The mission of these pages is one of Peace—that all may look upon the horrors of War and pledge their manhood to "Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men!"
"WAR is hell!" The daring Sherman's familiar truth is here witnessed with all its horrors. War is hell, and this is war! If it were not for the service that this negative should do for the great cause of the world's Peace, this picture, which has lain in a vault in Washington for an epoch, would never be exposed to public view. Its very gruesomeness is a plea to men to lay down arms. Its ghastliness is an admonition to the coming generations. It is a silent prayer for universal brotherhood. The negative was taken after the third day's battle at Gettysburg. The din of the batteries had died away. The clash of arms had ceased. The tumult of men was hushed. The clouds of smoke had lifted and the morning sun engraved on the glass plate this mute witness of the tragedy that had made history. It was the nation's holiday—the Fourth of July in 1863. The camera was taken into the wheat-field near the extreme left of the Union line. The heroes had been dead about nineteen hours. It will be observed that their bodies are already much bloated by exposure to the sun. These men were killed on July 3, 1863, by one discharge of "canister" from a Confederate cannon which they were attempting to capture. Tin cans were filled with small balls about the size of marbles and when the cannon was fired the force of the discharge burst open the can, and the shower of canister balls swept everything before it. When this photograph was taken a detail had already passed over the field, and gathered the guns and accoutrements of the dead and wounded. Shoes, cartridge belts and canteens have been removed from these dead heroes as it was frequently necessary to appropriate them to relieve the needs of the living soldiers. From diamond at extreme right of picture these men are identified as belonging to the second division of third army corps.
IN the conflicts within the lifetime of men now living, more than three billions of dollars sterling have been thrown into the cannon's mouth, and nearly five millions of human lives have fallen martyrs to the battlefield. In the United States of America, a government founded on the Brotherhood of Man, the greatest expenditure since the beginning of the Republic has been for bloodshed, over six billions for War, nearly two billions for navy, and about three and one-half billions for pensions—more than eleven billions out of a total of something over nineteen billions of dollars. In the last half century the population of the world has doubled; its indebtedness, chiefly for war purposes, has quadrupled. It was but eight billions fifty years ago; it is thirty-two billions today.
America has never been a war-seeking nation. Its one desire has been to "live and let live." When once aroused, however, it is the greatest fighting force on the face of the globe. It is in this peace-loving land that civilization witnessed the most terrible and heart-rending struggle that ever befell men of the same blood. "Men speaking the same language, living for eighty-four years under the same flag, stood as enemies in deadly combat. Brother fighting against brother; father against son; mothers praying for their boys—one in the uniform of blue, and the other wearing the gray; and churches of the same faith appealing to God, each for the other's overthrow."
There were 2,841,906 men and boys sworn into the defence of their country during the Civil War in the United States. The extreme youth of these patriots is one of the most remarkable records in the annals of the world's warfare. The average age of the soldier in the army and navy was about nineteen years. Some of them followed the marching armies on the impulse of the moment; most of them were enlisted with the consent of their parents or guardians. Thousands of them never returned home; thousands more came back to the pursuits of Peace and have contributed for nearly a half century to the Good Citizenship of the Republic. Today they are gray-haired patriarchs. One by one they are stepping from the ranks to answer the call to the Greater Army from which no soldier has ever returned. This record has been compiled for this volume from an authoritative source. The men who re-enlisted are counted twice as there is no practical way to estimate the number of individual persons: