USA > New York > Dutchess County > Address delivered Wednesday, 28th November, 1866 : in Feller's Hall, Madalin, township of Red Hook, Duchess Co., N.Y. > Part 7
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This is not a solitary case. 'The impunity accorded to the most disgraceful desertions almost put a pre- miun on Bounty Jumping and Desertion. Many a man who deserved a bullet or a halter came back with a. brevet. and many a man who deserved a brevet returned unnoticed. ROSECRANS-one of the greatest general-, in the real sense of the word, who outmanoeuvred LEE and drove him out of West Virginia, who was the only Union general who gained victories over the Rebels, fighting four to five, two to three. one to two, and again, one to nearly two, at Iuka, Corinth. Stone River and Chattanooga- not only did not receive any promotion, but none of his immediate Staff ever received promotion. Why ? Because he fell under the disfavor of the War De- partment. On the other hand. another general ( I will not mention his name because he was a good Christian man). who occasioned the loss of one of the most important and gigantic battles of the war; was not only promoted, but placed in command over the head of one of the best and bravest, who subse- . quent to his failure, achieved a success-a success which will remain in story as long as history continues
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to be written. The first was placed over the head of the very superior whose downfall had been oc- casioned by his fault or incapacity. '
Every American soldier who feels in his own bosom that he has discharged his duty with fidelity. and ful- filled his term of service bravely and conscientiously, can say with the British hero of the Spanish Peninsula, "These gewgaws (pointing to his stars, medals, clasps, and orders, represented in this country by brevets;, these gewgaws prove nothing, because every soldier knows that a man may have deserved without obtain- ing, and have obtained without deserving them." I do not mean to say that a brevet is without valne. It is valuable, and eminently valuable, but only when it has been deserved and when the act for which it has been conferred has been set c'early forth in the com- mission. What I mean to say is this, that every soldier that went forth without the incentive of those outrageous bounties which were held forth as induce- ments, in the latter years of the war especially-I refer particularly to those who volunteered in 1861 and 1862, or volunteered at any time without bounty, whether as an officer or as a private, and served out his whole teri or served until incapacitated by wounds or ill health, deserves as much consideration fro o his fellow-citizens as General GRANT or Lieutenant-Gen- eral SHERMAN. Yes, more personal consideration than either, and should such a patriot be broken down by wounds or in consequence of ill health, and be suffered to come to want through the ingratitude of the Gor- ernment or of his neighbors, it is a damning disgrace not only to the General Government but to the State and to the County and to the Town to which he belongs, and in which he resides. These last remarks, in re- gard to personal consideration, do not apply to those who received the enormo is bounties paid in 1864, or to those who sold themselves as substi utes in the previous year. They put their own estimate upon themselves, pocketed the money. and their accounts are balanced. Te the men particularly who went to the front in 1861 from motives of patriotism. or who volunteered in 1862 and in the begining of 1833, every honor and recompense is due which a country, pre- served and a people saved, can show and pay to the men ;- to the boys, to the youths, to the young men, and to the old men who counted their lives as nothing so that the Constitution which their forefathers had signed and supported could be maintained ; so that the Union could be re-established; so that the curse of Slavery could be abolished ; and so that this great Re- public could continue to exist as the greatest temple of freedom in the universe, as the asylum of the down- trodden of other lands, and the refuge of the oppressed throughout the world.
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There is another class, however, who present them- selves .in direct contras. with these patriotic and glorious defenders of our country-a class which stands even below those who denied to that country and those institutions the support of their votes and their influence, when both seemed in their death throes. I mean "Bounty Jumpers, and Desert- ers "-deserters in the true sense of the w. rd. These last deserve nothing but the execration and contempt of every honest man. A minority received their dues on the gallows and at the place of execution by the rope and by the bullet. Of the majority some are in Canada, and some present their faces of brass in the presence of brave soldiers whom they deserted and sought to disgrace. A bounty jumper should be placed under the ban and interdicted from bread and water for evermore. Every deserter should be placed on trial by his fellow-citizens, and former fellow- soldiers, and if he cannot produce such proof in justifi- cation. as only one in a thousand can show, such as hav- ing been entrapped when drugged, or having been the victim of the grossest injustice by those who enlisted him, he should be placed under the ban by every honest man as long as he lives.
