USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > West Chester > Reunion of the Ninety-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, October 29th, 1884 at Camp Wayne, West Chester, Pa. An account of the proceedings with a roster of the comrades present > Part 5
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With trust in powder, faith in God,
They were at best an awkward squad.
But years roll by. This squad you find On battle front and picket line,
'Mid bristling bayonet, shot and shell. Sulphurous smoke and tumes of hell,
Union cheers and rebel yell,
Where they by scores and hundreds fell
In the great, grand cause
For freedom, country and the laws, Quick to avenge, would no insult brook,
Felt it no disgrace "to be captain's cook."
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SECOND REGULAR TOAST.
" Woman ! Without her the world would be empty, fruitless."
" Men are what women make them ; age and youth Bear witness to that grand eternal truth ;
They steer the bark o'er destiny's dark wave, And guide us from the cradle to the grave."
To this toast Colonel Isaiah Price was called upon to answer.
My Comrades: I regard it an especial honor to have been invited to respond to this toast upon the occasion of this Reunion, here in this familiar place, which we all remember so well. For here it was that our first experiences of a soldier's life and duty were begun, ere yet the separation from our homes and loved ones had sharpened into the keenness of our later sense of the privations, the toils, the dangers and those sterner realities of war so soon to be encountered, which were then so dimly perceived, so little realized, amid the busy stir and throng of preparation that preceded our going forth.
Perhaps this unconsciousness of what was to be experienced was mainly due to the presence here in our first camp, of those best helpmates of life in every emergency, the devoted mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, who-thrusting back the agony and the tears that gnawed within their hearts and dimmed their eyes through the torturing fears born of their love for sons, husbands, brothers and fathers going forth to battle-gathered about us here in those days of solemn preparation, and sought to nerve our hearts to fortitude and duty through the ministration of their hands, bringing the pro- fusion of supplies for our comfort in camp and field : seeking through every tender influence of loving interest to beguile the pangs of parting ; enforcing the smiles that could not quite conceal the traces of the deeper anguish of heart, that must be hushed with more than Spartan effort as the hour of our departure drew nigh.
Ah ! those were truly deserving of being counted "heroic women " who, twenty-three years ago this October day, illustrated anew the noblest, truest womanhood for the age in which they lived.
We read of " Spartan mothers" who bade their sons go forth in the defence of their country in the hour of danger, and who held up their babes to behold the departure of their fathers to do battle for their homes.
History has immortalized the women of Greece who devoted themselves to the rescue of their country from the grasp of the invader. Veturia and Volumnia are remembered for their devotion
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and self-sacrifice that saved Rome from the vengeance of their ban- ished son and husband.
The name of Joan of Arc will enkindle the flame of patriotic enthusiasm so long as time shall continue to preserve the record of her daring deeds; that inspired the valor of her countrymen to follow her to victory, battling for the right.
Every age has had its illustrious women, who typify all that is good and great and worthy of imitation-grand, noble characters, who have continually demonstrated the capability of woman for bearing her share of the responsibilities of her generation.
Foremost among those of her time was that " noble example of womanhood," Lucretia Mott, whose life was beautified by her works of love for humanity and peace ; who yet could perceive " the sense of duty " actuating those who conscientiously responded to the call of their country in her hour of danger and trial, for was it not in consequence of the unfaithfulness of those upon whom the respon- sibility rested of resisting in the councils of the nation, the encroach- ments of the slave power toward the domination of all its interests and powers that led to secession and war ? And she could recognize the righteous retribution that entailed the stern duty of the defence of the government in the interest of liberty and peace, on the part of those who had not yet reached her own standpoint of dependence upon the righteous judgments of God in all things.
Recognizing in woman the abilities and the qualities that have shown her to be in possibilities, the co-equal with man in all the interests and experiences of life, yet is she still denied the place she should occupy-equality of representation before the law and in the race of life with man. An equality that shall include " the twain, united as one flesh." neither a complete or finished being when divided in interest or feeling from the unit that computes our common humanity.
