USA > Ohio > Circulars, papers and annual meeting of the Ohio commandery of the Military order of the loyal legion during the year > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
While serving as a volunteer on the staff of Gen. Rous- seau, during the siege of Chattanooga by Bragg's army, I was occupied much of the time in visiting the hospitals and reading to the soldiers in the camps. A leaf taken from "My
(76)
-77-
Recollections " I have thought would suit the subject-matter of the part allotted me on this happy occasion.
In order to give point to the story I am about to tell, I will attempt to interest you in its surroundings.
Our soldier congregation was gathered together on one of the numerous hillsides of the picturesque valley of Chatta- nooga. Directly in front the frowning summit of Lookout Mountain, bristling with cannon, looked down upon the peace- ful assembly. Along the horizon line of Mission Ridge were visible the tents of the Confederates and the rebel flag ; the boundary line being marked by the winding course of Chick- amauga creek. The rising ground between that and the Tennessee river, with its bridge of boats, was occupied by the Union encampment and its cordon of defensive batteries.
It was a Sunday afternoon in Autumn. A balmy atmos- phere made the quietude of the Sabbath doubly impressive, inviting the mind to sober reflection and serious thought. Part of the programme of readings was the story of Joseph and his brethren. The soldiers paid great attention to this recital, manifesting their earnest sympathy with the trials and sufferings of the patriarch and his family. They seemed to realize the similarity of condition between themselves and the people who were hungering for bread, our commissary at the time being bankrupt ; flour and beef there was none, and next to nothing of crackers. Short rations was the order of the day for man and mule.
The account of the hungry multitude fed by the miracu- lous loaves and fishes, and the parable teachings of the Sav- ior, also formed a part of the exercises; and while I was speaking of the sacred injunction to love our neighbors and forgive our enemies, my attention was attracted by the pecu- liar movements of an old soldier, the central figure of a group of earnest listeners, sitting or lying on the ground.
The old man was reclining on his elbow, with his head resting against a stump, and just as I emphasized the words enjoining us to love our neighbors, he raised himself up to a
-78-
sitting position, and extending his hand toward the rebel camp, made a gesture which said as plainly as words could have expressed it : "How about those fellows over there?" I at once replied, " I thank you, old friend, for that hint, and will try to show that you, in common with all just and gener- ous soldiers, in spite of outward action, have that within which acknowledges the truth of the scriptural injunction to love even our enemies."
War for a time sets aside the civil powers, and the mili- tary dominates. The citizen is called into the field to support his government and to protect himself and his property. When he becomes a soldier the individual is fused into the mass ; he becomes part and parcel of a human machine, which moves in obedience to pitiless laws, compelling indi- vidual parts to act in obedience to the controlling power for the achievement of a supreme purpose. The soldier is not responsible for the actions enjoined by his commander ; with him to hear is to obey.
Hark ! the trumpet and the rattling drum sound the ad- vance. The marshalled forces move on to the assault. They meet the enemy; the carnage begins; shock encounters shock in mingled fury ; lines are broken ; men go down, and men charge over their mangled bodies. All personality of motion or feeling is merged in the terrible impulse of disci- plined havoc. The air is filled with the sulphurous stench of battle, while every heart pulsates with the murderous spirit of the first born Cain. Humanity shudders, and we drop the curtain on the fearful scene of strife and blood, too horrible for contemplation.
Now the field is fought and won. The soldier rests. Human nature, released at last from the grasp of an inflexible power, returns once more to a normal condition, to become amenable to the pleadings of mercy and the promptings of charity and love.
"Now, my old friend," I continued, " I will just here pre- sent a supposable case, to prove to you how near your own
-79-
heart lies that 'quality of mercy which is not strained, but droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place be- neath ;' and to show that the bravest soldier, though inflexi- ble in disciplined duty and hard as iron in action, hath yet a ' hand open as day to melting charity,' and an arm ever ready to defend the helpless. You are, I see by your uniform, an artilleryman ; now, we will suppose your battery, after the fight, is recrossing the sanguinary field, sodden with the blood of friend and foe. You are seated on the carriage of your gun, when suddenly you see before you, directly in the way of the heavy wheels, one of the enemy wounded and helpless. You spring to the ground, rush to the dying man, and drag him out of reach of further harm. The pallid face is turned up to you with a look of grateful thanks. The can- teen at your side attracts the fitful glance of those blood-shot eyes. Quicker than thought the few precious drops moisten the fever-parched lips of the expiring soldier. The feeble pressure of his hand and his faint smile have gone to the heart of the man no longer his enemy, but a good Samaritan -- one whose breast is throbbing with impulsive tenderness, and whose eyes are dropping tears as soft as mothers shed for suf- fering infancy."
