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51 - My Story of the Civil War and the Under-Ground Railroad by Marvin Benjamin Butler · My Story of the Civil War and the Under-Ground Railroad

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty of My Story of the Civil War and
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Speaker 1: the Underground Railroad by Marvin Benjamin Butler. This LibriVox recording
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Speaker 1: is in the public domain Memorial Address delivered at Ontario
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Speaker 1: by Lieutenant Butler, chapter fifty. As we stand at the
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Speaker 1: base of a mountain range, how soon the mind becomes
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Speaker 1: confused by the immensity before us. Not until we move
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Speaker 1: away far enough so that the outlines are plainly visible,
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Speaker 1: does the mountain rise up in all its grandeur and sublimity.
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Speaker 1: So also, as we move away from the War of
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Speaker 1: the Rebellion, by lapse of time, confusion of actions and opinions,
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Speaker 1: prejudices and hatreds, and losses and sufferings are left with
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Speaker 1: the past, And as blind partisan zeal gives place to
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Speaker 1: a nobler patriotism, can we fully comprehend the mighty struggle
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Speaker 1: for national life and see the clear, impressive outlines of
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Speaker 1: national action. The War of the Rebellion and the causes
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Speaker 1: that produced it. The national action and the patriotic devotion
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Speaker 1: that subdued it, have been woven into the history of
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Speaker 1: the past. And these great historical truths will not change,
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Speaker 1: though we be condemned by them and by our conscience,
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Speaker 1: our country, and our God. Cost of the war in
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Speaker 1: life and suffering, and ruined homes and broken hearts and
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Speaker 1: blasted hopes, and possibilities nailed to the cross, in public
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Speaker 1: and private property destroyed, and the sudden check to productive
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Speaker 1: labor and commerce, is far beyond human comprehension. Why the
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Speaker 1: bare money cost at that time was estimated at six million,
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Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty nine thousand, nine hundred and twenty
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Speaker 1: nine dollars and ninety cents. This amount, if in gold,
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Speaker 1: will load seven hundred cars, If in silver, eleven thousand,
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Speaker 1: two hundred cars, and make a train sixty five miles long.
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Speaker 1: If in silver dollars and placed one upon another, it
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Speaker 1: will make a stack or color eight thousand, eight hundred
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Speaker 1: and eighty one miles high, eight hundred and eighty one
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Speaker 1: miles higher than the distance through this Earth. If in
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Speaker 1: one dollar bills and placed end to end, we'll make
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Speaker 1: a belt six hundred and eighty three thousand, eight hundred
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Speaker 1: and sixty two miles and will go around the Earth
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Speaker 1: twenty seven and one third times. The first gun of
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Speaker 1: the rebellion was fired by the Confederates April twelfth, eighteen
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Speaker 1: sixty one. The last engagement fought near Barco Chico, Texas,
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Speaker 1: May tenth, eighteen sixty five. And during these four years
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Speaker 1: and one month, our armies were engaged in five thousand,
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Speaker 1: five hundred and seventy four battles, skirmishes, and sieges. If
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Speaker 1: through ignorance, prejudice, early training, partisans, zeal, cowardice, or any
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Speaker 1: such cause, we failed in our duty to our country
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Speaker 1: in its darkest hours of peril, let us now inhale
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Speaker 1: the patriotic inspiration of this memorial Day, and shed tears
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Speaker 1: of contrition for our sins against our government, and tears
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Speaker 1: of sorrow, and with those who saved for us, our
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Speaker 1: country and our flag. If there are any here, and
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Speaker 1: I hope there are none who were allied to treasonable conspiracies, organizations,
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Speaker 1: or circles giving aid or encouragement directly, indirectly, secretly, or
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Speaker 1: openly to the enemies of our country, or who rejoiced
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Speaker 1: at our calamities and the defeat of our armies, and
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Speaker 1: wept only and most bitterly among the ashes, the debris
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Speaker 1: and blackened, crumbling ruins of the slave holder's confederacy. Do
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Speaker 1: not despair. Now there is mercy for even such as you.
