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Show George Washington's Soldiers Sol-diers Remembered on Memorial Me-morial Day This year, on the day when the American people give thought to those who gave their lives for the preservation of the nation, it is ecptclally appropriate to remember remem-ber the patriots who died during the Revolution while battling with Central Washington for the in-dbixtndence in-dbixtndence of the America,! pmnlo. In no way could Memorial day be better observed than in thus devoting it to Washington'.! honor, during this year when we celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth, and nothing would be niore in Washington's own spirit than this tribute to those loyal Americans who gave their lives to the cause for which he fought. This right is all the more necessary, neces-sary, according to the United States George Washington Bicentennial Bi-centennial Commission, because of the curious historical fact that no accurate record was ever made, either during the Revolution, or after it, of the patriots who died in action, in their country's struggle strug-gle for Independence. Washington's Washing-ton's hurriedly gathered and untrained un-trained army had no facilities for the "paper work" that has become be-come an elaborate feature of modern military science. For example, no count of American Am-erican dead has come down to Ui from even so important an engagement en-gagement as the action at Princeton, Prince-ton, which enabled Washington to clear the British out of New Jersey. Jer-sey. The best authority on the subject contents himself with re porting the British loss as more than one hundred, and the American Am-erican loss "much less." One historic fact does sharply stand out, however, as to patriot patri-ot losses in battle. That is, where Washington himself reports them, they are accurate enough, and their smallness indicates with what economy of men he accomplished accom-plished his epoch-making results. For example, he himself records that in the siege of Yorktown, the action that decided the Revolution, Revo-lution, there were but twenty-three twenty-three of his officers and men killed. kill-ed. At King's Mountain, another pivotal engagement, the British loss was severe, but again the patriots lost but few. The battle of Trenton, to fight which Washington Wash-ington made his famous crossing of the Delaware, and which saved the patriot cause from going on the rocks of public apathy, was bought at the cheapest price of all. Two patriot soldiers. were killed, and three officers wounded one of these was Lieutenant James Monroe, afterwards President Presi-dent of the United States. The best count now possible by military experts gives, Washington a. total enlisted military force of 39,500, but he never had these gathered together at any one time, owing to lapses and over-lappings over-lappings of enlistments, and at critical times his forces sank to 3,000. The most accurate count possible today, covering the num- ber of patriots actually . shot and killed in battle, fixes their num-.- ber at 4,044. Again the Revolutionary army could make no effort to mark the burial places of the dead, as is ' the modern military practice, and the sacred places where these heroes lie will never be known. Almost the only known graves of Revolutionary soldiers are those who survived the war and were buried in private burial grounds. Nothing remains, therefore of those who gave their lives in the " making of the United States except ex-cept of their heroism. It is the greater reason why on Memorial Day, in this year of tribute to George Washington, the United States should give a thought to these self -giving men who died that their country might live. |