Show al D 1 19 9 r 1 U I 1 ul in CIN 7 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON E ENLISTED in a pennsylvania vania regiment in june 1775 and marched to the siege of 0 boston ee followed montgomery to quebec and starved nod and froze amid the snows of canada wearing wearies the continental butt buff and ulue blue he be fought under washington at trenton and at princeton and lo in the summer of 1777 tie he went with daul danl morgan to repel Bur goynes invasion of new york tork at saratoga the bayonet thrust of in a hessian grenadier struck bilm down what hat it if the historians of the future were to call this conflict whose hose din was now sounding faintly in his ears one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world he was aas conscious only of the torture of thirst as his lifeblood ebbed swiftly away until death finally stilled his cry of water water A great monument stands on the spot which once witnessed the pomp and circumstance of wari war the surrender of a british army but nearby the smooth green sod gives no BO sign that the soil beneath holds the dust of a young pennsylvania backwoodsman one of the many who died in defense of american liberty who was he just an unknown soldier of the revolution before the ink on his bis enlistment papers in the first infantry was scarcely arcely ec dry another boy who had never before been beyond the con linear fines of the rock strewn acres of the little new england farm where he be was born was on his way to the western frontier there to serve in a i lonely outpost called fort dearborn it was although as though be were on another planet so far as communication with the world he had known was con berned cei ned but somehow he managed to live through the cold desolate win and the hot fever breeding sum f iners amid the swamps along g the chicago river with the summer of 1812 came cacao the tev news s of war with great britain and more alarming still BUH the threat of an indian outbreak then orders to evacuate fort dearborn one hot august day the retreat beran from out of the sandhills sand hills along agori L lake al e michigan swooped the fierce A desperate fight and the fort dearborn massacre was history that ni night lit there was a hellish orgy in the indian camp and the pitying stare looked down upun upon a writhing figure at the stake what II 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 linow ledge have been ree rec rOni pense for the fiery agony of this vew kew england lad above un marked grave the hurrying feet of Chi cagos millions today bent beat an endless requiem T who was lie he an ung allon soldier of the war of though some of his neighbors denounced it as an unholy war into which president polk iolli was leading the 1 nation a certain middle western farm boy was vae one of the first to respond when the president on may hay 13 1848 1846 called for volunteers to drive the mexicans back across the rio itlo crande and so he be 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 la in ohio came cheerful letters from the boy telling of the rapid succession of victories won by the american army and assuring them that the war was almost over and that he would soon be home his last dinst letter was written the night before scotts soldiers stormed cha the boys parents awaited hs his return in vain 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 ican soldiers who perished in this valley in as 17 whose bones collected by the count rys orders are here burled buried and so this unknown soldier of the mexican war sleeps among the in allen alien soil fort sumter bad been fired upon in the upper shenandoah valley of virginia a father was bidding goodbye to his two son sons s pray god you two never meet in battle he said and one rode north to wear the fed eral blue under general patterson and the other rode south to become a member of gen thomas J jack the dead J blow out you bugles over the y rich dead y V i theres none of these so BO lonely y X and poor of 0 old is but dying has made us richer V v 4 gifts than sold gold f 4 those these laid the world away i poured out the red y sweet wine of youth gave up the years to be i y of work and joy and that tn on hoped ped serene 5 that men call ago ace and those w who ho would have been ia S y tha their r sons ons they gave eave their f y immortality y X blow buggea blow they brought s us tor for our dearth f y holiness lacked so long lone and A love and pain honor has come back as a king s to earth i and paid his subjects subJect a with a royal wage IV and nobleness walks in our ways way again and w we e have hav come into our 5 b heritage er ilage V rupert broo brooke ke A J w 07 47 AKA 47 sons stonewall ewall brigade whether or not hla his prayer was answered the father never knew lie he never saw either again perhaps in somo soma valhalla two warrior spirits reminisce of chancellorsville and antietam Antle tam of manassas and malvern hill but there la Is no bitterness in their tones as they call each other yank and johnny reb keb the crumbling dust of the bodies which once housed these spirits rests under a great monument of roughhewn rough hewn liean gran lie ite and polished marble in arlington cemetery near washington D C on this monument Is an inscription which reads beneath this stone repose the bones of 2111 unknown soldiers gath ered after the lie war from the holds fields of bull run and the route to the rappa hannock bannock their remains could not be identified but their names and deaths are recorded la in the archives of their country and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs Biar tyra slay may they rest tn in peace it was the asprin sprin of 1808 A colorado miner coming off the night shift joined a group of hla his fellows gathered about one who read in a denver paper the headlines war with spain A month later he be was on an army transport that steamed through gli the golden gate into the broad pacific the next nest year he be was wag one of a detachment which set out through the philippine jungle in pursuit of a party of moro raiders there was a deathlike hush bush as they pushed on through the steaming heat of the jungle A moment later its ita stillness was shattered by the sounds of men engaged in furious hand to hand combat baa bayonet against bolo a swarm of little brown men clarid clawing g at a group of swearing desperately ing hhall clad figures and bearing therma them down to earth by sheer force of numbers A few months later back in the colorado mining town a band ban played therell be a hot time in id the old town tonight tor for the troop of our boys was home from th 6 wars but out in the province of sulu a rusted krag jorgensen and a webbed cartridge belt already nearly hidden by the lush jungle vegetation marked the last resting place of one who come home an unknown soldier of november 11 1922 in arlington cemetery a great throng stood with bared heads as a bugler blew taps over a new white marble tomb in which had bad been placed the body ot a dead warrior of him it has been written once he trod our streets perhaps the very pavements which we daily travel it never entered his head that he would become a symbol of sacrifice and his tomb a shrine ol of pilgrimage if any one had foretold as much to him how lie he would have laughed I 1 it anyone were to reveal to vs us who he really was that he had been a cashier in a new york bank or a taxi tail driver in chicago 0 would lie he still retain his power so deeply to moie mode us who was he be this un known soldier whom we have exalted out of humanity into sainthood hoody that question of identity can never be an answered sered but of hira this can be said since that day seven years ago memorial day has had a new meaning on this day his tomb Is a shrine before which tn in spirit all americans bow reverent heads for thus they honor not only the file unknown soldier of the world war but the unknown soldiers of all of our wars the revolution the war of 1812 the mexican war the civil war the spanish american war we cannot decorate their graves in accordance with the memorial day custom tor for their lust last resting places unmarked are scattered tar far and wide oyer over the face of the globe some of them fell before indian bullet and lance on the windswept wind swept plains of the great debt some of them died in china tn in the philippines in mexico sonic some of thin them went west on tho the battlefields of france and belgium so go in allen alien soil they keep their lonely bivouac of the dead and while hile ue ne cannot pay them the same honors on memorial day that we do the others ullo nho gave their lives for their country we can offer up to them our tribute of gratitude by remembering on that day what they dij even though we do not know who they were |