The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-05-31
Loudly App|auded BY Veterans
Gathered Around the Tomb
Of Grant
MANY DISTINGUISHED
MEN HEARD ADDRESS
Tells of Bitter Pill Swallowed at Ap-
pomattox, But Says He Is Always
Willing to Honor Those
Who Perished.

New York. May So.-Decoration Day
was observed with impressive solemnity
in this city. Crowds attended the exer-
cises the weather being fine. There was
an impressive parade of the Grand Army
of the Republic posts, National Guard
regiments, regular troops and blue jack
cts and marines from the navy yard.
The parade was reviewed by Lieuten-
ant General Miles, Rear Admiral Barker,
Acting Governor Nixon, Mayor Low,
General o. o. Howard and General
Brooke.
A soldiers and sailors monument said
to be one of the costliest of the kind in
the world. was unveiled in Riverside
Park. There was a parade of the Grand
Army of the Republic in Brooklyn.
Judge Thomas G. Jones, of Alabama.
United States district judge. was the or
ator of the day at Riverside. Judge
Jones served in the Confederate army
during the civil war. HIS speech was
fine tribute to General U. S. Grant the
great leader of the federal armies, and
was punctured with applause through
out.
number of distinguished men of the ma
tion, army officers, including General
Nelson A. Miles General John R. Brooke
General o. o. Howard and others.
Judge Jones' Speech.
Judge Jones spoke in full as follows:
Fellow Countrymen, and may | not say.
Comrades of U. s. Grant Post: Your
gracious kindness has touched me deeply.
1t is not for me- but for the people from
whom I come. This hour Is one of inde-
scribable grandeur. No one feels more
keenly than 1 how vain it is for my poor
tongue to strive to give fit utterances to
fhe emotion 1t stirs. Despite all this. l
come, for there was stronger call which
made me obey your summons. When
but a beardless youth drank of the cup
O. defeat at Appomattox, and was one of
those allowed to return to his home
not to be disturbed by the United States
authorities so long as they observed their
parole and the laws in force where they
resided" From that day to this there has
never been an hour when l would will
lingly omit any opportunity to do honor
TO the memory of the immortal who for
bade to add to the burdens of our sor-
rows then.
was once a member of a burial party
on a field in the hands of Jacksons men.
In the valley near the little Virginia ham
let Mcdowell, we came upon the hospit2i
of an Ohio brigade. We succored the
living and reverently buried the dead
We had not yet become accustomed to the
horrors and sight of war. and the memory
of that day will be with me always
Among the dead was an Ohio boy, hardly
Cd enough to carry musket. He had
died peacefully and not in pain; for his
blood had slowly trickled away from
Al r1af hn cfQ
Death had fixed in the lineaments of his
sweet young face a solemnity and dignity
all it's own.
Near Him Was Bible.
Near him was a Bible and a letter.
These had been the last things on which
his eyes had rested in life. We scanned
them to learn who the dead boy was, in
the hope that chance might offer the
return Of the Bible and the letter to
those who loved him, with some word
of his peaceful end. The letter from the
Ohio grandmother startled me. 1t was
almost word for word the letter which
had come to me by the last army mail
from my grandmother in Virginia. Both
letters told of the little things at home
Both spoke of soldiers duty, and en-
couraged the performance of it, Both
told of prayers at morning and night for
motherless boys, that "God would shield
rpon the happy return home when peace
should come. Both breathed in every line
trust In God and love of country, and
the Righteousness of the cause the absent
ones were serving. 1 could not sleep
that night. AS 1 lay upon my blanket
and watched until they went down the
stars which shed their serene light on the
biyouacs in the valley and the shadows
of the mountains above. thought after
thought came to me. Why was the dead
boy there? Why was l there? What en-
nifty did we bear each other? What
agency had we in bringing on the strife?
What power to avoid it? Did we not love
country and liberty alike? Why did God
environ us by circum stances which made
n a duty for each to slay the other?
would Divine Providence to promote
some design, hidden from our weak eyes,
vet work good out of i'll, or was it all
the work of blind and horrid chance, of
which we were but helpless playthings!
Time and time again the question asked
itself.
How Was II Possible?
How was 1t possible that men of the
came race, that worshipped the same God,
read the same Bible, spoke the same
1ong,Isge and lived under the same insti-
tutions which their forefathers, under
4be same flag in the past, had made such
fearful sacrifice to create and sustain,
could become tmbroiled in a day. as 1t
wero. ir the de eadlisst struggle of modern
times? Then and there the conviction
came to me, to abide forever, that the
dead boy was actuated by motives as
nure and high as mine. loved his country
as well and sacrificed himself to the noble
ideals of truth and manhood as animated
those who gave him soldiers burial;
that he and l were but types of all the
,.st and behind us in the hostile lands
were millions as good md true as the
erandmothers who wrote the letters.
Then came the other thought that the
dead Ohio boy was my brother in all that
is good and true, and it was not for
soldier 70 pass judgment on the motives
# any n en- on the other side who went
DOWN m battle with pure heart and came