This is the spirit of humanity asserting itself over the cruelty of war. By such instances is mankind led to realize the bond of that common brotherhood enjoined by our Savior ; and how thoroughly do such acts of soldierly mercy and kindness remind us of the words of the poet of Humanity :
"One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin."
THE HERITAGE OF FREEDOM.
As our fathers did, so may our sons- "Snatch from the ashes of their sires The embers of their patriot fires."
Companion Surgeon J. R. WEIST, Richmond, Ind.
GENTLEMEN OF THE LOYAL LEGION :
The histories of the world are filled with stories of the battles for freedom, and of the achievements of men who suf- fered and died in the cause of liberty. It is a law of nature that a continual struggle for existence must go on among all living things. This, and the wish to be free of tryanny, to exercise self-government and make conscience the guide to duty, has given the heroes, the God-like men of the world ; men great, because of their noble ambition, because of break- ing the fetters limiting the progress of man, and because their example awoke a desire in others to guard the sacred herit- age they had given and to extend its benefits to all men, a desire necessary to to keep alive.
"For Freedom's battle once begun,"
never ends
"Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft, is ever won."
We who enjoy freedom to its fullest extent do not appreci- ate it, as those struggling for it. What is freedom? It is something more than the right to acquire property, to live in peace at home, to worship God as we please, and to make our own laws. It is the liberty to seek knowledge, to advance
(80)
-81-
toward physical and mental perfection, to approach again through wisdom, goodness, and power to the likeness of God ! (Applause.)
What such freedom has cost, you well know; so well that I need not tell of the brave men of Greece, who gave their lives for it at Marathon and Thermopylæ ; of the strug- gles of Poland, or of the carnage and blood of the French Revolution. Such men have died, and such acts have been repeated in every country throughout the world, where man has fought to recover his birthright.
We have freedom, but we have paid a high price for it in treasure, suffering, and blood. At this distant time it is difficult to fully realize the heroism of our fathers during seven years of battle for independence. Poorly armed, clothed, often in rags, and half starved, their line of march over frozen ground and snow marked by blood that had trick- led from naked feet, they fought from Lexington to Yorktown with a bravery that astonished the world, and won honor and glory for their flag. (Applause.) Their success was a triumph of justice. They gave freedom to their sons, and made the "Stars and Stripes" a banner to be hated by tyrants and worshiped by the oppressed in all the lands of the earth. (Ap- plause. )
Liberty so nobly gained was our inheritance, but, alas ! before the index of time had marked a century upon the dial of history, our dissensions caused the tide of war to again sweep in broad waves of desolation and death over our fair land. You who were actors in the drama of blood, need but a few bold strokes of the pencil to recall all its horrors. You know all the details of the picture so terrible in its por- trayal of the passions of men, of the destruction of property and life, of pain, sorrow, and death, yet sublime in showing courage and devotion, and the "Old Flag" emerging from the smoke and storm of battle with all its stars in place.
The story of the thousands who died in battle, or wasted away in hospital of wounds or disease, the hardships of the
-82-
march, the bivouac among the dead, the wail of sorrow from mothers because their sons returned no more, the broken hearts of wives, whose husbands died at Shiloh, Chickamauga, or in the Wilderness, and the tears of beautiful girls, whose brothers or lovers starved at Andersonville, will yet be woven into an epic poem grander far than the Iliad of Homer. (Ap- plause.) The embers of the fire of patriotism kindled by our fathers in 1776 were fanned into brilliant flame in 1861 to light our leaders to victory and glory, and to warm the heart of the most obscure soldier, whose life, after the storm of battle was over, went out under the light of the silent stars. And honor is due alike to those whose names are written in letters of gold upon the scroll of fame and those filling nameless graves. Shafts of marble and of granite mark the resting-place of some, over whose ashes men chant songs of praise, while over many a forgotten sleeper the jasmine scatters perfume, and drops its golden flowers, while the wind through forests of pine sighs nature's requiem for the brave. It is right that our tears should fall for the dead, and that we should remember more, and honor more, every soldier, living or dead, who fought in the battles for freedom. (Applause.)
