Part 12

"I am now at headquarters of the post very comfortably situated; have a room for myself carpeted and well furnished. Captain Otis, General Van Cleve's adjutant-general, a very competent officer, is left here, and he has his wife with him. It looks quite homelike to sit down at a table with a lady to preside, and also to nurse the baby. It was reported that the rebels were crossing the Tennessee River yesterday at Claysville, intending to make a raid on the railroad, but I hardly believe it."

A bright side of the soldier's life is given in my letter of July 21:--

"We have no news of special importance. I don't have very much to do in my post command, am comfortably situated in quarters, and have about enough business to keep the time from being dull. Captain Otis and his wife and I are the only members of our mess, and we have a very pleasant table. When General Rosecrans was in command here he established a large hospital garden, worked by the convalescents in the hospitals. It is now producing large quantities of vegetables, and our table is very liberally supplied from it with green corn, tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, potatoes, squashes, etc. We also enjoy plenty of milk and butter, with ice to cool them. The general left his servant here, and he has nothing to do but take care of my room, black my boots, and brush my clothes, etc. There are a number of officers' wives here, and we have frequent company in our parlor of these and occasionally of rebel ladies. So you see the hardships of the poor soldier's life at present being undergone by me are such as I may be able to endure with safety to my life!"

In my letter of July 30, I report my return to the regiment:--

"General Van Cleve arrived last night and I returned to the command of the regiment. I think it was needing my attention from appearances. In the two weeks I have been absent there has been only one battalion drill. Although this is Saturday afternoon and we are not accustomed to having drill that afternoon, yet I am going to give them battalion drill to make up for lost time. I want them to make a fine appearance when we return to Indiana. We are now drilling in the bayonet exercise, which interests the men very much."

A week later I write:--

"We are having as usual a quiet Sabbath. My present term of service is so very different from that which I have heretofore been used to. Before it was all activity, bustle, battles, pursuits or retreats. But now it is all the quiet monotony of camp life, broken only by the routine of drill. Heretofore I seldom had a quiet Sunday. Now I can read my Bible and religious papers regularly, write to my dear one, and attend Church services. But with all these privileges there is no day in which I miss home so much."

Taking advantage of our quiet camp life, I obtained leave to visit Knoxville, where I had spent so many pleasant days the year before. My letter of the 13th of August gives some account of that visit:--

"Does it look natural to you to see this letter dated from Knoxville? I left Murfreesboro day before yesterday, woke up in the morning and found myself across the Tennessee River and in the midst of the mountains. The scenery is quite romantic and attractive. I felt at once that I was in East Tennessee. There is nothing in scenery like the mountains. In a little while we came in sight of Lookout Mountain, stretching far away with its range into Georgia, and jutting up with its bold promontory into the Tennessee River, and far above the mist of the river rose the spur so celebrated as Hooker's Battle of the Clouds. Soon we came into Chattanooga, bristling with its many battlements, and alive with the hurry and bustle of that great army dépôt. It is astonishing to note what a vast machinery it requires in the rear to support and keep supplied a large army.

"The run up to Knoxville was quite pleasant, where we arrived at half-past five in the evening. On my way up to the hotel I met an old Tennessee acquaintance who acted as a guide for me in my raids last autumn. He would listen to nothing but that I must be his guest, so I went around and stopped with him. I came down in town in the evening, and called on some of my old friends who showed much pleasure in seeing me again. To-day I have been busy in calling on other old friends, and took dinner to-day with Mrs. Locke, who was very glad to have me again at her house. I am to take supper with General Tillottson, commanding the post. I have found a number of the old Sixty-fifth and of my staff here on detailed duty.

"They are organizing an expedition for a raid into upper East Tennessee, in my old route of campaigning, and, to be frank, I have been very much tempted to go up with them, as they are anxious to have me. But it would detain me beyond my leave, and I might expect a scolding from my dear little wife. So I will leave in two or three days and return direct to Murfreesboro."

