The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-24

poor to buy lot and the soldier was buried
in the potters' field. where, within a week,
another body was buried in the same grave
The facts came out when the widow went
to Wallace Bruce, then consul at Edin-
burgh. TO ask his aid in securing the PEN
sion due the widow of a soldier, whose
death was the result OF wounds incurred in
the service of the stars and stripes. The
wife of the consul, Mrs. Bruce, became in
terested in Mrs. McEwan. and was grieved
when the woman told. through her tears,
that her husband, "a soldier of the Union.
mustered out" slept in an unmarked grave
in potter's field.
II can never put flowers on il as he said
you do in your land" she said. because 1
can't tell where his body lies in that poor
spot. Consul Bruce determined that a like
incident should not happen again. There
must be plot of ground set apart in the big
city, he declared, where veterans of the war
of the rebellion could sleep under the stars
and stripes. He Immediately addressed a
letter to Lord Provost Russell, personal
friend. and to a few other men of promi-
nence In Edinburgh, asking that a plot of
ground be set aside in one of the city ceme-
teries for the burial of veterans of the
American war for the Union. The Town
Council was pleased to grant the request.
THE SCOTCH. MONUMENT.
1t was decided that monument should be
erected in memory of the Scotch boys who
fought for the American flag. Within ten
months the monument was completed and
ready to be unveiled. 1t is said to be a re-
markably fine statue of Lincoln. 1t stands
fifteen feet high a pedestal of highly
polished red Aberdeen granite, and this is
reached by means of two steps. Inscribed on
the first step are the words, "In Memory
of Scottish-American Soldiers" On the Sec
ond step is the inscription, "To Preserve
the Jewel of Liberty in the Framework of
Decentralization Lincoln" The soldiers
plot presented to Consul Bruce lies in old
Cation burying ground, and has in it many
graves of old soldiers. Each year memorial
exercises are held there, attended by great
crowds Of Americans, who make it a point
to reach Edinburgh at that time, and by
foreigners who view with deep interest the
beautiful services of the dead. They hear
read, too. the Memorial day order OF the
commander-in-chief OF the Grand Army Of
| the Republic and listen to Lincoln's Gettys-
| burg address, just as the citizens of the
! United States hear them as they gather
| about the soldier dead of the country. 1t
will thus be seen that while the memory
| of the boys in blue who have gone across the
| great divide is being honored in this coun-
| try that many of them who were of foreign
birth are not forgotten in other lands.
| II is probably not generally known that
| Andrew Curtin, of Pennsylvania, the great
war Governor, was the father of the move
ment TO establish national cemeteries. After
the battle of Gettysburg the dead were
buried where they fell. Governor Curtin
visited the battlefield and Immediately con-
ceived the idea of making 1t cemetery
which the Nation should care for. There
were hundreds of soldiers whose bodies
could never be reclaimed by their friends.
| and in time their graves would have be-
come grass-grown and forgotten. Under the
| Nations fostering care this could not hap
| pen, he argued, and so through his efforts,
| the national cemetery at Gettysburg was
| established on Cemetery Ridge the scene of
the greatest carnage in that bloody battle.
| There are now eighty-three national ceme-
| teries under the control of the War De-
| partment.
| Elaborate preparations are being made for
| the coming exercises at Arlington on Me-
| mortal day. 1t is regretted that President
Roosevelt will not be in Washington to at
| tend. j. Z. M.
Washington, May 23.