Companions ! it is a part of our duty to cherish the memo- ries and associations of the war, but more is required of us. We must maintain National Honor, Union, and Independence. Although so many thousands of our comrades gave their lives, and thousands more are disabled because of their devotion to freedom and the Union, and the Nation has hardly recovered from the enormous burden of debt imposed by the late war, wise men see in the bitterness of political strife, in official dis- honesty, and in the honors accorded to those who lately sought to destroy the nation, signs of great danger. History may again repeat itself. Greece and her sister republics chanted the praises of liberty and the gods, yet the glory of Athens departed, her schools of philosophy were silenced, and her temples desecrated. She fell by the hands of her own people !
-83-
The eagles of republican Rome and the mighty legions who bore them so often to victory, passed out of sight eight- een hundred years ago. The columns of the Forum were broken, the gods thrown from their pedestals, and the "Triumphal Way" was choked with ruins. The destruc- tion of the " Roman City" was commenced by her own citi- zens, the Goths and Vandals only completed it.
In the vigor of youth, while holding the proudest posi- tion among nations, safe from every foreign foe, disaster came upon us, and our freedom was well nigh lost, because of dissensions among our own people. Without great watch- fulness evil days may come to us again, and the splendor of : our Republic fade forever. We must not be idle. It is our duty to guide, as far as possible, the affairs of the Nation, and to so train our sons that when we have gone to join the "silent majority," they, with hearts filled with love of country, and stimulated by the example of their sires, shall guard, with their fortunes and their lives, "The Heritage of Free- dom." (Applause.)
KILLED AND MISSING."
"Give me the death of those Who for their country die; And O! be mine like their repose, When cold and low they lie."
Companion Capt. J. KENT HAMILTON, of Toledo, O.
COMPANIONS AND COMRADES :
Many of the themes of the evening have been of a serious and somber nature. The sentiment to which I am called to respond is perhaps more somber and serious than the others, but I am sure old soldiers can turn aside for a moment from re- joicing and festivity to recall remembrances of our Compan- ions, the dead long past who can not be with us to-night.
Ordinarily this sentiment should be received with that silence which to every soldier is always the most fitting ex- pression of grief ; but, as our Commander has said, time has dulled the edge of our sorrow, and it may now find a not in- apt expression in words.
At soldier gatherings we always devote the most serious and solemn moments to remembrances of the dead and miss- ing. These simple words, so common in our reports in olden times, still bear a profound significance. How they bring to many a wife, and mother, and sister the recollection of a face that left their side and went down to Southern battle-fields, and there disappeared forever ; the tones of a voice bidding them farewell, and soon in fierce battle forever hushed. To us who were soldiers, how they bring up memories of the com- rades of the march, the bivouac, and the battle, with whom we shared the hardships, the perils, and the dangers of war, who, less favored than we, fell while we survived.
The " Dead and Missing"-where are they ? Look to
(84)
-85-
Southern soil ; look at the village cemeteries of the North ; look at our great National cemeteries. Some of them lie where they fell, mingled with the soil, at Donaldson; at Shiloh, by the Tennessee; at the Mississippi, in front of Vicksburg ; under the shadows of Lookout; by the side of Chickamauga, the Bloody River ; at Gettysburg ; at the Wil- derness ; at Appomattox ; all over the Southern States, the remains of our comrades and friends lie buried. Buried on sacred soil, for that soil is forever sacred which holds the remains of our bravest, our noblest, and best. For that, if for no other reason, we should hold, bound to us by indissolu- ble ties, the Southern States, because buried there is the dust of our Northern Comrades in Arms.