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Speaker 1: The Grand Army of the Republic that saved for you
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Speaker 1: your country is magnanimous and will forgive, and in forgiving
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Speaker 1: will commend you to the surer mercies of God. The
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Speaker 1: doctrine of state rights and Southern supremacy were most insidiously
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Speaker 1: taught all over and through the Southern slave States for
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Speaker 1: more than sixty years, culminating in the mightiest rebellion the
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Speaker 1: world ever witnessed. For four long, dark and bloody years,
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Speaker 1: the harvests of death and devastation rolled on, desolating homes
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Speaker 1: and filling the land with woe and suffering. Happy indeed,
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Speaker 1: were the homes where the firesides were not sprinkled with
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Speaker 1: the blood of the slain, and no martyr's graves to
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Speaker 1: be kept green by the tears of the widow and
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Speaker 1: the orphan. For so long had we enjoyed peace that
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Speaker 1: when the first Confederate gun was fired on Fort Sumter,
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Speaker 1: the whole nation was paralyzed with the fear and dread
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Speaker 1: of war. And not until the Grand Army of Heroes
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Speaker 1: responded to the call for men and more men did
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Speaker 1: the nation arise like a half awakened giant and stagger
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Speaker 1: to the mighty conflict. At first it was a battle
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Speaker 1: for life and a very grave question of national existence.
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Speaker 1: For time to look around and utilize resources, to take
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Speaker 1: breath and gather strength for the terrible conflict already on.
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Speaker 1: Time to get money, to inspire national credit, to get
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Speaker 1: supplies of clothing, tents, blankets, rations, horses, wagons, arms, ammunition, artillery,
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Speaker 1: and drilled men to handle it, gunboats and efficient crews.
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Speaker 1: A navy to blockade two thousand miles of seacoast, and
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Speaker 1: sufficiently efficient in character to command the respect of the
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Speaker 1: civilized world. Time to organize and equip not only an
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Speaker 1: army to fight the enemy, but to protect a front
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Speaker 1: of fifteen hundred miles in extent, with all the railroads,
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Speaker 1: supply depots and supply trains, and to secure hospitals and
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Speaker 1: hospital stores for the sick and the wounded, and an
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Speaker 1: army of efficient surgeons and nurses. Time, oh for more,
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Speaker 1: time to create organized discipline and adjusts an army with
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Speaker 1: all the essentials and collaterals for war. Then, as this
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Speaker 1: mad rush and turmoil and meeting emergencies, while the surging
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Speaker 1: waves of war rolled on, alternating between success and humiliating defeat,
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Speaker 1: uprose the grave and all important question, what shall be
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Speaker 1: done with slavery and the slaves? For months the question hung,
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Speaker 1: and none could answer. There was no law, no precedent.
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Speaker 1: But in due time the greatest, because the wisest of
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Speaker 1: them all, Abraham Lincoln, spoke words that thrilled the loyal
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Speaker 1: North and went ringing around the globe. Quote, as the
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Speaker 1: Lord God liveth, If you lay not down your arms,
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Speaker 1: every slave shall be made free, unquote. And from the
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Speaker 1: front line of battle, begrimmed with dust and smoke, the
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Speaker 1: Grand army shouted loud and long, quote, as the Lord
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Speaker 1: God liveth, every slave shall be made free, unquote. And
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Speaker 1: from all the camps of Rendezvous, who from all the
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Speaker 1: boys late dressed in blue, were coming, Father Abraham, five
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand strong, And all the people who loved their
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Speaker 1: country and the old flag, bowed their heads and responded
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Speaker 1: in one grand chorus, ah men. It would not be
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Speaker 1: at all surprising if, in the hurly Burley, unprecedented and
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Speaker 1: stupendous labor involved requiring millions of money per day, with
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Speaker 1: a treasury bankrupt and the credit of the government nearly
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Speaker 1: ruined by the uncertainty of the result, that some few
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Speaker 1: irregularities crept in, and some mistakes were made. During the war,
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Speaker 1: the credit of the nation was seriously affected, and the
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Speaker 1: uncertainty of the result augmented, manifold by the divided condition
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Speaker 1: of the North. Treasonable conspiracies permeated every function of the
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Speaker 1: government and the social fabric of the whole country. Demagogues
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Speaker 1: were numerous and bold. They were loud and vindictive in
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Speaker 1: pronouncing anathemas against the president, and eloquent as expounders of
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Speaker 1: the law and constitution. Everywhere. Their influence was felt and
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Speaker 1: did much to retard the successful prosecution of the war.
