Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1905-06-01


| full guardian of the safety Of his sleeping
comrades in the deep, solemn midnight when
the dark unknown gathers in the last NOM
ents of the day just spent, in nv fancy can
see that weary, war-worn picket slowly pace
his beat with mind full OF the past and the
dear scenes he has left to fight for his coun,
try, her honor and her flag. In the soft,
still moonlight he thinks not OF danger,
though 1t may be ere the sun shall battle the
eastern sky with glory. he shall have laid
down to rest, to "sleep the sleep that knows
no waking" But that night, this lonely
picket in retrospect is far away and is once
again on familiar grounds, all is love and Joy,
and sunny smile fits over his sunburned
countenance as he recalls the familiar faces
of the loved ones he left behind, and then a
shade passes over it as he dwells In fancy on
the fond, fearful farewells. How near they
all seem to him; distance melts away in the
moonlight. and the past and the present
merge as It were into each other, while the
mellow twilight shades all the future, and he
is content, ambition loves not this hour, it
is too sweet, too soft. to holy"
To many of us here assembled the memo
ries of that great struggle bring sadness to
our hearts, we look back to that fateful sum-
mer of 1869, when the cheeks now scanned
and wrinkled were smooth and flushed with
the glow Of patriotic fire, and the sight Of
each other brings back the memories of 9th
er days, and like flash up rolls the curtain
OF the past From a thousand camps once
more echoes the reveille and tattoo, down
through tangled wood and deadly swamps
again we see the columns of blue march and
charge and recoil and finally close in triumph
around the brave and broken columns Of
gray. And the cost! Not IN sordid gold.
but in blood, in the lives of brave men. All,
many, 80 many to US personal loss.
fancy that today lowering around US are
spirits OF Damuth, Eyler. Forney, Favorite,
the two Harbaughs, Mcpherson, the two
Robinsons, Captain Martin, Adjt. Small,
Barkdoll, Adams, and the hosts of Others
who took with us the touch of elbow and
who sleep ION fame's eternal camping
ground"
Such Is the sad havoc of war. War Is
wicked, wars have waged ever since the be
ginning of time, and wars will continue un-
til the Great Prince of Peace shall come to
reign a thousand years.
From the beginning Of time history records
the gallant deeds Of valor OF men of war; 10
the blessed Scriptures it Is recorded that
when Moses had safely led from bondage the
Children of Israel, he put his hands on JOS
hua aud blessed him and made him General
of the Hosts after he should depart; and af-
ter Joshua came Gideon to save Israel, and
with the cry of "The sword OF the Lord and
Gideon" struck terror to the hearts of their
enemies; and in turn came David, the youth.
full leader who put to flight the hosts of the
Philstines. Iu profane history we have the
record of the heroes of Persia, Greece and
Rome, Cyrus. Darius, Leonidas, Xerxes,
Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, and
how Scipio humbled the great Hannibal, and
then the greatest Roman of Them all, Julius
Caesar, who comes to US in classic story and
song, and SO on down through the avenue of
centuries we have the records of the great
men of war; but of the record Of the Army
represented by the men whose services we
commemorate today, the men who preserved
for ali time this glorious Republic; what of
them, would you know their recoId2 Would
you know it? Then search the slopes of
Cemetery Ridge, whose granite foundation
trembed under the thunder of xeades arti-
lery, and you will find 1t written In the red
wine of war of twenty thousand Union men
who sealed their devotion to their country 8
cause with their blood at Gettysburg,
Would you know their record? Then fol-.
low their bloody track down through the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor,
where forty thousand brave men bled and
died that the nation might live.
Would you know their record! Then
climb the cloud capped Lookout Mountain
and Mission Ridge, and as you stand midst
natures solemn grandeur, ask if the lightn-
ing fash ls more brilliant than the march of
their victorious columns from base to summit.
Yes, the record of those men is proclaimed
bv every liberty loving man throughout
Gods civilized universe; it is emblazoned up
on the escatcheon of a restored and strength
ened Union; 1t is whispered in the prayers
of thankful mothers as they put their child
rem safely to sleep under the AegIs of the
flag and it will be sung by the bards long
after the monuments to king and potentate
have disintegrated and crumbled TO DUST
seasons in their course will come and 60
winter SHOWS will disappear before the gen.
tie summer sunshine, wild flowers will bloom
beautify and decay, ages will fall into the
awful abyss of eternity, but the record OF the
armies OF the union will continue with
frightened lustre down to the last day Of re.
corded time.
When that great Army had by its lndomi.
table valor and courage reset each star in
the constellation of the union, when IL had
shown to the world how freemen could fight
and if necessary, die for the peoples GOV.
eminent. when il had proven by four years
of terrific struggle that from the frozen lakes
of the north to the magnolia scented shores
of the gulf, from the stormy Atlantic to the
golden strands of the Pacific, that there was
room in this glorious republic for but one
flag, and one flag only.
And now to you my old comrades, you
who wore the old matchess blue, as we
grow older nv the inexOrahe law If nature