Durango semi-weekly herald. (Durango, Colo.) 1899-1907, 1905-06-01

SUCH uisastTous struggle. the DDerty-
loving Anglo-Saxon race has risen
stronger tllan before.
But all Of war Is not suffering and
death. 1t Is the greatest OF all slim
ulants TO patriotism without which
government cannot prosper nor in.
deed long exist. 1t arouses in the
breast OF man the noblest emotions
which he is capable Of feeling 1t In.
cites men and women to heroic
achievements, the narration of which
brightens the dun pages of history.
Their inspiring memory lives for
ages, thus stimulating succeeding
to emulate the example
that they too might leave to their
posterity an nonored name, that 1t
might also be said Of them, If to fall
were their fate:
'Gashed with honorable scars,
Low in Glory's lap they lie;
Though they fall, they fell like
stars,
streaming splendor through the
sky"
p'i itit yohhb Ahoh
and woman Of today, should this
country have been afflicted with the
misery and suffering of devastating
and desolating war? Why snGuld Our
people who mad for so long time,
and no successfully cultivated the
arts of peace--who had so jealousy
guarded the inheritance transmitted
to them by Revolutionary fathers
heritage won as the prize Of value
In he lottery of life--nave their nap-
ply homes turned into houses OF
mourning, their factories and work
shops closed and American soil de-
uged with the blood of American
ireemen? We have come face to face
with the issue as to whether there
should be continued Union OF the
States or dismembered Republic
whose fate or destiny none could
forsee, whether the government as
founded by a brave and enlightened
ancestry should stand or fall, that
government which represented all of
the tears and suffering from Bunker
Hin to Yorktown and whose starry
ensign we had learned to venerate as
did the CRUSADER the banner of the
Cross.
When the signal of this danger was
hoisted. and the call to arms was
made sucn an uprising the world had
never before seen The farmer for
SOCK his pillow, the mechanic his
tools, the merchant his countingroom
inc banker his vaults, the lawyer
his books. Mothers with tears in
their eyes babe God speed. to their
sons, wives to their husbands, sisters
TO their brothers. sweethearts to
their lovers, young and old, rich and
poor they came Side by side march,
ed the heir to thousands, reared in
| the lap OF luxury, and the sturdy
yoeman whose sole capital was mis-
| brains and muscle. From every ham
let, town, county and State, from
where the storm crested waves of the
Atlantic break against our Eastern
coast to where the mild Pacific kisses
the golden shores OF the West, they
came, their hearts fred vita th'
| patriotic ardor. to win victory oil
death in what all believed to he n;
holy cause as ever called warrior
10 battle. Ordinary words fail u
give a full conception of the patriot,
uprising of the loyal masses wnen th'
tocsin of war was sounded. The.
came as did the followers of Rhod
erick Dhu, when at one shrill blast o
his bugle.
instant through eOpse and heatl
| arose.
iionnets and spears and Blended bows
On right, on left, above. below.
| Sprung l,p at once. the lurking foe
From sb!rsles grey their lances start
The hrackenbrusn sends forth TIT
dart.
| The PUSHES and the willow-wand
Are bristling into AK and. brand,
| And every tuft of broom gives life
| To plaided warrior armed fol
strife"
Occasion will not permit further oil
| more extended reference 10 the. his
ory OF that 'eventful period. Sufiic.
ii TO say that crowded into those
four years were natehless deeds OF
heroism which for many generations
to come will furnish inspiring themes
TO the most gifted pen of historian
and poet.
From the official records OF the
War department ii appears that dur
ing the four years of the Civil Wal
there were enlisted in the Union
army 2,s5s,13 soldiers; that OF these
there were killed in cbattle 61,362-
a greater percentage that were killed
during either the Crimean or Franco
Prussian wars--died of wounds. "a !.
727; died of disease ls3, 287;. died in
prison s.725. making a grand total
Of more than 100000 heroes who sac.
rihced their lives upon the altar OF
their country. How many more
thousands have during tne subse-
quent forty years fallen victims OF
disease contracted during the war,
and still how many more thousands
represented as missing, but who fell
In the mighty rush OF some fatal
charge or succumbed In some equally
fatal march or alone upon Soma out.