USA > Indiana > Annual reunion of the 36th Indiana volunteers: 4th-5th, 1887-1888, 7th-14th, 1890-1897 > Part 9
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To do this is the more agreeable because in all this broad land of ours, I know of .no place that has a deeper sympathy or manifested more interest in the cause for which you suffered and in which you achieved your success, and which manifested this by larger numbers and larger and more generous offers of brawn and brain and blood. True, we did not furnish as many soldiers as some other counties, but none furnished better; we did not furnish as much money, but no other community in this great common-wealth furnished as much in proportion to population as did the coun- ty in which you are now assembled.
We did not furnish a Grant, but we did have the honor to furnish a Burnside. We did not furnish a Custer, but we did contribute to the cause for which you la- bored and suffered, a Bennett, who as a field officer in two regiments bound together the 36th and 69th regiments in a perpetual brotherhood.
Nor do I boast as I come before you tonight, or am I forgetting that another is to address you. I am glad I can claim comrades with the distinguished commander before us tonight, and with the boys who are our guests.
I might address you as fellow citizens, I might address you in other terms, but there is nothing that comes so near a soldier's heart as "comrade;" which tells of a common cause, common aspirations, common sufferings, common perils; which tells of all these things that linked us together as men in thos e terrible four years of strife, in which we gave the best period of our manhood to the achievement and the perpetua- tion of the liberty of this great country.
I am reminded of more than that. I am reminded that side by side men of Ohio and Indiana climbed the hills of Vicksburg. Side by side they scaled Lookout Mountain. Side by side the men from Maine, Louisiana, Wisconsin, from the great north and northwest and from the extreme south, marched in defense of the flag we all love, and gave their services for this liberty we love, and for this reason we claim comradeship to be above citizenship.
"There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers, And true lover's knots, I ween. The boy and the girl are bound by a kiss, But there's never a bond, old friend, like this- We have drunk from the same canteen.
It was sometimes water and sometimes milk, And sometimes applejack, fine as silk. But whatever the tipple has been, We shared it together in bane or bliss, And I warm to you brother when I think of this- We have drunk from the same canteen.
The rich and the great sit down to dine,
And they quaff to each other in sparkling wine
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From glasses of crystal and green. But I guess in their golden potations they miss The warmth of regard to be found in this- We have drunk from the same canteen.
We have shared our blankets and tents together, And have marched and fought in all kinds of weather, And hungry and full we have been:
Had days of battle and days of rest: . But this memory I cling to and love the best --- We have drunk from the same canteen.
Another thing for which you as members of the 36th regiment should be grate- Inl, is this: That we lived in a great era, One that was pregnant with important results-one which was filled with human achievements. One that produced inven- tions, and men who developed the material resources of the country in such a way as no other era of our history has ever done.
I speak to men tonight, young men and old men; yet there are a few of you younger than I in the service, and as I look back, I can almost count the great inven- tions and events of this century. I am just as old as the electric telegraph. I can remember of the coming into use of the sewing machine, of the thresher, of the binder, of the telephone. But one railway at that time connected the east with Cin- cinnati-the Baltimore & Ohio. But what a great net-work there has been threaded all over this country-north and south and east and west, passing over our rivers, tunneling our mountains, passing over our hills, massing the great population of the country in important centers, speaking to us in telling chains of the great progress taking place in this century.
It was yours to live to take part in one of the greatest revolutions of time. Ivan the Terrible, Caesar, Napoleon, these men were the leaders of greater armies, but what principles of human liberty were there ever under-lying these campaigns, These were great human butchers of the time; they led men to the field of battle, they drenched the plains with human blood. Not for principle, but for their own advantage; but it was for you to take part in and demonstrate a cause of right, because of the fact that you believed in human liberty, in the achievement of human right, and that there was a principle lying behind every step that yon took, of every bullet that you felt, of every charge that you made; and for this fact, this era in which you live, is above all other eras of the world.
