USA > Indiana > Annual reunion of the 36th Indiana volunteers: 4th-5th, 1887-1888, 7th-14th, 1890-1897 > Part 4
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there have been hands and hearts deliberately reaching out to tear from the blue fieid the stars that shine from this flag, so that our country might. have less power than we have. But because of you, gentlemen, the unity of the American States is maintained, and by the help of God the stars are still left in the blue field; because of the brave men that have dared to do and die that the flag might not have one star Jess, or be dimmed in any way.
We are not here to speak of the past, but as citizens when they meet to say that right is forever right and wrong forever wrong, and that as in the days gone by the wrong was wrong and shall be ever wrong; so because of the right planted in your hearts God brought ns safely through, and the right shall be forever right. These men who are here tonight, who come in our midst to again relate the scenes of the stormy days gone by, were not always the gray-haired veterans that they are now. In the ye irs that are gone when they went away from home we remember how they were boys in years, how they went out with swinging footsteps, following the music that led them to the front, and then came back merely the wrecks of battle. We know how many there are going about that have in their bodies the germs of disease, and are gray-haired men. when, under other and happier circumstances they ought to be in the strength and vigor of manhood. They were led by brave generals; and when from the awful strng- gles of Shiloh, Chattanooga and Chicamanga they went with Sherman to the sea, then back until Richmond had fallen and the last stronghold of the enemy was taken, there has never been in the world braver men than those who followed, nor braver gen- erals than those who led them. As a part of this mighty army you, the survivors of the Thirty-sixth Regiment, are here to-night. You went forth with a swinging foot- step that shook the earth.
We are glad to welcome you; not for our own sake, but for the sake of those who were left when you boys marched away; not for ourselves, but for the mothers who gave, with sad hearts and falling tears, their boys upon the altar of their country, and went down to their graves before the idols of their hearts returned; for the sake of the fath- ers who bore the conflict of life, and who ought to have had your help in their homes, we are glad to welcome you to-night; for the sake of all the loved ones whom you leit at home we are glad so welcome you.
But the conflict was not all at the front, but in the homes back here at the north, when our mothers and wives waited with anxious hearts, with sickness and death creep. ing in, there were fought and won as great battles as by you in the forefront of battle. and on behalf of the mothers and wives who bore the st aggles at home we are pleased to welcome you in our midst tonight And then on behalf of those who never returned. I do not know what your experience has been in war, but mine has been of a sad char- acter. We know what it is to have the shadows fall over the home, never to be lifted; we know what it is to have the chair unoccupied, and to have the boys that died on the Southern fields and died in the prison pens, and those who went with these germs of disease in their bodies until they died, brought home and laid away to sleep their last sleep.
On behalf of the strong men who were pure and true, and did their duty, with their strong arms upholding the staff that bore the banner, on behalf of the brave heroes that died in the prison pens of the South, we are glad to welcome you, the survivors, to our homes and hearts tonight. And for those whose minds are dethroned, those closed away from the brightness of life behind the bars of institutions, in their behalf we are glad to welcome you into our midst tonight. On behalf of the Post at Hagerstown, these men who have been upholding, day by day, the principles of right, and are just as loyal in their private life as they were when they followed your beloved general in the forefront of battle, we welcome you into our midst; and on behalf of the Woman's Relief Corps, that noble organization that is doing for those who are wounded and left without defense, and for those who are helpless and dying what the country is really unable to do, on behalf of these women, who are here tonight, we welcome you to our homes and this community.
These people have been glad to welcome you; we esteem it not a burden, but a priv- ilege, to have the soldiers in our homes and in our town. We feel that to give you something to eat, and to give you a comfortable bed to rest upon-for these men who slept upon the ground when the rains beat over them and the blankets froze to the earth -- we esteem it a privilege to do something in this way to show you that we are grateful for the past. We are glad to see the smiles of recognition upon your faces and to have you upon our streets and in our homes. But these reunions will soon be over
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and past; the Grand Army of the Republic will some time have passed away from the earth, because, thank God, there is no more war, and there will be no mnen to take your place. The day is soon coming, therefore, when as you meet day by day you will be without your beloved general, you will be without these older men, who are falling one by one; and when this reunion is past, and others of like character are past, we trust that there will be a grand reunion in Heaven; and that when the Nations shall know war no more forever, that then these boys shall be reunited there to share its joys.
