Today is September 17, 2012, a pretty normal day, you might think. You probably left for work this morning, perhaps to school, or maybe you're reading this while still drinking your morning coffee. Again, a pretty typical morning.
But, 150 years ago today, the day was anything BUT typical. It was another muggy morning in Maryland, the fields were quiet, and many a farmer near the town of Sharpsburg was waking up, focused on his morning breakfast, but also worrying and wondering about those troops he had seen moving up and down the roads. The southern troops had passed by some days earlier, and were now rumored to be occupying the town of Sharpsburg and the low ridges around it. Yesterday and the day before, soldiers in blue, Federal soldiers, had been seen coming over the tall line of hills called South Mountain, where there had been the sounds of cannons and musketry.
Rumors also came of a battle at Harpers Ferry, down the Potomac river roughly about 15 miles, and stories were being told that said the entire Union garrison had surrendered.
But rumors were now being replaced by cold hard facts. The Confederate troops WERE indeed in Sharpsburg, and they were settling in for a fight. Union troops WERE filing into place in similar lines following the Confederate forces, and there indeed had been battles fought on South Mountain where the Army of the Potomac was trying to come over the hills to find and stop the Army of Northern Virginia before it could go further north. The approximately 13,000 man garrison of Harpers Ferry had surrendered to General "Stonewall" Jackson on the 15th, with the exception of some Cavalry that had escaped across the river unnoticed the night before.
But now it is dawn on the morning of the 17th, and the poppety pop of random skirmishing along the picket lines is now growing into a rumble and a roar that would continue throughout the day until the coming of darkness brought quiet.
North of town, the Hagerstown turnpike ran past a cornfield and the Dunker church, the place of worship for a sect of German pacifists, and down the gentle slopes into town. Straddling it were medium sized stands of trees, respectively called the North and the West woods. Days before, these places had been peaceful, quiet, and places were life went by rather slowly and without notice.
But now, thousands of young men would be grappling for their lives and the lives of their beliefs in the Cornfield, and around a one room church that was viewed as a place of peace. The 1st Corps, under the command of colorful Joseph Hooker, came thundering down from the North woods and out into the Cornfield, looking for an opening in the left flank of Robert E. Lee's lines. They clashed with the forces of "Stonewall" Jackson, some of whom were having their first warm and full meal in days. In particular were the Texans and Alabamans under the command of General Hood, who were already in a bad mood from having to execute a forced march from Harpers Ferry as well as being on very short rations for several days. The Union attack on their lines at dawn simply infuriated them, and they commenced a counter attack that staggered the entire 1st Corps, while suffering some of the worst casualties of any unit in the war.
The fighting in the Cornfield would surge back and forth until around 10 am, with soldiers from Jackson's command struggling with elements of the 1st 2nd, 3rd, and 12th corps, and still the battle so far remained a stalemate with no decisiveness at all.
After 10am, a new attack was commenced along the lines of some quiet little farm lanes, including one lane that had sunk into the ground due to its long use by wagons, horses, and all the elements of farm life. This road would prove a perfect trench for defending confederate troops, and an absolute nightmare for attacking Union troops. D. H. Hill commanded the troops lining this road, under the main command of James Longstreet, whose lines were theoretically the weakest, but the efforts of the troops under Longstreet's command would prove their worth in just a few minutes.
Sumner's 2nd Corps of the Army of the Potomac would be given the job of cracking this nut, and it would take all of them to do it. "Old Bull" Sumner, an elderly man with white hair and a voice that could carry the length of a battlefield in full use, had been a Cavalryman all his life, but now he was commanding infantry, by command of General McClellan. His previous experience in the military showed in how he sent his troops forward. Instead of one long line, or supporting attacks, he sent his three divisions forward one behind the other, all in battle line. This would give Confederate artillerists the chance of a life time: the chance to rake an entire Union corps from flank to flank without much returning fire.
The 2nd Corps attacked the Bloody Lane line 5 different times, including attacks made by the famed Irish brigade. Finally, John C. Caldwell's brigade under General Israel Richardson slipped to the right of the Confederate line in the sunken road. This move would turn the road into a death trap for the Confederates, where a crossfire being poured down the road by Caldwell's New Yorkers would kill hundreds of men in the shelter of the road, filling it with dead and wounded. Having walked down "Bloody Lane" while on my travels in the east, it is hard to imagine enough bodies to fill the road to the top, as the road lies 3-4 feet below ground level.
With the help of this deadly crossfire, the line in the sunken road snapped, and the 2nd Corps finally set off in a hot pursuit that would be stopped by massed artillery that Longstreet had put in place in case of such an emergency. The 2nd Corps fell back to its newly conquered ground, and the fighting in the middle of the line would cease around 1 in the afternoon.
The main fighting of the day now shifted to the southern end of the battlefield, where Ambrose Burnside's 9th Corps was stationed near a small stone bridge across Antietam creek.
Along the length of the Battlefield, Antietam creek was never more than 50 feet across, and in few places over waist deep. However, Burnside was ordered to cross the bridge to attack the southern end of Lee's lines, and being very by the book across the bridge Burnside would attack.
The opposite bank was held by few, precious few, Confederate forces. These troops had been depleted by Lee's shuffling of soldiers to the attacks occurring in the Cornfield and at Bloody Lane, and thus had left his right flank very weak. Burnside would try and take this opportunity, but his inability to do anything but follow the exact lettering of orders proved to be a bloodbath. The 9th Corps tried twice to take the bridge by storm, but those attempts failed miserably. Finally, the 51st New York and the 51st Pennsylvania were ordered to storm the bridge simultaneously and overwhelm the relatively few defenders who were conducting a Thermoplye-like defense. These units hesitated, due to their having seen what befell the last to assaults, but on a promise of a renewal of their whiskey allowance (due to their having abused that privilege, apparently), they successfully stormed the bridge and drove the defenders away from the high ground on the east side of the creek.
This attack was too late in coming, however, for just in the nick of time, A. P. Hill's men had arrived from Harpers Ferry, and were swinging into line to meet this new assault. It was a lucky stroke for the Confederacy, for before they arrived, there was absolutely no defense for this end of Sharpsburg and the Confederate line. Lee himself was going frantically through the streets, with two broken arms, no less, and ordering every man with a gun that he saw towards this end of town. A. P. Hill's arrival would save the day for the Confederacy, at least at this end of the field, and Burnside's attack would be squelched just short of the outskirts of town.
However, this part of the field was not the only place that was lightly defended by Confederate forces. The 5th Corps so far had not even fired a shot throughout the entire battle, for they were forming the final reserve for McClellan and the Army of the Potomac to draw upon.
The battle had now been progressing for some time, and scouting parties sent forward to the middle of Lee's lines were reporting that there was absolutely no one there. McClellan could have ended the war by sundown, but the age old fear of being outnumbered struck him at this moment of all moments.
Fitz-John Porter, the commander of the 5th Corps, also reminded him "Remember sir, I command the last reserve of the Army of the Potomac." How Porter meant this I do not know, but it appeared to have a unwelcome effect on McClellan, for he decided to leave the 5th Corps in its place and the battle only half won.
However, there was a small detachment sent forward to make contact with the enemy and make sure nothing was going on in the center of Lee's lines that McClellan wouldn't like. And who do you think was a part of this detachment? Well wouldn't you know, but companies G, I, and K of the 4th US Infantry!
These three companies, along with other elements from different regiments, went forward as a very large skirmish line, a probe, to see what Lee was up to in the middle of the field. The line would come under intense artillery fire, and would be in action most of the day, and then would be recalled at sundown.
Antietam was a battle of "What ifs". What if Burnside had crossed the bridge sooner? What if the 5th Corps had been sent forward in the final attack? What if, what if. Sounds like a lot of life.
But the "what ifs" were not to be, and the war would continue for three more years, with hundreds of thousands more to die, more chairs to be emptied, more graves to be dug.
However, Antietam did change one thing. It changed the war. Lincoln had been waiting to officially release the Emancipation Proclamation to change the war from a war to simply reunify the nation, to a war to free an entire race of men. The men of every Northern army, in spite of their beliefs, inclinations, or prejudices would now be fighting for people they had never even met or cared about before. The African American would now be considered a man in bondage, instead of a piece of property in use.
The United States Federal Government was reversing itself, and taking on the cause and the policy that John Brown had embraced in Harpers Ferry just a few years before. John Brown had come to Harpers Ferry to free enslaved people by force of arms, with no qualms about killing people who stood in his way. U.S. Marines had captured him in the fire engine house at the armory, and had handed him over to the State of Virginia for trial. Now, the same United State Government that had ordered those Marines to Harpers Ferry was no embracing the same cause, and making the largest land army in the world an army whose objective was freedom for 4 million people. It is quite a change.
