Three Years in Camp and Hospital (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871. Excerpt: ... 8. Our motto, equal rights to all; The ballot shall be free; Who stakes his life to save the flag, May vote with you and me We'll ask him not his birth or kin, Or prate about his hue, But ev'ry man unstained with crime May vote with boys in blue. Cho. 4. We'll keep the nation's sacred pledge, Pay ev'ry dime we owe; Each loyal arm will gladly strike Each day an extra blow. Eepudiate--we scorn the word, And those who use it too, We are not knaves or bankrupts yet, Nor are the boys in blue. Cho. 5. Haste, loyal men, fill up your ranks, Bring ev'ry soldier out; This struggle ought to be our last, And give the final rout. But lo, the' come a sea of men Impatient for the fray, They come they come in throngs so vast, Our work shall seem but play. Cho. CHAPTER XVIII. MASS-MEETING IN 8PBINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. The reader may wonder what connection a massmeeting in Illinois, before the war, has with Camp and Hospital. In answer, I reply.: That meeting was the first notable event in that historical scries with which Mr. Lincoln-was connected, and ending in his tragic death. At that meeting, and every subsequent one, till war came upon us, the assembled people saw that a crisis was approaching, and they counselled together as to methods, and means for the occasion. The Presidential mass-meetings before an election, as all know, are often of huge proportions. The West, above all other sections of the country, gets them up on the grandest scale. The Republican one, at Springfield, August," 1860, was indeed a mass-meeting--a mass of humanity so packing. the 'town, that locomotion was almost impossible. It seemed as though all the people had come to see the man who possibly might become President; not that Mr. Lincoln had a very strong hold on the affections of the peo...