Will any one in this audience seriously question the statement which I shall venture to present, as the sum of all the experiences which belong unto the survivors of a war that desolated the nation for more than four years, who-returning from the scenes of strife. left behind us more than four hundred thousand of our comrades who died for their country, and having with us our maimed and crippled fellow-soldiers, who are yet scattered up and down in the land-remain to be the only competent witnesses capable of making a true estimate which living men may venture to make. Surely we may be justified if we should realize that no other age or conflict
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presented in history, can exhibit so vivid and terrible a picture of suffering, of toil and of patient endurance that could preserve the faith and hold fast unto hope through more than four years of weary, devastating war, attended by privations that might well appall the stoutest hearts.
Yet is there a man of us all who-measuring his own share of what he saw, of what he felt, of what he did, of what he knew and what he was, as a part of all this picture of war and its desola- tion at the front and upon the fields of battle-will say that all this that we endured was comparable unto that unutterable woe of heart and lite that was the daily and hourly experience during all those weary years of uncertainty. of fear, of care and of anxious waiting in the silent and desolate home, out from which had gone the son, the husband, the brother, the father, whom the agonized mothers, wives, sisters and daughters mourned for, prayed for and hoped for, with a love stronger than death, during all those sorrowful days of suffering, wherein their hands might not relax from the toil and the duty of keeping the home and providing for the little ones left to their protection and nurture ? For them there was no element of exciting activity to relieve or dispel the sense of pain and the heart-gnawing, amid doubts and fears, that could only be made less wearing by the certainty that brought the knowledge of death ; that told of the rest and peace in the distant grave ; of toil and pain and suffering ended.
Surely those who thus endured were the real heroes of the war ! All honor to them for the blessing of their tears and their prayers that followed and watched over us, and for their ministrations sent forth into the field, where the tender, loving care of their mitigating hands came, bringing ease to pain and balm to the heart and staunching to the flow of waning life with a devotion that has caused the fame of our corps of nurses to keep pace with the valor of our bravest in the field. The names of Miss Dix and Clara Barton are world renowned, and we have yet with us here to-day our own honored Mother St. John.
The cheer of woman's presence within the tent, beside the dying comrade in his last hours, has softened the bitterness of death through the comfort of the soothing hand that, when all was over, should write the last sad message of love that was to bear the tidings to distant ones, of the love and faith that whispered a cherished name in the last moments of lite with an interest that ensures the meeting beyond the gates with the absent, unforgotten ones.
Such was the worth and such the work of woman in that crisis
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of our history as a Nation, that has made it the pivotal period of our existence as a fully tested and well-established government among the nations of the earth.
Shall we not therefore do ourselves the justice of showing a most full and perfect recognition of woman, not as a mere cipher, filling out the initial importance of an integer, by one, more or less, o (cipher) at the left hand of the statement, but placed in the right and at the even level of her worth wherever she may indicate her ability to impress a characteristic ?
Shall we venture to limit her in the exercise of her gifts and her talents in these days of progress, or in this presence, where we have come together to recall the incidents and the interests of our eventful service during the war ?
Is there one of us who can remain unconscious of the moisture of an uprising tear that dims the eye when he remembers, amid the scenes of the past which this occasion recalls, the parting sorrows and the tears which could no longer be restrained when the last embrace and the farewell kiss had passed between the loved ones of every kin, never so dear as at the parting ?
Nor shall we ever cease to remember the joyous welcome these devoted ones gave to those of us who returned to receive the bless- ing of their rejoicing and thanksgiving.
But I pause now before the sad contrast of the sacred sorrow of those, borne down by the weight of their untold grief, whose loved ones returned not to receive their welcome, and whose tears of mourning now, as then, will receive an added impulse from these renewed memories. Unto these our tenderest sympathies go forth, and they will know that, though others may forget them and their sorrows, the comrades of their beloved dead will never grow indif- ferent to the memory of those who fell in our holy cause.
God bless them, and keep us true to them and to a worthy appreciation of woman not only in sentiment but in verity, as "God's best " and holiest gift to life and love.
THIRD REGULAR TOAST.
"'Brandywine.' 'Paoli,' and ' Valley Forge.' Reminders of heroic deeds and patriotic suffering."