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Speaker 1: I am aware that at the present time we have
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Speaker 1: many experts in the new school of political economy who
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Speaker 1: are confident that they could have managed the financial interests
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Speaker 1: of the government much better than was done during those dark,
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Speaker 1: trying and uncertain times. But when we contemplate the magnitude
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Speaker 1: of the rebellion so suddenly precipitated upon us without preparation
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Speaker 1: on our part to meet it, by an enemy equally brave, sanguine,
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Speaker 1: and at first better skilled in arms, with efficient leaders,
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Speaker 1: and all closely bound together by bitter prejudices and the
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Speaker 1: mighty courts of conspiracy, I'm of the opinion that the
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Speaker 1: more thoughtful and patriotic of our people will not indulge
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Speaker 1: in criticisms, but rather thank Almighty God that the rebellion
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Speaker 1: was overthrown, and that organized treason did not destroy the
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Speaker 1: nation and murder the hopes of mankind. Whatever may be
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Speaker 1: the cause of the crisis, the great depression in business,
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Speaker 1: the loss to labor, and unrest among the people, with
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Speaker 1: the wild, mad and fanatical demonstrations in the last few years,
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Speaker 1: is to be deeply deplored. In these crucial times when
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Speaker 1: war seems to be fermenting all over the world like
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Speaker 1: the leaven in a measure of meal. Every citizen should
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Speaker 1: be a patriot and stand firmly for law and order.
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Speaker 1: Let us hope comrades that our beloved country will never
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Speaker 1: again be involved in war. Let us trust to the
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Speaker 1: virtue and the intelligence of the people, And let us
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Speaker 1: hope that that fear of Heaven which expels all other fear,
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Speaker 1: and that regard for duty that transcends all other regard,
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Speaker 1: may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our
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Speaker 1: country still onward in her happy career. In the past
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Speaker 1: we have many examples of patriotic devotion. Only one will
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Speaker 1: I recall during our late civil war, all England looked
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Speaker 1: on with a jealous eye. Wait, said she, until your
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Speaker 1: armies are turned loose to prey upon your country, and
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Speaker 1: your boasted republic will be transformed into a military despotism.
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Speaker 1: But what was the result. Within three months after Lee's surrender,
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Speaker 1: a million veteran soldiers, many of whom had been for
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Speaker 1: four years schooled in war, were turned loose, and all
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Speaker 1: returned to their homes, each adjusting himself to some useful
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Speaker 1: occupation and profession in civil life. The armies of the Union,
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Speaker 1: their warfare over crowded along all the busy avenues, and
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Speaker 1: were found in all the places of industry and high renown.
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Speaker 1: The hand that dropped the musket seized the plow. The
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Speaker 1: good right arm that wielded the saber with such destructive force,
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Speaker 1: impelled the saw and plane. The swords of the leaders
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Speaker 1: of charging hosts were hung against the wall. And many
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Speaker 1: of the boys who carried the gun have filled the
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Speaker 1: councils of the nation, and the voices of all have
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Speaker 1: been for peace. And all this transformation from the volunteer
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Speaker 1: citizen soldier to the civilian without jar or discord. This
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Speaker 1: is an example of patriotism that astonished the civilized world
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Speaker 1: in these perilous times, On this solemn Decoration day, over
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Speaker 1: the graves of our fallen comrades, and under the old flag,
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Speaker 1: let us pledge anew our sacred allegiance, and stand shoulder
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Speaker 1: to shoulder, with elbows at touch, as we did from
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Speaker 1: sixty one to sixty five by our country. Now, as
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Speaker 1: we did for our country then, and if ills there be,
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Speaker 1: bear them patiently and heroically like men, until in God's
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Speaker 1: good time the people shall gather together in their respective places,
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Speaker 1: where all wrongs in our government should and can be
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Speaker 1: righted at the polls. It is to honor the memory
