The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1904-06-09

the saving OF the rest OF the division.
1t meant death to many and captivity
worse than death to the survivors of
that little band of men. There was no
thought of waverlng. The order came,
"AbOut face, 10th, when they met the
fire of the rebels, who fired upon them
from all sides. To fight longer was
wicked, was useless. Hemmed in by
thousands of rebels there was no hope.
Then came one of the bravest deeds of
the war, and one that will ever be re-
membered by the soldiers of the 10th
and by the people of Maine forever.
When ordered to surrender, Col. Tilden
broke his sword and the men in that
wicked fire, when they were being shot
down on all sides, jumped for their
flags which they had followed in battle,
broke the stats, tore the flags in pieces,
secreted the pieces upon their persons,
and then surrendered; but to the honor
and glory of the 10th their flags were
not surrendered to the enemy. Al
though their flags were not brought
home and placed in the rotunda of our
State House at Augusta they were
brought home in pieces and became the
priceless relics of the boys who saved
them; and today Comrade G. II. Fisher,
who sits before me now, has a piece of
that flag in his possession. But these
two regiments were no Drawer than
others. THEY simply were ordered to
do what they did, and did it. Go with
me again to the charge of Gen. Burn.
side at the Stone Bridge at Antietam:
the charge of The Heights of Fred
ricksburg, when every soldier knew it
was impossible to carry them; Meade
at Gettysburg; Hooker at Lookout
Mountain, in the charge above the
clouds; Sherman's wonderful march
from Atlanta to the sea; Sheridan's
twenty mile ride to Winchester, turn
ing defeat into glorious victory.
War; and later we can refer to Dewey
Santiago, and Hobson blowing up the
meet almost certain death. These are
the heroes of the present time.
Our navy was not behind the army
in glorious deeds of heroism. Take for
example the sinking of the Cumberland
by the rebel ram Merrimac. She went
down with colors flying and the last
shot was fired as she went under water;
Farragut dashed to the rigging of the
Hartford while passing the forts and
mines in the capture of Mobile; Lieut..
Gushing destroying the ALTERNATE by
thrusting torpedo under her and eX-
ploding it, blowing himself and crew in
to the water. On the 9th day of March,
1862, the world saw that the wooden
ships were doomed; that there must be
an entire change from wood to steel,
for on that day steamed out from a
confederate port the rebel ram Mer:i-
mac and proceeded down to Hampton
Roads, where the Union vessels, the
Cumberland and Congress, lay. She
came upon them and sank them both.
Then darkness coming on she steamed
back, determined to come out in the
morning and destroy the remainder of
the Union fleet. 1t is recorded in his
tory that at the sinking of the Cum
berland the captain of the Merrimac
shouted to Lieut.. Morris, who was in
command of the Cumberland, to sur
render the ship or he would sink her.
Lieut.. Morris answered back, ''Sink
her, and | will go down with her." and
he did. But on the following day when
the Merrimac came out to complete
her work of destruction she ran against
the Monitor, commanded by Lieut.. John
L. Worden, and most wonderful
naval fight took place, the Monitor de-
feating the Merrimac, and thus chang
ed the navies of the world from wood
to steel.
Comrades, in looking back over the
history of the war you will notice the
Union armies met with defeat and dis
aster in nearly all our great battles,
from the battles of Bull Run IN 81 to
hntt 10 of do mir I,1,rr h,1t
a change was soon to come: for | be-
1862, after the battle of Antietam was
fought, nd,President Lincoln issued his
emancipation proclamation, declaring
that after Jan. /, 1868, the slaves should
be free and cease to become property,
the fortunes of war changed The
Union army, although defeated at
Chancellorville, began series of vic
tories. Gettysburg, Nicksburg and
other engagements followed in quick
succession. General Grant soon took
command of all the Union armies and
the rebel armies were driven to sur
render. The war was over and victory
rested on the side of the Union. The
nation was not to be divided. The old
flag, born in 1916, was to wave over the
Union, brighter and stronger than it
had ever been. But the cost was fear
full in both men and money as these
statistics show: Number of total enlist
ments, 2,s50,0O0; killed and died of dis
ease, 303, 5O4; died in rebel prisons, s.
600; died of wounds, 33, 993: total deaths
from all causes, 373, 497. This was in
the northern army alone, and with the
deaths from all sources in the confeder-
ate army would bring the grand total
to over one half million of the young
men of the land. The cost in money
we cannot tell, but we do know that
the debts of the northern States alone
were in round numbers two billion
eight hundred million dollars. What
fearful cost to pay for the extermina
ton of slavery in the United States.
After the war was over Gen. John A.
Logan and few others conceived the
idea of keeping in memory the deeds of
the soldiers of the Union, and at meet
ing held in the west the Grand Army
of the Republic was born and this day,
the 3Oth of May, was designated to
keep in memory and to honor those
who had died in the cause. Posts were
organized, departments created, and the
living veterans were banded together
to aid and assist each other, and we'll
have they done their work; and it is al
most done. We will soon all be gone,
but our organization has done a great
deal for the old soldiers in the matter
of pensions and in the beautiful Gus
tom of nlacinp tho fauc apd Noworc G