The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-10-02
G. A. 4. fuiI:5 PROVING
AS VETERANS 5OME TO CITY

babe them Godspeed. The mother,
the sister, the sweetheart. Who wilt
ever know the haunting fear, the
sleepless nights, the phantoms and
dreadful visions that tormented their
waking hours and disturbed the.c
slumbers The woe and heart ache
can never be measured by mortal
guage, or expressed by finite tongue
That four years struggle was the
most gigantic known to man. History
gives US no parallel. The deeds CT
heroism on both sides, the feats of
arms, the generalship displayed, the
difficulties encountered and overcome
crowns that war as the very acme Of
military achievement. Thousands, ave
running into millions of men, UNI
trained in the arts of war, from the
country house and farm, from the
factory and the workshop, from the
village and the plain, from crowded
city and mountain Businesses they
came, were moulded into a homo
geneous whole and met battle shock.
carnage and death as bravely and
efficiently as had the trained veter-
ans of other lands.
The noble struggle made by our
brave boys of the north and their
equally brave brothers of the south
will long be told in song and story,
will cause our hearts to swell with
pride and admiration, with praise for
their steadfastness and courage, as
well as with pity, sorrow and COM
miseration that such conflict was
ever precipitated upon this nation.
was born in the year 1850 in
Indiana. My first coherent recollec-
tons are Of marching soldiers, flies
and drums, of sad faced women and
stern faced men. My own mother
wept the death of young brother
who fell near Atlanta during Sher-
mans memorable March to the Sea"
and lies buried in the beautiful ma
tional cemetery at Marietta, Ga. An
other uncle, my fathers brother,
captain Of Company c, 10th regiment
Indiana Volunteers, was brought
home a helpless invalid from swamp
fever contracted in southern will
derness, was for many years pale
faced invalid and though he lived TO
be quite an old man, never knew an
other we'll day, was never again the
buoyant young fellow that left his
home and young wife a picture of
healthy manhood, only year or two
before they brought him home. The
crippled soldiers, minus arms or legs
or manned in various other ways are
vivid pictures in my memory. Oh,
the misery and heartache did not all
end with the war; for years after 1t
was veritable country of Rachel
weeping for her children and refus-
ing to be comforted because they
were not Throughout the land were
not only dependent orphans and
weeping widows, but thousands of be-
trothed maidens mourning for the
young lovers who had so proudly and
SO bravely marched away and had
given all they had to give, their
young lives, for their countrys cause
l knew many such cases personally
and l will never forget the pale, sad
faces of these young women, especial
ly noticeable on Decoration day when
the drum and fife and marching
throngs would wildly recall to them
their loved ones who had become a
sacred memory, and throughout this
land today in many relief corps are
old maiden ladies, who have lived
lives of celibacy and are awaiting the
last bugle call and living in the hope
and promise of the resurrection, long
ing to see its fulfillment and with an
abiding faith that they will again see
and commune with those who died
midst blood and carnage and who
were all the world to them. The
tragedy of their lives, the irony of