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Speaker 1: of our fallen comrades that we meet here today. We
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Speaker 1: must strew their graves with flowers and mingle our tears
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Speaker 1: with those who gave for country more than wealth, a husband,
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Speaker 1: a father, a brother. So we meet to teach our
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Speaker 1: children lessons of patriotism, the cost of the War of
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Speaker 1: the Rebellion, and that their fathers were engaged in a
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Speaker 1: just and holy cause. That they were not adventurers following
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Speaker 1: the fortunes of war of some king or prince to
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Speaker 1: found an empire, but honest earnest, faithful citizens, who, though
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Speaker 1: they love their homes, their families, and friends, loved their
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Speaker 1: country more. Not soldiers from choice, but from a necessity
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Speaker 1: that an earnest sense of duty impels. That they fought
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Speaker 1: not to enslave but to free, not to destroy, but
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Speaker 1: to save, not as the conscripted serfs of a czar,
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Speaker 1: but as sovereigns of their own free will, for the
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Speaker 1: greatest good of the millions that shall follow. We meet
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Speaker 1: to teach our children that treason is a high crime,
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Speaker 1: a crime against God and man. That the doctrine of
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Speaker 1: states' rights, as taught by Calhoun and his Confederate successors,
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Speaker 1: is odious and treasonable, and that the right of a
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Speaker 1: state to succeed at will never did, does not and
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Speaker 1: cannot exist as a part of a government, cannot be
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Speaker 1: greater than the whole. We meet to teach our children
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Speaker 1: that for them to be happy, prosperous, and useful, three
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Speaker 1: things are absolutely essential. To honor God and keep his commandments,
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Speaker 1: to love their country and respect its laws, To love, honor,
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Speaker 1: and obey their parents. We meet that we may not
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Speaker 1: forget our unknown dead, the one hundred and forty eight thousand,
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Speaker 1: many of whom were worn out and exhausted by long
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Speaker 1: weary marshes and successive battles, fell out of ranks, and
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Speaker 1: their graves are scattered here and there along the Tennessee,
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Speaker 1: the Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Chattahoochee, the Rappahannock, and the James,
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Speaker 1: all along the sounds, up from the Gulf on the
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Speaker 1: Atlantic coast, and down among the bayoues of Louisiana, and
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Speaker 1: on the plains of Texas, in the deep waters of
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Speaker 1: the Ocean, and hidden among the deep dark ravines of
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Speaker 1: the Cumberlands and the Ozarks, forgotten, forgotten and alone. What
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Speaker 1: of their unwritten history? And how shall the obligations of
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Speaker 1: a generous republic be conferred? Those who died in the
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Speaker 1: dreary hospital, after weeks and months of suffering from burning
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Speaker 1: fevers and painful wounds. These sufferings, fellow citizens, were for you,
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Speaker 1: Forget it not, What of their unwritten history? And how
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Speaker 1: shall the obligations of a patriottic people be conferred? And
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Speaker 1: those who, in the storm of battle, mid cannonons roar
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Speaker 1: and muskets rattle as the foe charged on with cheer
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Speaker 1: and yell, like grass before the blade, They fell, the
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Speaker 1: solid lines of seething flame, leaped through the clouds of
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Speaker 1: drifting smoke, and filled the air with bursting shell and grape,
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Speaker 1: and shot and murderous hail. On the battle field of
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Speaker 1: the dead, the dyinge, the wounded, the friend and the foe.
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Speaker 1: No mother's gentle hand to soothe the pain, bind up
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Speaker 1: their wounds, or stop the flowing blood. No why or
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Speaker 1: a sister to wipe away the tears and receive the
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Speaker 1: dying message. No costly casket, no burial robe, no funeral train,
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Speaker 1: no tolling bell, no pastoral service, no sacred song, if
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Speaker 1: any twas but the canon's roar and the song of
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Speaker 1: shot and shell. No nothing of all this, but all kindly,
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Speaker 1: though hastily, gathered together, and in their blood stained garments,
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Speaker 1: given a soldier's burial. They died for you, fellow citizens.
