Show II t L i i I t. t 4 r At s t i E G E Nr ATIO u A M MEMORIAL I M 0 I A L D DAY A t 1 i f I fi R.- R. E T 0 05 5 P L' L C T rJ I. 1909 IDOa b br tit th Ih N n- n Tort Co ill All Watt It n R P in di did i they want to kill SS f V one another grandpa w I It was the eve before Memorial Me- Me Ie- Ie morial Day The tousled j i L' L head of my boy nestled contentedly con eon beside my fathers father's i j 1 gri led bea beard rd The rho veteran had been fj reminiscently cf of the old Homeric war days of bivouac forced march an an ani battle field He lie bad taken from rom bi hill the dusty blue coat with the he f and had c bronze star In the buttonhole iv It up and tried it on on to to see if and for the stress would pass muster lory of one more Memorial Day P parade tho morrow The sight of the uniform memories lon long dormant Th The Thenan nan n seldom given iren to to the weakness of or his battles over again had grown rown Qt garrulous sf JJ lad tad was a good listener and a II good j Boner Snuggled there on tl 4 knee he playfully twirled the the'S theS be S 'S fop 9 riis star in the lapel of the blue coat his bis in tn absorbing a lesson n-Jal n been q ry history The veteran ran his bis hair the boys boy's through ed fingers finers nia a led ji aIr dy as ae he hea heard rd the question bu but t the silent t. t l Iti man man had grown thoughtfully thoughtfully silent the thc lad repeated lad repeat repeated d lh childish persistence l k ft Query query query- a. a Why lid did you have haTe to shoot each other olber i deep An indulgent smile mellowed the c made answer answer answer- soldier of lined face ace as the 1 Ali b laddie boy that's a question that tha t l head than b bits bas puzzled many an older yours burl nut But you rou see ee the country was di- di matters ded about some very important The North orth and the South couldn't seem to toFe Well they tried to fi fix it alike ie Fe things Me thins things and another but finally it rip up one way this question question whether the tho A j Came tame down to 1 p United States States of America was to be one t than an one Both Bolh sides Fides jQ q or more i ht they were right no doubt They about it and both sides couldn't agree aree re so sure they were right that they 1 were were willing willin to die for f r their belief So in inthe tub bad had to fight it out and md just the end they 4 th e well we'll find a better way i f t fettle it Maybe to settle these differences some day but buti i at wont won't be in my time and perhaps not ours purs urs either laddie boy 1 I h your our side won didn't it grandpa grand grand- pa r tt-a tt only b i h only here's one cou country try re n w said the old man simply Your Tour side was tho bravest wasn't it if grandpa used to think so once I Ia Il No we j x son jl a l ld d LAUPP SC The other fellows thought they but we all got ot better bettera w u r re the b bran bravest too a a ai ted at Bull Dull Run nun and Chancellors Chancellors- and nd Gettysburg and rt House and some other of those military and I 1 guess uess were we're all 0 content to call quits on the question of r bravery Our side had the most men and money what what they call resources you know know but but I wouldn't like to say today today to- to Yi day that we bad ad the better soldiers How ma many ny m men n were were on your side wa i lads lad's next question O-a O more than you could possibly aside aide my little man Those were bi big old friend General Boyn Boyn- but my r C r T r ton had it figured out that under fi jj f dent Lincoln's nine different calls for troops there were about t Northern o soldiers called into the field during the four years ears the war lasted That included the men who only served served a a sh short rt time and the old cod codgers rs like me i iwho who who- weren't fit for or much else and who for war Cr for lJ it ft The boys boy's eyes were big with wonder as t e. e strove to comprehend the figures ures Tien cn In a voice yoke of childish awe be he whis whis- of all those men got k lIow edt liow many r 3 1 f that for laddie Nobody knows t sure t t boy bor said ald the die veteran solemnly You Ton tee see there were cre hundreds and hundreds of them m just jast buried burled in trenches after the Mg battles batHs and in all tho the national t t rles there are long rows of ot graves rans creni even cren E i w with no names over OTer them But Dut I 1 was king fag tn about it with our post commander Qt t day and he told me mo the best bestIn bestIn bestIn In the Pension Office show that h t armies lost by death from all alle e the war about meni men i e were vere about 1 11 of or these who I Ii X i were either cither killed outright in battle or 1 efte died of their wounds The rest died r f n disease Be How flow many were only brought 1 brought some lead souvenirs lice Ie with em cm em to carry about with them the jh rest reat of their days or left an arm fee t t ine meat ineat at Petersburg bur or somewhere else leaky L couldn't say ny There must have haTe It hundreds of thousands crippled like 1 I The he 1 boy by fondled the empty sleeve of hold oid blue bloc coat thoughtfully and nestled I d he murmured lm Im sorry the they M roi you yott grandpa but you yon never neTer ran ranry r ry J ry from from them em did you 2 he be added This in a tone ton