Year: 1865


try, and spreads joy in every town and
village, to the farthest backwoods cabin
of the West They are coming home
bronzed and battle-scarred, our patriot
soldiers are returning to the arms of their
mothers, wives, sisters, and sWeet-hearts
After four long years of bitter war, they
are turning their faces toward the homes
they left to follow the old flag.


They went away with sad hearts to full
fill their duty-they return proud and
joyful heroes, whom the nation welcomes
with open arms; they come back to sit in
the seat of honor at every freside, to re-
ceive such love and praise, and Well-Won
rewards as none before them ever earned.
There is scarcely a house in the land in
which the news, they are coming home,
has not caused stir of preparation; and
the saddest houses to-day are not those
to which the wanderer shall never return,
for those, too, have a share in the great
joy and pride, and every soldiers widow
and every mother whose son has died in
the war, will hear the praises of her lost
from the lips of his comrade. But the
saddest houses to-day are those which
have furnished no soldiers to the great
war.


The soldiers are coming home. How
proudly they walk the streets to which
their toll and bravery have brought back
peace; how eagerly they are welcomed,
and how lovingly and respectfully greeted
by every passer-by! admiringly the little
boys and girls gather around to look at
and touch, and listen to the brown, way
worn man-one of Sherman's, or one of
the dear old Army of the Potomacl They
have suffered much, they have endured
bravely, but now their reward is come
They that SOW In tears reap in
SoT u II ho4 I,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaYes with him" Truly, they are
bringing their sheaves with them; and as
the nation receives and welcomes these
dear brothers to the homes from which
they have been so long absent, our breasts
are filled with the grand old song of re-
turning peace, when the Lord turned
again the captivity of Zion we revile
them that dream. Then was our mouth
filed with laughter and our tongue with
singing; then said they among the heath
en-, The Lord hath done great things for
them. The Lord hath done great things
for US, wherefore we are glad.


They are coming home; and day by day
and year by year their honors and re-
wards viii grow greater. The lamented
General Rice said to the soldiers Of his
brigade but few days before the march
into the Wilderness, You know how in
your own homes a soldier of the Revolu-
ton was reverenced, because he had
fought the great battle which first gave
US liberty. But your reward will be
greater and more enduring than theirs
When this war is over, and you go home,
you will be received with shouts and no
sannas, and tears of joy; you will be hon
ored and cherished as men never were
before you; your children and children's
children, to the farthest generation, will
fathers fought in this great and holy war.
You will found families in the land; the
highest in the land will be proud to say,
My ancestor served in the great war =
And if we die on the field of battle, as
many of US must, do you think we shall
be forgotten? All, don't believe It'll When
the war is over, be sure every smallest in
cident of Its history will be traced, every
name will be recorded, every brave deed
searched out, and for century to come,
your trials, your suferings, your con-
stancy and bravery, will be the chosen
theme of the most finished scholars and
the greatest writer's our country produces.
No act of ours will escape the vigilance
of that multitude of busy writer's, who
will, in every State and in every town,
search out our names and the story of
our services, to make them known to the
nation which will call US fathers of re-
deemed country, the soldiers of a great
revolution. All, it is a proud thing to
fight in this war


TIE some of them this will bring sor-
rowful reminiscences-of losses incurred
during their absence, of dear ones gone
never to be seen again. In a shop-Win
dow on Broadway we saw, this morning,
d I oh Il 2
a not uncommon experience. A war-worn
veteran steps into the little field which
enoloses his cottage, and as his foet sep
arates the spears Of grass, he sees rude
stone, on which Is inscribed, Willie,
May l, 1864, " and his streaming eyes tell
US the meaning of the incident. But to
most of our noble men their return will
not be so sad as this; and they will come
with beaming not weeping faces, with
hearts swelling not with sorrow, but with
pride and joy.


They have fought in righteous cause,
and they return victOrs to a prosperous
land. filled with comfort for all. They
come back to take their old places in So
ciety, to pursue the old industries which
yielded them honest bread before the
war; they find peace and joy and abun-
dance awaiting them. How different with
those poor creatures who were misled by
wicked conspirators into rebellion against
their countryl The rebel soldiers have
suffered, in some ways, as much, have
Jared even more poorly, and toiled hard
er; but they return to desolate homes,
with the feeling and knowledge, gained
too late, that they have fought in IA bad
cause, are execrated by all the leaders,
whom they too blindly followed, have
brought only ruin on the South, only
misery and disgrace on their unfortunate
victims.-DeI Rep.