USA > Virginia > Post-bellum campaigns of the blue and gray, 1881-1882 > Part 11
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Charles T. Watkins,
G. Watt Taylor,
John H. Reid,
Joseph B. Mckinney,
R. W. Gwathmey,
F. M. Boykin,
George Savage,
David N. Walker,
Daniel Mahony,
William R. Trigg.
HOWITZER ASSOCIATION.
Polk Miller,
I. Ben. Lambert,
Ed. M. Crump,
Robert W. Powers,
William L. Sheppard,
William P. Smith,
Frank D. Hill,
James T. Gray,
Charles S. Stringfellow,
Thomas Booker,
Carlton McCarthy,
Joseph Bryan,
D. O. Davis, E. I. Basher,
John H. Gresham,
James A. Grigg,
William L. White,
George A. Smith,
William R. Jones,
L. R. Barnes,
Samuel H. Ligon,
C. F. Johnston,
T. Roberts Baker.
The memoirs of the Post-Bellum Campaigns of the Blue and Gray are ended, and the author salutes the members of both commands. He re- ports his duty finished, and prays that the friend- ships formed upon the occasions recorded, may endure until the tattoo of life is sounded, and that
George H. Poindexter, Jas. E. Tyler,
I. P. George,
Thomas I. Evans,
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the sentiments entertained for each other may be those of every American.
"No more the thirsty entrance of the soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood ; No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flow'rets with armed hoofs Of hostile paces : those opposed eyes, Which-like the meteors of a troubled heaven, All of one nature, of one substance bred- Did lately meet in the intestine shock And furious close of civil butchery, Shall now, in mutual, well beseeming ranks, March all one way ; and be no more opposed Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies."
APPENDI
ANOTHER YORKTOWN CELEBRATION.
General Oliphant, who responded to the second toast at the Trenton banquet, on the evening of the twelfth of April, was to have met Aaron Wilkes Post at Yorktown, having sometime pre- viously arranged with his friends, Colonel Samuel Wetherill, General Joshua T. Owen and Captain Frank D. Howell, of Philadelphia, to go with them on Colonel Wetherill's yacht " Willie," from Ox- ford, Talbot county, eastern shore of Maryland.
They shipped a crew-Captain, John Dobson; Mate, George McCormick; Cook, Claborn-and sailed in good time with a fair wind. The " Willie" had been put in tip-top order, and her lockers were well stored with everything calculated to make the voyage comfortable, merry and patriotic -cannon, flags, &c., prepared to go through all the details of the programme at Yorktown.
The second day out, the wind changed to dead ahead, and continued so, blowing gales at times, against which and the heavy seas of the lower Chesapeake a small yacht could make no way.
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They struggled vigorously and determinedly against their adverse circumstances until the af- ternoon of October 18th, when they were obliged by stress of weather to put in to the mouth of Wicomico river for harbor.
Yorktown was then out of the question. Sadly and sorely disappointed, they concluded to make the best of it-changed the name of the Wicomico to York river, and called the little fishing village on the bluff Yorktown. Later in the afternoon they were joined by three other yachts laboring under the same disappointment. The " Promise," of New York, the " Wave," of Cambridge, Mary- land, and the " Alert," of Washington City, with a party of five very agreeable and congenial gentle- men on board.
Our mutual miseries soon changed into fun and frolic, and that evening commenced the celebra- tion in earnest, in the cabin of the " Willie," with songs, jokes, anecdotes and speeches, and our jolly good host of the " Willie " did not fail to keep the flowing bowl well filled, never letting its contents fall to the line at which Pinkney "he say they aint no mo." The hilarity continued to a late, or rather an early hour, and before the company separated, they agreed among themselves that there were worse things in the world than being cast away in the mouth of Wicomico. They even voted Old Neptune and Boreas not such bad
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fellows after all, and Bacchus a brick of the first quality.
The next morning, the nineteenth, the great day at Yorktown, dawned bright and beautiful as October mornings can be. There were no com- plaints of headaches, or weak or rebellious stom- achs. Every man reported for duty and went to his mess with a will. This disposed of, the pro- gramme was put upon its passage. The cannon thundered salutes to "the day we celebrate," to the Stars and Stripes, to the flag of the French Republic, and to the Cross of St. George, while the shores of Wicomico echoed to the solemn strains of " God Bless Our Native Land " and the "Sweet By and By."
