The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-05-30
ST. BLYTHE TELLS0F
WAR "REMINISCENCES

Is. F. Blythe, pioneer editor and
publisher Of the Glacier and prominent
in Oregon Grand Army circles. last
year, at the request of Miss Evelyn
Trip. history teacher of the high
school, delivered talk on reminis-
ceEees of his war days. April II. last,
Mr. Blythe again accepted Miss Trips
invitation 10 give his interesting rem
iniscences to the history students. The
talk made to the students is given be
lORl.
At the request Of your teacher | will
undertake TO interest you for a fsW
minutes in telling Of tie war that these
old soldiers you saw before you took
part IN 80 and 81 years ago. These old
soldiers were mere boys then. like the
boys that left US recently under com.
mand of Capt Wilbur, when the ia
thers, mothers, wives, children, broth
ers and sister and sweethearts of the
volunteers, together with almost the
entire population Of Hood River were
collected at the railroad station to bid
farewell to the gallant band. Almost
every eye was bathed in tears. 1t was
"a new scene to citizens of Hood River.
but like scenes that were enacted in
hundreds of places at the beginning of
our Civil War, and after 81 years some
Of us are alive TO see these scenes re
peated.
In the morning Of April u, 1861, the
telegraph announced Fort Sumter had
been fired upon and the war COM
menced. On the following day Major
Anderson, in command Of Fort Sumter,
after a gallant resistance, surrendered,
and the rebel flag waved on the fort.
The following day, April ii, President
Lincoln issued his proclamation calling
for IS, 900 troops to serve three months.
Thus commenced the Civil War that
lasted four long years a war that SER
iously affected the financial and indus
trial prosperity of the country at home
and abroad that cost the lives of 400, =
600 defenders of the Union; that made
300, 600 Union soldiers and sailors Grip
plies for life; and that left more than
a million devoted mothers, widows,
sisters and orphans to mourn for their
loved ones who did not return.
On the other side. the side of our en-
emies. the fatalities were as great
Thus, at the close of the Civil war our
whole country was land of mourning.
Truly, war is what Gen. Sherman said
it was.
The month of April. 1868, was men,
orable in the history Of the nation
Victory after victory by the Union
arms was announced daily, and on the
9th Gen. Lee surrendered that famous
army that had fought and held in
check the splendid army of the Poto-
mae under its different commanders.
Gen. Lees surrender ended the war,
whereat there was great rejoicing
throughout the North. But, in the
midst Of this rejoicing, on the morning
of the 18th, the awful news was
flashed over the wires that The Presi-
dent was shot last night at Ford S
theatre. Later the announcement
was made of his death. The assassin S
bullet had done its deadly work. The
rejoicing throughout the land was
turned TO mourning and never was a
chief magistrate or potentate mourned
for as was Abraham Lincoln.
/ ut6t Olu lItil Spu StC DtlOlt yOu
went through those scenes. They
marched and fought under the banners
of the Union, under the illustl ious
generals of those days, that the Union
established by our fathers should not
be dissolved, and in thes Language of
Lincoln, that government of the peo-
pie, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth. ~ But they
have lived TO see the day when a
greater war, greatest in history, one
that threatens the ideals of Lincoln,
launched upon the world by design.
ing despot, that has lasted nearly four
years and slain millions, when in the
same length of time our Civil war slew
and manned its thousands.
In reading of the terrible battles
now raging in France, of the slaughter
in great armies, the old soldiers of
the Civil war are convinced that their
achievements, their feats of endur.
ance, their battles, pale into insignif-
canoe. Our three days battle of Get
tysburg would seem like an inconse-
quential sklrmish compared with the
millions of men engaged in battle for
weeks and months on the battlefields
of Europe.
In the days Immediately preceding
the Civil war politics ran high. 1t
seemed like every man in the North
was politician and took sides. There
was no middle ground-no mugwumps.
A man was Democrat or he was a
Republican. In the South the Repub
lIcan party had no organization. The
old Wing party, which was succeeded
in the North by the Republican party,
still existed in the South and was
strong enough to carry the important
states of Virginia. Kentucky and Ten
nessee in 1860, under the name OF
Union party. The great question was
slavery, whether or not it should be
| taken into the territories and whether
it should be protected in the states
where it did exist.
Though not voter until 1863, wa:
much interested in politics. Being {
Democrat, it seemed to me the hope
and safety of the republic rested with
/ the great Democratic party. But frs
of all | was for the Union, the Unior
established by our fathers after eigh
years of the Revolutionary war. Wher
the presidential election of 1860 showed
that Abraham Lincoln was elected il
was sad day for me. Alas for my
country The Union will now be de
| stroyed.
When Fort Sumter was fired upof
and President Lincoln called for rs, 00(
volunteers to put down the rebellion
and save the Union, the whole Nortl
was ablaze at once with military en-
thusiasm. The state of Ohio alone
asked that she be allowed to furnish
the $4,000. Where | lived in Ohio, 20
litical differences vanished. All were
for the Union. AT the age of 10 en-
listed at Eaton, Ohio, in the Presi
dent s first call for 300, 600 men. OuI
company, under command of Capt
Peter O'Kana, decided we would lik,
to fight under Gen. Fremont, who thei
had reputation as a military leader
explorer and politician. We went t,
Cincinnati, where we were mustered
into the service The examining sur
geon had us drawn up in line. H,
walked down the front of the line, thei
! hack "A 4Ionp the rear took q pocifio, q