This monument is but a small memorial of Red Hook's parti ipation in the great struggle. Many a head- stone in our quie: country Church-yards will record thre name of another victim to the vast conflict ; - one who came forth unmu ilated and without a scar, who, like a gallant ship had ridden out the tempest with- out any perceptible injury, but. nevertheless, strained in every timber, subsequently founders in a calm sea and under a cloudless sky. . To such, as well as to those who actually perished in the discharge of their duty, and to those who came home to die from the effects of arduons . ervice. a monument is equally due. If their fellow-citizens, however, were to attempt to place over their sacred remains an honorary token, not one " God's Acre." in our land but would present one or more such memorials of patriotism It is due to them that they should receive it. But, alas ! constituted as men are, how seldom do we pay the debt of grati- tnde to those who saved us from the most innninent personal peril, much less and far more to. those who saved what should be dearer to all, our national in- stitutions and our Fatherland. There are others again among us living memorials of the great Rebellion, mu- tilated. crippled, and scarred. Will they receive the reward due to their sufferings ? Will the living but mir'ilated heroes of the vas est conflict which has ever been waged on earth's face, receive the recompense commensurate to the perils. they have gone through, and the sufferings they have experienced ? In too
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many cases their o ily reward will be the approval of their own consciences, and the satisfaction consequent . upon services manfully di-charged, and privations cheerfully und rgone in the noblest of causes This to aching, friendless, and limbless old age is a reward as cold and unsatisfactory as the ordinary charity of the world, in the majority of cases, at once destitute of the hands to give and the legs to carry it to those who need it. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. is a com- mon proverb, but too trne, and republics are proverb- ially ungrateful. Such being the case, it is a duty incumbent upon every man who did not go to the front, not only upon those who live in large houses at their ease, and are considered in duty bound to di-pense freely to every one, but upon the . farmers and the mechanics who prospered by the. war; upon every one, in every class of life and in every calling, who were saved from the visitations of war by the valor and labors of those who went forth from their midst to meet the enemy at the threshold of the North ; to see that those who did the fighting, and underwent. the suffering in their youth or in . heir prime, shall not renew the struggle with want, and repeat the suffering with disease in their native dis- tricts, a .d in the midst of those who were saved from the dangers and vicissitudes which they voluntarily or compulsorily encountered and triumphed over, on the blood-flown battle-field, the gory deck, the tem- pestuous ocean, the laborious march the exposed camp ground, the infectious hospital, and the dreary bed of sickness and of agony.
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This marble testimonial of this neighborhood's grate- ful remembrance of its patriotic dead, is but a feeble token of the respect which is dne ro them. It is as small in comparison as the actual evidence at Albany and New York, in regard to the real participation of Red Hook in the great " American Conflict." which was a Natio 's struggle for existence.
Upon its western side it bears an inscription which is worthy the calm, reflective examination of every American citizen : of every man who loves his country and its free institutions.
THIS IMMIDIATE NEIGHBORHOOD to her DEFENDERS, WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN SUPPRESSING THR SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION and sustaining the GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE. FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE.
The southern and eastern sides bear the names of our
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fellow citizens who were killed in battle or died of wounds received upon the battle-field.
At Upton Hill. March 17. 1862. JOHN DECKER, 20th N. Y. S. M.
Manaxxnx. August 30. 1862. Lieutenant WARREN W. CHAMBERLAIN. 14th C. S. I. ALFRED I ASHER, GEORGE KELLY. LEWIS REDDER, C. GRENTLER. Junr., 20th N. Y. S. M.
Chantilly. September 1. 1862. Major-General PHILIP KEARNY, U S. V.
Antietam. September 17. 1862. REFUS WARRINGER, 20th N. Y. S. M.
Chantilly. June. 1863. JOHN SHLETERER. 150th N. Y. V.
Kelly's Ford. September 17. 1863, Captain AUGUSTUS BARKER 5th N. Y. C.
Dallas. May 24. 1864. Corporal I. F. SMITH. 150th N. Y. V.
Cold Harbor. June. 1864. HENRY KLINE.
Atlanta. September 12, 1864, J. E. PULTZ, 150th N. Y V.
Winchester. September 19, 1864. PETER WYER, 128th N. Y. V. .
Cedar Creek. October 19. 1864, ANDREW DECKER, 6th N. Y. V. Car.
Fire Forks, March 31. 1865. ANDREW FRALEIGH, 91st N. Y. V.
The north side bears the names of those who died of disease while in the Army, or after their return home, immediately in consequence of maladies incur- red in the service. .
JOHN CORRIGAN. May 22. 1861.
JOHN D. MARTIN. 7th N. J. V .. on Lower Potomac, January (June 21 3. 1882.
HIRAM RISEDORF, 20th N. Y. S. M., at Upton Hill March 4. 1862.