Think of the vast number of the " killed and missing." Of the 2,500,000 who enlisted in the Union Armies, 303,843 died in the service of the Nation ; 93,000 of them died upon the battle-field or from wounds there received ; over 26,000 died in the terrible prison pens of the South; the remainder in hospitals, in camp, or upon the march. They died for what? For you, and for that cause that you and all of us were battling for. They died to make complete and sure the victories for which you were struggling.
We, the survivors of that great conflict, can certainly pay a tribute to the memories of the dead, and pause to think of what they gave up and what we saved. Over 303,000 young and vigorous men, in early prime of manhood, gave up willingly all that makes life so dear to its possessors. All the ambi- tions, hopes, and joys of humanity, they surrendered that you and I and all this nation might live. We can appreciate what they sacrificed when we pause to think what we, the survivors, have gained. We have obtained the full fruition of our victories, and in their grand results the Nation and the world has shared. We soldiers have gained this, that from the time the war closed, we have gone back and forth among our neighbors honored and respected. I take no stock in the assertion that republics are ungrateful, when I see the re-
-86-
spect, the confidence, and regard, which the American peo- ple always and everywhere bestow upon the surviving soldiers of the Republic.
We, my friends, have the privilege of following out the ideals, the wishes, and the aspirations of our life. We are surrounded by affection, by prosperity, and by happiness. We have gained everything that soldiers can ever gain. What did our fallen comrades gain? A noble death, a glorious im- mortality. Was their lot or ours the happier? Who knows? Who knows? To many of us has often come the thought in marching through this vale, after all, is life worth living? Those who died in this cause have gained a glorious death- a death worth dying. I believe that every soldier, every man within the sound of my voice, if to-day he were asked what death he would rather die, would say, "On the battle-field in a just cause." Such was the death our friends, our comrades died.
Pause to consider what the Nation lost by their death- three hundred and four thousand of the bravest and best men of the land died with their faces to the foe, and they were for that very reason the choice and the flower of the Republic. Who shall say what this Nation of ours has lost by the death of its bravest and best? Who knows what great soul, and heart, and brain perished upon those Southern battle-fields? Who knows but what there perished some mortal who, if he were alive to-day, might be guiding and controlling the desti- nies of the Nation. By the death of these heroes the Nation gained everything. In their death it lost its most promising children, the choicest ones of all the flock.
The killed and missing, and the recollections gathering around those words, stand, then, for the central facts in the history of those great achievements, which acquired for us the admiration of the world, enfranchised a race, and started our Nation on a career of progress of which not only we, but all mankind are the beneficiaries in greater liberty and greater happiness.
"THE HEROES OF '76."
"Each soldier's name
Shall shine untarnish'd on the rolls of fame,
And stand the example of each distant age,
And add new lustre to the historic page."
Companion Gen. Wm. H. GIBSON, Tiffin, O.
COMPANIONS AND LADIES :
I commence in this way because it appears to be the rule -- if I were left to my own taste I should have addressed the ladies first. I came here to-night knowing I was to respond to this senttiment, and I have devoted a good deal of time to my speech ; have studied it carefully, and have belabored it, but of all the foraging I have ever known of in my life, this to- night beats it all. (Applause.) It made no difference what the sentiment was, the fellow who responded to it was certain to steal some of my speech, and the result is I have been bankrupted at this late hour of the feast. (Laughter.)
"The Heroes of '76," -- well, we are their grand-chil- dren -- I am glad of that to begin with. When Gage moved out of Boston on the quiet villages of New England he awoke the resistance of the quiet and peaceful yeomen, and the rifle flash at Lexington and Concord proclaimed a new era in the history of humanity. It was the inauguration of a struggle that has opened the grave of entombed liberty, and re-enthroned it among the tribes of man.
It is not true that, in any age of this world, Pagan or Christain, there was a republic, or rational liberty ; it is not true that a government of the people, by the people, and for
(87)
-j88-
the people ever adorned this planet until after the rattle of rifles at Lexington and Concord. (Applause.) Talk about the re- publics of Greece and Rome-compared with America they are as a school-boy to a scientist. They were lands of slaves, lands of ignorance. Ours shall be the land of freemen and the land of intelligence, and every rifle crack on that memor- able field was a prophecy that the child of liberty was about to start on her grand career.
