No proposition is better supported by history, than that “righteousness exalteth a nation,” “but the wages of sin is death” to a nation.
Dear comrades, many of us were permitted to return from the war to our homes with our lives, but many with broken health, caused by the fatigues of the march, the wearisome camp, the heat of summer, the frosts of winter, and the awful ecstasy of battle. We now love to meet each other at the post meeting, at the campfire, and above all, at our reunions. But while we thus enjoy ourselves to some extent we are thinking of the fallen. With a soldier’s generosity we wish they could be here to share in our hard-earned pleasures. Possibly they are here, from many a grave in which we laid them. Many of them died in the darkest hours of the Republic, others in the early dawn of peace while the morning stars were singing together. We should meet at every reunion possible. I trust that we will meet in a reunion where there will be no parting. Farewell. From the author.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Blank pages have been removed.
Silently corrected typographical errors.