"Old Continentals in their ragged uniforms never faltered."
Assigned to Captain William Wayne, Co. K, who responded as follows :
It is not now, Mr. President, necessary to recount the story of
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the American Revolution, but only so much of it as bears upon the sentiment just proposed.
The grouping of Brandywine, Paoli and Valley Forge seems appropriate in consideration of their geographical and territorial relations. They all lie within our county limits ; but this grouping also brings before us a very interesting feature in our history, in that in their association they present to us one of the gloomiest periods in our struggle for political independence and for civil, religious and political rights.
You will remember that, after the occupancy of New York by the British troops, there yet remained one grand purpose of General Howe unachieved-the capture of the city of Philadelphia-which, when accomplished, it was hoped, along with the annihilation of their main army, would break down the rebellious opposition to His Majesty in the middle Colonies. To this end the enemy overran New Jersey from the latter part of '76 to the middle of June, '77, battling and skirmishing with alternating success and failure, but without succeeding in forcing Washington into a battle upon their own terms. Failing in this, they betook themselves again to New York.
The many and different feints of the British general from this time forth greatly embarrassed General Washington. It was reported that the Howes, with a considerable force, had sailed- destination, the capes of Delaware. Washington collected his troops and marched for Philadelphia, only to learn that again he had been deceived.
The enemy had headed for the Chesapeake, and disembarked at the head of Elk, and at Chadds Ford, on the Brandywine, Washington presented himself to oppose their further march to Philadelphia. A battle ensued. Defeat of the American troops was the result, and they retired demoralized and despondent.
We now come to Paoli. All that Washington now felt capable of doing was the harassing of the enemy's troops on their march to the city. The prevention of its occupation by them had been virtually given up as hopeless.
In the latter part of September a large detachment of the enemy lay along the south valley range of hills in the neighborhood of the present Howelville and New Centreville, and about three miles from Paoli. A force was detailed by Washington to take position near and hang upon their rear, with the view of cutting off their baggage and otherwise impeding their march. Every pre-
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caution was taken by the American officer in command for the security of his camp, and its location was believed to be unknown to the enemy. On the night of the 20th of September, piloted by an enemy to the patriot cause, General Grey reached the camp, and committed what has ever been recognized as one of the most barbarous butcherings of modern times.
This affair is called in many of our histories the "Surprise at Paoli," but investigation of the subject at the time showed that. so far from being a surprise, the American troops were on the alert and in position when the white savages came on the ground, and that this most inhuman and unjustifiable massacre was due to disobedience, neglect or misapprehension of orders on the part of a subordinate officer.
After much marching and countermarching, General Howe took possession of Philadelphia September 26th.
In October following one serious attempt was made to redeem the city, and at Germantown fortune again failed to smile on the American arms. An accident alone saved His Majesty's army from a signal defeat.
On December 17th the American army took up its position at Valley Forge and went into camp. Into the details of life there (if life it can be called) I will not enter ; they are familiar to you all. It was a campaign not against flesh and blood, against cannon and cutlass, but more terrible than these-against cold, hunger, naked- ness and disease.
The language of exaggeration fails to describe the terrible realities of life in the camp of the Patriot Army in '77 and '78.
The poet, the painter, the historian have come short in depicting the sufferings and the trials of the
" Old Continentals in their ragged regimentals"
during the long and dark and dreary winter at Valley Forge.
FOURTH REGULAR TOAST.
" The Union of the States, the glory of the past and the hope of our future."
"Our country's welfare our first concern."
To Colonel John Wainwright.
Mr. Chairman : It seems like presumption for me to attempt a response to such a toast on an occasion like this. "Our country's welfare our first concern " is well attested by the armless, legless and shattered remnants of brave and gallant veterans who are about us
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here to-day. Our first concern for our country's welfare was well attested when in our youth, three and twenty years ago, we first - trod the sod of this enclosure to the tap of drum and the "left ! left ! left !" of our squad commanders in our preparations for what proved a long four years of bitter struggle and strife, of hardship, privations, disease and death.