Our heroes of '76 were peculiar ; in all the ages of his- tory no such sublime spectacle was ever presented. It seemed as if every nation and tribe, and country and tongue of the race sent hither some contribution to the mighty struggle. What was it? The heroes of '76 were but three million poor colonists, without commerce, without a navy, without an army, without manufactures, without credit, and without money. They were rich, thank God, they were rich only in the firm purpose to build up here on the Western Hemisphere a great Zion, to which the nations of the earth might look, and look- ing be healed. This is the country we have. When the great struggle came, what was the spectacle presented. They were not men unaccustomed to privation, nor were they unac- customed to the perils of war. The men and heroes of '76 were largely men who had followed the banners of England in her contest with the savages upon the frontiers, and with the French upon our borders. Starke had been a partisan hero in the conflicts with the French and aided in snatching Canada from the crown of France. He had been with the British generals in all their conflicts at the siege of Montreal and at Crown Point ; and Putnam, who was he? He was a farmer, they say, and yet he was a soldier. He had followed the banners of England in all the wars with France; had stood by the side of Howe when he fell at Crown Point ; was present at the siege of Montreal, and had attended Abercrombie in his campaign against Havana; he fought in the campaign that resulted in the disaster of Braddock ; he was a partisan soldier in the wars with the Indians -- he was a hero of '76!
-89-
And there was Washington! He was in command of our army in the midst of all these privations.
Columbia had but to lift up her voice and Washington appeared : the young colonel who had seen severe physical service with Braddock on the Allegheny mountains, the man who bowed in prayer at Valley Forge -- he was the Moses, the Joshua, the gaint that was to lead our fathers through the dangers of Revolution into the grand Canaan of liberty and equality. Then the world looked on. It was the grandest triumph the world ever witnessed.
When a navy was required we had but to issue our letters of marque and reprisal and every sea was covered with our seamen and ships ready to grapple with the proudest com- manders that had ever led the fleets of Europe on the high seas. And then of the soldiers that came here, There was Pulaski, fresh from glorious conflict with the grasping kings of Europe, battling for the rights of his oppressed Poles. And there was Steuben, fresh from the staff of Frederick the Great, ready to throw his sword into the balance in favor of Liberty. There was the immortal DeKalb, a German by birth, who had shed luster on the glories of the French armies, died a hero at Eutaw that you and I might have liberty, justice and fra- ternity. And there was Charles Lee, a distinguished officer of the British army, who had served in Canada, had served in Austria, had served in Hungary, in Turkey, but when he heard the Colonies cry aloud for independence and liberty he hastened to join Washington in striking tyranny to its death.
There was Montgomery, a child of Ireland, the lawyer and a soldier, who braved the inhospitable wilderness of the North to die gloriously in the shadows of the cliffs of Que- bec. And there was Gates, an officer of the English army, wounded by the side of Gage at the defeat of Braddock on the Monongahela. Retaining the rank of Major, settled on his plantation in Virginia, and when he heard the voice of the people crying aloud for a government of the people, he left his farm, turned his back upon the banner of St. George and
-90-
the dragon and fought for the colonies ; and that was another contribution. There was Lafayette, a man of noble birth, of fortune, and of fame. He came to our rescue. The heroes of '76 were the good of all lands, and all places, and all climes, and came here to join in the great sacrifice of building up this grand country of ours. The heroes of '76, in a war of seven years against tyranny in arms.
. I might follow the campaigns in Canada ; I might stand on the heights of Saratoga ; I might linger on the battle-fields of the South, and all around trace the results of the strug- gles of the heroes of '76 in defense of the right. And you and I are to-day enjoying the heritage won by their swords, their valor, and their blood. Hail, all hail! to their memo- ries.
And now, these heroes of '76 were our grandfathers ; and I am glad of it, and so are you. We would not have amounted to anything if it had not been for just that kind of people. If it had not been that we had that sort of grandfathers we would have been mustered to-day in the British militia. Why my hair stood on end during the last few weeks as I have thought what my fate would have been if it had not been for these heroes of '76; I would probably have been with the British army up the Nile fighting the Arabs, and I would rather do anything than that. I am glad we had the heroes of '76. [A voice, "How about the grandmothers?"] There is some- thing about them too, my friend ; but as the toast don't say anything about them, I guess I will. (Laughter.)
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.