Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-05-28

slant one thought of the 800 or more
who could not go home, who never did
go home, who were buried somewhere
In the broad land over which the 300
had marched, and too often with a
headpiece marked "Unknown.'
After the war l stood in the large
cemetery near Murfreesboro, Tenn,
with Gen. R. B. Hayes (afterward
president) and Mrs, Hayes. I remem-
Der how Mrs. Hayes, who was an X
ceedingly handsome woman, looked
up into the faces of the general and
myself as her large, dark, speaking
eyes we're flooded with tears, when she
said: Just look there, that plot Of
ground is covered with headstones
marked Unknown Unknown, I'M
known" she repeated, "and yet he
gave his life that his country might
live!"
1t was a touching picture, but every
time l think of it l say to myself:
Really, that unknown soldier, ap-
parently unknown, recorded unknown,
was not really unknown. Somebody
knew him. His comrades knew him.
A mother, a sister, a wife and children,
If he had them, knew him. There is
a better record somewhere than that
in the soldiers cemetery" Our faith
is so strong that we all believe In the
resurrection and in the future life and
have a great satisfaction in feeling
that no sacrifices and particularly not
that Of life itself for duty, for what
one sincerely believes to be duty, has
ever been or ever will be made in
vain.
The saddest pictures of all, to my
ing battle like that of Fredericksburg,
and still more that of Charlottesville.
At Fredericksburg the army of Burn
side went straight forward to its own
destruction. The lines of Lee, half en-
circling Burnside's points of attack,
we're complete. 1t was like a trap into
which an animal deliberately puts his
feet. We sprang the trap, and it is
a wonder that Lee had not dealt with
Burnside's army as the sturdy Thomas
dealt with Hoods at NASHVILLE.
Gen. Couch was standing by my side
in the steeple of a church, near the
close of that battle, where we together
were taking a fresh reconnaissance,
when | noticed that his voice trembled
as he spoke to me. He said: ooh, Gen.
Howard, look there! Look there! See
the ground covered with the boys in
blue, and all to no purpose"
After we had returned, all of US
who could return, to the other shore
of the Rappahannock, the depression
of the soldiers was greater than at any
other time during the war. We could
hardly speak to each other. Now, after
years, we can recognize the fact thai
our grief was balanced by the joy Of
the c~onfederates over a great victory
and yet not a decisive one, gained BY
them.
At a moderate calculation there
were sent into eternity more than {
million of men, who left home In the
prime Of health and in strength; more
than a million of souls by the terrible
conflict. For one, / am glad, indeed
that there is an effort on foot to set
tie difficulties without ~bloodshed. o
course, the waste of human life is no
all of it. There is in every war a waste
of possession, a destruction of proper
ty and a degradation of character hare
to avoid at the best. | know that Their
are some things worse than death.
know that the union Of our states wa
worth all that 1t cost, and I know that
humanity speaking, it was necessar.
that we should be purged as by fire
but is 1t not wise now to do all tina
we can to hold up to the world tn,
blessings Of a great peace; even tn
peace that passeth understanding
which never must exclude any of tn,
noblest qualities of a womanly womal
or a manly man?
A soul full of memorial greetings t.
all our sorrowing comrades of the civi
war.