Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-07-06
SOLDIERS STORIES.
"REMINISCENCES
OF THE WAR.
Graphic Account of Stirring Scenes
Witnessed on the Battlefield and in
Camp-Veterans of the Rebellion Re-

y
have brought about great changes in
the observance of Decoration or Me-
mortal day. l can remember the first
decoration of the graves Of Union sol
diers in our old home neighborhood in
1865. This was purely local affair.
1t was suggested by no one in authori-
ty, and there were no rules laid down
for the ceremonies. The men and
women of the township met with bas-
kets of flowers and they covered the
graves of Union soldiers with blossoms
from the woods and from the home
gardens
1.-THE celebration was not what the
originators supposed it would be. The
scenes in the little cemeteries or about
the isolated graves were heart-rending.
There was the bitterest of grieving.
There were unexpected meetings of
mothers who had lost sons at Ander-
sonville; meetings of women who had
worn black for Ave years for sons kill
ed at Bull Run with women who had
worn black only since the last year Of
the war, and there was so much eX-
element, people became so wrought up,
that the committee in charge seriously
considered the propriety of not having
another Decoration Day.
"But when the Grand Army took up
the matter in 1868, when the day be-
came nationalized, as it were, and
there were memorial observances
throughout all the Northern States,
the spirit of the movement changed
the front as organizers and directors,
and there was more dignity, less griev-
ing, and less bitterness, but even on
Decoration Day, 1868, l can remember
we'll there were scores of scenes that
gave the cemetery at Columbus, Ohio,
the aspect of a general funeral. There
was then no clarifying of tie living
soldiers, but grieving, honest, bitter
grieving, for those who had lost their
lives in the service. The change from
this idea of Memorial Day came slow
ly, and it was not entirely displaced in
Chicago until after 1874.
The change came, however, and we
gravitated year by year toward the
broader significance. The little girls
and the young women who scattered
the flowers came gradually, on their
own instinct, to take a reverential atti-
tude toward the living soldiers. So 1t
came about that the memorial exer-
cises took tone from the presence of
men who had been in battle honoring
the men who had fallen in battle.
Pride succeeded bitterness, and charity
took the place of hatred. After all,
however, the approachment of Union
fists and Confederates could not be
forced.
Men on both sides were sensitive
and regarded any coming toward them
of their old enemies with suspicion. l
remember one case in particular in the
early sos. The ex-Confederates Of
Chicago had decided that year to dec
crate the graves of their comrades at
Oakwoods. They went there, small
band, a score or more as against the
thousands Of men in blue honoring the
men who wore the blue. Among them
was James B. Cable who had served
with his brother, George w. Gable, in a
Confederate cavalry regiment He de-
scribed to me afterward the loneliness
of that little band of devoted Confed
crate soldiers standing alone in what
was to them a strangers land, inviting
no sympathy, armed against any intru-
sion, determined to do their own honor
ing of their dead in their own way.
after the ex-Confederates had said
their last word and had sung their last
song and stood uncovered with bowed
heads, waiting for some one to dismiss
them, they heard the steady, regular
step Of trained soldiers coming toward
them. They heard the mutfied tap of
drum Raising their heads, they look
ed with indignant eyes at a moving
column of veterans in blue coming to-
ward them, flags flying, band ready to
play. At that moment it seemed to
them unwarranted intrusion upon,
what to them was holy ground, but
they waited.
1.-The soldiers of the Grand Army
came forward, marching in column of
tours, as they had marched in war,
moving steadily toward the little group
Of Confederates in civilian dress. Had
they said one word they would have
broken the spell, but, seeming to real
ize how the ex-Confederates felt, they
halted one moment, saluted, and one
man, stepping forward, dropped cross
of flowers on a Confederate grave
Then. without one word spoken, with
out tender of sympathy, the column
moved on.
''Mr Cable and others said that was
the most touching manifestation Of sol
dierly appreciation and respect that
they had ever seen. 1t touched them
deeply. Three of them told the story
to me with tears in their eyes. The in
cident made a common ground for
meeting. After that the men who
wore the blue and the men who wore