The Washington herald., 1914-06-17

trophies back
They Pass IN Shadowy Review.
ny CLARK ,. FIREsrONE. Il
cannot and would not consider the civil war as
just problem in strategy worked out to solution
inevitable The units of that problem were men who
sounded the heights and depths at time when living
was tense with significance and who made by hundreds
of thousands the uttermost sacrifice men can make
The scenes of their sacrifice have written into our
language terms of fatefu beauty. The very rivers
that flow seaward-the Potomac, the Rappahannock
the Mississippi, the Tennessee the Shenandoah
Chickamauga Creek although from their waters 'the
fleets of iron have Aed will carry forever the burden
of tragic song. The battle of that period
Manassas, Antietam Sniloh Chattanooga, Allatoona
Chancellorsville Fredericksburg, Vtksburg Gettys-
burg Appomattox-are weighted with dgnites, and
august with splendors beside which the titles of EN-.
pire are vain show.
What pageantry those names march across the
canvas of history!
We hear the shrek of shells from the river gun
boats calling the hours in the bivouac of Pitsburg
Landing We the clutch of Grant Tightening about
the fated fortress where Pemberton lay We see the
shadow that in after years left Rosecrans face
gathering there, as he rode, fugitive into Chatta-
nooga; and Thomas at bay, guarding the flight
of his chief and though his pace be backward, his
gesture is forward" We the high tide of the Con-
federacy moving forward upon Cemetery Hill, and
Pickett its crest with his doomed and gallant Vir
ginans. We see Stonewall Jackson saluting the old
flag at Fredericktown. We hear in the valley the
hoofbeats of Sherdans steed, galloping toward the
sound of the enemy's guns. We see like page torn
out of Milton, "the battle above the clouds"
We see those pastmasters of strategy, Sherman and
Johnston, playing stroing game of chess from Chat
tanooga to Atlanta with for pawns, the Union
for the stake. We hear the songs of Shermans for
ayers that march to the that was half holi-
day and altogether notice served on the world that
the game was up for the South. We Grant in the
deadly grapple of the Wilderness; and the morning
after every days reverse we hear from his those
words new to the Army of the Potomac, by the
right flank forward" and there is Hancock the Superb
leading the advance.
And if we listen, upon every battlefield, and along
every march and in every bivouao we hear refrain
that is like hymn of destiny, John Browns body
lies a-modering in the grave, but his soul goes march,
ing on" and we learn that old Ossawatome died moi
in vain at Harpers Ferry. ~
In that one phrase, without known author, which
came unbidden to the lips of men, We have the his
torial meaning, the moral sanction Of the civil war
and its message to all time
Every battlefield brings up the name Of some mar
who wrought greatly there They all pass in shadowy
review, from the lamented Mcpherson who died toe
young for his fame before Atlanta Sicles, the las
of the corps commanders who closed his stormy
career month ago in New York.
At the head of the column is Grant, the masterfu
and imperturbable; Sherman came packing hi
chief into sentence when he said, Grant does no
care for what he cannot see the enemy doing and i
scares me-" There are Grants two heutenants-Sher
man himself, half Roundhead and half Cavalier ant
great captain of war and Sheridan the incompatible
soldier who carried through every task ntrusted ts
him. There is Thomas the rock of Chickamauga, thu
commander whose back no enemy saw. There il
Meade, rascble and profane, yet brave and skillfu
officer, to whom the Union is in debt nextinguishab
for work done at Gettysburg There are the giftee
Mcclellan, the mpetuous Hooker, the loyal-heartec
Burnside the dashng Pope whose careers in the Eas
are mingled of sunshine and shadow-the soldiers lot
There the accomplished Bue; and Rosecrans witt
his string of victories and his crushing defeat
Schoheld the of Franklin; and Howard, th'
Christian crusader; and Hancock, Grants hamme
in the Wilderness; and Logan and Garfield and ou
own fighting McCooks and host of others who's
service was distinguished, whose fame is secure.
Union veterans would no more be content than
if failed to that other phantom column earbet
in gray-Lee, the two Johnstons, Longstreet Jack
son. and their lieutenants-or to give soldiers salut
to those mighty shades by the baptism of battle, il
the fullest sense, become Our brother Americans.
Veterans, it is proud distinction to have writer
in your blood the epic of republican institutions
That the story should be for men always to re
member and heed and admire, you carried your arm
from the Ohio to the Rio Grande from the Mississippi
to the you fought mountain slopes and in TIL
swamps; you lowered with your deeds alike tn
frownng forest and the smiling plain Your marche
were continental your battles titanic, and ro
nance has claimed your bivouacs.
.., ..s Need for Hurry.
| Unless the Senate and House hurry up the con