The remarks of Mr. Neal were received with great applause.
On behalf of the veterans Gen. William Grose responded to the address of welcome as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It would have been more pleasant to me to have listened to some one of the friends extend the thanks of the comrades than to have done so myself. I respond to the speech of your representative, and assure you that we feel kindly and grateful, not only for your actions toward us, meeting us and caring for us so comfortably, but because you come to us with good feelings and sympathy with us; because you have a patriotic feeling in Hagerstown and vicinity for the soldier who bared his arm and went to the front and offered np his life on many a hard fought field; because you are in sympathy with the men who saved this government of ours and prevented it from being blotted from the nations of the earth.
I came from within eight miles of you when I was a boy, from Fayette county, and I have known something of you in your rise and progress from dense forests up to these bountiful fields that you now live upon. It did me good when I passed over the beau- tiful district betwen New Castle and Hagerstown today to look back and see, as in a dream, what it was when I was a boy, hunting over them after wild animals. I have kept my eye on you; I recollect Mark Reeves, and others who lived here away back. Why, I am ashamed to tell you how long ago it was for fear you will think I am an old man.
I am glad to meet with you today; but while I thank you for your kindly greeting, I thank you ten-fold more for the dignity with which you stood for this great govern- ment of ours. If in these days gone by the whole United States had done as you did, as Wayne county did, as Henry county did, we would not have had so inany dead to bury; it would have passed by us and we would have been saved. Our good brother who welcomed us here said that the war was over, and that we would have no more. I join with him in that prayer; but war in this world has appeared to me to be the nor- mal condition. Rome, that great empire, princess of the world in her time, was only forty years without war. And nobody stands today ahead of this nation on that sub- ject. When the time arrived for this war we had no rules laid down to compromise national dispntes with other nations. The great Captain of the age, the great soldier that led us through the war, was the first man that ever proposed plans of peace to the Nation of the United States. He proposed it, and we have advanced upon that line, and we have made treaties with England, France, Germany and many other nations that, before they go to war, have got to submit their differences to the plans of arbitra- tion, according to the treaties. That kind of a condition of affairs was brought about by the great Captain of the age, General Ulysses S. Grant. It sprung from him, and it was taken up by the Senate of the United States and pressed forward until it was adopted, as I told you, and as I hope it will remain. And while I hope that the result of all these things may be perpetual peace, yet I am a little doubtful about it, and for fear that we are over-estimating these peace principles I think we had better not throw away the hatchet; we had better remain so that we will be prepared to defend our gov- ernment, and e-pecially if there is to be an internal commotion.
One State should arbitrate with another, and then we should have what General . Grant meant when he said, "Let us have peace." That is what he had in mind when he made use of that expression down in old Virginia.
It is your duty and mine first to serve our government. Some would have it first to serve ourselves, and some to serve this relation and that relation-"we four and no more." That is not the theory of this government. That is not the idea that the sol- dier acted upon, nor the idea that Abraham Lincoln acted upon when the war broke out.
The 36th Indiana was minstered in on the 21st day of September, 1864, and they returned home, those that lived, none the worse men because of what they had learned
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in the battle line. They had learned to be enlarged and how to do right. I saw on the field of Shiloh one brother caring for another brother, the one who had been in the one army and the other who had been in the other army. The next day the one that was living buried the one whose battles were over. Nothing on earth would have brought this about but misguided teaching.
We started out 1,042 strong; today we are counting to see whether we have three hundred surviving the ravages of war and time. Some say we came home with fifty per cent; some say more, some say less; but perhaps about forty-five per cent of that great number fell in the battles and casualities of war before they had a chance to return home. What a terrible sacrifice was that, not only of men but of capital as well.