THE GRAVES OF THE BLUE AND THE GRAY.
By request we publish the following poem, writ- ten by Mary T. Reiley, a graduate of the New Jersey State Normal School, who died in her twentieth year of yellow fever, October 16th, 1878, at Oak Grove, near Clinton, Louisiana. She was a native of New Jersey, and the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, who, with his entire family, were swept away by that dread disease.
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DECORATION DAY 1877.
A song of the past. A song for the brave. Lo! over the land sweeps the battle's red wave. Who go forth to battle for the right and the truth In the first flush of life, and the first pride of youth ? Ye have seen them, ye know them, your brothers, your sons, Through their veins 'tis your own blood so hotly that runs. 'Tis the land of your fathers whereon they now tread,- The land for whose freedom your fathers have bled.
Above them the banner that floats on the air, Lo! the stars of the Union and stripes are all there. It was borne through the battle's wild turmoil and strife When the country we love first struggled to life. It has gleamed o'er wild prairies and lone mountain gorge. It cheered the brave spirits in dark Valley Forge. It has waved o'er the wild heights of fair Tennessee, And seen o'er New England the tired British flee.
But the strife waxes fierce, the strife waxes sore. Sure never were foemen so gallant before. Nay, for from the same land have the enemy come. In their long ago childhood they shared the same home. Brothers all. Brothers all. And the strife waxes sore. Is the end yet at hand ? Do the foemen give o'er ? Through the dark cloud of battle look forth on the field. Is the end yet at hand ? Do the enemy yield ? A shout as of victory comes from the host. A wail from the dying on the wild winds is tossed. And woe to the mothers whose sons nevermore Shall return to the arms that enclosed them of yore. And woe to the widows who long, long shall mourn For those who went forth nevermore to return. And woe to the country whose bravest and best On the red soil of battle have fallen 'to rest.
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A shout as of triumph ! The struggle is done. The smoke clears away. The battle is won. Oh ! red, red with blood is the land that ye love, But the flag of the Union still floateth above. Loud and long peals the song of the nation's acclaim. But where are the soldiers who bled for her fame ?
A song of the past, yet the tale is not said. Lo! my song of the past is a dirge for the dead. For, O weary mourners, no more, nevermore Shall ye see the dear faces ye greeted of yore. Down low in the fenlands where the wild cypress waves Have the loved of your spirits gone down to their graves. There no tears save the tears of the night dews are wept, There no watch save the the watch of the night winds is kept. There no flowers are strewn on the desolate sod, But the asters shall bloom and the wild golden rod. 'The wild woodland flowers shall deck them in spring And the winds shall forever their requiem sing.
A song of the present. Bring flowers to strew The graves of the brave, the gentle, the true. Bring the roses of love and the lilies of peace, And mingle their bloom with the fragrant heart's-ease. Let the flowers of remembrance be scattered to-day, Alike on the graves of the Blue and the Gray. They sleep on the soil for whose freedom they died. The victor and vanquished lie low side by side, And above them the banner that floats on the air, Lo! the stars of the Union, and stripes are all there. Keep it free ! Keep it free! They have left it to you With their hearts' blood upon it-the gentle and true.
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SOUTHERN VIEWS OF RECONCILIATION.
Extract from an address delivered by Private George Savage, at the annual re-union of the Sur- vivors of the Otey Battery. at Glen Ellen, near Richmond, Virginia, on the eleventh of June, 1877.
