The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1905-04-20

triumphantly, bidding his family and
comrades TO meet him in the heavenly
world. Thus. one by one, the soldiers
of the Grand Army are passing away,
but the Republic lives for which 4O0,-
GOO men have given their lives.-Indi-
annapolis Star.
The Battle Flags.
AS these lines are written, says one
of the leading papers of Ohio, there
rises a vision of a Confederate battle
flag planted in the soil of Virginia 40
years ago, now seen for moment,
ftuttering and cleaning in the spring
sunlight, now lost to sight in clouds
of sulphurous smoke. About it RACES
and surges, back and forth, one Of
the fiercest struggles of the war. Blue
and gray intermingle with hoarse cries
of Down with 'emw There are saw
age thrusts Of bayonets and cuts of
swinging swords. officers fighting with
dubbed muskets, and all the wild eX-
citement and bloody scenes of hand
to-hand conflict. Slowly the gray line
gives back, when Union sergeant
seiZes the staff of the flag, only to fall
dead beneath its folds; then boyish
young private wrests 1t from the
ground, and, unhurt, bears it to the
rear. Later it was carried under es-
cort of guard of honor. with blue
silk ensign of the State of Georgia.
captured by the same regiment in the
same battle, to corps headquarters and
forwarded to the War Department,
where with many others they are kept
to-day.
Now we are told that they are all
to be sent back to the States from
which the regiments came that carried
them.
Has there ever been on any statute
book the world over such an act as
that? We know of none. Warning ma
tions have made peace, and friendship
and good will have been restored, vic
tors have returned surrendered swords,
but where is there an instance of cap
tured flags having been restored? The
resolution came at first to those who
had won them with little shock, but
it is right Gradually the spirit of
magnanimity and the recognition that
we are one people, which dictated
Grants terms at Appomattox. have
swept away every proscriptive act and
every disability growing out Of the
war, and now the North, through Con-
gress. lays this last offering toward
perfect peace and reconciliation on the
altar Of our common country. and the
men who wore the blue say Amen.
Take back your battle flags. brethren
of the South. We yield them to your
keeping willingly and gladly. They
were ours by the fortunes of war;
they are yours by right of the mag
nificent courage with which you de-
Tended them, and by the gift of the
nation with our hearty concurrence.
Cherish them, and teach your children
to revere them as emblems and me-
mentoes of the brave deeds Of their
fathers, and teach them as well to re-
joice with ours that we are united
again and invincible under the old
starry flag of our fathers.
DeitroyinH Railways.
Tearing up railway said the
Captain, "was the hardest work the
soldiers Of the Civil War were called
upon to do. At first we thought that
If we tore up half-mile of railroad
we were accomplishing wonders. But
later we learned this didn't count. The
rebs would relay the track In two
hours after they had driven us off.
After such an experience we tore up
miles of track, built fires, heated the
rails red hot in the middle, and bent
them about the trees. This settled the
rail question, but it was slow work,
the fires were so many signals to the
enemy, and about half our regiment
was captured.
"In another case we did thoroughly
good job and destroyed a railroad by
cutting 1t at intervals of two or three
miles and burning the bridges. This
was not so funny when We We're called
upon three months later to rebuild the
bridges and relay the track. The boys
came to the conclusion that there were
two sides to the railroad raiding busi-
neess Later in the war railroad raid
ing counted for less and less, because
armies carried duplicates of railroad
bridges and materials for reconstruct
ing tracks.
"In the Atlanta campaign General
Johnston, holding Kenesaw Mountain,
sent his cavalry to Sherman's rear to
cut the railroad. They tore up some
miles Of track and burned several
bridges. General Johnston was so
much elated over the result of the raid
that he issued congratulatory order
to his army, saying that the railway
had been cut and that Sherman could
not get a single locomotive or train
through to his army. The order had
scarcely been read when dozen trains
steamed into Sherman's camp. The
railroad had ben repaired us soon as
destroyed, and Sherman sent all the
locomotives to the picket line on his
front to whistle the news to General
Joe Johnston and his men."-ChIcago
Inter Ocean.
Shot by the Law of War.
"The solemnity Of military eyecu-