As some of you know, at your last reunion you assigned to me the duty of writing a history of this Regiment. I have that now under way, and I propose to read to you the first chapter of that book. [Here the General read the first chapter of his admira- ble history of the Regiment, which was enthusiastically received. Continuing, the General said, referring to the closing words of the chapter read]: I hope that predic- tion will be fulfilled, and that England and Europe can proclaim in the next century that they are ashamed that they ever had kings. I again return to you for kindness toward us the grateful thanks of the 36th Indiana, of every soldier and of our families who are here. And now I will not detain you any longer.
After the generous applause with which the remarks of General Grose were received had subsided, the choir sang "The Battle Cry of Freedom," after which the chairman said:
"We have with us a faithful, true and brave comrade in the battle line. He has been in sympathy with us from that time to the present, and he still stands for the principles we fought for. Captain McClung will now address you upon 'Our Unreturn- ing Brave.'"
Captain J. H. McClung said:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
There is joy, warmth and vigor in this greeting of comrades who meet in these reunions, but deep in the heart there is a voice without words and full of tears. It is the thought of comrades gone, 'the unreturning brave. We look' around for faces that are not; we look into an arena of thrilling memories; even in the tumult of reunion we dream we see, as in a vision, the mighty struggle re-enacted. It is as yesterday that, thirty years ago, across the green meadows, over the hills and waving fields, or down through the scented, murmuring pines, wafted by the fresh air, there came the sound of the soul-stirring drum-beat. We hear once more the tramp of the marching hosts; the wild bugle notes flying across hill and valley are once more re-echoing in our ears. Where are the fair-haired, stalwart boys who enlisted with us? Most of them are gone, especially many dear comrades, the boon companions with whom we touched shoulders, marched, bivouacked, foraged, charged, with whom we served through many a cam- paign, with all its vicissitudes and adventures. That far-away look of the gray-bearded, bronzed and weather-beaten veteran is the searching gaze of memory into that eloquent past, thronging with incidents and figures of a glorious era. But there is a pathetic vacancy, there is a regret unutterable, a tug at the heart strings of which we do not speak, a sacred memory which brings a feeling too deep for words. This feeling is the minor chord, the undortone of the swelling chorus of reunion. The unreturning brave. some of them sleep beneath the magnolia's bloom, under odorous pines, or in dark ma- larial swamps; some are pillowed on the breast of the mountain, or in some sunny sonthern vale. Some returned, with glad hearts, to honor and to loved homes; but the strain of the struggle was too much, and as the years went by they surrendered to the inevitable. We know them no more. We do not greet them at our reunions. No more the clarion fife, the roll of the drum, the resonant bugle or the wild battle cry shall startle the silence of their repose. After the toilsome march and shock of battle they repose in their last bivouac beneath the solenin stars; they have faded out of mor- tal view, but in the deepest and most secret recesses of our hearts will we keep green their memories. These unreturning braves! There is no spot on this broad continent so torn by the fiery breath of battle but nature has touched it with new life Over the battle fields the green grass waves, the wild flowers bloom, and singing birds with bright plumage till the air with sweetest mely ly above the earthly homes of our unreturning braves.
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After the Captain's speech Miss May Cheesman recited "When the Camp Fire was a Blazin' and the Coffee Pot had Biled" in a very pleasing and effective manner, after which the choir sang "Glory Hallelujah," being joined in the chorus by the audience, of course.
Captain Zene C. Bohrer was then called for and said:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Language fails to express the happiness I feel tonight in meeting my old friends here. Yesterday morning I did not expect that I could get here, but just before train time I gathered my coat, told the boys I was off, caught the train, and I am delighted to be with you. I am too full for utterance, but Iwould like to take each one of you in this way, [embracing], as I have some of you in my younger days.
The Hagerstown Band rendered an appropriate piece of music.
