The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1905-06-08
Turner's in tn. Civil War.

The first turner societies in the Uni
ted States were founded in Philadel-
phia and Cincinnati in 1S4S and shortly
after the New York Turnverein had its
start in Hohoken. Two years later ten
societies were fourishing. and these
were formed into a national turner
union. The revolutionary spirit which
blazed fiercely in Germany in 1S4S was
crushed for tile time and many pa
triots of superior education and intelll-
gence fed to this country as an asy-
lum. They were strangers in strange
land, unable to communicate with the
native-born, and sociability was limit
ed to intercourse with their own coun-
trymei.
They had been turner's at home,
using this organization as nursery of
patriotism. in which high ideals OF po-
Iitical, social and religious progress
were cherished, together with the train
ing OF the body for the hardships Of the
field and camp. This ideal Of classic
times. wisely reincarnated in modern
Germany to serve nations needs,
was trahsplanted to the United States
by the fortune Of war. The turner
societies aroused some antagonism,
based on the specious claim that they
were an attempt to create state with
in a state and to keep the Germans
apart from the life around them. This
a ocyr,i 81, 4
a little more than a decade after the
first turner's were organized in this
country.
When the civil war began these Ger
man citizens of the United States vol
unteered in such numbers that in New
York a turner regiment was enlisted
and sent I'd the front under Colonel
Max Webber. The Ninth Ohio was
another regiment Of turner's. from Gin
cinnati; and iii Philadelphia and st.
Louis turner's filed the ranks of regi-
ments which did not have the distinc-
tive name. General Sigel commanded
several thousand turner's in his force
and was their idol, for he had been a
leader Of the turner bund In his own
land and was one Of the fighting revo-
lutionary commanders who led his
army into Switzerland and there dis
banded 1t after the cause was lost
Ralph d. Paine lin Outing:
The Grand Army Of the Republic.
Day by day their ranks are thinning, one
by one they disappear.
And at each succeeding roll call, fewer
voices answer. Here"
Still their regiments are marching-many
march with noiseless tread,
And no bugles sound Assembly" in the
bivouac of the dead.
Glorious tales Of gallant service echo still
on every hand;
Charge and siege and bitter hardship
comrades lost on sea and land
Now a reunited nation joins to bless the
honored dead.
Though forgetful of the living who have
likewise fought and bled.
Hats are reverently lifted TO the heroes
lying here;
Lift them to the living heroes-hall them
all with cheer on cheer.
Not for long will they be with us; soon
each regiment will be
Tented here beneath the blossoms of the
land it helped to free.
But to-day the drums are muffled and the
flag at half-mast waves,
Keeping green dead heroes memories as
the grass above their graves.
Still another weary winter shrouded in
the snow they lay;
Now we bring them crowns and garlands
of the loveliest blooms of May.
Let them rest in honored slumber, while
their praise, from shore to shore,
Eighty million throats are swelling-we
are free fOrevermore,
Elsie Florence Fay in Success Maga-
zine"