of confidence J t er t than n inquiry JO Didot I I though laughed the i nun aU thought a 1 I wits was one of t what those JJ s what do you call em Marathons em em Marathons ct f thir i wily T I tan ran down there re at Manassas I I. I ta boy But Dut there was plenty of others of us in n that t scramble e. e Why w we c I i never stopped until we got across the Po tomae comae and into Washington ashington we we wewer were so so keen Jeen in that sprint But th then n added the veteran apologetically there were times I afterward when the John Johnnies had to run leo 10 for that matter I I many soldiers did the Johnnies I Lave Lan grandpa j I IThe I The old soldier stroked his beard contemplatively con contemplatively con I I with his one remaining baud haud Well son we have aT to admit admits nowadays nowadays fiat t J tb 4 L L 41 1 e iJ r IS k t- t t a 1 1 a x r fry i oi 4 I I i 1 ca may I 1 V M t 7 r z r r I Johnnies Their records are not so complete complete com com- as ours arc got are got lost somewhere in inthe the tut shuttle shuffle I guess guess but but durin during the four years year ear they mustered somewhere above a I million men altogether Toward the end their recruiting officers fairly airly robbed the cradle and the grave grave grae for soldiers as we u used to say After fter February of W ti old Jell Jeff Davis forced all the white men men r or orl l boys between t i s between s-between seventeen and fifty tifty years old Diu to go into the army and und to stay in Utah until the enl end of the war And we Ian iau k trees muy as well admit to weir credit that most of cm em didn't ne 1 to ins Lui forced eIther cither I l Lots of them theta got Ot killed too toe 1 sup sup- pose IH SC said the tuu lee ics 1 indeed J laddie boy by Their losses were ere as us bl big as ours m in 11 proportion to numbers num bets bers engaged engaged heavier r. 1 dare say but say but they tuey know just how bow many were killed on their side ide And ADd besides nil all the loss of life and und the sorrow v and guttering their homes s and their farms were ruined o that tha t they ha haven't recovered from it r yet ret and und Ule ine war cost cot us in money hunI hundreds hun hun- and hundreds ls of ot millions of dol I lars Jars The big bij wondering eyes of the little chap were drooping now Bedtime had bad come for the little men of the third gen gen- since Appomattox lie He sighed I with ith a sleepy but comfortable sense of I perfect security and content Anyhow grandpa he murmured its settled allI all allright allright right now isn't it iU I I Yes laddie boy it its it's a all Ill settled and I settled right I goe guess Its It's only one country country coun coun- COUn 1 try here now no and there are no DO slaves in it and aud its it's growing rowing bigg bigger and stronger and Ind grander ever every minute The 11 tousled head snuggled closer to the empty empt rout roat sleeve I glanced J up from Crom my desk where I 1 had bad been listening to their warlike dialogue The boys boy's eyes had I closed dosed in slumber Soon the old soldier I I tau Lisa bad iad fettled i erl iota r J I I chair and was off to the Land of Nod the thc lad well launched on the dreamless current of childhood sleep the veteran perchance to live again in visions through youthful days of camp and trench and battle carnage Let him sleep I thought he will need all his bis remaining strength for the snort short tramp to morrow with the remnant of the HIP Boys Dos in Blue II 1 S son and father slept my mind ran 7 M SS almost gloomily on the trend of their talk The man of the past had been tellin telling the man of tho the future how heavy atoll a atoll atoll toll his country had paid to save sare it from disruption Was it worth the cost I asked myself Was it worth the awful price Was Was- as this grim levy of life and blood and wealth so ordained to the sacrifice by the God of Battles that the nation might move on OD reunited resistless toward its greater de destiny tiny And then in reverie re there passed like a panorama before my eyes the scenes ofa of ofa a decade or more ago scenes ago scenes in which I 1 of the middle generation spanning the breach between the tho past and the future I had chanced to play some romo little part in a aI aJ I J lit little lie war a war paltry in itself as comi com- com i pared with its terrible predecessor I I 1 seemed to see again the sturdy form Corm I of Fitzhugh Lee of Virginia and the slight figure figure of Joe Wheeler of Alabama Ala Ala- bama as they donned their blue uniform I again in lieu of tho groY b and drew their veteran s swords under the folds Colds of the flag I they had once assailed in the cause ot of State Mate sovereignty I In memory 1 h beheld beld again the handsome face face- of Bagley of North Korth Carolina as ar it beamed with animation and patriotic tin while we chatted to together ether only a 1 dy lor or two ber before re he hc fought the ambushed Winslow Ainslow I A in the teeth teth of th the masked walked shore shon batteries of Cardenas harbor I arid and gave gu his young life liCe for the flat flab that flew from from Crom the I of the torpedo bout boat when Bernadou of the North orth his fellow officer had fallen grievously wounded on ou the same deck I Another picture this on one framed ram cd in the