Show UNKNOWN ial N 7 KNOWN SOLDIERS so L D I 1 Y VV U 7 Q zy CW 1 3 7 t ZO e z J A NANs note the following article was written for memorial day in 1929 because of the number of requests for copies of it which the author ha has received it Is herewith reprinted 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON G V ENLISTED in ote oce of the reg regiments 1 l of expert riflemen which H the continental congress raised in the backwoods of pennsylvania and one fine morning in june 1775 he marched gaily away to help throw tommy gage and his lobster backs out of boston town lie ile followed montgomery and arnold to quebec and he starred and froze amid the snows of canada that dreadful winter ue ile was one of the tattered remnants of that tragic expedition which finally staggered back homeward from its heroic but futile adventure then wearing the continental buff and clue blue he fought under washington at trenton and at princeton and in the summer of 1777 he was one of the picked men who went with danl morgan the old wagoner to help repel bur goynes invasion of new york tork at saratoga the bayonet thrust of a hessian grenadier struck him down what if the historians of the future were to call this conflict whose din was now sounding faintly in his ears one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world what comfort was it to him to know it he could have known that he had bad been one of the pawns in the life and death game of nation making for he was conscious only of the torture of thirst as his lifeblood ebbed swiftly away until death came at last to still his pleading cry of water I 1 water I 1 and to ea ease se his pain racked body A great monument now stands on this spot which once witnessed the pomp and circumstance of war the surrender of a british army but nearby the smooth green sod gives no sign that the soil beneath holds the dust of a young pennsylvania backwoodsman who had died in defense of american liberty who was he just an unknown soldier of the american revolution 1 ra pa ca the ink was scarcely dry on the BEFORE B enlistment papers which made him a private la in the first infantry of the united states regular army another boy who had never before been beyond the confines of the rock strewn acres of his bis new england birthplace was on his way to the western frontier there to serve in a lonely outpost called fort dearborn here it was as though he were on another planet so tar far as communication with the world he be had known was concerned but somehow he managed to survive through the cold desolate winters and the hot fever breeding summers amid the swamps along the chicago river the summer of 1812 came and with it the news that we must fight old england again more alarming still there was the threat of ru an indian outbreak tor for the oratory of tecumseh the great shawnee Shaw nce bad been heard among the wild tribesmen throughout the mississippi valley then a courier speeding along the wilderness trail from detroit brought orders to evacuate fort dearborn one hot august day the retreat began southward along the sandy shores of lake michigan Alle bigan copt capt nathan beald led his little army anay nil all too few in numbers for its precarious task of safe convoy for the wagons where rode the women and children of the garrison from out of the sandhills sand rand hills swooped the direce A short desperate fight 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 it if this was one of the acts in the mighty drama called the winning of the west what if the future was to see one of the worlds greatest cities rise on these sandy shores could that knowledge have been recompense for the fiery agony of this new england lad above whose unmarked grave the hurrying feet of Chi cagos millions beat an endless requiem today who was he be an unknown soldier of the war of 0 sa pa As PES pa some of his neighbors denounced THOUGH T it as an unholy war into which president james K polk was leading the nation a boy on a middle western farm was one of the first to respond when on may 13 1840 1846 the president called for volunteers to drive the mexican forces back across the itlo grande so he was among those who landed with old fuss and feathers scott at vera vcra cruz and started toward the city of mexico to his bis parents back in ohio came cheerful letters from thi boy telling of bf the rapid succession of by the american army assuring them that the war was almost over and that he would boon soon be home IV M OL I 1 A ff i j r aal ayl A s cwi I 1 f ff 1 A A i y s wl yf ia y rao tp f ii 1 lff J J LD v ia ba F 11 r f b v MONUMENT CIVIL WAS WAPL DEAD he wrote such a letter the night before scotts men stormed chapultepec after that his mother watched eagerly for the return of his father from the dally daily trip to the village store where he went to get the mall mail but every time the father shook his bead sadly today io in the environs of the city of mexico there is a little cemetery in which stands a small granite shaft bearing these words to the memory of the american soldiers who perished in this valley in 1847 whose bones bonev collected by the count rys orders are here buried and so this unknown soldier of the mexican war sleeps among the seven hundred and fifty far from his native land where flows the beautiful ohio ka ri llyl pa ORT SUMTER had been fired upon in the FORT north a mighty chorus wag swelling from thousands of young american throats we are coming father abraham in the south the rollicking strains of dixie atrie were firing thousands of other young americans to an almost religious ecstasy in the upper shenandoah valley of virginia a father was bidding goodby to his two sons pray god cod you yon two never meet in battle he said for one rode north to wear the federal blue under general patterson and the other rode south to become a member of gen thomas J jacksons stonewall brigade whether or not his prayer was answered the father never knew ne ile never saw them again perhaps in some valhalla two warrior spirits reminisce of chancellorsville and antietam of manassas and of malvern nill hill but there Is no bitterness now in their tones as they call each other yank and johnny reb the crumbling dust which once housed these spirits rests under a great monument of roughhewn granite and polished marble in arlington cemetery near washington on this monument Is an inscription which reads beneath this G stone repose the bones of 2111 unknown soldiers gathered after the war from the fields of bull run and the route to the rap pa hannock their remains could not be identified but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives archil cs of their country and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs way may they rest in peace pa 10 pa T WAS the spring of osos A colorado miner IT coming off the night shift joined a group of his fellows gathered about one who held in his hands a denver newspaper one look at the screaming headlines told the story war with spain A month later he was on an army transport that steamed through the golden gate into the tha broad pacific the next year he be was waa one of a detachment which set bet out from a little philippine village in pursuit of a party of moro raiders there was wag a deathlike hush as aa they pushed on through the steaming heat beat of the jungle A moment later its stillness was shattered by the sounds of men engaged in furious hand to hand combat bayonet against bolo a swarm of little brown men clawing at a group of swearing desperately struggling khaki clad figures figure and at last bearing them down to earth by sheer force of numbers A few months later back in the colorado raining mining camp which clung precariously to the rocky slope of the mountain a band was playing incessantly therell be a not hot time in the old town tonight for the troop of our oar boys boy was home from the wars but out in the province of sulu a rusted krag jorgensen rifle and a webbed cartridge belt already nearly hidden bidden by the lush jungle jungla vegetation marked the last resting place of one who come home an unknown soldier of 98 do 99 it ea ra 11 1922 1022 in arlington cemetery NOVEMBER a great throng stood with bared heads as a bugler blew taps raps over a new white marble tomb in which had been placed the body of a dead warrior who was he be no one can say for his is the eternal mystery the lettering on his tomb betrays no word of his identity it says simply imply here rests in honored glory an american soldier known but to god ue ile Is the unknown soldier of the world war lie ile Is the man whom we have exalted out of humanity into sainthood since that day ten years ago when they en shrines his dust in marble at arlington and his spirit in the heart of america men and women of every station in life have bowed their heads reverently in the presence of his last resting place to it have come the great of other countries the queen of 0 a european royal house princes field marshals lord admirals statesmen none has been too great to pay him homage orators and poets have tried in all too anade quate words to pay fitting tribute to his memory but the only real tribute to him Is IE the unvoiced one in the hearts of 0 his fellow amer icons to them he has given memorial day a new meaning for on that day their thoughts turn to hla his tomb as the thrine shrine upon which Is offered americas tribute to her soldier dead and more especially to the unknown soldiers of all her wars we cannot decorate their graves in accordance with the file memorial day custom for they are scattered far and wide over the face of the globe some of them fell before indian bullet and lance on the windswept wind swept plains of the great west some of them died in china la in cuba in the philippines in Alex mexico leo some of them went west on we the battlefields of france and belgium so in alien soil they keep their lonely bivouac of the dead and while we cannot pay them the same honors on memorial day that we do to the others who gave their lives for their country we can offer up to thorn them our tribute of gratitude by remembering on that day what they did even though we do not know who they wera az by western no shaper union |