But my life in the army did not alter the views I had formed in my college life of the horror and futility of war, but rather strengthened and confirmed them. I witnessed the sad effects of the conflict in dividing and embittering brothers of the same blood, the ravages of the battlefield and the hospital, the valuable lives lost and the widows and orphans, the enormous expenditure of money, and the great war debt and pensions to be paid by a coming generation. All these evils might have been avoided by a peaceful adjustment of the questions which were settled by the armed conflict. The emancipation of the slaves by purchase would have been many times less than the cost of the war in money, without counting the saving of the lives lost, the widows and orphans, and the bitterness engendered. There is a certain glamour about warfare which attracts the participant, but it is fictitious and unchristian. I pray God that our country may be delivered from its horrors in the future.
THE END
Copyright by Bass and Woodworth, Indianapolis
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, INDIANAPOLIS