The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-06-10
Waldo County Veterans
Hold Their June Meeting in Morrill,.


The June meeting of the Waldo County Vet
eran association was held June End in Honesty
Grange hall, Morrill,. President L. C. Putnam
of Belfast called the forenoon meeting to Or
der, and the report of the last meeting was
read by the secretary and accepted. The deaths
since the last meeting of Albert F. Nickerson
of Swanville and Daniel Dolloff of Thorndike
both of the 18th Maine, were reported. Then
| came the call to dinner by Comrade D. O. Bow
en-. 1t was bountiful repast and nicely served
The afternoon meeting was held in the
church, which was crowded to its DOORS The
church was prettily decorated for the occasion
with flags and flowers. At p. m. President
Putnam called the meeting to order and the
Morrill, orchestra gave selection, followed by
drill by the school, who sang America" as
they marched, the audience joining in the sing
ing. Then the chaplain, Rev. William Vaughan,
offered prayer. The committee on time and
place of the next meeting reported and their
report was accepted, as follows: time, Thurs
day, July LIST; place, Ellingwood's Corner. Com
rade D. o. Bowen of Morrill, then gave the ad-
dress of welcome. He said:
Mr.. President, Comrades, Ladies and Gentle
men: 1t becomes my duty to say few words
of greeting to you this beautiful June day.
Comrades of Waldo county, we meet again to
touch elbows in comradeship, to enjoy the
pleasure of looking into each others faces,
wrinkled and marred as they are by time, and
to listen to the songs we used to sing and re-
count the scenes of long ago, when your young
manhood went to the Southland, marched, lay
on the tented field, faced the lannon's mouth,
and fought through those long years of terrible
strife-sick, wounded, bleeding-until victory
was secured, the Union restored and Old Glory
was given its rightful place, waving triumph
antly over every foot of American SOIL
Comrades, you meet here today--perhaps
unconsciously- other purposes, of which 1
would speak briefly to our many friends who
evidently enjoy meeting with you on these
monthly reunions.
Friends, Ladies and gentlemen. The most
of you were too young 45 years ago, to be i'm
pressed with the intensity of that great war
for the preservation of the Union; History
Memorial Day orators talk of these veteran
meetings. The living presence of these men
haired and decrepit, reminds you that these
are few, a remnant of that great host who
dared death and placed all their hope for the
future upon their country's altar willing
sacrifice.
Friends, these comrades before you, by their
presence, merely speak OIL unSelnSn Sacflnce
for others. They voice patriotism, love of
country and determined resistance to every I'M
just and unholy cause. AS these men fought,
indirectly to free the oppressed slave, SO
| should the presence of these men lead you,
and this generation of young men and women
to resist with all your might the many forms
of oppression which now exist.
There are men in pu bic life whom we de-
light to honor. We love to honor the memory
of such men as Washington and Lincoln and
Garfield, and have special days set apart to
speak of their sayings and acts; but friends,
can you think of any men, dead or living who
deserve greater honor than these old veterans
every great battle of the Civil War. Bull
Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Freder icksburg
| Peters burg Port Hudson, Vicksburg, Shiloh,
Chickamauga and in the endless number of
skirmishes and encounters that made up the
soldiers life in those destructive years of
strife. Forty years ago these comrades
before you were young men, perfect physical
ly, with an eye that looked along the rifle with
an unerring aim, and muscle with such rigid
tension that the fierce charge with the bayo-
net became irresistible. The voice that then
shouted forward to victory is now weak and
quavering, the eye is dim and the steps falter-
ing; but within their Utmost souls there is a
feeling of pride born of the consciousness that
they were unit of that grand army that saved
and made possible the wonderful progress in
| the arts, sciences, manufactures and commerce
in agriculture and wealth, which we enjoy to-
| day.
The intensity of that great struggle, the
vast sacrifices made in blood and treasure, is
beyond computation. Many writers and ora
tors have attempted to describe some of those
great battles fought by men on both sides who
never had their equal as warriors; but their
words have failed to impress their hearers
with what the human heart feels in the pres
ence of the He'll of battle, amid the cannons
roar the rifles crack, the screech of shot and
shell, the shouts of charging hosts, horses.
men, guns in line-in dire confusion-minged
with the heart-rending cries of bleeding, dying
men.
The mortality was something appalling. In
all history no such conflict between men had
been known. We had more men killed on the
field of battle than England had lost in her
battles for 800 years. One out of every four
males of the North, including old men and in
fants, went forth to battle, and out of every
six men who enlisted to fight for the Union,
one was dead before the war closed. These
were earnest, honest, God-fearing boys, reared
in Christian homes, who had the love and
prayers of fathers, mothers, sisters and sweet
hearts behind them; who were inspired by the
loftiest purposes and feared shame and dis
honor far more than death.
Though the rebels occupied territory
greater in extent than Great Britain, France,
Germany, Austria and Spain combined, and
| though they had more than one and one half
millions of splendid, brave, fighting men in the
field, standing upon their own ground, yet
there was no mountain too precipitous, there
was no swamp so impenetrable, that our sol
diers would not unhesitatingly attack their foes
in their chosen Businesses, and sooner or later
overcome them. They finished up their work
SO completely that in the end nowhere over the
imperial expanse of more than one million
square miles, inhabited by ten millions Of
people, was there a sword drawn or flag
raised in defiance of the government, and the
great question of human slavery, which had
Of men. was settled. and settled forever.
Nearly a half century has passed and we
look back with awe at what might have been!
Thank God, there was divinity. shaping our
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