[Written in 1887 for the 24th Anniversary of the Battle of Lone Jack]
We meet today upon the ground
Where five and twenty years ago
The god of war in anger frowned
And let his bolts of thunder go.
We meet today, but not as then;
And, as the bygone past we ponder,
Remembrance calls to mind the men
The many slain who are sleeping yonder.
A quarter century has passed.
How brief to us the time appears;
We scarcely can realize how fast
Go round and round the circling years.
There five and twenty years have they
Reposed beneath the award of heather,
The loyal blue, the Southern gray,
Reposing there in peace together.
They fought as patriots ever should,
Each one believing he was right,
And near where then the lone tree stood
Their ashes mingle and unite.
Widows and children orphans left,
No wife or children ever fonder
By the hand fate of war bereft
Of husband or father sleeping yonder.
How many a parents heart then bled
For sons just entering manhood’s age
Who fell amongst the gallant dead,
Went down amid the battle rage.
How many a tie was broken then,
How many a bond was torn asunder,
How many tears were shed for men
Who fell upon the summit yonder.
But when a hundred years have passed,
A century to a close has drawn,
Remembrance of their deeds will last
And live when we are dead and gone.
The patriot’s fame will never fail;
’Tis in the nation’s friendly keeping.
The marble shaft will tell the tale
When we, like them, in death are sleeping.
Mankind has ever honored those
Who periled life in the defense
Of liberty and dared the foes
Of free national government.
And though the men who fought that day
So widely differed in their feeling,
Each thought the cause of justice lay
With him his life blood might then be sealing.
All honor then to those brave men
Of conscientious mind and thought
Who for the right, as thinking then,
So stubbornly and bravely fought.
A tribute to them all we’ll pay,
Whatever name or what profession
The Union soldiers, or they
The honest votaries of secession.
Though differing from them in the past,
Why should that difference still remain?
The strife is o’er, the die is cast,
And North and South are one again.
Thank Heaven so great a change has come,
Nor can we sometimes cease to wonder
How kindly now we feel toward some
Of those who now are sleeping yonder.
Not only to the soldier true
Who fell upon yon battlefield,
But to surviving comrades too,
A fitting tribute we would yield.
They side by side with those who fell
Each for his principles contended
And history’s living page will tell
How well each one his cause defended.
Surviving heroes of that day
Some few of them at least are here;
Some of them since have passed away,
As year still follows after year,
Some of them living far away,
But wheresoever they may wander
They’ll often think of that sad day
And think of comrades sleeping yonder.
And as old Time steals years away,
Remembrance still will call them back,
And at each anniversary
Whisper to them the name "Lone Jack,"
Or to their vision they may see
The battle ranks, as then all sorted
The face of friend or enemy
Beneath the lone tree rudely buried.
We meet, as oftentimes before,
By thousands on historic ground,
Where then was heard the musket’s roar,
The cannon’s pealing, thrilling sound.
How little think the thoughtless crowd
Who lightly now are walking merry
How many hearts in anguish bowed
Went down that day on yon prairie.
How little do the crowd reflect
On what this meeting should be for
The young folks cannot recollect
The horrors of that cruel war.
But some can in remembrance feel
The anxious weight they labored under
While listening to the cannon’s peal
The belching forth its thunders yonder.
We should here insult the dead,
By lightly dancing o’er their grave,
But with a careful, silent tread
Approach the spot where sleep the brave.
And when we meet as now we meet
We reverently should think and ponder
The cost of victory or defeat
To those brave soldiers sleeping yonder.
But should we not, some say, rejoice
That these sad scenes have all passed by?
Yes, with a cheerful heart and voice
Give thanks to Him who rules on high
To Him who hushed the storm of war
And gave the nation peace and quiet,
And pray that war may come no more
With scenes of carnage, blood, and riot.
As partisans we should not meet
A party victory to boast;
The union has been made complete
Of North and South, from coast to coast.
And friends and kindred once estranged
Who met and sternly fought that day
Now thank the Lord that things are changed
And they again are friend and brother.
Brave men who would have dimmed the stars
Upon our glorious banner bright—
Gallant soldiers, gallant tars,
With former foes in peace unite.
And some who strove to break the chain.
That binds the several states together
Would strive that union to maintain
Whatever enemy come hither.
Let not victory here be named,
If even victory there was one,
For if by either party claimed
In truth ‘twas victory dearly won
A nobler victory still remains,
Part grievances and wrongs forgiving
Or if a prejudice obtains
The conquering it or outliving.