Antietam changed many things, the war, politics, the mindset of a country, and the future of a race.
And it all happened 150 years ago today.
Thats all for now, I'll write again soon.
Cheers!
Monday, September 17, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
Perseverance
Throughout our lives, trials will come, hardships will have to be endured, and problems will have to be solved. Thats simply how it works. Thats kind of what makes the human spirit and God's grace so very cool, in that those are the biggest powers that allow us to over come suffering and tribulation.
On a closer examination of soldiers and their careers, I find that it is those men and women who put their all on the line for others that suffer the most. Soldiers have to put up with some down right terrifying situations to help people, people they often times don't even know, and for what? A paycheck? The pat on a back? I believe that they do it because they know that for them, it is the right thing to do.
But what keeps them going? What helps them keep waking up in the morning, suiting up, and reporting to duty? They know it is the right thing to do, but how to they manage to find the strength to do it day after day?
The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac (or any army during the Civil War) was no different from the armies of today. Sure, the equipment is newer (thankfully), the tactics are switched up to allow for new technology, and thanks to that new technology, we have fewer battlefield casualties than in the times of the Civil War. (Imagine if in one battle in Iraq or Afghanistan we had 50,000 casualties!) Yet all these "improvements" to warfare does not take away the fact that "War is Hell" as General William T. Sherman put it so eloquently. War is the forceful coercion of one power over another, by force of arms and the death of the people of both powers, and as such, the soldiers (and people) fighting a war must put up with hardship, suffering, and deprivations so severe that we can't really imagine, especially here in the United States. After all, it has been almost 200 years since an invading army from a foreign country set foot on our soil.
For the Army of the Potomac, the Civil War was hell itself. For nearly 2 years since the beginning of the war, it went without any victory whatsoever, until the battle of Antietam, and then it went nearly another year until its next victory at Gettysburg. It suffered military setbacks, deprivation of shelter and supplies, and on occasion the derision of its people and its government. It also suffered from a lack of leadership, with going through 6 different commanders before settling on George Meade who won his stripes at the battle of Gettysburg.
The winter of 1862-1863 was described as "The valley forge of the Army of the Potomac". The army suffered from a shortage of food and clothing, as well as a stunning defeat at Fredericksburg, and also a embarrassing and anticlimactic "mud march" provided by Ambrose Burnside, its commander. Desertions soared during this time, due to the fact that the men's war spirit and morale was "all played out" and because there was no such thing has a furlough, meaning that the men could not go home to their families. In short, it had lost confidence in itself and its cause.
Yet, the Army did survive these ordeals. It survived its encampment at Falmouth Virginia in winter of '62-'63, and even survived the battle of Chancellorsville with quite good morale. This is due to Joseph Hooker's reorganization of the army, giving the men a sense of unit pride in their corps badges, and his fighting spirit. He was not called "Fighting Joe" for nothing, yet his pride and boasting eventually DID go before his fall in the wild land around Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863.
The Army would go on to win its own fighting spirit back at Gettysburg, which, while not changing anything militaristically speaking, it did change things for the Army of the Potomac in that it realized that it actually COULD whip Robert E. Lee and his army in a stand up, toe to toe fight. In short, it received its manhood and confidence back, which changed everything. It would go on to suffer even more, beyond our wildest imaginations, at places like the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, in the mud at Petersburg, but it would finally win peace and victory at a little tiny hamlet called Appomattox Court House.
How did they do it? I believe that they, while it disappeared from time to time due to their circumstances, had a undying belief in what they were doing, what they were suffering for, and they weren't willing to give it up. In the motion picture "Gettysburg", Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain makes a speech that, while utterly fictional, is still quite good, and I believe describes the heart of the men in blue that fought from 1861-1865.
To be sure, every man had his prejudices, perhaps against blacks, or immigrants, or what have you. Yet they all stuck together, they all held out and suffered because they wanted something better. They wanted to make their tomorrow better than their yesterday. They didn't know how it would turn out, yet they went through the hell anyway. And to be honest, it did them a favor, because it proved that they could win, they could stand up to whatever was thrown at them, that they could have final victory.