blackness s of the tropical night but slashed hed through with livid streaks of fire pins guns from th the heights belching belchin flame and shot and shell submarine mines nines I tho the black maw of Santiago Harbor and I saw tl tl resolute face faCt of a son sou of the Southland as u he lie calmly ran the Merrimac Into the Jaws of death and wrote his name on the t same mc tablet with willi those of Gushing Cushing a and Decatur Ju w n the annals of American heroism j jI I stood stead again at Chickamauga not nol InD longer r a 11 battle ground of the Blue andl and I the Gray as it had been a generation ago but the mustering simp now of ani any q army of patriots hurrying alike from the North and the South answering to the thel same ame drumbeat coming at their country's ea Ii C Ii wearing the tbt one uniform enlisted ted I under the one llIe nag flag to fight a forli foreign n foe Once more tue fC scene uc was shifted and T I I seemed to see I huts Iut's ut's division forward In assault sweeping I up the bullet Scourged of San Juan Juau slopes Heights infantry without artillery support storming i an in- in ml lid reached nail ami fortified position a r i id dirge the sons of the thc tons Loris o s of of the J Johnnies facing tn ly the muzzled ot ottile tile the vicious clous snarl of the Mauser r diet o General I Hamilton b. b South South Carolina leadin leading the the- the the-fi fl The t the hc t First brigade ad hIs bis white haft the e Spanish paul h tiro Colonel W ii falling i K ely bravely at ut t the c his Ith lg regiment northerner So ye each doing Ins his part It Theft Wai un unson son mid and Dixon's Dixons line on ban an J Jui Ju- Ju i i Neither was there any cOlor H for none charged wore morn boldly tl tl ti stalwart swarthy fellows ot of Iv li regiments i of negro regulars regulars them the tile sons of men then w who ho slaves TJ Jl Ah yes Is I mused war nar heavy J toll of the best and tl th i bt bc It lies Ims not been in vain ruin Ii lull of or the second econ generation tho tho- the S South Routh hay o teeter cl IP- IP eo blood brotherhood forever IIi In I j 1 L vi i DI DAY dawned i M Ii b s lA in m a a. thou thouC cities and towns I land the throng 1 national colors myriads cIs of staff sniffs flat antic r lp tp the thc p It with its came nm the cordons of young pitiful r Armr of he the Republic r mac of of n its year car more morl halting than tra eta Its shattered the y 1 yea rank and 1 file J I shrinking under the time four Forty j And nl these years since Silica App them fast wrinkled r l lean shifting i ilean into luto the n and loo nJ ago ng ping out opt bra bravely cly pantaloon to marching to th the I strains of rel residue of Sherman's Shermans war days s 's w who ho left let the bummers bummer seared Scared trail Ul It across the of r fede from backbone og A Atlanta oci survivors sUr of to th the ot other host Grant who ho through b t he the The men mn of tho those MJ lder S s t the bl close of two tn-o arm few days the wa war were passing a n dipped siren point w ic I f their heir nursed p colors c in i the sa review hen hen the in ll Wa Washington i Confederate laid down their a arms at It federal army mustered a quarter of men und under r arms a i r than the invasion any of recorded in hi hist t Greece by t tl thie hosts hista of Xerxes j When hen the of of th the Republic Gra Grai which year Ir later was in its was WitS ort erg r rolls s prim counted nn neat neat-l nearly 11 half a II mil lib i soldiers Ifs Ita in 1 dwindled to 22 Potty Forty thousand ud of ifs ite p in the b last six t-eix years 1124 in 1007 cud and a a. greater number hEr iel f few w more for yeas years anti ant tar taps l the lie last of the nO At th the head hors of a a. group roup of f IO four ur r Cally meagre in numbers but Ithe the entire rep able bodied of j flourishing nourishing po post t. t I th the first tramped tr the ve generation g w who bo had bad W aJ history on the evening befoul on By Bv ri right ht of seniority man was nas proud I. I carrying ng tb i f command A crippled comrade beside him aloft tb shot tom A they were all told to greatest test militant volunteer of the last orge century They Unicey had land their da ay tt 11 c old men gnarled and rheumatic daunted Cd But before and b behind worthy orthy orth escort marched the fault of the regular t bUng bling caissons of the tho field artill jaunty of the ind new navy recruited from every the Union and then those roun younge clad veterans of the Spanish Spanish-A War One other group gr up there wa was peal perl most notable of all These too w wand we and stooped with age use like their fe the Grand Army but they wo Yo coats strangely ply lik like the butter those Johnnies who had 11 f Ston Stonewall wall Jackson and Lee Army of Northern Virginia 9 These were a delegation of or Cal Co Con f veterans and they were wera merrily with those old fellows s wit It they had clinched so often oCten a n. get ger er ago aco in th the death grapples of th the The band ahead of them played All along the line lino of march there plaudits pf of the crowd of hoh holiday a ar were theirs m mI r I watched h them later as they with their blue coated comrades cemetery when the flowers flags were placed above the grave grate fallen alien No homage was more mere rei theirs heirs |