Show UNKNOWN SOLDIERS 1 L IF lW u iC 7 Y n 4 r Y w J t r 4 i i a. a f Y 5 f 7 jr 5 C 7 F 1 rii Z v v. v f nyi F I l J Jf f y J. J ns t 7 v 3 b vf r f rr f 1 i w y v. v t i 1 r r fi tijA ir An r sy n ti tia ar 3 a a i r x Y 5 Y c M r sc x r. r a v r A NATIONS NATION'S SHRINE A Via f Note The following article was written Tor TOP Memorial Day In 1929 Because of the number of requests for copies of It which tho the author has received It Is herewith reprinted 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON E ENLISTED in one of at the regiments regiments regi regI- ments of ot expert riflemen which Iii the Continental Congress raised inthe In Inthe Inthe the backwoods of Pennsylvania Pennsyl and andone andone one fine morning In June 1775 he marched gaily away to help throw Tommy Gage and his out of Boston town He followed Montgomery and Arnold to Quebec and he starved and froze amid the tile snows of Canada that dreadful winter He was one of the tattered remnants of that tragic expedition which finally staggered back homeward from its ts heroic but futile adventure Then wearing the Continental Buff null and Blue he le fought under Washington at Trenton nn and at nt Princeton and In the summer of 1777 ho was one of tho the picked ed men who went with Danl Morgan the Old Wagoner to help repel Burgoyne's Burgoyne's Burgoyne's Bur- Bur goynes goyne's Invasion of New York At Saratoga the bayonet thrust of a Hessian grenadier struck him ilm down What if It the historians of the future were to call caIl this conflict whose din was now sounding faintly in his ears one of the fifteen decisive battles of ot the world What comfort was It to I him urn to know know know-It If he could have known that known that he had been one of the pawns In tho lIfe and death game of nation-making nation For he was conscious conscious con- con clous only of the torture of thirst as os his lifeblood life life- blood lood ebbed swI swiftly away until death came at nt last ast to still his pleading cry of Water I 1 Water 1 and to ease e his racked pain-racked body A great monument now stands on this spot which once witnessed the pomp and circumstance circumstance circum cIrcum- stance stanco of war war the the surrender of a British army But nut nearby the smooth green sod gives no sign that the soil solI bene beneath tIl holds the dust of a young Penns Pennsylvania backwoodsman who had died In defense of American liberty Who was he Just an nn Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution Re I rJ r-i Jl b b the Ink was scarcely dry on the theD D BEFORE enlistment papers which made him a n private In the First infantry of the United United United Unit Unit- ed States regular army another boy who had never before been beyond the confines of the strewn rock acres of his hs New England birthplace birthplace birthplace birth birth- place was on his way to the western frontier there here to serve in a n lonely outpost called Fort Dearborn Here it was as though he were on another planet lanet so far as ns communication with the world he ic had known was concerned But somehow he managed to survive through the cold desolate winters and the hot fever-breeding fever summers amid the tho swamps along the Chicago river The Thc summer of at 1812 came and with it the news that we must fight Old England n again in More alarming still there was the threat of an nn Indian Indan outbreak for the oratory of Tecumseh the he great Shawnee had been heard among the wild tribesmen throughout the Mississippi l val- val ley ey Then a n courier speeding along the wIlderness wilderness wilderness wilder wIlder- ness trail from Detroit brought orders to evacuate Fort Dearborn One hot August day the retreat began Southward Southward South South- war ward along the sandy shores of ot Lake Michigan Capt Nathan Heald led his little lUtle army all nIl too few in numbers for Its precarious task of ot safe convoy for the wagons where rode tl the e women and children of ot the garrison From out of ot the sandhills swooped the A short desperate fight fight and and the Fort Dearborn massacre was history That night there was a hellish orgy In the Indian camp and the pitying stars looked down upon a writhing figure at the stake What If this his was one of at the acts In the mighty drama called the Winning of ot the West Vest What if it the future was to see one of the worlds world's greatest cities rise on these sandy fandy shores Could that knowledge have been recompense for the fi fiery ry agony of ot tills this New England lad above whose unmarked grave the hurrying feet teet of at Chicago's millions beat an nn endless requiem today Who was he An Unknown Soldier of ot the War of r I Pa b HOUGH some of his neighbors denounced THOUGH it as asan an unholy war into which President President dent James K Polk was leading the tho nation nation na nn- na- na tion a boy on a n middle western farm was one of the first to respond when on May 13 1840 the President called tor or volunteers to drive the tile Mexican forces back across the tho Rio Grande So he was among those who landed with withOld withOld Old OId Fuss and Feathers Scott at nt Vera Cruz and started arted toward the City of Mexico To his parents back In Ohio came cheerful letters from the boy telling of at the rapid succession of victories won by the American army assurIng assuring assuring assur assur- ing them that the war was almost over and that he would soon be home y i 3 I tr R c Yv ak r t. t M a r d s r bY f. f f ri w W y SOLDIERS TOMB t i l t. t t 16 t Y T fR r T TC C sY w. w MONUMENT UNKNOWN UNKNOWN- CIVIL WAR DEAD BEAD Ho He wrote such a letter the night before Scotts Scott's men stormed Chapultepec After that his mother watched eagerly for the return of ot othIs his father from the dally daily trip to the village store where he went to get the man mall But nut every time the father shook his head sadly Today In the environs of at the City of at M Mexico co there Is a n little cemetery In which stands a n I small granite shaft bearing these words To r o I the memory of ot the American soldiers who perIshed perished perished per per- In