Nashua Reporter
Nashua, Chickasaw, Iowa
May 28, 1908

MEMORIAL DAY AT GETTYSBURG

These graves, which show where blood was shed,
These mounds, now strewn with roses red
Recall past days of bitter strife,
When brother sought his bother's life.

That hate, which once had unknown power,
Has turned to live in this glad hour;
No more shall war, with threatening air,
Arise to drive us to despair.

Each soldier brave who now survives
Recounts the blessings he derives
From untold hardships he endured
And what to all has been secured.

The gray, the blue, their loves here show
For comrades resting still and low;
Beneath these mounds their forms will lie
Till Gabriel calls them to the sky.

Soon all these living soldiers, bent
With years that Father time has lent,
Will rest within these hallowed ground;
Still friends will strew with flowers their mounds.

Where once was hate, love reigns instead;
Love rules the heart and guides the head;
Dread civil war we no more fear,
Since love grows strong from year to year.

And peace throughout all time be ours,
A pledge be these expressive flowers,
And as each coming year they bloom,
May they adorn a soldier's tomb.

Here Meade, the hero of this field,
Caused Lee, with all his hosts to yield
To force of arms as well controlled
As those of Marathon of old.

Now two score years have passed, and more,
Since those dark days of war were o'er.
Yet time moves on and on and on;
Soon our last veteran will be gone.

Their ranks grow thin each passing year;
There'll soon be none to answer "Here!"
They will all be enrolled on high,
Where are no tears, nor e'en a sigh.

Still songs will be forever taught
To tell of deeds through valor wrought
By those who fought and died to save
Our land from a dishonored grave.

...[Author not given.]