"I congratulate you upon the fact that the animosities engendered by a long, bloody and desperate war have, at last, in part sub- sided ; and that we may hope now to live not in the peace which followed, by military order, the surrender of our arms, but in that only real peace-the peace which follows the clasping of hands. My opinion of the causes and policy which have postponed to this late day a feeling of reconciliation between the people of the North and South (I use the words in their geographical and not in their sectional and objectionable meaning) is, as I doubt not is yours, decided ; but I have no desire to criticise them here or to look mournfully into the past. We are no longer taunted as fre- quently or as bitterly as formerly as 'Rebels ;' the cause in which we fought, believing in our inmost hearts that we were in the right, is not now so often derided as the 'Lost cause ;' our mo- tives, our sacrifices, our achievements and the virtues and abilities of our leaders are receiving, and, I believe, will continue to re- ceive, a just recognition. We cannot yet expect to escape the aspersions and calumnies which political partizanship is ever ready to invent for political purposes, but it is a subject of con- gratulation to all the people of this great nation that extremists direct popular feeling and opinion no longer, and that a period which was marked by unnatural animosity has been happily suc- ceeded by the auspicious beginning of a time of reason, respect and reconciliation. I heartily welcome this new era, remember- ing, with pride, that I am an American citizen, interested in and jealous of the common peace, honor and prosperity of my country, though abating nothing of my admiration for and sympathy with the people of my State and Section, I am willing to add my hum- ble efforts towards its continuance and consummation.
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"The foundation of all real peace between the people of the North and the people of the South must be mutual respect, anything less must be, from its very nature, only a mockery which all honorable men should spurn. Between the soldiers who bravely and faith- fully served in the late war, and who learned on the battlefield to respect the courage, fortitude and devotion of each other, there has never existed the bitterness and distrust which furnished so. long the stock in trade of politicians, and it would have been in- deed a happy and masterly stroke of statesmanship to have left the settlement of the issues of that contest to the men who, in my opinion, were alone entitled to settle them-the men who were soldiers at the front, and not politicians in the rear.
"I will relate to you two incidents of the mighty struggle in which we bore a faithful and honorable part, which, to my mind, were illustrations of patriotic heroism worthy of the highest admiration ; it is by the remembrance of such that the mutual respect, which I claim to be indispensable, can be cultivated and perpetuated. One occurred on the side which was ours; the other on that which we opposed.
" In the desperate attack made by General Lee on General Mc- Clellan's works at Gaine's Mills, in June, 1862, an Alabama Regi- ment was among those which went the farthest and fought with most conspicuous gallantry. But it was driven back at last with ranks greatly thinned. Among the wounded of the regiment was a private, who fell in the first charge, very near the enemy's forti- fications ; he was shot in both eyes, and lay where he fell during the remainder of the day. I need not tell you of the final result of that engagement. You will remember that after Stonewall Jackson came, about sunset, into position, that a last and victor- ious charge was made along the whole line, and General McClel- lan was finally forced to yield. After victory had been secured for the Confederate arms, the surgeons began their rounds among the wounded and dying. The Alabama soldier was reached after dark; the surgeon examined him carefully, and the only question the brave fellow asked was, 'Doctor, will I ever see again ?' The answer was, ' I must tell you the truth ; you will never see again.' In that moment when told that the beauty of this world was to be
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to him only darkness forever, and despite of mental and physical suffering, the spirit of the patriot rose supreme, and he exclaimed, 'Thank God ! though I can never see the glory and prosperity of my country I can still hear of them.' Every manly heart must applaud the patriotism of that unconquerable Alabama private ; he forgot all but his country in the intensity of his self-sacrificing devotion to his country and her cause.
"The other incident which I desire to cite illustrates the heroism of the American soldier on the other side. It occurred at the siege of Vicksburg by General Grant, in 1863. In one of the fiercest assaults made upon General Pemberton's defences, the color bearer of an Illinois Regiment led, with great bravery, but the regiment was driven back by a murderous fire, and the color bearer fell, with his face to his foes, a considerable distance in advance of the attacking column. Seizing his flag, the Stars and Stripes, with both hands, he held it above his head and continued to wave it defiantly. The commander of his regiment, seeing his flag still waving, rallied his men, appealing to them by saying, 'Look, soldiers ! our flag is still there ; let us rally once more to the charge.' They reformed and gallantly charged, but again they were compelled to retire. But they took with them the life- less body of the heroic color bearer who had upheld his country's standard as long as life remained, and his winding sheet was the flag he had died to save. Your hearts will, I feel assured, respond to mine, when I pronounce him a hero and a patriot. Let us unite in the hope that if the stricken blind Alabamian lives to-day he rejoices with us in the glory and prosperity of a reunited and reconciled nation, and that the flag which the Illinois color bearer so heroically upheld, now again our flag, may ever be the honored emblem, at home and abroad, of the rights, peace and union of a common country."
