The whole country
claimed these heroes as a part of themselves. And now, done with
fighting, they were going joyously and peaceably to their homes, to take
up again the tasks they had willingly laid down in the hour of their
country's peril.
The world had many lessons to learn from this great conflict, which
liberated a subject people and changed the tactics of modern warfare;
but the greatest lesson it taught the nations of waiting Europe was the
conservative power of democracy--that a million men, flushed with
victory, and with arms in their hands, could be trusted to disband the
moment the need for their services was over, and take up again the
soberer labors of peace.
Friends loaded these veterans with flowers as they swung down the
Avenue, both men and officers, until some were fairly hidden under their
fragrant burden. There was laughter and applause; grotesque figures were
not absent as Sherman's legions passed, with their "bummers" and their
regimental pets; but with all the shouting and the laughter and the joy
of this unprecedented ceremony, there was one sad and dominant thought
which could not be driven from the minds of those who saw it--that of
the men who were absent, and who had, nevertheless, richly earned the
right to be there. The soldiers in their shrunken companies were
conscious of the ever-present memories of the brave comrades who had
fallen by the way; and in the whole army there was the passionate and
unavailing regret for their wise, gentle, and powerful friend, Abraham
Lincoln, gone forever from the house by the Avenue, who had called the
great host into being, directed the course of the nation during the four
years they had been fighting for its preservation, and for whom, more
than for any other, this crowning peaceful pageant would have been
fraught with deep and happy meaning.
Pages:
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663