A Visit to Shiloh in 1894

Championhilz

First Sergeant
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Mar 18, 2011
Location
Clinton, Mississippi
I found the following in The Clarion (Jackson, Miss.), September 27, 1894. It was written by Henry Winter Harper, who was the son of George W. Harper, the owner/editor of the Hinds County Gazette during the Civil War. Harper's newspaper office was pretty well destroyed by the Yankees when they captured Raymond, Mississippi, in May 1863. Harper, however, was able to restart the paper after the war, and it is still being published to this day.

Henry Winter Harper visited Shiloh in 1894, and was moved to write these lines:

As I looked upon the ground made sacred by its baptism with the blood of heroes, my thoughts turned backward to the dark days of the war that cast its shadow over my childhood days and in imagination I could see its heroes.


I thought of the poor soldiers that died far from home and loved ones, without the touch of gentle hands and the sound of loving voices to soothe them in the hour of death, and of the suffering wounded that lay out upon the cold dark field or endured the surgeon’s torturous knife and saw.


I thought of the wives that were made widows, and the children fatherless, and of the mothers that mourned for their sons and refused to be comforted because they were not.


I thought of the nation that perished that our fathers defended, of the flag that we loved, and the blood that was shed for its glory.


As I looked upon the graves of the Southern dead and then upon those of the North, I thought of the contrast between the victor and the vanquished. The bones of the Northern dead have long ago been gathered up and buried in the nation’s beautiful cemetery. Their graves are marked with slabs of marble, and over them floats their country’s flag, but the forgotten dead of the Lost Cause still sleep in unknown graves on the battle field. They have no government to honor their memories and mark their last resting places, for the nation on whose altar they died lives only in history, and in the hearts of those who fought beneath her sacred banner. But history shall be their monument, and in future ages, when marble shall have crumbled to dust, men will read their records, admire their gallant deeds, and applaud their heroic death.
 
This is the reason I cherish written expression. The date this piece was composed makes this especially moving. I'm glad I could read these words written so long ago, and capture an essence time can not erase. Thank you for posting.
 
I had to bump this one, its almost been a week since I was at Shiloh and I am still thinking about the burial pits. Very appropriate words above.
 
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