this valley In 1847 whose bones bone collected collected collected col col- col- col by the country's orders are here burled burIed And so this Unknown Soldier of ot the Mexican war sleeps among the seven hundred and fifty far from his native land where flows the lithe Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful Beau Beau- Ohio JJ A JJ A b bORT ORT SU SUMTER lTER had been fired upon In the FORT 11 1 North a mighty chorus was wag swelling from rom thousands of young American throats We WeAre WeAre WeAre Are Coming Father Abraham Abraham- In the South the rollicking strains of ot Dixie were firing thousands of other young Americans to an almost almost al nl most religious ecstasy In the Upper Shenandoah valley of Virginia a father was Vas bl bidding goodby to his two sons Pray God you two never meet In battle I 1 he said For one ro rode e north to wear the Federal Blue under General Patterson And the other rode south to become becom a member of Gen Thomas J. J Jacksons Jackson's Stonewall Brigade Whether or not his pr prayer yer was answered the father never knew He Ire never saw them again Perhaps In some soma Valhalla two warrior spirits reminisce of at Chancellorsville and Antietam of ot Manassas and of at Malvern HilL But there Is no bitterness now In their tones as ns they call each other Yank and Johnny Reb Rob The crumbling dust which once housed these spirits rests under a great monument of ot roughhewn roughhewn rough rough- hewn granite and polished marble In Arlington Arling Arling- ton cemetery near Washington on On this monument monument ment Is an Inscription which h reads Beneath this Oils stone repose the bones of at 2111 unknown soldiers gathered after the war from the tho fields of at Bull null Run and the route to the Rap Rap- Their remains could not be Identified fied lied but their names and deaths are recorded In Inthe Inthe the tho archives of at their country and anti Its grateful citizens honor them as ns of their noble army of or martyrs May they rest In peace Pa r J Pa J bT fa b faIT T WAS the spring of ot lS 1803 1898 3 A Colorado Colora o miner I IT coming oft off the tho night shift Joined a n group of at his fellows gathered about one who held In his hands a Denver newspaper One look at nt atthe atthe the screaming hen headlines lines told the story War With Spain I A month later he ho was on an army transport that steamed through the Golden Gate Into the broad Pacific The next nest year he was one of a detachment which set out from a a. a little Philippine Philip PhllIp- pine village In pursuit of ot a party of ot Moro Mora raiders raider There was a n deathlike hush as they pushed on through the steaming heat hent of the Jungle A moment later Its stillness was shattered by the sounds of men engaged In furious to hand-to-hand combat bayonet combat bayonet against bolo bolo bolo-a a swarm of ot little brown men clawing at nt a group of ot swearing struggling desperately khaki-clad khaki figures and at nt last bearing them down to earth by sheer force of or numbers A few months later back In the Colorado mining camp which clung precariously to the rocky slope of the mountain a u band was playIng playIng playing play play- ing Incessantly Therell Be a Hot Time In the ilie theOld theOld Old Town Tonight For the troop of our boys was home from the wars But out In the province of Sulu a rusted Krag- Krag Jorgensen rifle and a n webbed cartridge belt beit al already already already al- al ready n nearly hidden by the tho lush Jungle vegetation vegetation vegetation tion marked the last resting place of one who didn't come home home home-an an Unknown Soldier of ot 08 OS 09 OD fa lei A d Pa b PaTK TK 11 1022 In Arlington cemetery come N NOVEMBER tery a great throng stood with bared heads as a bugler blew v Taps over a anew anew anew new white marble tomb In which had been placed the body of a dead warrior Who was he No one can say For his Is the eternal mys mys- tery The he lettering on his tomb betrays betraY no word of his Identity It says simply Imply Hero rests In honored glory an American soldier known but butto butto to God Ho ne Is The Unknown Soldier of at the World war He ne Is the man whom we have exalted out of at humanity Into sainthood Since that day ten years ago when they enshrIned en cn- his dust In marblo marble nt Arlington at-Arlington n and his spirit In the heart of America men and women of every ery station In life lIte have bowed their heads reverently In the presence presen e. e of his last resting place To It have come the great of other countries the countries the queen of ot a European royal house princes field marshals lord admirals statesmen states states- men None has been too great to pay him hom hom- age Orators and poets have tried In too all words to pay fitting tribute to his memi mem mem- i ory But the only real tribute to fo him Is the unvoIced unvoiced unvoiced un un- un- un voiced one In the hearts of his fellow Amer leans To them he has given Memorial day a anew anew anew new meaning For on that day their thoughts turn to his tomb as ns the tho sl shrine rIne upon which Is offered Americas America's tribute to her soldier dead and more e especially 1 to the thc Unknown Soldiers of ot all her wars We cannot decorate their graves In accordance accordance accord accord- ance anco with the Memorial day custom for tor they are scattered far and wide over the face tace of ot the globe glo Some Some of or them fell teU before Indian bullet bullet bullet bul bul- let and lance on the wind-swept wind plains of at the tho Great West Some of at them died In China In Cuba In the Philippines In Mexico Some of them went west on the battlefields of ot France Franco and Belgium I So In alien soil Boll they keep their lonely bivouac bivon ac ne of the dead and while we cannot pay them the same honors on Memorial day that wo we do to the tile others who gave their lives lI for tor their country country country coun coun- try we can offer up to them our tribute of gratitude by remembering on that day clay what they did even though we do not know who they were p by Western Newspaper Union j |