Show 7r I fIN rn fA I iN Y u 1 tr b Jr I I h k y ar fnlr Nun 111 r I RY 4lLr1lr r s U I r y ti A1 s 71u cG o OJifIi2I1ll ° > URING tho latter part of tho war in 1864 and until its DUmNG close In 18G5 I was connected con-nected with tho armies under Gen Sherman usually designated desig-nated the Army of the Ten nesseo the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of tho Ohio wrote Mtij Gen O O Howard The campaigns were exceedingly active From Chattanooga Chat-tanooga to Atlanta Shermans soldiers wore under flr9 every day except tho three just before crossing tho Ktowah for 113 days There was not a day or night In which there were no soldiers elnln The screeching shells burst over our heads while we wore sleeping sleep-ing but wonderful to tell tho sol dlors had become so used to this conk con-k filet that they lost very little sloop Inconsequence In-consequence of the fitful and random firing at night in that period of 113 days there were 19 sizable battles fought In one attack R at-tack I made at FlckettB Mill I lost SOO killed and three times as many wounded within the space of 15 minutes min-utes At night I sat among the wounded and realized something of tho horrors of war It seems to me today to-day as I think of It like a terrible nightmare but It was a more terrible reality which I will not attempt to describe de-scribe When I como to think of tho March to tho Sea and later the March Through tho Carolinas what occurs to my memory flrst Is tho exceeding hardihood of tho soldiers They recovered re-covered quickly from their wounds I moan from those that were not too severe and there was scarcely any illness But when Columbia was on fire an untold number perished In the flames Still more perished from accidental ac-cidental explosion of confederate shells at Columbia and Cheraw We like to turn away from the mangled corpses and distorted faces of tho wounded that cannot be described I feel the samo horror and depression n in view of these things as I did at Gettysburg where on both sides upward up-ward of 50000 men were placed horn do combat For several days poor fellows fel-lows union and confederate soldiers I s waited in patience unattended by surgeons sur-geons simply because there were not enough of them Without further detail Imagine the f Joy that camo over the armies of Sherman F Sher-man as they gathered about Raleigh N C In 1SCG and were told that Lee had surrendered and that Grant had sent Lees soldiers home to begin life anew that Johnston bnd surrendered on the same terms as Lee and all that belonged to Slocums Schoflelds and HQwnrds armies were to march on tho morrow toward Washington tho capital of the nation soon to bo mils tored out of service and then to go home I remember the sudden depression depres-sion at the news of Lincolns deaths death-s but still this going home produced too great a joy to keep over this catastrophe catas-trophe of their heavy loss very long before their minds They marched habitually at 20 miles a day from 1 Raleigh to Richmond and never seemed weary at tho close of any r days march tho camp fire was bright the old songs were sung over and over again and the comradeship knitted during the war would never ceuseIt was at Its best when the word peace filled all the air I know that we were proud when we marched past the president of tho ao United States in our last great review re-view but as I remember It It was a tearful pride oven then A regiment had gone out 1000 strong it had been recruited and rcrecrultedj It had been veteranized and added to In other ways and now it was bringing homeless home-less than 300 of all the men who had gone out from that section of the country from which it had como The joy of going homo for the 300 was groat but It was a tearful joy the Instant In-stant one thought of the 800 or more who could not go home whC never did go homo who were burled somewhere In i the broad land over which the 300 had marched and too often with n headpiece marked Unknown After the war I stood In the large cemetery near Murfreesboro Tenn with Gon R D Hayes afterward president and Mrs Hayes I remember remem-ber how Mrs Hayes who was an exceedingly ex-ceedingly handsome woman looked up into the faces of tho general and myself as her large dark speaking eyes were flooded with tears when she said Just look there that plot of ground is covered with headstones marked Unknown Unknown unknown un-known she repeated and yet ho gave his lIfo that his country might live I It was a touching picture but every tlmo I think of it I say to myself Really that unknown soldier apparently ap-parently unknown recorded unknown was not really unknown Somebody know him His comrades knew him A mother a sister a wife and children If ho had them know him There Is a bqtter record somewhere than that In the soldiers cemetery Our fnlth Is so strong that we all believe In the resurrection and In tho future life and have a great satisfaction In feeling that no sacrifices and particularly not that of lIfo Itself for duty for what one sincerely believes to be duty has over been or ever will be made In vain The saddest pictures of all to my mind arc those connected with a losing los-ing battle like that of Fredericksburg and still more that of Chancellorsvllte At Fredericksburg the army of Hum side went straight forward to Its own destruction Tho lines of Lee half encircling en-circling Burnsides points of attack were complete It was like a trap into which an animal deliberately puts his foot Wo sprang the trap and it is a wonder that Leo had not dealt with nurnsldos army as the sturdy Thomas dealt with Hoods at Nashville I can see in my minds eye thoso Immense plateaus In front of tho Marve Heights and other confederate Intronchments and barricades covered with the dead and dying Tho plateaus were fairly blue as they were dotted with the wearers of our uniform Gen Couch was standing by my side In the steeple of n church near tho close of that battle where wo together were taking a fresh reconnolssanco when I noticed that his voice trembled as he spoke to me Ho said Oh Gen Howard look there Look there Seethe See-the ground covered with the boys In blue and all to no purpose After we had returned all of us who could return to tho other shore of the Rappahannock the depression of tho soldiers was greater than at any other time during the war We could hardly speak to each other Now after years wo can recognize the fact that our grief was balanced by the Joy of tho confederates over a great victory and yet not a decisive one gained by them At a moderate calculation there were sent Into eternity more than a million of men who left home In the prime of health and in strength more than a million of souls by the terrible conflict For one I am glad indeed that there Is an effort on foot to settle set-tle dlfllcultlcs without bloodshed Of course the waste of human life is not all of It There Is in every war a waste of possession a destruction of property proper-ty and a degradation of character hard to avoid at the best I know that there are some things worse than death I know that the union of our states was worth all that it cost and I know tat humanly speaking it was necessary that we should bo purged as by Ore but is it not wise now to do all tha we can to hold up to the world r blessings of a great peace even t peace that passoth understandlnr which never must exclude any of tli noblest qualities of a womanly woman or a manly man A soul full of memorial greetings all our sorrowing comrades of the ch war |