Transcription

                                              10

Such reflections are the sad accomplaniment of such sad

scenes, But even as I indulge in them, the clear notes

of the bugle are [boarne?] from the adjoining bivouac,

and lifting my eyes I see from their standards the

silken Emblems of my Country's glory, the rights, the

liberties, and the blessings to humanity float out to

catch the morning breeze, and I cry out within myself,

nay, better a thousand times war with all its accompaning

desolation and woe, than the Servile Surrender of our

human right, Better that millions of homes be made

desolate, than that liberty should languish one hour

in chains, Better that the land be drenched again

and again in blood than human progress be stayed, or

selfish indifference or greed eat out the heart of virtuous

patriotism, For the dead are but clay but the soul that can

live, aspire, sacrifice, and dare, is eternal as the existence of God

and over battlefields, and wherever men bravely suffer

and die, walks the angel of resurrection, He reads

history vainly and without profit, who does not, between the

lines, also read the development of Divine purpose.

The battle of Williamsburg has received less importance

in history than it has merited, it having been

measured by results, rather than by the opportunities

it presented for the successful close of the campaign.

For had Franklin's Corps been promptly pushed up the

York river in the transports already in waiting, and the

remaining troops about Yorktown sent forward to the support

of the forces facing Johnston, it is hard to conceive how

Johnston could have escaped across the Chickahominy with

any considerable part of his army, That he regarded his

position as critical - on the night after the battle, is evinced

by the haste with which he withdrew, leaving over 800

of his wounded in our hands, "Hooker in his later report

of the action Said, "History will not be believed when it is

told that my division were permitted to carry on this

unequal struggle from morning until night, unaided;

in the presence of 30_000 of their comrades with

arms in their hands,    Nevertheless it is true."