More than that; you are associates with some of the grandest men this country has ever produced. Longfellow, Holmes, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison -men who touched the conscience and the hearts all over this country-men upon whom conviction stole. It is something to live in a time when conviction seizes upon the minds of men; when it impels them forward in the right principle, because they felt impelled, compelled and propelled upon certain lines of force.
More than that; take the statesmen of the time: Sumner, Lincoln-the great military leaders of the time; Grant, Sherman, McPherson, Sheridan. These men moved out because of the conviction which had taken hold upon them of the princi- ple they were to accomplish.
Why is this assembly here tonight? Why have we welcomed you to our homes and our hospitality? Because we believed in your cause. Not only in your cause, but in you who went forth to achieve the cause for which yon suffered; because of the fact that there is nothing we esteem so highly as the flag under which you marched. Other men have been welcomed because of the position which they held. Years ago it was given this great land the honor to welcome the Prince of Wales, not because of anything he had done, but simply because he was heir to the throne of Great Britain. Before that we had welcomed to our shores Lafayette. Why? Because in dire extremity he had fought and given his services to the achievement of the lib- erty of the Nation. Later, we welcomed the Hungarian Prince, Kossuth. Not be- cause he had done anything for us, but because he was a friend to humanity; because he was willing to dare and suffer and die if need be, that he might achieve the liberty of his people. But the welcome to you is given for the most renowned service, and for that you are endeared to our hearts more than all others.
There came a time when the war cloud gathered, then discontent, armed troops,
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contention, and then it was that this Nation called for men to perpetuate its liberty and defend it. It was then that you stepped out to fight, to achieve, which you did. This is the reason that you see the out-pouring of our citizens tonight. Because of this fact, I say to you, that we give you welcome, twice welcome, to our town, to our homes, to our hospitality.
General W'm. Grose responded as follows:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is very agreeable to me to see such a response by the people of Union county to a little humble reunion, as I may call it, of a small portion of the Union soldiers of this country.
When I look back to my first recollection of this country, over half century ago, old memories come with some seriousness to me. My first recollection is when we crossed the east fork of White Water, sitting in my mother's lap, my father driving the two horse team through the river, to make our home in Fayette county as it now is. We stayed there until in my seventeenth year, then the family moved to the broad acres of Henry county, and have been there since as my home, until I came down here today.
I am glad to meet your hospitality; every Thirty-sixth man feels the same, and as I made the remark today, you prepared for us bountifully, plentifully, enough to do this and next year if we should come again. It may be one time or one year will be enough. This expression you have made has more than a significance to be kind to neighbor, kind to a few soldiers. It has broader fields, it extends wider than that. It extends to the friendship, not only of these worthy soldiers, but it extends to the friendship and the determination as expressed that you will stand by this government hereafter as they have in the past.
You have 100 of the Thirty-sixth with you today, and I am agreeably surprised even in that. We are at the outskirts, as it were, of territory that gave us the regi- ment, that gave us 1,114 men to go to the field; we are at the eastern extremity of the territory that came forward with their men and their money and good graces. I am glad to meet so many of the Thirty-sixth Regiment here today, that went with us to the army and stood by us, shoulder to shoulder, and marched to the music under the waving flag; that placed their lives upon the altar and have sworn to be a reserve of our country to help in time of need, if help should be needed.
I am glad to see these mothers and these daughters and this Relief Corps. I am glad that you have good strength here. These mothers, many of them, as well I know, stood by us to bid us good speed, and pray for us while on the battle field. Our fathers, and some of our brothers, were in the fields raising the grain, the wheat and the corn, to feed and sustain the army. They were doing their duty as well as we. Not so perilous, I fancy, but they were determined and done their duty well; and with- out them we never could have succeeded, you will all admit.