Comrade Jesse Smith was called, and responded as follows:
"I am not a public speaker, as you will learn in a very few minutes. I have not the words to express the infinite pleasure I feel tonight in looking in the faces of those whom I have not seen since we were mustered out. I look around and I see my old friends gray like myself. They have changed. A quarter of a century has made a dif- ference in our appearance, but our hearts are just as they were then. I feel tonight that if the same attack was made on 'Old Glory' many of us who are gray-haired would rally just as readily as we did then, and that the ladies would bring out the old flags, as they did then. As I rode across our dear old Hoosier State today it brought to my mind, while looking at the beautiful valleys and hills and homesteads, the days when we were marching to the South, when the safety of our government was threatened- more than threatened; when we were stricken in the face by rebels who once had the honor of being American citizens. We, as young men, without realizing what we were attempting to do, rallied under the flag, with the blessings of our wives and children and sweethearts, and went to the front, hoping that we might do something to save our country. Some of us realize what it cost; we know that our wives, when they think of those days, realize what it cost. I feel myself that as a soldier I am entitled to very lit- tle credit for what I did, compared with what my wife endured when I went away. She took care of the two little boys that I left with her, and fought greater battles than I did. And today I give more credit to the ladies of our Nation, and think they are entitled to more credit, than the boys who wore the blue and went to the front.
"As I think of those days, comrades, there is a feeling of sadness as I look for the faces that are missing. I remember where they are. There is a sadness today that words cannot express as I think of them; and I only entertain one hope, and that is that they are up yonder under our Great Commander, and that we will again touch hands with them, and that then we will appreciate what we do not now understand: why we were called upon to make this sacrifice. I am very thankful and very much pleased to be able to meet you. This is the first reunion of the old regiment at which I have been able to be with you. I thought when I started that I would not be able to meet with you, for I missed my train. Some one asked me how many I expected to meet, and I said 'I do not know; if there were only three or four I would go across the continent to meet them.' That is my feeling, and I expect to attend every reunion of the regiment in the future. Your program I know nothing about, only I understand that you had something out at the fair grounds. I hope you had plenty to eat, and that you had apple pie and checse. I only wish that I could take every one of you in my arms tonight." [Applause ].
The "Old Camp Kettle" was rendered by the choir.
Dr. Jackson Walker was called for, and responded as follows:
"I am not used to addressing public audiences, and I shall be rather more em- barassed here than any place clse, because this is my old home. This is a double reunion for me; it is a reunion with my old regiment and with my old friends. I am cer- tainly very glad that there are so many of you here, and it gives me great pleasure to see you. I did not expect to see as much interest taken in this reunion as you have been taking in it; and while I am here I want to say that I hope that every comrade will prepare himself to take still further interest in it, because we have not got many
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reunions ahead of us, because we are all getting gray-haired and getting old. Our old commander will not acknowledge it, and I will admit that he is getting younger each day; but my head is getting gray, so I will not deny it. And as there are not many reunions ahead of ns I hope you will not fail to take an interest in those that yet remain to us."
After Comrade Walker had concluded his remarks Miss Eva Cain recited "Tom, the Drummer Boy," winning much applause by her happy manner and effective rendition of this popular poem.