EUGENE LIVINGSTON, 95th N. Y. V. December 31. 1862.
H. N. FISHER Assistant Surgeon, March 12, 1863 ..
HI. C. MULLER. May 14. 1863.
W. P. BUSH, Assistant Surgeon. October 3, 1863.
WM. GASTON. Tih N. J. V. June. 1864.
CHRISTIAN GRUNTLER. Senr .. 20th N. Y. S. M .. July 4. 1864. -
JOHN SHOWERMAN. 128th N. Y. V., in New Orleans, 1864.
STEPHEN H. PAULMIER. 91st N. Y. V., in Washington, May 21, 1865.
EZRA J. STICKLE. 150th N. Y. V., in Raleigh, N. C., May. 1865. .
JOHN VAN ETTEN: 128th N. Y. V., at Savannah, July 8. 1865.
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" Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, Dear as the blood ye gave ! No impious footsteps here shall tread The herbage of your gra' e ; Nor shall your glory be forgot While Fame her record keeps, Or bonor points the hallowed spot Where valor proudly sleeps.
Yon faithful herald's blazoned stone, With mournful pride shall tell, When many a vanished age hath flown, The story how ye fell. Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's flight Nor time's remor seless doom,
Shall mar one ray of glory's light That gilds your deathless tomb."
The patriots to whom this monument is erected, died for their country. They were patriots in the truest, fullest, and clearest sense of the word. This marble should be held sacred and the ground be deemed holy. The one should be maintained with care and the other be held inviolate, for both are confided to the safe- guard of the gratitude of those who survive, towards the dead, and the respectful solicitude of coming geul- erations.
'Twas theirs to shield the dearest ties That bind to life the heart, That mingle with the earliest breath, Ard with our last depart !
They were the guardians of a Nation's destiny, we and ours are the guardians of their dust, their memo- ries, and the honors dne to them. Their bones. it is true, do not repose beneath this obelisk.
Their bones are on the Northern hill And on the Southern plain, By brook, by river. lake and rill, . And by the roaring main.
The land is holy wher- they fought, And holy where they tell ; For by their blood that land was bought, The land they loved so well. Then glory to that valiant band, The honored saviour. of the lind !
Of the sixteen killed and thirteen who died of various maladies, to whom this memorial is erected in per- petnal remembrance, tiro perished in the discharge of the noblest duties of humanity, in the alleviation of suffering and disease, The first to succumb to the very evils he went forth to asstage was Dr. WILLIAM . P. Brsn, Assistant Surgeon 61st N. Y. V. ; the second was Dr. HENRY N. FISHER, Assistant Surgeon, assigned for general service in the hospitals. Both died in con- sequence of their close attendance upon the victims of those maladies which are inseparable from war and follow in the train of armies, maladies more fatal than the steel and bullet. Thousands are slain by the arrows of pestilence, where hundreds fall by the sword. Dr.
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Busu died far away from home and sympathetic friends. Dr. FISHER was more happy in that gentle hands and loving looks soothed his last hours.
It is commonly supposed that a surgeon's position in the Army is one of comparative safety. This is a very great error. When the soldier is most secure the sur- geon is most exposed. The bold surgeon, and there are very few surgeons who are not bold, almost always occupies a dangerous position. He is in danger in the field. and often discharges his duty under fire, with a coolness of which the majority of the best soldiers are not capable. The surgeon must be cool, otherwise be cannot perform his operations or discharge his func- tions. And then when the temporary toils, consequent upon battles are over, he must live and breathe, as it were. in the miasina of the hospital.
It is true that the laurel of the soldier and of mili- tary glory is wanting ou their brows and to their tombs, but the halo which attends the conscientious discharge of the highest duty of a Christian, throws a light no less glorious upon their names and around their memories.