The Thirty-sixthIndiana organized at Camp Wayne at Richmond. We started in '61 toward Kentucky, by way of Indianapolis. We went down there and found Gen. Sherman in command of the post at Louisville. The Colonel of the Thirty- sixth In- diana went and reported to him that the regiment was on the other side of the river. He said remain in camp for a few days, and Gen. Buell would send up and give or- ders. The truth was that Sherman had made the remark that it would take an army of 200,000 men to march through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, or Alabama and Georgia, and on to the coast, and they declared the General was insane, and some of the authorities made Secretary Stanton believe it was so, and he relieved him on that account and put Buell in. In a few days orders come to go into the interior of Ken- tucky at New Haven, from thence, afterwards into Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, over, up and down the rivers and creeks. I recollect we were ordered over Lookout Mountain to the west and the enemy's cavalry was in the valley, but when they saw us they got out of the way as a matter of good propriety. We went down to a great big farm; there were about five or six acres of sweet potatoes. The boys filed along the line and laid down to rest awhile. The old Southern brother came out and inquired who was commanding officer, and found me; says he, "You have got a good many men here." "Yes,' I said. "I reckon they won't disturb any of my property?" I said, "O, hardly; they are pretty good fellows; I have been living with them a good while." I think that in less than twenty minutes the five or six
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acres were dug up and stuck around in their shirts and everywhere. That Thirty-sixth Indiana was there as steady as any of them. Don't know whether any of them are here tonight or not, but I reckon hardly. Well, that was one of the ways. I recol- lect another little incident. We had had orders from Stanton that we should return all colored people when they came into our lines; that they were slaves and they must still continue slaves. Some of us didn't feel very much like it, and when we got over into Tennessee out of Kentucky, a good many of the officers were determined they would not obey that order, and the boys had got to hear it. So when we passed the line of the States-they knew where the line was. And I recollect that the remark was made to the toll gate keeper that we would pay as we come back. He said, "I will never get any pay then," thinking we would be slaughtered and would not get back. But as we were passing the line a general shout was raised along the line; shouting because we were getting away from the order of Stanton's that was sent to us in Kentucky that we must not take sweet potatoes, etc. But I say to you tonight, in all love and respect to the human race, if, when we went to Louisville, we had set that city on fire and burned it to ashes, we would have saved millions of dollars to the government and thousands of human lives. It was a rebel city. But we ought to forgive, and I do forgive. These are some of the incidents the Thirty-sixth boys went through. There are many stories they tell that I don't know anything about. Sherman's prediction was literally true. It took 200,000 and more. Over 2,000,000 were called to the front in the mean time before this was accomplished, but they did forward march to the sea.
I recollect another incident. Any Ninth Indiana man here? He will know what it means. Corinth had fallen, and we had driven the enemy back. We stopped with an old Southern brother that lived there where we camped, who had a great many nice cattle, and he came to me for protection. He said he had a heap of nice prop- erty there, and I said it was just what we wanted; we found that we needed property quite frequently. Well, the old colored women had penned up there ten or fifteen head of very beautiful cattle, and he wanted to know if they would be safe, and I said from all appearances now they looked as though they would be. But by morning, cows, calves, everything all gone. He came over to see if I knew anything about it, and wanted me to give him a pass for the colored women to go and hunt the cattle up; so I told him they could go, and I got up in the morning. The Ninth Indiana lay off to the left of my quarters. I went around under the tents to see if things were all right there, and there was one of the prettiest hams of beef hanging up there and all fixed up in good order. I asked whether they got that for the Colonel, and they wouldn't say anything: but I think the boys had really taken them. Whether the Thirty-sixth took any part in it I don't know, but I think the Ninth had a hand in it.
The soldier's life is not like any other in the world. They are the most powerful element on earth. All the powers that ever existed crumble into dust when you com- pare them to the armies of the world. They make and unmake presidents, kings, monarchies, everything. They demolish and build up as they tramp, tramp, tramp over the earth when they are well trained and commanded. Just while I am speak- ing, the great forces of China and Japan are warring and blood is flowing freely by the great tramp of the soldier, and one or the other will finally triumph in that great country, the largest in the world, with 400,000,000 of people and more. Our army was a mere pigma comparatively, but never was there an army on the face of the earth stronger than that in the United States. There were more lives lost by the fall of soldiers, compared with the number engaged, than anywhere you or I ever heard of. But soldiers make and unmake.