"It is actually wonderful how the Army of the Potomac stand the deprivations, trials, and reverses that have been heaped on them without stint or mercy to meet the foe with undaunted spirits. I do not believe there ever was an army in any country that would endure the same treatment this army has and yet be ready to fight as good a battle, and perhaps a better one than they could when they first came out. Although we have been deprived of the privilege of winning any lasting victories, it has not been our fault, as history in future days will show. I look forward to the time when a man can say with pride, 'I belonged to the Army of the Potomac.' We look to history to give our just due and to place all the blame where it belongs."
So how can we have this same perseverance as the Army of the Potomac? How can we keep getting up to fight our own battles each day, whether they be with family, a co-worker, or what have you?
For me, my final victory is not to prove that I'm right and others are wrong, that I'm better than other people, or anything like that. In the end, my final victory is me standing before God's throne in heaven and hearing him say "well done my good and faithful servant". At this point in time, I in no way feel worthy of hearing my Lord and Savior say this to me, such a sinner, but yet I have to cling to the faith that God's spirit has given us and believe that Christ is making intercession for me and washing me clean of all sin so that I may live with him in heaven. This promise holds true for you as well, my friend.
I will close with a short poem that I found in a original copy of "Monroe's 4th reader" that I own, a school book published in 1872.
On a closer examination of soldiers and their careers, I find that it is those men and women who put their all on the line for others that suffer the most. Soldiers have to put up with some down right terrifying situations to help people, people they often times don't even know, and for what? A paycheck? The pat on a back? I believe that they do it because they know that for them, it is the right thing to do.
But what keeps them going? What helps them keep waking up in the morning, suiting up, and reporting to duty? They know it is the right thing to do, but how to they manage to find the strength to do it day after day?
The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac (or any army during the Civil War) was no different from the armies of today. Sure, the equipment is newer (thankfully), the tactics are switched up to allow for new technology, and thanks to that new technology, we have fewer battlefield casualties than in the times of the Civil War. (Imagine if in one battle in Iraq or Afghanistan we had 50,000 casualties!) Yet all these "improvements" to warfare does not take away the fact that "War is Hell" as General William T. Sherman put it so eloquently. War is the forceful coercion of one power over another, by force of arms and the death of the people of both powers, and as such, the soldiers (and people) fighting a war must put up with hardship, suffering, and deprivations so severe that we can't really imagine, especially here in the United States. After all, it has been almost 200 years since an invading army from a foreign country set foot on our soil.
For the Army of the Potomac, the Civil War was hell itself. For nearly 2 years since the beginning of the war, it went without any victory whatsoever, until the battle of Antietam, and then it went nearly another year until its next victory at Gettysburg. It suffered military setbacks, deprivation of shelter and supplies, and on occasion the derision of its people and its government. It also suffered from a lack of leadership, with going through 6 different commanders before settling on George Meade who won his stripes at the battle of Gettysburg.
The winter of 1862-1863 was described as "The valley forge of the Army of the Potomac". The army suffered from a shortage of food and clothing, as well as a stunning defeat at Fredericksburg, and also a embarrassing and anticlimactic "mud march" provided by Ambrose Burnside, its commander. Desertions soared during this time, due to the fact that the men's war spirit and morale was "all played out" and because there was no such thing has a furlough, meaning that the men could not go home to their families. In short, it had lost confidence in itself and its cause.
Yet, the Army did survive these ordeals. It survived its encampment at Falmouth Virginia in winter of '62-'63, and even survived the battle of Chancellorsville with quite good morale. This is due to Joseph Hooker's reorganization of the army, giving the men a sense of unit pride in their corps badges, and his fighting spirit. He was not called "Fighting Joe" for nothing, yet his pride and boasting eventually DID go before his fall in the wild land around Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863.
The Army would go on to win its own fighting spirit back at Gettysburg, which, while not changing anything militaristically speaking, it did change things for the Army of the Potomac in that it realized that it actually COULD whip Robert E. Lee and his army in a stand up, toe to toe fight. In short, it received its manhood and confidence back, which changed everything. It would go on to suffer even more, beyond our wildest imaginations, at places like the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, in the mud at Petersburg, but it would finally win peace and victory at a little tiny hamlet called Appomattox Court House.
How did they do it? I believe that they, while it disappeared from time to time due to their circumstances, had a undying belief in what they were doing, what they were suffering for, and they weren't willing to give it up. In the motion picture "Gettysburg", Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain makes a speech that, while utterly fictional, is still quite good, and I believe describes the heart of the men in blue that fought from 1861-1865.