Our first concern for our country's welfare was well attested, Mr. Chairman, when, on a beautiful sunlight morning in November nearly a quarter of a century ago, a train of cars with these veterans drew out from yonder station for the seat of war, leaving behind us weeping and broken-hearted mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, who gave the brightest gems of their families a sacrifice for their country's welfare.
Our first concern for our country's welfare was magnificently attested before Secessionville; before Wagner, Gregg and Sumter, Green Plains, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort Fisher and a score of other conflicts with treason and rebellion. It was well attested, sir, by faithful services in the Army of the South, the Army of the James, the Army of the Potomac, and with Sherman in the Army of the Ohio.
The three hundred and five dead of the gallant old Regiment, well attests our first concern for our country's welfare, scattered in every State from Massachusetts to Florida. One at least sleeps in the billowy Atlantic. Who of these survivors does not remember the solemn occasion of his funeral on shipboard ? Some sleep in ever-green graves of Florida; some in Georgia chaperell; some in Carolina's sands, on Virginia's bloody battlefields, in Southern prison grounds and in Northern hospital cemeteries ; some came home to die, nursed by loving hearts and tender hands ; some sleep on yonder hillside, almost within the sound of my voice, whose graves you so fondly decorate on the annual return of each Memorial Day.
"Our first concern for our country's welfare " is well attested, sir, by the four hundred and fifty-eight wounded and crippled ot the Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteers, who are scattered all over this land as living but shattered monuments of their fidelity to their country and first concern for its welfare.
Mr. Chairman, "our first concern for our country's welfare " is well attested by these survivors, who, after having borne the heat of battle and breasted scores of storms of leaden hail, and after a separation of twenty years, have come here to-day to the very spot
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· where we had our first instruction for our country's defence in the duties of the soldier, to renew and reassert our "concern for our country's welfare:" to greet our comrades of yore with hearty . hand-shake and fond embrace, and to bid them God-speed for the future.
As I look into these dear old faces, after twenty years of sepa- ration, they grow more and more familiar, and the full, round, boyish faces of twenty years ago come back to me, and the interval seems but yesterday. God grant, Mr. Chairman and dear old comrades, that this Reunion of the survivors of the gallant old Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania Regiment may be annually repeated until the grave of the last survivor shall be decked with the sweetest flowers of spring.
FIFTH REGULAR TOAST.
" The touch of the elbow; the scenes and memories of twenty years ago."
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind ?"
This toast was assigned to Dr. Theo. Worrall of Co. B, who responded most eloquently as follows :
Mr. President and Comrades : My position here is a lonely one, being the only private soldier who has been called upon to-day ; but I feel encouraged when I look into the faces of my comrades, and feel that my remarks. coming from the heart and not the head, will be received with the kindliest feeling. [Applause.]
Only a short time since I was notified that the toast and senti- ment just announced was assigned to me, and that I would be expected to respond. My first impulse was to refuse ; being sur- rounded by the weighty cares of a busy professional life, I felt it impossible to give the subject proper thought and attention. But when I sat down to write a reply, how vividly the scenes and memories of twenty years ago passed before me! In file, in section, in platoon, in columns of companies they passed in panoramic review, and I felt that I must come here, and in my feeble way help to erect a temple in our hearts to the stirring scenes of auld lang syne. [Applause.] And why should we not do this? Are not those memories burned in living letters on our mind? And are they not worthy of commemoration ? For twenty-three centuries the human family has paid tribute to great men and great deeds. A beautiful marble edifice, called the Hall of Heroes, in which repose the effigies of the great men of all Germany, stands on the
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Danube, that historic river whose shores have listened to the hymns of the Crusaders, resounded with the tread of Roman Legions, and trembled under the thunder of Napoleon's artillery. William Tell's memory is perpetuated by a chapel on the shores of the placid Lake Lucerne. A statue of Andrew Hofer wins thither the weary feet of the peasant of the Tyrol to the dark aisles of the Cathedral at Innspruck. In our Nation's Capital stands a magnificent monument, whose capstone pierces the ethereal blue of the heavens, erected to the memory of the man after whom the city is named. [Applause.]
