The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1909-06-04

drum corps, G.. A. R. on foot, the w.
r.. G. in carriages and long line Of
school children with flags and flowers
made up the parade. At the cemetery
graves were decorated and the G. A. R.
memorial services held at the soldiers
monument. A salute closed the days
exercises.
From Seth @. Pulver's Grafton we
take few parag raphs as follows;
"a nation weeping over its dead.
The spirit of patriotic sacrifice mani
tested in a tribute of flowers upon the
graves of its martyrs. Millions Of
hearts thrilled by the touch Of tender
memory honoring those that are stilled
in death. This is the sad but inspiring
scene that greets the vision as we come
together this bright May time to pay
homage to them who wore the blue
now sleeping in yonder silent city Of
the dead, Throughout the land of the
north today, loyal men and women are
paying the debt of gratitude they owe
to the brave sons of the North who
Yielded up their lives that the nation
should live. And not in tie North
alone but in the Southland, too, strong
men, gentle women and sweet faced
children on this glorious day shower
their floral offering upon the tombs of
the men who more than generation
gone marched away under the stars
and bars and bravely died for a lost
cause. Now do the tireless wheels of
commerce stand idle, the ceaseless tread
of the nations activity has stopped for
a moment. the shop of the tradesman is
deserted and the laborer has quilted his
task, while the curtain of the past is
lifted and once more we look upon those
scenes of splendor and of courage which
our eyes will never grow weary of seeing
nor our ears dull to the oft repeated
tale.
Here, let us check times pendulum
in it's ceaseless swing and turn back the
hands to point forty-fve years ago.
Again it is the month of May and the
same glorious shafts Of light are flood
ing the land. Earth, then as now, is
Respondent in her garments of spring
and the warm south wind blows her
salute of lip and mouth to flower and
leaf. But how compare the drapery of
nature to the deeds of men Over the
land hangs the black clouds of war.
Yet not of foreign strife..nor of eternal
conquest This is no conflict of giants
and pigmies of christian and heather,
nor of master and slave, but the nation
is plunged into the deepening horrors
Of civil war. 1t is combat of brother
opposed to brother, of Greek against
Greek. During three years of fire and
blood has the conflict ragged and now in
the spring of the year 1854, we behold
the beginning of the final scene in the
worlds greatest drama of war. The
confederacy has been rent in twain.
The Father of Waters is in the grasp of
the North and Grant, the greatest SOL
der since Napoleon, is in command of
all the forces of the Union. Twice
have Northern hearth stones been
by the leonine efforts of the
South and twice has the war tide been
driven backward, to be fought out up
On the red fields of Virginia. At last
has the strength of the Rebellion been
shattered, the tide of Revolution has
been stemmed, and it is only question
Of time and of that answering perser-
verance of which the Northern leader
was the personification. Thus, it was
n the delightful month of May when
mems hearts are uplifted, responsive to
10 the call of nature, and in the flower.
ng South, the land of romance and
,hivalry, that was enacted the bloodiest
chapter in the ANIMALS of human war
ares. There through seven days of
lorror-inspiring war, the battle of the
was fought and speech fails
n attempting to describe the scenes
hat there transpired and the countless
tragedies that were enacted, the am
pushes that were laid, the charges. the
etreats, the repulses and the counter
harges that were made in that Kappa
lanock forest. Two gigantic armies of
'eterans plunging through the tangled
fighting by day and
marching into position for the conflict
f the following day or sleeping upon
heir arms by night, ravaged the sacred
emples of nature. Then followed
fredericksburg, Spottsylvania, and the
Bloody Angle, Santa Anna and Cold
Iarbor and each day but repeats the
he tumult and the carnage of the day
hat has gone. Slowly but steadily the
confederate lines have been shortened
nd Lees shattered but gallant army