As the term of enlistment of our regiment was drawing to a close, a movement was set on foot to have me continue in the service. The Union men of western Kentucky were very anxious to have me return to that district and drive out the guerrillas, who had been very troublesome after I had left that region. They had been in conference with my older brother George, who took a great pride in my military career and was very ambitious for me. The plan was to have me made a brigadier general, and given a special command of western Kentucky. When this was made known to me I answered my brother George that if the command was tendered me without any effort on my part I might take it into consideration, but only on the express condition that my wife would consent to it. It is to this plan I refer in some of my letters to her. In the one of July 31 I say:--

"The expiration of our term of enlistment is drawing near and a strong effort will be made to get our regiment to reënlist for one, two, or three years. What do you say,--must I go in for it? They are also writing me from Kentucky urging me to come back there and clear the guerrillas out of my old field of operations. I must confess the latter proposition is something of a temptation to me. I would like to spend three or four weeks there in chasing out the guerrillas, and then I really do believe I could come home and stay there in peace."

On August 7 I write my wife:--

"I had been back from the army just long enough with my wife and little darlings to appreciate how much I had missed during the three years gone, and I do believe when I get home this time I shall be able to conclude that I have discharged my duty to my country and done my share of the fighting, and that I have also a duty to discharge to my family, which I have sadly neglected for the three years past; and I hope that for the rest of my life I shall devote myself to them. Major Hynes was saying to me the other day that you had acted so nobly during my absence he thought I owed it to you and my children when I was out of the service this time to stay at home. But I take so much interest in the war and am so thoroughly satisfied with the correctness of the principles for which it is being prosecuted, that I must confess I do not like to leave the army, when all of our experienced officers and men are so badly needed, but I hope I will be able to see my duty clear to stay at home. I trust my influence and efforts there will not be entirely useless."

I wrote fully to my wife of the plans of my Kentucky friends and my brother, and from my letters it appears they met with her decided disapproval. On August 20 I wrote: "I was sorry on my return from Knoxville and read your letters and saw how you felt about my going into the service again, that I had written George on the subject." And again I wrote: "I was sorry to know from your letter that my letter in which I had said something about reëntering the service had given you any pain or solicitude, as I did not design that it should do so. I never yet have entered the service or left home except with your consent or approval, and I will not do it in the future. As I have written heretofore, I think I have served my country long enough to serve my family awhile; and I hope nothing will occur to prevent my early return to my home."

Some fear was entertained that the efforts of the Confederate cavalry to break up the railroad connections would detain our regiment in Tennessee beyond the term of enlistment, but no such untoward event occurred. The One Hundred and Thirty-sixth left Murfreesboro on August 25 under my command, passed through Louisville the next day, and the day following took the cars at New Albany for Indianapolis. The citizens of Bloomington, the seat of Indiana University where the "Foster boys" had received their education, having notice that the regiment would pass their town about noon, entertained them with a hurried but sumptuous dinner. We found a warm supper awaiting us and were comfortably quartered at Indianapolis in barracks, where we spent one week waiting to be paid off and mustered out of the service. During this time we took part in a review by Governor Morton of six thousand troops gathered at the Capital of the State, and in this and our regimental parades we were enabled with much pride to exhibit our accomplishments in soldiery.

In the introduction to the compilation of these letters I described myself in entering the service as a peace man, as having no desire for military glory, having no special fitness for the life of a soldier, and entertaining a horror of war. The reader of these letters must have noted the gradual development of a taste for or satisfaction with the service. Even at the outset in Missouri, in describing in glowing colors the exposure to the climate and the hard marching, I manifest a certain enthusiasm for my success as a wagon-master, or for my prospective work of an architect of the log-hut winter quarters. I early mastered the tactics, army regulations, and camp régime, and often wrote of my interest in the drill and regimental and brigade exercises. I refer to the gallant charges of our regiment and brigade at Donelson, and speak of some parts of the bloody battle of Shiloh as "grand beyond description." I hardly had words sufficient to describe the deliverance by our army of the Union citizens of East Tennessee. My intercourse with my comrades, superior and inferior officers and men, is noticed as in all respects agreeable. When I entered the army I was not robust, having too long led a student and office life, but during my entire service I enjoyed almost uninterrupted good health, the letters constantly speaking of how the outdoor life and the most active campaigning best agreed with me. So that it has been seen that while at the end of three years of army service I was rejoiced to go back to my home, to my wife and little ones, an offer to reënter the army was quite a temptation to me.

