The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-05-31

and the next morning he must leaVe.
He and his wife are sitting IN their
cottage home while the evening
shadows gather, and a gentle breeze
sings sweet lullaby to their BABY
I'm the cradle For, long hours they
commune with one another. Tney
speak brave1y Of the separation that
must come in the morning. II either
one has any fearful foreboding as 10
the future, it is not mentioned. They
try to look on the bright side and
hope for the best. But that dread
morning comes all too soon. and he
must go. He takes boy baby from
the cradle, he fondles it, he hugs it.,
he kisses 1t again ana again, and then,
Oh, how reluctantly he puts 1t back
in the cradle; and then he presses
to his bosom his dear wife and tries
to comfort her aching heart as best
he can amidst her tears and hfs-but
he must go. He pats her cheek and
gives her the goodbye kiss and With
another fond look at his baby in the
cradle, he goes out from that cottage
home, down the road and out of sight,
and he is gone. And he is gone for
ever. / know. for he7 was my friend
and schooimate.i He was shot neat
my side In the battle of the Wilder
ness. and for fifty years his body
has been resting in an unknown
grave in the southland.
Oh! How the women suffered! God
knows about their sleepless nights,
their aching hearts, their bitter tears.
Having told you some things about
the character OF the men and women
who redeemed this country from its
o>A
the matchless sacrifice they made. 1t
the union. In round numbers, AGO.
or another. These figures seem ap-
palling. 1t is difficult to comprehend
their deep significance. Let me as
sist you by an illustration.
The Grave on the Battlefield.
' On thesbattefield we usually buried
our dead in this manner: We would
dig one or more trenches as long as
was necessary, about six feet wide
and from two to three feet deep and
in the bottom of these trenches we
placed our dead side by side, and
these bodies, shroudless and coffin
less, were covered with dirt just as
a farmer today would. bury his dead
horse Such burial seems barbar-
Gus, but it was the best we could do.
Suppose those four hundred thols-
and men had been buried in one grave
as we buried our dead, side by side.
how long. think you. would such a
grave be? Five miles? Yes. Ten
miles? Yes. Fifty miles? Yes. A
hundred miles? Yes. Such grave
would be one hundred thirty-nine
miles long, anu it, you could ride on
a railway train going at thirty miles
an hour, it would take you over four
hours and half to go from one end
Of that grave to the other. What n
vicarious sacrifice was that!
But that is not all of this sad story.
We have in this country eighty-two
national cemeteries in which are
buried over 100000 union soldiers:
and 7152, 103 of. these. almost one-half,
are buried in out-of-the-way places
''in tangled wood and mountain glen"
who were never found to be re-
buried in national cemetery. And
these soldiers,
Sleep where their friends, cannot
find them today.
They who in mountain and hillside
and dell
Rest where they wearied, and lie
where they fell"
But kstf ISIS sSss
by fairy hands their kneN is rung, |
By forms unseen their dirge is sung. !