The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1907-06-06
lookout Mou ntain.

Lookout Mou ntain, Ghickamauga.
Allatoona and Atlanta thrills your soul
with stirring memories, the sagges
ton OF such names as Mcclellan.
Sheridan, Need, Howard, Sherman
and Grant causes wave Of patriotic
emotion TO sweep over YOUR
souls. Yes, those we're stirring
days. You think Of the driving des-
olation that flung her loschiu Of
war around Fort Henry and Don
aldson, Of the brave men who swept
the steep sides Of those hills in the
face OF sheets Of flame and amidst
tempests Of lead, Of gaps in ascending
ranks and of decimated number thar
reached the hills crest and with ex-
ullant shout flung themselves like an
avaianch upon the emery driving
them back upon points Of steel, Of the
planting of the silken folds # the
Union upon the battlement and the
eXultant shout of victory.
1t is TO common crate the heroic
lives and valiant achievements of the
veterans of those days that we gather
together this afternoon. You who
have lived five and forty years past
those memorable events are not un
mindful your fallen comrades, com
rades in arms, comrades in the tren-
ches, in the hospitals and in prison,
a bond and tie stronger than death
holds you heart and lives together.
You think of the brave boys who
laid down to die in the trench and on
the field of battle, with no loving
mother or tender sister to minister TO
his sufferings. You think of acts Of
heroism and bravery on the part of
your comrades that historians pens
have not recorded nor tablet of brass
nor granite pillar commemorated but
loving hands today will garland com
rades graves men whose names are un-
known but where souls and ideals live
in the glorious liberties and imperish-
able principles which their brave
blood purchased as our heritage.
Another and another wreath
We deck new gray Is each spring.
And smaller grows The gray haired band
Whose hands the garlands bring.
Brave veterans We follow SLOW.
The dull beat OF the drum
There's one brief march before us HOW
And comrades We shall come
one sleep TO share and O I'll each grave
The starry flag we love shall wave.
Young people sometimes speak
slightingly of the old veteran as they
see him in his declining days, they
forget that it was the task to which
he was called and the conflict in which
he was engaged that sapped his vitali-
ty and exhausted his physical power
If any one thinks that the armies of
the Union and Confederacy met on the
field of conflict to chase an inflated
pig skin up and down the campus let
him go over the grounds at Gettys-
burgh, South Mountain, Chickamauga
then let him study the battle fields Of
ancient and modern DAYS, let the army
tactician the strategists and generals
of Europe point out for him the
greatness and magnitude of those
conflicts and he will learn that our
war throws into the shade many of
the mighty conflicts of the ages,
conflicts that decided the de stiny of
empires and kingdoms.
Tours and Plassey, Marston Moor
and Nasty, Salamanca and Waterloo.
Those days and those epochs called
out the bravest and truest, the might
est and hardest sons of the republic,
men of heart, conscience, conviction
and courage.
Those men were not conscripts, nor
the scalpels of an effete royalty, they
were the peace making, home making
sons of the soil, the forg4, the bench,
the desk, the office. Those men did
not fight because they We're trained to
/ fight, nor kill because of the love of
war and strife. The life and integrity
of the Republic that was the offspring
of Heaven was at stake.
The Rebellion of $3.50 was an at -
tempt to undo the work of centuries.
Our Constitution was among the finest
pieces of the worlds constructive
craftsmanship. 1t was not formed on
the basis What can | get out of my
country, but what can put into it.
It's ideals were masterpieces of poll
teal sagacity, the crystatlized
achievements of the reformatory
spirits of the ages, the hopes and as
pirations of prophetic statesmen, the
Divine contamination of that Provi-
dence whose wisdom and might over
rules the well being of nations.
The Union was the greatest sociaI
and political and economic and reli-
gious achievement of modern times
The rebellion was aimed at the
providence of God in history at hu-
man liberties and human rights and
human advancement as guaranteed
by Constitutional government. The
rebellion denied mans right to the
possession of himself and his inVen-
tive and creative capacity.
This conflict cannot be measured in
what it cost in dollars in munitions OF
war but what it cost in heart beats,
human emotions, in tears and sew
cred affections in Vicarious sacrifice
Think of the men who fought and
sacrificed
1t takes moral purpose, moral cour-
age to shut the eyes to turn the face,
to raise the eye and set the heart like
flint upon the tears of mother, ties OF
home, love of sweetheart and the
visions of the future, to shoulder the
rifle, put on the knapsack, tramp
across states, face trenches, scale
battlements and breast cold steel and
grim death with its accompaniment
RI eumatiSm