He who was our great exemplar exhibited his high- est attributes of power and mercy in healing the sick and restoring the maimed. All those who perish in a like ennobling service are entitled to as much con- sileration as the soldier or officer who falls at his post in the discharge of a different, but not more dangerous duty. Yes indeed, those who wore the green sash were patriots as noble as any who wore the red or the bunf. With their lives and deaths they demonstrated their patriotism, that virtue of all virtues :
"The Deity himself proves it divine "-
" For, when the Deity conversed with men, He was him-cif a Patriot !- to the Earth- To all mankind a Kariour was he sent ;
ALd, ail he loved with a Redeemer's love ; Yet still, his warmest love, his tenderest caro. H s hfe, his heart, his blessings, and his mournings, His smiles, his tears, he gave to thee- Jerusaleu- To thee bis country !"-
With regard to those who died of diseases, I have not been able to learn the particulars in every case. Of seven out of the twelve nothing has been reported, except Dalbe. date. and in four instances, the locality. Despite may diligent inquiry my research has been suc- . cessiul only a- to those who enlisted from "this immedi- ate neigln orhood," in the strictest sense of the termr. Of these last, four, two died far away -- HIRAM RISE- DORF. Ruth N. Y. S. M., 80th Volunteers, and JOHN VAN ETTEN, 128th N. Y. V. The one of congestive biliary disease or consumption, upon the very thresh- old of his military career, at Upton Hill, opposite Wash- ington; the other from congestive chills, a fearful
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malady, at Savannah, Ga., when, actually, his soldierly course was ended, and he was looking forward, atter three years' service, to a happy return to his home and friends and natal soil.
Poor HIRAM RISEDORF, his tate was a sad one. No American but has tasted sometimes, in some degree. of the comforts of home. He was sick with consumption or disease of the liver, either a most depressing malady. He applied to his surgeon to be relieved from guard duty, because he felt too unwell to perform it. The doctor, grown hard in dealing with shams, thought he likewise was shirking his duty. So the poor sick fellow went on his cold, wet, and dreary guard, doubtless with the shadows of death darkening around him in his solitary vigil. Death, unless sudden and unex- pected, is fearful to the boldest. though pride may suffice to conceal the pang as the skeleton hand slowly draws aside the veil between life and eternity. He re- turned to his tent, there without sympathy or solace to wrestle it out with the grim conquerer of all the living. And when, a few hours after, they came to seek him he was dead. And so they carried him out to his soldier's grave, near Falls Church ; the accus- tomed vollies rattled over the carelessly heaped turf. and one more man was lost, but not forgotten in the Armies of the Union.
Well might the poet declare of death that if it
" Come in consumption's ghastly form, Come when the heart beats high and warm, And thou art terrible.
But to the hero when his sword Has won the battle for the free,
Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word, And in its hollow tones are heard The thanks of millions yet to be."
And so died KEARNY and our brave brothers who fell amid the shock of battle. the crash of musketry. the diapason of the cannonade, and all the hundred cries and sounds which swell the fearful music of the churm of battle.
Thus died PHILIP KEARNY. Major-General U. S.V .. and thus died WARREN W. CHAMBERLAIN, Lieutenant 4th U. S. Infantry. Aide-de-camp to General SYKES. unequal in fame, but equal in many grand or at ractive qualities. In one respect, however, they both deserve especial honor, since both fell refusing to surrender, and prefering the chance of death to becoming prison- ers to Rebels. The first was hit by a single ball ont of a volley delivered by a Louisiana regiment. in the night action of Chantilly, 1-t September; the second was picked off by two Texan scouts or sharpshooters in the battle of Manass s or Bull Run, second, on the 30th August, 1862.
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Thus, indeed, died Major-General PHILIP KEARNY, N. Y. Volunteers, who fell in the night action of Chantilly, Ist September, 1862, " refusing to surren- der," and preferring the chance of death to becoming a prisoner to Rebels. Had be lived he was destined to the highest honors, common report designating him, our General " FORWARDS," always ready, as the successor of the " unready" MCCLELLAN.
" Death makes no conquest of this conqueror, For now he lives in tame, it not in lite "-
General KEARNY was born in the city of New York in 1815, and entered the First U. S. Dragoons 8th March, 1837, as from New York. Subsequent to that assumption of a soldier's duty, his military career stands almost unparallelled in its variety and honors. He was the BAYARD of America from the day when he lost bis arm at the San Antonio gate of Mexico, down to the hour when he left his body on the field of Chantilly . The Prairies of the farthest West, the Atlas "Gates of Iron." the valleys of the Hispano- American Sierras, the Pedrigal of Mexico, the moun- tains of the far d stant northwestern Columbia, the plains of Lombardy, the swamps of the Chickahominy, the shores of the Potomac -- regions the most remote -were to him the theatres of glorious combat and the scenes of invariable distinction. The most savage American Indians. the untamed and untamable Kabyles, the Aztec and his hybrid Spanish successors, the Austrian, the Frank, the Italian, and the fiercest Rebels, all, equally, bear testimony to his surpassing merit as the dashing dragoon, the reliable aide-de- camp, the daring captain, the intrepid volunteer, and the consummate general.
