For us who have survived the perils of battle and the far more fatal diseases that wasted our forces, and for all who cherish the memory of these dead, it will always be a consoling thought that the Federal government has done so much to provide honorable sepulture for those who fell in defence of the Union. We can all appreciate Lord Byron's lament for the great Florentine poet and patriot;—
"Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar,
Like Scipio, buried by the upbraiding shore."
But we can have no such regret for our lost comrades, buried not upon a foreign, nor upon an unfriendly shore, but in the bosom of the soil which their blood redeemed. Sacred is the tear that is shed for the unreturning brave.
"'T is the tear through many a long day wept,
'T is life's whole path o'ershaded;
'T is the one remembrance, fondly kept,
When all lighter griefs have faded."