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

APPENDIX INDIANA SOLDIERS' MONUMENT

Some years after the close of the Civil War the Legislature of Indiana determined to erect a monument at Indianapolis, "designed to glorify the heroic epoch of the Republic and to commemorate the valor and fortitude of Indiana's Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Rebellion and other wars."

The corner-stone of this monument was laid in 1887 with appropriate services, including an oration by President Benjamin Harrison. It was completed and dedicated in 1902. It stands upon a terrace 110 feet in diameter, with a foundation of 69 by 53 feet, the height of the monument from the street level is 284 feet, and is crowned by a Victory statue of 38 feet. On subordinate pedestals occupying positions in the four segments are bronze statues of Governor Morton, Governor Whitcomb, General William Henry Harrison, and General George Rogers Clark. It is claimed to be the largest and most expensive soldiers' monument in the United States, and one of the grandest achievements of architectural and sculptural art in the world.

The dedication services on the completion of the monument were held on May 15, 1902, attended by military and civic delegations from all parts of the State, parades, salutes, dedication exercises, and illuminations, occupying the entire day and evening. The dedication address follows.

ADDRESS OF JOHN W. FOSTER, DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, AT INDIANAPOLIS MAY 15, 1902

_Mr. Chairman, Governor Durbin, Comrades and Fellow Citizens_:

We are gathered to-day inspired by mingled feelings of joy and sadness, of pride and sorrow. To the generation who have come upon the stage of public life since the scenes were enacted which are glorified in this noble monument, it may well be an occasion of exultation, for they see only the blessings conferred upon the State and Nation by the deeds of the heroic dead whose memory we are assembled to honor. But to those of us who were their comrades in service, there arises the sad recollection of the carnage of battle and the wasting experience of the hospital. While the stirring notes of martial music, the booming of cannon, and the waving of flags awaken the enthusiasm and the patriotic pride of the people, there are many mothers and widows to whom this brilliant scene is but the reopening of the fountain not yet dried up by twoscore years of weeping.

It is for no idle purpose I recall the solemn phase of the pageantry of these dedication exercises, for it cannot fail to impress more deeply upon us the debt we owe to the men for whom this magnificent memorial has been raised.

It commemorates the sacrifice of twenty-five thousand men--Indiana's contribution to the cause of the Union. A fearful price this Nation paid for its life. A veritable army is this, larger than any gathered under Washington or Scott. In those dark days, when our comrades were pouring out their life's blood on a hundred battlefields, when new calls were made for more men to fill the depleted ranks, when the scales hung trembling between success and failure, it seemed sometimes as if the State could not endure the fearful slaughter. But the triumph of the right came at last. And time has healed the scars of war. We can now look back upon the scene as one only of heroic deeds.

It was highly appropriate that on the apex of this shaft there should be placed the emblem of Victory. Never in the history of human warfare has there been a triumph more significant of blessing to mankind. The Goddess of Victory crowns this monument, but it is not in exultation over a fallen foe. I thank God that in the dedication services to-day there is no feeling of bitterness toward the men who fought against our dead comrades. We rejoice to know that they are loyal citizens with us of a common country. We must not, however, belittle the sacrifice of our honored dead. Right, humanity, and progress were on the side of the Union armies, and it was chiefly for this reason we have reared this noble pile of bronze and marble.

What the victory they gained signifies to this Nation, to this continent, and to all peoples, has been so often, so exhaustively, and so eloquently told, that I hesitate to even allude to it. But my observation in foreign lands has so forcibly impressed on me one of the inestimable blessings which has been secured to us and to future generations by the triumph of the Union arms, that I deem this a fitting occasion to call it to mind.

Scarcely second in importance to the maintenance of republican government in its purity and vigor and the extirpation of slavery, are the reign of peace and deliverance from standing armies, which the unbroken Union guarantees to us and to our children. It requires no vivid imagination to conceive of some of the results which would have followed a division of the states--a frontier lined with fortifications, bristling with cannon and garrisoned by a hostile soldiery; conscription and taxation such as had never been known before; constant alarms of war; and political and international complications which would have put an end to our boasted American policy and Monroe Doctrine.

