The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-06-11

These men had to be clothed, fed,
armed, furnished with ammunition and
pay. The producers left at home had
not only to produce enough to take
care Of the armies, but had to take
care OF b millions of dependents left
behind in the families of the soldiers.
This was a great blow to the young
nation just starting on a propitious
career. This, alone was a severe loss
to our country and to the world, for
none of the worlds productive energy
or of the worlds once
wasted can be replaced. The fact
that many of these men eve again
entered upon productive work added
still further to the loss.
Then the losses and the suffering
that came because of the animosities
and hatreds engendered by the war
are more than can be known. Bosom
friends became bitter foes. Brother
vas arrayed against brother in NOR
tai conflict and sometimes father was
arrayed against son. The sobs and the
signs and the bitter heartaches caused
by these arrangements with all their
lingering, painful memories are to be
charged to the losses of the war.
But the h%ardships and the sufferings
of the men in the camp and on the
field of battle are beyond description,
/ am told. The common lot of the
Confederate soldier was to be COM
| PEELED to march day after day, weak
and hungry and tired n then to be
required to fight better fed, better
clothed, better equipped armies of
overwhelming numbers. The lack of
proper food and drink engendered
disease and many fell prey to sick
L noco for vyo from homo and loved
ones, and without proper medical at
tention and nursing; for, under the
circumstances, these could not be had.
| None but men of the most heroic type
| would have endured the hardships
| and sufferings to which Confederate
soldiers were subjected. But nerved
by the conviction that they were fight
ing I'M suffering and dying for their
beloved Southland, uncomplaintngly,
and sometimes with grim humor, they
went through it all.
The inconsistencies of the soldiers
was often pathetic. Far from owed
ones and familiar scenes, the longing
for home was sometimes almost I'M
bearable. Miss Agnes Leonard, a
! sweet southern poetess, has described
something of this feeling in that love-
ly bit of sentiment entitled After the
Battle" 1 quote from the poem:
All day long the sun had wandered,
Through the slowly creeping hours,
And at last the stars were shining
Like some golden-petaled flowers
Scattered o'er the azure osom
OF the glory-haunted night,
Flooding all the sky with grandeur,
Filling all the earth with light.
And the fair moon with the sweet
stars,
Cleaned amid the radiant spheres
Like "a pearl of great price" shining
JUS as it a shone for years.,
On the young land that had risen,
In her beauty and her might,
Like some gorgeous superstructure
Woven in the dreams of night.
With her "cities hung like jewels"
On her green and peaceful breast,
With her harvest fields of plenty
And her homes of peaceful rest.
But a change had fallen sadly
Ger the young and beauteous land,
Brothers on the field fought madly
That once wandered hand in hand.
And the hearts of distant mountains
~Shuddered," with a fearful wonder,
AS the echoes burst upon them
Of the lannon's awful thunder.
IhrOugh the long hours WageQ the
battle
Till the setting of the sun,
Dropped a seal upon the record,
That the days mad work was done.
Tricky on the trampled grasses
Lay the battles awful traces,
Mid the blood-stained clover bios
SONS
Lay the stark and CHASTITY faces,
With no mourners bending downward
Ger a costly funeral pail;
And the dying daylight softly,
With the starlight watched DER all
And, where eager, joyous footsteps
Once perchance were wont to pass.
Ran a little streamlet making
One blue fold in the dark grass"
| And where, from it's hidden fountain,