Who are the soldiers of our day? When I commanded the Thirty-sixth Indiana, there were 1,000 young men, many of them minors, boys under age. I recollect a little chap that came into camp at Richmond and wanted to enlist. I asked him how old he was. "I am under eighteen," he said. . He had learned some how or other that it took eighteen for him to go. He said his father was dead. I told him to go and get his mother and come down again and see what she would say about it. So in four or five days she came. His mother said after he got back from the interview, "Why, John; you can't be a soldier. You can't lay on the ground and sleep out in the storms and rain." "Yes, mother," says he, "I can." So he took a bed spread and laid out in the garden and slept all night to prove to his mother he could, and got his mother to come to the camp and tell the story, and he had just passed his 15th year. He was
so anxious to go to the army, but his mother protested and I had to send him away. That shows the interest of the young men. Why from sixteen to twenty-one, and from sixteen to thirty, the army is made. One philosopher has said that in time of peace the children bury their fathers and mothers, but in time of war the fathers and mothers bury their children. Hence it is the young men that we depend upon for the soldiery; thein solely. Not only in the United States, but throughout the world, and has always been the rule. It is true old men drop in among them, but it is the young men that do the work and move forward. That is the way nature has ar- ranged it.
I recollect another incident. I forget whether before or after the Thirty sixth mustered out and come home. But we had gone out to Pea Vine valley. I had a pretty strong brigade and didn't fear much; had well drilled soldiers. The General commanding the army then sent Gen. Garfield, staff officer, to us, who said that we must be cautious, that the rebel armny had much larger force than I had. That was night. When day come we looked around to see how they looked across the valley. We counted about seventy men, a picket post. I called for an officer to see if I could find anybody to take 100 men and go around and fetch that post in. I had plenty of volunteers. They went around them and got on the other side, and without firing a gun they surrendered and brought in sixty-six of them. I want to tell you the un- equal warfare between these two parties. Sixty-five of the sixty-six South Carolina troops that Capt. Roberts brought in, had made their mark on the muster roll. The men that had captured them were from the high schools and colleges, intelligent, far seeing men. One was illiterate, while the other was wise. The wise brought the others in and they were sent back as prisoners of war. I give that to show how im- portant it is not only in war, but the same comparison might be made in every ave- nue of life, the intelligent man is the winner. Hence it is the young men that should be good, first-class men, intell gent men; then it is important that we be learned.
Well, Thirty-sixth Indiana, I don't want to brag on you too much, but I say I will vie with anybody with like number you can get together, and if I don't have as many intelligent, live, useful men you can find in any regiment, I will give you-the poorest hat I have anyway.
I don't say they were better than any other, but I say they were as good as any, brave as any, intelligent as any, and it was this intelligence that carried us through this terrible conflict. It is true we had the numbers and we had the strength and we had the wealth, because we had that intelligent class of people that makes wealth. The ignorant man don't make wealth. It may be occasionally one does, but rarely. But the intelligent man and the intelligent lady when they try, always make happi- ness and prosperity.
Now I have given yon a little history of these soldiers I have had the honor to command. I am indebted as much to them as they are to me. They went when I told them to. They were in peril where I was, and I was in peril where they were. Some of us have bullets in us, and some of the boys lie sleeping, who fell to save the government of our fathers, to save the government of Washington, of Hamilton, of Jay, and of the patriots that went before us through the Revolutionary war.
I thank you for your attention, and if you have any others that want to further respond to this beautiful reception you have given us here, I invite them to the stand, and let them be heard.
Then followed "Marching Through Georgia," by H. L. Powell: "Star Spangled Banner," by Mrs Henry Walton; a poem, "Comrade," by Mrs. Benj. S. Parker; and a bass solo, by F. F. Thornburg.
Comrade J. H. McClung spoke as follows:
Comrades of the 36th. Indiana, and Brethren:
This is indeed to me a double reunion. I stand in this place and in this pres- ence with a flood of memories rushing in upon me that take me back over the years, over the thirty-eight years of life since I came with my young wife into this beauti- ful, this God blessed town of Liberty.