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APPENDIX.
NORTHERN VIEWS OF RECONCILIATION.
Extract from an address delivered by Lieuten- ant Louis C. Gosson, on Decoration Day, 1879, at Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey.
" There is a lesson to be learned of the past and of these ceremon- ies. Free society is fruitful of military ardor-an ardor devoted to the preservation of the freedom which gives it birth. It comes when called, and when it is no longer needed it subsides as waves do to the level of the common sea, that no wave may be greater than the undivided water. With proof of strength so great, we stand up among the nations quietly assuming our place, deter- mined to be second to none in the race of civilization, improve- ment and genius ; for a people educated and moral are competent to all the exigencies of national life. The strength of our nation is our form of government-a free and unfettered expression of the wishes of the people at the ballot box-obedience to the will of the majority. We are citizens, now, free in the exercise of our civil rights, and jealous of them. We have proven that we are fitted for peace and competent for war, and that there is no gov- ernment so strong as one which secures freedom to its people, because they have then no other feeling toward it than one of affection for that which it secures to them. Such a government need fear no discontent, for it gives no cause for it; and in this connection let me repeat from the farewell address of 'The Father of His Country.' He says: 'In comtemplating the causes which might disturb' our union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, (North, South, Atlantic and Western,) which designing men may endeavor to excite, that a belief that there is a real difference of local views and interests. * * * You cannot shield yourselves too much against the heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.' Such were the words of Washington. Would that the spirit which moved the heroes of 1776 and 1861
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was carried not merely to the patriotic celebration of Memorial Day, but to the discharge of all our civil and public duties. Would that a spirit of pure nationality, embracing the whole country in the arms of a living and loving patriotism, might take the place of local feelings, which troublesome and dangerous men seek to re- vive and propagate. The dangers of the past, the rebellion which is crushed and dead, was a common danger, one which would have been disastrous alike to both North and South. The past is dead ; let it be buried. Let union and brotherly love be our aim and practice, and let the recollections of what our land now is bring with them the strengthened love of a common country.
"The proudest monuments to the memory of our dead, are not those carved by the skilful artist from blocks of marble, or reared by the architect in majestic piles of granite. These indeed have their value and their interest. They mark for posterity the names of the heroes to be revered; as it were, causing the poor dust to start into life again from molten brass or quarried stone. But these are not the only rewards for which our heroes braved death, nor the monuments which will most perpetuate their fame. The existence of this Union is a monument grander, more enduring, when adorned by the gratitude of posterity. Let the voice of the blood shed in the establishment and preservation of the Union, the blood of brothers mingled together in their parent dust, cry to us on this memorial day ; let it proclaim a truce to sectional alienation and party strife, as the mediæval church proclaimed ' the truce of God.' Here let the past be buried ; let the bond of brotherhood be strengthened; let the kindly feelings and motives that animated our fathers who fought for our liberty here in his- toric Trenton, revive in the bosoms of their sons; assured that should danger again threaten. a blood bought Union, if living champions should fail, the sods which cover the resting place of our soldier dead, who first gave us this Union ! and those who, erring, sought its destruction, would give up their sheeted armies to the defence of our beloved land.
" May the lesson of the hour be not forgotten. May the love of country emulate us in all fraternal feelings towards each other. May there be no more a North or a South except in name-a
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common brotherhood, alike zealous for a common country's weal ; and while the graves of heroes are decorated throughout the Union to-day, may each heart, thankful to the Almighty Ruler of nations, pray : God bless our happy land. May the deeds of those we honor to-day, be not in vain, and may peace, prosperity and Union be the fruit of their dust so sacred and so noble."
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
From many editorial comments upon the re- union of the Veterans of the Blue and Gray, we copy the following :
[Newark, N. J., Daily Journal, April 14, 1882.]