"This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you'll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we're here for something new. This has not happened much, in the history of the world: We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end... we're fighting for each other."
To be sure, every man had his prejudices, perhaps against blacks, or immigrants, or what have you. Yet they all stuck together, they all held out and suffered because they wanted something better. They wanted to make their tomorrow better than their yesterday. They didn't know how it would turn out, yet they went through the hell anyway. And to be honest, it did them a favor, because it proved that they could win, they could stand up to whatever was thrown at them, that they could have final victory.
In the book "The Sword of Lincoln" by Jeffry D. Wert, the last line of the book is a quote from the journal of Sergeant Charles Bowen, of the 12th US Infantry, which is fittingly enough a member of the same brigade as the 4th US Infantry. He describes how the Army of the Potomac suffered and suffered reverses, yet was able to win the final victory, in spite of the doubts of its leaders, its people, and its government. I'll let him speak for himself:
"It is actually wonderful how the Army of the Potomac stand the deprivations, trials, and reverses that have been heaped on them without stint or mercy to meet the foe with undaunted spirits. I do not believe there ever was an army in any country that would endure the same treatment this army has and yet be ready to fight as good a battle, and perhaps a better one than they could when they first came out. Although we have been deprived of the privilege of winning any lasting victories, it has not been our fault, as history in future days will show. I look forward to the time when a man can say with pride, 'I belonged to the Army of the Potomac.' We look to history to give our just due and to place all the blame where it belongs."
So how can we have this same perseverance as the Army of the Potomac? How can we keep getting up to fight our own battles each day, whether they be with family, a co-worker, or what have you?
Being a Christian, I recently came across some verses that have truly encouraged me, since I have many battles I am fighting. If you do not share my beliefs, I respect that, but perhaps you can take these words as encouraging, if not as God's own word. I'm quoting from Romans chapter 8:
"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." KJV
For me, my final victory is not to prove that I'm right and others are wrong, that I'm better than other people, or anything like that. In the end, my final victory is me standing before God's throne in heaven and hearing him say "well done my good and faithful servant". At this point in time, I in no way feel worthy of hearing my Lord and Savior say this to me, such a sinner, but yet I have to cling to the faith that God's spirit has given us and believe that Christ is making intercession for me and washing me clean of all sin so that I may live with him in heaven. This promise holds true for you as well, my friend.
I will close with a short poem that I found in a original copy of "Monroe's 4th reader" that I own, a school book published in 1872.
"Yes, courage, boy, courage! and press on thy way;
Though waves of temptation in anger may roll,
Let jo light they cheek, then, and hope gild thy brow;
By deeds of the mighty, who struggled and bled,
Then courage, boy, courage! There's light in the sky:
there is nothing to harm thee, nothing to fear:
do all which truth bids thee, and do it today;
Hold on to thy purpose, do right, persevere!
and storm cloud on storm cloud hang dark in the sky,
still courage, boy, courage! There's strength in thy soul;
believing and doing bring help from on high.
ne'er parley with wrong, nor ill stay to borrow;
let thy object be truth, and thy watchword be now!
Make sure of today, and trust God for tomorrow.
be incited to action, and manfully fight:
good is worth doing, boy! and, living or dead,
that good shall reward thee with honor and might.
be humble, be active, be honest, be true;
and though hosts may confront, and though foes may decry,
"I've conquered!" at last shall be shouted by you."
~Monroe's 4th Reader, 1872
I hope that this post has made at least some sense, and that it has been encouraging to you to read as it has been for me to write.
Go out today and see what God can do with you!
Cheers.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
A touching end to a horrible war
Reading Bruce Catton's "This hallowed ground", the last few pages documented a simple, unorganized last "huzzah" for the men of the 5th Corps, of which the 4th regiment was a part.
"There was a quiet, cloudless May evening in Washington, with no touch of breeze stirring. In the camp of the V corps of the Army of the Potomac men lounged in front of their tents, feeling the familiar monotony of camp life for the last time. Here and there impromptu male quartets were singing. On some impulse a few soldiers got out candles, stuck them in the muzzles of their muskets, lighted them, and began to march down a company street. In the windless twilight the moving flames hardly so much as flickered.
Other soldiers saw, liked the looks of it, got out their own candles, and joined in the parade, until the presently the whole camp as astir. Privates were appointed temporary lieutenants, captains, and colonels, whole regiments began to form, spur of the moment brigadiers were commissioned, bands turned out to make music-and by the time full darkness had come the whole army corps was on the parade ground, swinging in and out, nothing visible but thousands upon thousands of candle flames.