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Speaker 1: And how shall your obligations be conferred? Thirty thousand died
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Speaker 1: in the prison pins dens of infamy and foul less
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Speaker 1: vaults of hell. Language cannot picture, neither congenious paint, the
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Speaker 1: suffering and anguish endure and the patriotic devotion of more
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Speaker 1: than one hundred thousand of our comrades, who fell into
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Speaker 1: the hands of the enemy. But when death and disease
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Speaker 1: was all around and among them, when starvation, with glaring
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Speaker 1: eyes and long bony fingers pointed to the tomb, and
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Speaker 1: scurvy and loathsome worms were devouring their flesh, and insanity
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Speaker 1: and idiocy were threatening to shut out the memory of
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Speaker 1: their doom. Our heroic comrades refused to take the oath
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Speaker 1: of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, that they might be
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Speaker 1: released from their torturing death, starving and dying. They could
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Speaker 1: not desert their country and their flag. Not among uncivilized
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Speaker 1: nations do we find such heartless cruelty to prisoners of war,
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Speaker 1: And never, never such patriotic devotion to country. Oh, who
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Speaker 1: can ever know of the unwritten history of comrades of ours?
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Speaker 1: Who knew of their dark and anxious hours, their secret meditations,
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Speaker 1: their silent tears at the midnight watch, and their aching
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Speaker 1: anxious hearts for victory, country and home. Ah, he who
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Speaker 1: tempers the storm to the shorn lamb has written at all.
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Speaker 1: And as with tender eyes each suffering hero saw, he
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Speaker 1: bowed his ear to hear their cry, and watched each
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Speaker 1: comrade fall, and many as they fell, we hope did
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Speaker 1: see the lines in front give way, and just before
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Speaker 1: the last expiring breath, could hear the shouts of victory
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Speaker 1: all along the line, and may perchance see the flag,
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Speaker 1: the dear old flag, as it was raised above the
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Speaker 1: rebel works and spread its ample folds before the breeze,
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Speaker 1: as the cloud of battle rises and gives a better view.
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Speaker 1: Who are these begrimmed with smoke, with headless, limbless trunks, bleeding, mangled,
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Speaker 1: gashed and torn, the dead, the dying, the wounded, the
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Speaker 1: friend and the foe. Oh, pitying Lamb of God, have
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Speaker 1: mercy and hear their dying groans and calls for help,
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Speaker 1: and safe, for no other help is near. Monuments have
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Speaker 1: been erected by a grateful Republic to statesmen and generals
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Speaker 1: of high rank. But those who stood on the line
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Speaker 1: of death, the picket line, the skirmish line, and the
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Speaker 1: front line of battle, and marched through heat and cold
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Speaker 1: and dust and mud and rain and sleet and snow
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Speaker 1: and hail, are lost and forgotten in history, and are
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Speaker 1: only known in the great aggregate quote the army of
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Speaker 1: the Republic unquote. Oh, if I could, I would build
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Speaker 1: a monument for the brave boys who carried the gun,
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Speaker 1: and would build it on an elevation that would overlook
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Speaker 1: the whole United Republic. Its base should be broad and
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Speaker 1: its foundation deep, its shaft of purest granite reaching to
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Speaker 1: the very heavens, and then commencing at the base and
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Speaker 1: passing upward, I would cut a niche for every officer,
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Speaker 1: higher and higher on the shaft, as their services and
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Speaker 1: sacrifices for their country should indicate. And then at the
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Speaker 1: very top, beyond the reach of human vision, where the
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Speaker 1: angels ever sing, and near the pearly gates of the
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Speaker 1: New Jerusalem, I would place the Union soldiers who wore
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Speaker 1: the blue and carried the gun, and then around them,
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Speaker 1: among them, high over and above them, I would place
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Speaker 1: the loyal women of America. The reckless and unscrupulous charges
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Speaker 1: of fraud against the old veterans by the unpatriotic cowards
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Speaker 1: who would not have stood within five miles of a
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Speaker 1: battle line for five thousand dollars per minute, taxes one's
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Speaker 1: charity and one's good nature to the utmost. Let it
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Speaker 1: be distinctly understood that somebody must have met the enemy
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Speaker 1: on more than five hundred hotly contested battlefields. Somebody must
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Speaker 1: have answered to roll call at Fort Sumter, Donaldson, Shiloh Port, Hudson, Vicksburg,
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Speaker 1: Stone River, Perryville, and Teedom, Gettysburg, Chicamauga, Lookout Mountain, Franklin, Atlanta,
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Speaker 1: and with Sherman all the way to the sea, and
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Speaker 1: with Grant with his quote, on to Richmond, through all
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Speaker 1: the Battle of the Wilderness and Fredericksburg, and on to
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Speaker 1: Appomatics victory and permanent peace. Someone fought these battles, endure
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Speaker 1: the hardships, privations and dangers, won the victories and saved
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Speaker 1: the nation. Were they adventurers, paupers, perjurers, robbers and frauds.
