United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Anecdotes
Heroes are not made of different stuff from ordinary men. God made us
all heroes at heart. Satan lied when he said "all that a man hath will
he give for his life." The call comes and commonplace men and workaday
women give their lives as a very little thing for a cause, for an
ideal, or for others. When the great moment comes, the love and courage
and unselfishness that lie deep in the souls of all of us can flash
forth into beacon-lights of brave deeds which will stand throughout the
years pointing the path of high endeavor for those who come after.
Women the world over will never forget how Mrs. Strauss came back from
the life-boat and went down on the _Titanic_ with her husband rather
than have him die alone.
Boys have been braver and tenderer their lives long because of the
unknown hero at Niagara. With his mother he was trapped on a floe when
the ice-jam broke. Slowly and sternly it moved toward the roaring edge
of the cataract. From the Suspension Bridge a rope was let down to
them. Twice he tried to fix it around his mother, but she was too old
and weak to hold on. The floe was passing beyond the bridge and there
was just time for him to knot the rope around himself. Young, active
and strong, he would be safe in a moment, but his mother would go to
death deserted and alone. He tossed the rope away, put his arm around
his old mother and they went over the Falls together.
Every American sailor has been braver and gentler from the memory of
Captain Craven who commanded the monitor _Tecumseh_ when Fighting
Farragut destroyed the forts and captured the Rebel fleet at Mobile
Bay. The _Tennessee_ was about to grapple with the _Tennessee_, the
great Rebel ram, when she struck a torpedo, turned over and went down
bow foremost. Captain Craven was in the pilot-house with the pilot. As
the vessel sank they both rushed for the narrow door. Craven reached it
first, but stood aside saying, "After you, pilot." The latter leaped
through as the water rushed in and was saved. Craven went down with his
ship.
The great moments which are given to men in which to decide whether
they are to be heroes or cowards may come at any time, but they always
flash through every battle. Danger, suffering and death are the stern
tests by which men's real selves are discovered. A man can't do much
pretending when he is under fire, and he can't make believe he is brave
or unselfish, or chivalric when he is sick, or wounded, or dying. We
can be proud that the man who went before us made good and that we can
remember all the great battles of the greatest of our wars by the brave
deeds of brave men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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