Then, I ask, why should not we erect in our hearts a rich, rare monument to the memories of days passed forever? I ask you to give me the touch of the elbow as of yore. Let the subtle cords of memory carry you back over the years since the nation's fate hung in the balance, and bring to mind scenes and memories of twenty years ago. Time has written great chapters in the history of nations since then. The elastic step is gone with which you sprang into line when the electric current flashed through the North the question pure and simple, Shall this country be preserved? [Applause] The great artist Time has penciled silver threads in your locks since the day you fought for national unity. Yet how vivid the memories ! It seems but yesterday that the dear old Ninety-seventh Regiment stood on this ground an undisciplined and awkward body of men, but with hearts aglow with patriotic enthusiasm. But yesterday that Pennsylvania's great-hearted War Governor [Applause]-than whom a better never lived-presented us with the flag-that flag the emblem of our nationality, and for which we suffered so many dangers and hardships. Our first dress parade, and the day Colonel Duer kept us one hour at a shoulder arms, while the Adjutant read orders. [Laughter and applause.] Ah, the poor Adjutant ! Sacred be his memory ! [Emotional applause.] Methinks I hear the awkward challenge of the equally awkward sentinel, and the many schemes we resorted to when we wanted to break the guard and get into West Chester. And (turning to Colonel Guss), Colonel, what brilliant flank movements we would make down an alley when we would spy you coming down the street. [Great applause.] These are all memories of twenty years ago. Time has not dimmed the recollection of our departure to the seat of war. The leave-takings, the fond embraces, the tears, the benedictions, how vividly these scenes arise ! In fancy I yet see the mother-that dear old loyal mother. With a heart bursting as she contemplated the uncertainties of the future; with hands raised toward heaven ; with cheeks wet
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with tears of maternal love, she asked God to protect her boy. This is no fancy sketch. If you think so, go with me to the fireside where sits that mother, whose form is bent with age, whose locks are silvered with the snows of many winters, and ask her if there was not a stern reality in the parting of twenty odd years ago.
Then, again, I ask you to follow me along the line of march from West Philadelphia to the Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon. Ah, boys, I think you can remember those knapsacks we carried, loaded so full of the unnecessaries of a soldier's life that they would break down any mule General Grant had in Virginia. [Applause.] Then that passage through the flagless, treason-tainted streets of Baltimore : the pitching of tents for the first time, under the shadows of the Nation's Capital ; the exchange of arms at the arsensal ; then back to Baltimore, and, oh, heavens ! that voyage from there to the sun-bathed shores of South Carolina. Will you ever forget it ? Why, the very thought of it makes a fellow feel as if he had taken a dose of tartar emetic. [Great applause.] How we threw up everything except the Government shoes we had on our feet. [Applause and laughter.] How we remember the campaigns in the heart of the South-Port Royal, Fernandina, Jacksonville. How clearly we see all this ! The enemy for the first time! How every nerve thrilled as with electric fire when you looked down the gleaming rifle barrels into their faces, and how confidently you felt the touch of the elbow of comrades tried and true on right and left. Then the first dead comrade! Has this scene been forgotten ? I see him yet. The gallant Henry Dunn, Co. B, died doing his duty at Grimball's Plantation, June toth, 1862. I think he was the first man killed in the Regiment. Then comes Morris Island, the siege of Sumter-that spot made memorable, yes, and damnable, by Americans who, forgetting the traditions of the past, that love of country born in the womb of a British despot's tyranny, baptized in the blood of their patriotic sires in 1776, fired with malicious dis- loyalty on the American flag. [Applause.] It was there where, asleep or awake, we were continually under a storm of bursting iron. No foot of that island withdrawn from the enemy's sight-no foot but what could be played upon with rebel shot and shell as a - piano's keys under Thalberg's stormy fingers.
Comrades, would you want to forget those scenes and memories of twenty years ago ? No! Let us hold them sacred. Methinks, did I want to, I would ask the gods to let me die. [Applause.] Follow me to Virginia, where battles, sieges and bivouacs followed
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