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Speaker 1: They stood for the Union and like an iron wall
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Speaker 1: against an enemy who would have destroyed it. Until sixty
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Speaker 1: thousand lay dead on the battlefield, until more than three
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand died from exhaustion, disease and wounds, and thirty
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Speaker 1: thousand died in rebel prisons. It is but a waste
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Speaker 1: of time to answer such villainous charges. Comrades, this is
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Speaker 1: our day. Let our hearts be filled with gratitude to
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Speaker 1: God that we are of those who survive. Our day
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Speaker 1: of thanksgiving. For the grand results so nobly won. Ours
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Speaker 1: and our children's day to observe as the years roll on,
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Speaker 1: that we may inhale the patriotic inspiration that fills the
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Speaker 1: air on Memorial Day. Ours and our children's to keep
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Speaker 1: constantly before the mind the cost of liberty, the price
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Speaker 1: paid for the suppression of the rebellion, and the present
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Speaker 1: reservation of a free and independent government. Ours to cement
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Speaker 1: those fraternal feelings that exist among those who, for many
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Speaker 1: weary months and years endured the perils and fatigues, the
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Speaker 1: weary marches and bivouacks of a soldier's life, who together
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Speaker 1: have breasted these storms of shot and shell, and shared
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Speaker 1: the privations, sufferings, and hunger of the prison pen And
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Speaker 1: ours and our children's day, to keep forever green the
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Speaker 1: hallowed memory of the heroic dead who have fallen to
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Speaker 1: save their country from disunion and disgrace. And then we know,
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Speaker 1: we know what happy fireside they left for the cheerless camp,
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Speaker 1: with pacific habits they dare the perils of the field.
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Speaker 1: There is no mystery or madness or chivalry about them,
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Speaker 1: all resolute, many bearing for country, conscience and liberty's sake.
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Speaker 1: And we know what all this ceremony means. Why that
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Speaker 1: all over our broad land, on the thirtieth day of
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Speaker 1: May of each and every year, a grateful nation stops
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Speaker 1: to weep over patriots graves and freely shed her tears
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Speaker 1: and strew their graves with flowers our heroic dead in memory.
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Speaker 1: They're living still, those honest sons of toil, those who
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Speaker 1: once were called the mud sills of the North. Why
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Speaker 1: they gathered patriotic inspiration as they gathered flower among their
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Speaker 1: native hills. They inhaled it as the evening zephyrs or
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Speaker 1: the morning's gentle breeze. They believed in their governments and
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Speaker 1: in its most essential doctrine quote, united we stand, Divided
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Speaker 1: we fall unquote. They loved their country, lived for it,
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Speaker 1: and died for it. As they met the enemy on
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Speaker 1: more than five hundred hard fought battlefields with wavering results
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Speaker 1: at first just true. They fought them hand to hand
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Speaker 1: and pressed them backwards foot by foot, until at last
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Speaker 1: the rebel hosts lay down their arms and fell in line. Then,
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Speaker 1: as from four million slaves, their shackles fell in broken links. Quote.
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Speaker 1: Freedom from her mountain height, unfurled her standard to the air.
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Speaker 1: She tore the azure robes of night and set the
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Speaker 1: stars of glory there unquote saved, Thank God, A nation's saved,
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Speaker 1: saved to the world and the milligans yet unborn, the
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Speaker 1: grandest and best government ever known to man quote. Then
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Speaker 1: cover with flowers the nations dead. Let them bloom o'er
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Speaker 1: their bosoms and wave o'er their heads. Let the beauty
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Speaker 1: and fragrance of spring's richest bloom fill the air that
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Speaker 1: we breathe. O'er the dead soldier's tomb unquote end of
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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty