Show UN OWN aeo S 6 s v tr F f 4 A nations note the following art cle was written for memorial day in 1929 because of the number ef of requests for copies of it which the author has received it Is herewith reprinted 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON E ENLISTED UNLISTED in one of the regi ments of expert riflemen which 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 he ile followed montgomery and arnold to quebec and he starved and froze amid the snows of canada that dreadful winter he ile was one of the tattered remnants of that tragic expedition which finally staggered back homeward from its heroic but futile ad adventure denture then wearing the continental buff and 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 rent with dani dan morgan the old wagoner to help repel bur goynes invasion of new ew york 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 cars one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world what comfort was it to him to know if he could hive known that he had been one of the pawns in the life and death game of nation making for he was con relous only ot 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 N V ater I 1 and to ease his pain racked body A great monument now stands on this spot which once witnessed the pomp and circum stance 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 bad had died in defense of american liberty who was as he just an unknown soldier of the american revolution I 1 pa rz pa ma pa i the ink was scarcely dry on the k enlistment papers which made him a private in the first infantry of the unit ed d states regular army another boy who had never before been beyond the confines of the rock strewn acres of his new england birth place 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 far as communication with the world he 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 m a act the threat of an indian outbreak for the oratory of tecumseh the great shawnee had been heard among the wild tribesmen throughout the mississippi val ley then a courier speeding along the wilder ness trail from detroit brought orders to evacuate fort dearborn one hot august day the retreat began south ward along the sandy shores of lake michigan capt nathan heald led his little army all too few in numbers for inq lt precarious task of safe convoy for the wagons where rode the women and children of the garrison from out of the sandhills sand hills swooped the alrece A short desperate fight and the fort dearborn massacre wag 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 take 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 world s greatest cities rise on these sandy shores could that knowledge have been recompense for the fiery agony of this nev england lad above whose unmarked grave the hurrying feet of Chi chicago cagos a millions beat an endless requiem today who was he an unknown soldier of the war of fe pa att HOUGH some of his neighbors denounced j it as an unholy nar war into which dent james K polk was leading the na tion a boy on a middle western farm was one of the first to respond when on may 13 1848 1846 the president called for volunteers to drive the mexican forces back across the blo RIO grande so he was among those who landed with old fuss and feathers scott at vera cruz and started toward the city of mexico to his parents back in ohio came cheerful letters from the boy telling of the rapid succession of vict victor orlee leo won by the american army assur ing them that the war was almost over and that he would soon be home T W aa aa q 4 4 THE MAT M AT A 11 0 ML wy avo sy MONUMENT 70 MIE UNKNOWN CIVIL WA he arote ft rote such a letter the night before scott a e men stormed chapultepec after that his mother batched matched eagerly for the return of his father from the dally daily trip to the village store where be he went to get the mall mail but every time the father shook his head sadly today 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 per dished in this valley in 1817 whose tones one s col ol 01 0 lecter by the country is orders are here burled and so this unknown soldier of the mexican war sleeps among the seven hundred and fifty far from his native land where flows the beau ticul ohio 10 lea isa ORT SUMTER had been fired upon in the FORT north a mighty chorus was swelling from thousands of young american throats we are coming father abraham in the south the rollicking strains of dude dixie were firing thousands of other young americans to an al most religious aesta ecstasy zy in the upper shenandoah valley of virginia a father was mas bidding goodby to his two sons pray god you two tuo never meet in battle he said for one rode north to wear R ear the federal blue under general patterson and the other rode south to become a member of gen thomas J jackson jacksons s stonewall brigade whether or not his prater prayer wai answered the father never knew he ile never saw them again perhaps in some valhalla two warrior spirits reminisce of chancellorsville and antietam Antle tam of manassas and of malvern hill but there Is no bitterness now in their tone as they call each other yank and johnny peb reb tl TI e crumbling dust which once housed these spirits rests under a great monument of rough hewn granite and polished marble in arling ton cemetery near washington on this bonu ment Is an inscription which reads beneath thie stone repose the bones of 2111 2 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 didenti fled but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs may they rest in peace a sa T WAS the spring of 1898 1808 A colorado miner IT coming off the night shift joined a group of bis 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 broad pacific the next year he was one of a detachment which set out from a little philip pine village tillage in pursuit of a party of moro raiders there was a deathlike hush as they pushed on through the steaming heat of the jungle A moment later its stillness was shattered by the sound 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 and at last bearing them down to earth by sheer force of numbers A few months later back in the colorado mining camp which clung precariously to the rocky slope of the mountain a band was play ing incessantly there 11 be a hot time in the old town tonight for the troop of our boys was home from the wars but out in the province of sulu a rusted krag jorgensen rifle and a webbed cartridge belt al ready nearly hidden by the lush jungle legeta tion marked the last resting place of one who come home an unknown soldier of 11 1922 in arlington aeme N NOVEMBER tery a great throng stood with bared heads as a bugler blew taps over a new white marble tomb in which had been placed the body of a dead warrior who was he iso 10 one can say for his is the eternal mys tery the lettering on his tomb betrays no word of his identity it says simply here rests in honored glory an american soldier known but to god he Is the unknown soldier of the world war he ile Is the man whom we me 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 tation in life have bowed their heads reverently in the presence of his last res tILI place to it have come the great of countries the queen of a european royal house princes field marshals lord admirals statesmen none has been too great to pay him horn hom age orators and poets have tried in all too inadequate words to pay fitting tribute to his mem meni ory but the only real tribute to him is the un voiced one in the hearts of his fellow fello wAmer amer leans to them he has given memorial day a new meaning for on that day their thoughts turn to his tomb as the shrine upon which Is offered america Amerle tribute to her soldier dead and more e to the unknown soldiers of all her wars we cannot decorate their graves in accord ance with the memorial day custom for they are scattered far and wide over the face of the globe some of them fell before indian bul let and lance on the R ind sw sm ept plains of the great west some of them died in china in cuba in the philippines in mexico some of them went rent west on the battlefields of france and belgium so in alien soil they keep their lonely bllou ac 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 coun try we can offer up to them our tribute of gratitude by remembering on that day what they did even though we do not know who they were Q by western newspaper Newe paper union |