"Two years and a half have already passed since the first shot was fired at that star-spangled banner by the hands of traitors who had been reared under its protecting folds. "During that period, thousands of patriotic hearts, that beat with love for their country, have ceased their pulsations in the noble effort to crush the traitorous arm that was raised against the most glorious structure of human liberty. "Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and sweethearts have mourned the loss of the noble fallen. "Some of the heroes of this war have dragged out a lingering, distressing existence by disease, breathing the hero's prayer as they closed their eyes in death. Others have died amid the clash of arms and the din of battle; others, smitten down by the hand of the foe, have spent days of horrible agony, without food, water, or shelter, and then--died, glorious martyrs of liberty, on the field where they fell. "Still the war continues, and the distant boom of cannon announces that more martyrs are being sacrificed and other hearts are being broken. "The page of history will never reveal the anguish and suffering caused by this unholy rebellion. "The fond father and mother, who have invoked the blessings of Heaven upon their heroic son, as he was about to leave them to encounter the hardships, privations, and sufferings of the warrior, will never know the sufferings which that loved one has endured; nor will the loved one know the intense anxiety and the agony of the broken hearts of those aged parents, until they meet in the blissful bowers of a patriot and hero. "No pen can ever portray the sighs and anguish of the devoted wife and tender children, whose husband and father, their solace and support, has been smitten down by the hand of the foe. "It has been my lot and pleasure to be a comrade and a sharer with those that have thus freely suffered and bled to perpetuate the blessings of liberty; and I can testify that there has been no hardship so great, no suffering so intense, no death so horrible as to efface the calm smiles of satisfaction and love from the face of the war-wrinkled hero, as he closed his eyes in death, with his last lingering look upon the flag of his country. "Notwithstanding the many narrow escapes and perilous adventures and sufferings that I have experienced, from long marches and from sickness, and from exposure to the weather by sleeping upon the ground, unsheltered by blanket or cover, during my travels as scout; and, notwithstanding the dangers I have experienced upon the field of battle, amid the roar of musketry and the crash of artillery, and the groans of my mangled comrades, wounded and dying, as they lay weltering in pools of blood, I prize my country _no less_ than I did two years and a half ago, and my heart beats with the _same patriotism_ that first prompted me to raise my arm in defense of the Union.