Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1911-05-26
OUR SOLDIER DEAD
IN 81 CEMETERIES.
More Than 1000 Heroes Of Our Wars
Are Buried In Graveyards Own
ed by the Government.

E n the palmy uays OF uemocrauc
Athens the bones of every citizen
who perished in the service of his
country We're brought home to be
buried in the Ceramicus. A day was
appointed in the winter, when military
operations were suspended, for the
funeral. One of the noblest orations
of antiquity-that attributed by Thu
cydides to Pericles-was delivered on
such an occasion.
Modern nations build stately mauso-
leums for their great generals, but are
usually content to allot only the hasty
trench or ditch to the common soldier.
The bones of British soldiers are scat
tered the world around.
To this rule of Indifference as to the
final resting place of obscure heroes
the United States forms shining ana
honorable exception. There are today
eighty-four national cemeteries, which
contained on June 80, 1909, the graves
of 359,2S5 American soldiers and sail
ors.
The national cemeteries are mainly
q result of the civil war. In Septem-
ber, 1861, the secretary Of war by gen.
eral order directed accurate and per-
manent records to be kept of deceased
soldiers and their places of burial.
The work was assigned to the quarter
master generals department. That de-
partment already had charge of the
burial of officers and soldiers, but its
care had ordinarily ended with the
drifting smoke of the guns that We're
discharged over their graves.
BY act of July II, 1862, congress en-
powered the president to purchase
cemetery grounds to be used for the
burial of soldiers who shall die in the
service of their country" Such was
the intensity of the great war that for
some time no action was taken under
the law.
Following the battle of Gettysburg
Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania in
augurated movement whereby sew
eral states purchased seventeen acres
of ground embracing the center of the
Union line and caused to be disinterred
and reburied there the bodies of the
soldiers who had been buried outside
this area. The cemetery was dedicat-
ed by Lincoln, Nov. 10, 1868, in that
perfect tribute to the "honored dead"
who there gave the last full measure
of devotion" The cemetery was sub
sequently taken over by the nation.
In the summer of 1865 a force of
men under Captain James Moore was
sent to Andersonville to inclose the
grounds and provide headboards for
each grave. They were able to identi-
fly 12,4C1 of the graves. leaving only
451 unknown"
The eighty four national cemeteries
are divided according to Importance
into twenty-six first class, twenty Sec
ond class, sixteen third class and
twenty-five fourth class cemeteries
Those in the first class include Airing
ton, Andersonville. Antietam, Chal-
mette, Chattanooga, Nashville, Cor
inth, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, JEFF
ferson Barracks, Shiloh and Vicksburg.
In the number of interments that al
Arlington stands first. with 21,106
That at Vicksburg is rather close
second, with 1892. The Nashville
cemetery is third, with 16,691.
Arlington, rs is generally known, for
merly belonged to the wife of Genera
Robert E. Lee Mrs. Lee was daugh
ter of George Washington Parke Gus
tis, who was a grandson Of Martht
Washington. The stately mansion
whose classic columns have been seel
by every visitor to Washington city
was inherited by her, and at the out
break of the civil war it was the Le
home. Lee. then a colonel In the Unit
ed States army. wrote his resignation
there April 20. 1861. Two days late