One of the things which most attracts the attention of foreigners who visit our shores is the absence of soldiers about our public buildings, in our cities, and along the thoroughfares of commerce. And those who have never seen our country can scarcely realize that it is possible to carry on a government of order and stability without a constant show of military force. In all the nations of Europe it has been for so many generations the continuous practice to maintain standing armies, that it is considered a necessary and normal part of the system of political organizations. The existence of rival and neighboring nations, constantly on the alert to protect themselves from encroachment on their territory and to maintain their own integrity, and the recent advances in military science and warlike equipment, have caused a great increase in the armies, enormously enlarged the expenditures, and compelled a rigorous enforcement of the most exacting and burdensome term of service; until to-day, in this high noon of Christian civilization, Europe is one vast military camp, and, with such tension in the international relations, that the slightest incident may set its armies in battle array--the merest spark light the fires of war and envelop the continent, if not the whole world, in the conflagration.

Germany and France maintain an army on a peace footing of about a half-million of men each, Russia of three quarters of a million, and other Continental powers armies of relatively large proportions. The term of military service required in each is from three to four years. To support these enormous burdens the nations of Europe have imposed upon their inhabitants the most oppressive taxation, and, besides, have multiplied their public debts to the utmost extent of their national credit. But great as these exactions are, they are as nothing compared to the heavy demands made for the personal military service of the people. To take from the best energies of every young man's life from three to four years, just at the time when he is ready to lay the foundations of his career and establish his domestic relations, is a tax which can scarcely be estimated in money value, and is a burden upon the inhabitants so heavy and so irritating that they stagger under its weight and would rebel against it, did they dare resist the iron tyranny of military rule.

Thanks to the soldiers who fought triumphantly for the maintenance of our Union of States, and that there might continue to be one great and supreme nation on this continent, we are released from this curse of a large standing army, we are free from its burdensome taxation and debt, our young men are permitted to devote the flower of their lives to useful industry and domestic enjoyment, and our free institutions are not menaced by military oppression. To conquer a peace such as the world has not heretofore seen, and to secure a reign of prosperity and plenty which no other people of the present or the past has enjoyed, did the men of Indiana fight and die.

We are here to honor the soldier and the sailor; but it is well to recall that ours is not a warlike people, and I pray God they never may be. An event which greatly attracted the attention of Europe was that when our Civil War was over the vast armies of near two millions of men quietly laid down their arms and, without outlawry or marauding, retired to their homes to renew their peaceful avocations. They had not become professional soldiers. They were citizens of a great republic, and felt their responsibilities as such.

In all, our foreign wars have occupied less than five years in a period of one hundred and twenty of our independence. Our greatest achievements as a nation have been in the domain of peace. The one aggressive war in which we have been engaged was that with Mexico, and it was the unrighteous cause of slavery which led us to depart from the line of justice in that instance. It is to be hoped that no evil influence or ambition will ever again lead us into acts of unjustifiable aggression. In the Spanish War, I think I speak the sentiment of the great majority of my countrymen when I say, it was a feeling of humanity which occasioned that conflict. It brought with it results which we could not anticipate and which many of our people lament. It has led to the expulsion of Spain and its bad system of government from this hemisphere, certainly not an untoward event. If it was a desire to benefit our fellow men that led us into that contest, I feel sure the same spirit will control our conduct toward the millions of people on the other side of the globe whom the fortunes of war have so unexpectedly brought into our dominion.

We are proud of the record which our country has made in the settlement of disputes with foreign nations by the peaceful method of arbitration. It is possible that all matters of difference cannot be adjusted in that way, but it offers a remedy which commends itself to the lover of peace and good-will among men, and it is our boast that we have resorted to it more often than any other nation.

It is not incumbent on me to give any account of this structure, so perfect in art, so appropriate in design, embracing all arms of the military service on land and sea. I must, however, as a comrade of those whose fame it perpetuates, bear cheerful testimony to the generosity of a grateful people, who have reared this costly column. It is in keeping also with the munificence of the Federal Government in all that relates to the memory and the welfare of those who fought to secure the Union of these States. In the National Capital and throughout the land, in every city, and in almost every town, there are monuments to the Union soldiers, and the important battlefields have been turned into public parks consecrated to the Nation's dead.