1901,
and in the cemeteries of the past the
sad note is heard of the mourning doves
of to-day.
The President was a soldier in that
war and there has been no more pleas
ing thing in our history than the royal
welcome that he recently received as he
journeyed through the states that strug-
gled to destroy the nation.
We are now a reunited people. The
Grand Army of the Republic having
these ceremonies in charge, is ready to
do its part in the present changed con-
dition of affairs, just as it was ready
to do so forty years ago.
But it is a part OF the duty of that
4 ,rrI,f
The Grand Army is composed of only
those who were loyal in 1861 and those
only who demonstrated their loyalty by
enrolling for service under the flag and
obtaining an honorable discharge from
that service.
Our southern brethren fought for
cause in which they had faith. But
their teaching that patriotism and al
legiance were first due to the state was
wrong A flower growing out of place
becomes weed. Patriotism when lin
tied to a single locality of our country
becomes a danger to the whole. The
war has settled the fact that our al
lcgiance is first to the nation at large.
We should be Americans before being
Iowans.
England was cursed with the long
war of the partisans of York against
Lancaster-the war of the red against
the white roses At the end the white
rose mingled with the red and became
the emblem of both the contestants.
During all the long civil war the
stars of the seeding states remained on
Our national flag, and every bullet fred
by a South Carolina soldier was di
rected against the white star of the
state still holding its rightful place upon
his couBtry's fac.
When the war ended the flag needed
no changing except to crowd little in
the blue corner to make room
new states that had become a part of
our National Union.
There have been many great turning
points in the worlds history since God
looked upon his work and saw that it
was good. Moses march across the
The founding Of Rome, the battle of
Marathon, the Christian Era, the begira
of Mahomet, the conquest of England
by William the Conqueror, the French
and American revolutions were ali
events of this character. But as bear
ing upon its influence on the future of
the world, the war of the rebellion
takes rank as one Of the most vital inn
portance to all mankind. 1t sounded
the death knell of human slavery
throughout the whole world. Water
loo was one of these epochs in human
history and yet the death of Napoleon
would in a few years have done what
Waterloo performed.
But the civil war in the United States
changed conditions for all mankind