Three . Continents-America, Europe and Africa- hail him equally as one who, against Southern au- dacity, European discipline, and Barbarian ferocity, manifested the highest type of chivalric soldiership.
". 'Mid the bravest, the bravest, wherever war's tide In its maddening turbulence poured O'er the tremulous plain. when the smoke rolled aside, Ilov glittered our Paladin's sword ! Where the cactuses flowered and giant pines towered Till a cloud-crown encircled each head ;
Where date-palins droop'd o'er and the laden vines bowered The heaps of the stiffening dead;
. On the Avec Sierra, Algeria's sand, Shone his panache a guiding star, Till 'mid tempest of battle he seemed to command, Like very war-god's Avatar.
With the sword i . his right hand, the pistol in left, When the enemy swarmed about,
While his teeth hold the bridle, he shot and he cleft, His way through the Bedouin rout ;
Then of one arm bereft, with a smile on his face, lle breasted the bayonet's gleam ;
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While he spurred on his gray with a chivalrous grace, Recalling bright middle age dream,
When the breast of the knight was the fortress and shrine Of all that was noble and true ;
Till he fell in his harness, the last of his line, Maintaining the red, white and blue.
By the camp-fire's gleam will French chasseur relate The tale of his soldierly bearing ;
And wild Kabyles teil, how like the sabre of Fate, The American volunteer's daring ;
Savage chiefs will repeat to their wondering braves- All his followers' hardships sharing-
How he fought thro' their forests, dells, mountains and waves. Like Manitou's arrows unsparing ;
And when rebels are crushed, how they stories will spread Of that terrible ". one-armed devil,"
Who retreating, the hindm st, e'er charging ahead, Seemed the " incarnation of evil."
A heart more intrepid in mortal man's breast Never echoed the trumpet's tone ;
A spirit more generous uever confessed Compassion for sufferer's groan ;
A brighter ere kindling with eagle-like glance 'Mid the death struggle never shone ;
And blither a chevalier never couch'd lance When the signal to charge was blown ;
'Mid battles wild churm he led off the dance With a recklessness all his own,
And when others but look'd at death's revel askance, He rattle death's skeleton throne.
America's Bayard, sans fear or reproach ; His head full of strategy's lore ; No rival in arms can his merits approach Or wear the proud title he wore. To his comrades a model, to foemen a dread ; To his country a sword and a shield ;
A war-crv while living, a watch-word when dead, Brave KEARNY still marshal'd the field.
As long as our martyr's dear banner shall wave, So long shall his prestige survive ;
So long shall his countrymen honor his grave, And each conflict his exploits revive.
In the forefront of battle, as hoped for, he died ; In the forefront of glory he stands ;
And as long as the stars and the stripes are our pride PHIL. KEARNY's the pride of our lands."
How well he showed himself in h's true colors when, after the demoralization of the first battle of Bull Run, he assumed an advanced position beyond the Po- tomac against the general opinion, with his little New Jersey Brigade, and made at the magnificent unit it became in the face of the whole Rebel host-the out- post, as it were, of the massing and organizing Fede- ral Grand Army.
When grateful America affixes his tablet to the walls of her Federal Temple of the Immortal dead, in memory of her faithful son and soldier, it will be suffi- cient to inscribe beneath his name those ever-memor- able words which have become historical-words spoken at a time when the Rebels themselves conceded that all that was required to carry our Army victori- ous at Malvern Will, through the flying and disorgan- ized ranks of the discomfitted Secessionists, into
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Richmond, was the will of the Union commander, and the word . Forward." instead of " FALL BACK," from his lip -.
When the command for the retreat at Harrison's Landing was received by an indignant and eager Army. Jost in amazement at such a resolve, the brave and chivalrous KEARNY said in the presence of many officers :
" I, PHILIP KEARNY. an old soldier, enter my solemn protest against this order for retreat. We ought instead of retreating to follow up the enemy and take Richmond. And. in full view of the responsibility of such a declaration. I say to all, such an order can only be prompted by COWARDICE or TREASON."
The news of the breaking out of the " Slaveholders' Rebellion " reached General KEARNY in Europe. He at once returned home to offer his tried sword and matured experience to his country. He first repaired to Albany to obtain the recognition of his native State (New York). by his appointment as general. For reasons unexplained and nnexplicable his application was rejected, while men far less able were accepted. Then it was that be received an appointment through friends from New Jersey, and thus became identified with that State. His body rests in his and my family- vault in Trinity Church-rard. New York City. Thus through his family. by birth. by his first appoint- ment in the Army in 1837. and in death he was a New Yorker.
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