" Welcome !!! Virginians," " Welcome, Blue and Gray," " Blue and Gray ; Peace and Reconcili- ation," "Good Will." These were among the mottoes which the patriotic citizens of Trenton placed on their house fronts the other day, as ex- pressions of welcome to a number of Virginians who accepted an invitation to visit the historic capital of our historic State ; which invitation was extended by a Grand Army post in return for generous hospitalities extended to Jeyseymen who visited Richmond at the time of the Yorktown centennial celebration. But gracious and appro- priate as were these mottoes, they were tame in comparison with the expressions of welcome which bubbled all the afternoon and evening from the
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hearts and lips of the people of Trenton. The air of this beautiful city was vocal with expressions of good will. The visitors could not help but be touched by the warm-hearted and most affection- ate reception accorded them. The main significance, however, of the festivities at Trenton, attendant upon the brotherly and loving inter- mingling of the Blue and the Gray, is not in the noble sentiments of the Southerners, but in the magnificent and altogether cordial and unreserved way in which the whole people of a northern city open wide their arms, and clasp to their bosoms, their fellow-citizens of the South, whom they have, by some, been taught, even long after Appomat- tox, to regard with deep distrust and even bitter hatred. Here, in this absolute banishment of all animosity, and the substitution of feelings of the most fraternal and affectionate character, lies the main significance to all the people North and South and East and West. It is a glorious proof that we are indeed a united people, that the war cry is forever hushed, that the dead past had buried its dead, that the old policy of hate has been forever cast aside as an utterly played out political card, that peace and good will are the watchwords of all the American people, and that we are now what we have not been these last twenty odd years-one people, acknowledging one flag, and marching forward as one great unit towards one general destiny.
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[Trenton State Gazette, April 14, 1882.]
Why is there such significance attached to this visit of a little party of Virginia gentlemen to this city ? What is the secret of the strange, deep in- terest which is felt in the meeting together, in social reunion, of these citizens of Richmond and Trenton ? What is there more remarkable about it than would attach to a meeting between citizens of New York, or Philadelphia, or Boston, or Chi- cago, or even San Francisco, and citizens of Tren- ton ? Why do we regard this coming together of Southern and Northern men, in friendly greeting, as a subject for such singular and profound satis- faction ? Because it signalizes the making up of
a family quarrel. * * The past is dead ; let it bury its dead. Let us no longer torture ourselves with the hideous and hardly invoked phantoms of the tomb. Let us live in the present and act the part of men, capable of grasping the logic of the situation, and of anticipating the mellowing influence of tender-hearted time. For the period is not far distant when the passions engendered by the war will be as dead as those which inflamed the hearts that have been dust in British sepul- chres since the wars of the Roses. They have already largely died out. The fires of hate, and of sectional jealously, and disunion, have gener- ally expired. It was inevitable. A fire cannot burn without fuel. There is no heat, or source of
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possible conflagration, in dead and decarbonized ashes. Hate cannot grow, or even exist, without material on which to feed. * It is the inex- orable logic of the situation, as well as the ardent desire of all generous hearts. Let us hasten the · beneficent consummation, here and now, by ce- menting anew
" The immortal league of love that binds
Our fair, broad empire, State with State."
[True American, Trenton, April 12, 1882.]
Nineteen years ago there was much excitement, and not a little anxiety, manifested by our citzens, when the news sped with lightening speed that the Confederate Army, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, had crossed the line and invaded Pennsylvania. They were met by the Federal Army, and with what result is a matter of history. In Trenton, Company "A," and several of the militia companies, responded to the call of the Governor of Pennsylvania, and proceeded to the depot eager for the fray. To-day Trenton will be excited, and there will be not a little anxiety, to meet a portion of that self-same army, but in a far different spirit than on the occasion referred to. Some of the brave boys in blue who met the now friendly raiders nineteen years ago, with Company " A," which marched to the depot and
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hurried to Harrisburg, will march to the depot, to-day, to meet some of the survivors of those brave men that wore the gray, and will no doubt vanquish and make them prisoners, not of war, but of love and friendship.
[Trenton Herald, April 15, 1882.]
"They came, they saw, they conquered." We mean our southern friends, who captured the hearts of our citizens, irrespective of party, by their gallant and chivalric bearing, and their re- peated and heartfelt expressions of loyalty and devotion to the Union. Their stay was made very pleasant by the members of Aaron Wilkes Post, who seem to know exactly what would best please their visitors. May the friendship between Virginia's and New Jersey's capitals, result in many benefits to both cities and their denizens.
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