Watching from a distance, a reporter for the New York HARALD thought the sight beautiful beyond description. No torchlight procession Broadway ever saw, he said, could compare with it. Here there seemed to be infinite room; this army corps had the night itself for its drill field, and as the little lights moved and out it was 'as though the gaslights of a great city had suddenly become animated and had taken to dancing.' The parade went on and on; the dancing flames narrowed into endless moving columns, broke out into broad wheeling lines, swung back into columns again, fanned out across the darkness with music floating down the still air.
As they paraded the men began to cheer. They had marched many weary miles in the last four years, into battle and out of battle, through forests and across rivers, uphill and downhill and over the fields, moving always because they had to go where they were told to go. Now they were marching just for the fun of it. It was the last march of all and, when the candles burned out, the night would swallow soldiers and music and the great army itself, but while the candles still burned, the men cheered.
The night would swallow everything-the war and its echoes, the graves that had been dug and the tears that had been shed because of them, the hatreds that had been raised, the wrongs that had been endured and the inexpressible hopes that had been kindled-and in the end the last little flame would flicker out, leaving no more than a wisp of gray smoke to curl away unseen. The night would take all of this, as it had toaken so many men and so many ideals-Lincoln and McPherson, old Stonewall and Pat Cleburne, the chance for a peace made in friendship and understanding, the hour of vision that saw fair dealing for men just released from bondage. But for the moments the lights still twinkled, infinitely fragile, flames that bent to the weight of their own advance, as insubstantial as the dream of a better world in the hearts of men, and they moved to the far off sound of music and laughter. The final end would not be darkness. Somewhere, far beyond the night, there would be a brighter and a stronger light."
I honestly have no words to add to this... its beautiful. :)
"There was a quiet, cloudless May evening in Washington, with no touch of breeze stirring. In the camp of the V corps of the Army of the Potomac men lounged in front of their tents, feeling the familiar monotony of camp life for the last time. Here and there impromptu male quartets were singing. On some impulse a few soldiers got out candles, stuck them in the muzzles of their muskets, lighted them, and began to march down a company street. In the windless twilight the moving flames hardly so much as flickered.
Other soldiers saw, liked the looks of it, got out their own candles, and joined in the parade, until the presently the whole camp as astir. Privates were appointed temporary lieutenants, captains, and colonels, whole regiments began to form, spur of the moment brigadiers were commissioned, bands turned out to make music-and by the time full darkness had come the whole army corps was on the parade ground, swinging in and out, nothing visible but thousands upon thousands of candle flames.
Watching from a distance, a reporter for the New York HARALD thought the sight beautiful beyond description. No torchlight procession Broadway ever saw, he said, could compare with it. Here there seemed to be infinite room; this army corps had the night itself for its drill field, and as the little lights moved and out it was 'as though the gaslights of a great city had suddenly become animated and had taken to dancing.' The parade went on and on; the dancing flames narrowed into endless moving columns, broke out into broad wheeling lines, swung back into columns again, fanned out across the darkness with music floating down the still air.
As they paraded the men began to cheer. They had marched many weary miles in the last four years, into battle and out of battle, through forests and across rivers, uphill and downhill and over the fields, moving always because they had to go where they were told to go. Now they were marching just for the fun of it. It was the last march of all and, when the candles burned out, the night would swallow soldiers and music and the great army itself, but while the candles still burned, the men cheered.
The night would swallow everything-the war and its echoes, the graves that had been dug and the tears that had been shed because of them, the hatreds that had been raised, the wrongs that had been endured and the inexpressible hopes that had been kindled-and in the end the last little flame would flicker out, leaving no more than a wisp of gray smoke to curl away unseen. The night would take all of this, as it had toaken so many men and so many ideals-Lincoln and McPherson, old Stonewall and Pat Cleburne, the chance for a peace made in friendship and understanding, the hour of vision that saw fair dealing for men just released from bondage. But for the moments the lights still twinkled, infinitely fragile, flames that bent to the weight of their own advance, as insubstantial as the dream of a better world in the hearts of men, and they moved to the far off sound of music and laughter. The final end would not be darkness. Somewhere, far beyond the night, there would be a brighter and a stronger light."
I honestly have no words to add to this... its beautiful. :)
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