The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1902-06-06

know the rest of the story; 1 hard
ly need enter into detail: You
remember Charlottesville, you know
of Fredericksburg {alas! you know
them all too welD. There was
Antietam, a battle in which the
carnage was more terrible than that
which swept away the famous Six
Hundred at R sa.s .Iavss -Etmlho)a ened
by his successes, Lee planned a march
into Maryland, hoping that that state
would rally to his support; but "Mary-
land, my Maryland" proved true as
steel to the Union. Then Lee daringly
pressed on into Pennsylvania. If he
was successful, Baltimore, Washing
ton, Philadelphia might come into his
hands: and then, who knew what?
Meade followed in hot pursuit, threw
his line athwart Lees pathway at
Gettysburg, a little village in western
Pennsylvania. You remember how
outpost and were compelled to fall
back. The Union line took up position
on Cemetery Ridge. For two days Lee
hammered away at the Union center,
dealing blow on blow. At last in the
late afternoon of July 3, he ordered
Gen Pickett to- advance with 5000
men; but as a high dashing wave beats
with fury upon a great sea wall and is
flung back in dashing spray, so Pick
EFT S men were hurled back, not routed,
but annihilated. If the day on which
a nation is saved is no less glorious
than the day ON which it is born, then
the Fourth of July, '76 and the
Fourth of July, 1868, must be dates
forever memorable in our country s
history, for on this latter day the news
spread like wildfire over our land that
Vicksburg, with 10000 men had sur
rendered to ntand, simultaneously,
battle that turned the destinies of
men had been fought and won at
Gettysburg.
After this pivotal contest Lee fought
on the defensive, but showed himself
as great hero, as peerless leader,
when keeping at bay the hounds of
war as when, with aggressive fighting,
cutting huge swath TO- fame. You
remember the clash that came between
those giants, Grant and Lee, as Grant
pounded his way FROM the Wilderness
to Richmond. The dogs of war were
unchained,. and the loling of their
tongues and the hot painting of their
jaws showed that they were goaded on
/ to madness. Those were terrible, aw-
full days. Grant we'll knew that he
/ would not win the fight by single
brilliant victory or single mastery
Estroke; he knew it would be only as he
struck sledge-hammer,te telling. blows one
after another, and so he kept pounding
away. By quick, daring marches he
tried to outflank Lee and leave him in
the rear; but ever that general, ad-
mirably trained in the school of war,
would be found strongly intrenched in
some position Immediately before him.
At last, Grant grew desperate and
| flung his army in determined assault
against works that were practically
impregnable; and the general impress
sion isis it not, my friends?) that at
Cold Harbor was the only time when
Grant could be said to have lost his
head. The military manual says,
"Hold your base.' Sherman could
march through Georgia to the sea and
back again because he marched
through vacuity; but Grant for year
sat and smoked within a few miles OF
the Confederate capital and stubbornly
held his ground. The winter came OF
1864. Operations somewhat slackened.
From the loyal North men, munitions,
money, help came pouring in while Lee
| found his forces continually weaken
| ing. Sherman's march to the sea
SHOWED THE CONFEDERACY TO BE AN
EGG-sHELL
and its coalition rope of sand. A
Confederate officer testified that every
dog and cat for miles around Peters
| burg had been consumed. The end
came. The fellow-cadets OF West
Point, both crowned and heaped with
honors, met at Appomattox and Lee
gave up his sword. All the world loves
lover; all the world loves hero, and
the world to-day, not caring for the