It was here these friends, these old friends, and many of these comrades met me with a cordial and friendly grasp of the hand, that encouraged me in the start of my young life. It was here that my children were born. It was here that the aspira- tions that took me into the calling which I have made my life work, were given. It
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was here by the support, by the encouragement and by the kindly love of these older citizens, and many of the younger, that I was enabled to proceed and to accomplish in life whatever I may have accomplished. I say then that this flood of memories coming in upon me, makes it to me an emotional reunion. It is a reunion that I have anticipated with a great deal of pleasure, but it is also one in which I had made no preparation to speak, and in which the emotions are more apt to prevail than the calm expression of a cool judgment.
When I think of this past, of my history here, of this embarkation in my life work here with my young wife, of leaving here with the comrades to enter the army, and leaving behind this young wife and two little children; when I think over that all and stand in this presence tonight, I am overcome. I cannot express what I feel either to these citizens or to the old comrades, and I thank you very much for the kind entertainment that you have given us; but then I knew you would do that. I told them a year ago you would do it. I came into the meeting a year ago, the place had been selected for holding our next reunion, and some one said, "we have had no body to say anything about Liberty." I told them they could not be treated better in the United States or out of it, and I think you will all agree with me in that, for we have had a cordial welcome in Liberty.
Comrade C. M. Moore spoke as follows:
Comrades:
I am glad to look you in the face tonight. Something that sends the young blood tingling through my veins. I forget as I look into your faces that this hair is gray. I forget when I walk along the streets with you that I am a little more bent than I used to be. I forget the toils and the anxieties and the disappointments of the past thirty years. I am a boy again tonight. There is something when I look at you that tells me that these years have gone by; they have rolled back again and I am a boy seventeen years of age. I have on my head the glazed cap and I have in my hand an old wide awake lamp. I have a good stout set of lungs and I am shouting for Lincoln. I see comrades along on the other side of the street in my home at New Castle, and a fellow who wore a yellow jacket sort of business with white fringe around it and I hear him say again, "You fellows won't be making that kind of a racket long. What will you be doing when you are called down yonder." My an- swer as a boy of seventeen, was, "We will be wide awake and full of fleas."
I am again in the old black-smith shop tonight, a boy seventeen years of age. I hear a group of men talking in front of the shop and I go forward and say "What is the matter?" and I hear an old gray headed man say, "The South has been fired upon;" I hear him say "Major Anderson has surrendered; Ft. Sumpter has fallen." And I said, "Well, what does that mean?" "It means war." The next morning I heard the same old man reading the Cincinnati Gaz tte and Abe Lincoln had called for 75,000 men. And I said in my young boyhood heart, I will be one of them, and less than six hours after that thought went through my mind, my name was on the muster roll. I had no mother and no father to object. They had been sleeping for a few years ,beneath the sod and the grass was growing green over their graves. I had no brother and no sister to object to my going, but I had a best girl. I did indeed. I remember that was the first thing that came into my mind after I enlisted. Well I went down to tell Lib I was going to be a soldier, and she said "You don't say." "Yes, it is a fact. I have already enlisted, and I expect to go tomorrow." She said, "Be a brave boy and God bless you." I tried to be brave and I know the other part of the prayer was answered.
I forget dear friends tonight these hard struggles I have had, and I am back again when the news comes that the company is full and that the train is going from Richmond. I see that company again tonight, 500, 600, 700 men. I can see tonight as I saw it then, fathers and mothers, with tears in their eyes, kissing the boys good- bye. There was no mother there to bid me good bye, but there were as loyal and kind-hearted people as ever a poor boy had in this broad world, and well do I remen- ber man after man coming up and shaking me by the hand. I remember a tall fel- low, he was a poor fellow, he told me that day he wanted me to go; he could not go then, but there was a dollar and a God bless you to go with me. Some only gave twenty-five cents but the principle was there and a hearty God speed you.
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