When Dr. Bosworth responded to lond calls for a speech many of the boys were seen to screw up their faces and frown all over, doubtless because of recollections he brought up of quinine and ipecac, and ipecae and quinine. Dr. Bosworth said:
"I did not come here to make a speech; I came to see the boys, and I have seen then. I have seen some that I never expected to see again. Here is Captain Me- Clung; I have not seen him for twenty-four years. Here is Captain Smith; I have not seen him for a quarter of a century; and others that were young like I was; but now our hair is white. Now when I look at these boys I know most of them by their faces, and I know what they have done. While I did not fight myself I stood back with Dr. Kersey in the Atlanta campaign and took off their limbs and dished out quinine and blne mass. Those pills were good for everything, and I brought some of them with me. I did not think of showing them here, but I have given some of them to the boys just for fun. I am so glad to see General Grose here tonight, looking so young; he looks but little older than he did twenty-five years ago. I have seen him on his horse dey after day in the Atlanta and other campaigns, and I expected to see him age before the rest of us, but he is not old. His intellect I see is just as bright as it ever was, and so of the boys I see here. I think the 36th was a pretty smart Regiment, and I would like to pay my share of the expense for a picture of the Regiment. I do not know whether I shall ever see all these boys again, but I hope I shall. Like Captain Smith I intend to attend every reunion of the Regiment, and while I don't want to be the last one I would like to be about next to the last one; and, as the speaker who welcomed us here said, I want to meet you all in that land where there is no more war, where there shall be no more sorrow, and no more sickness, where we shall live with Christ through a never ending eternity."
Dr. Bosworth elosed with a fine eulogy upon the ladies of the local Relief Corps and a plea for the next reunion to be held at Farmland.
Captain C. M. Moore responded to loud calls for a speech in his usually happy manner. If there was any place in the world where he felt real good other than at an old-fashioned class-meeting it was at a reunion of the 36th Regiment. It had been thirty years since he had first come down through Hagerstown as a soldier, to join the Regiment. He did not know whether any of the boys in the old Regiment ever stole any chickens or not, but was sure if they did they learned how to do it in old Camp Wayne. He knew that the 57th had stolen chickens, for he had heard them acknowl- edge it. The 36th boys had never acknowledged that they stole chickens, but if they did steal them, Wayne county fowls were responsible for it ._ Then he proceeded to give the whole Regiment away by relating how, on different occasions, the boys had played shady tricks on the southern fowls and smoke-houses. When he had finished, no one in the audience would have hesitated a moment to risk himself in a strange country under the guidance of one of the boys, for it was very evident that there was not one of them but would be sure to get plenty of good things to eat in any community, hostile or friendly.
Loud calls for Captain D. W. Chambers brought that well-known veteran to his feet in the back part of the room. He said, in part:
"I do not think I am in a speech-making way tonight. I was very glad that we voted to come here when we were at Knightstown last year, for I knew we would be well entertained here. I have always thought that this valley was the finest country
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on earth. I always think of the Blue Grass region of Kentucky when I see this valley; but I believe now that this beats all of it, judging from the supper I had tonight. Now, General Sherman is said to have defined war in a very laconic way. He said 'War is hell,' and I do not know that he missed it very much. Whilst I have never enter- tained General Sherman's idea of war entirely, I always believed that the best way to do was, whenever you found the enemy wanted you to do something, don't do it, and when he don't want you to do something, do it. I never did a great deal of stealing in the army. One thing I think was a pretty good thing to steal were the darkies; and I had some reputation in that line. After we had been at Nashville a few days I was officer of the guard and word came to me that there was a little colored fellow who wanted in at the guard line, and so I went down. I said to him at first, 'No,' for at that time the policy of the government and the war department was to return the slaves to their owners. But finally I let him in, and kept him concealed for a great many days, and finally got him through. And when I got him down to Shiloh I did not have much trouble to keep him. John Manlove liked fine dogs; he didn't have any love for the colored man, though. A short time before we were discharged he had captured a fine dog, and was intending to bring it home. I told him I did not think he had any right to steal that dog and bring it home, and he said, 'Captain, I think I have the same right to steal dogs that you have to steal niggers,' and he brought the dog home.',
Comrade George Worl responded to calls for a speech with appropriate remarks. It was very unexpected to him to be called upon to speak, but he was glad to meet all the old boys again. When he looked around and saw the gray-haired men who had enlisted with him he felt like taking them in his arms. If there was anything that occupied his affections it was his comrades. He paid a glowing tribute to the valor and great fighting qualities of General Grose, whom he was near at the battle of Kenne- saw Mountain. Generals Grose and Stanley were standing side by side when a sharp shooter fired at them. The General who wore two stars dodged, but General Grose stood unmoved.
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