Their Fathers Made the Republic, Their Sons Were Its Saviors

[00:00:06]Hey all, Ron here from Military Images Magazine with a new episode of Life on the Civil War Research Trail.

[00:00:14]One of the proud Union veterans who survived the war, is Benjamin Franklin White House, a native of Maine, a resident of Ohio, and a soldier at age 15, who served in the ranks of the Buckeye State's 117th Infantry, which became the first heavy artillery.

[00:00:34]After the war, as White House aged, his hair turning gray, he watched his fellow veterans grow old and passed from the scene. He wrote often as the years ticked by. These were long goodbyes and poignant remembrances of those cherished boys in blue he marched alongside so many years ago.

[00:00:55]White House joined them in the autumn of 1936 when the United States had risen to a great world power. He took a share of credit for the sacrifice he and his comrades had made way back when to make the country what it was. and echoes of his emotions came through in his papers, all left behind, which can be found at Northern State University's Bula Williams Library.

[00:01:22]My read of his writing suggests he may have had plans for a book that for whatever reason never came to pass. two separate pieces, one titled simply introduction and the other the parade seems somehow to fit together. I want to share them with you.

[00:01:43]Introduction.

[00:01:45]Dear friends, I'm pleased to say that I'm a member of a society born of the patriotism of the Civil War. a society devoted to the patriotism of the country, to the principles of fraternity, and to that charity for all, which is the best mantle humanity knows.

[00:02:04]I'm not going to dwell upon those horrible four years of civil war. You all know the story too well. I saw the purple tide of war eb and flow for four long, dreary years. I heard the hiss of shot and shell. I saw my comrades lie down to sleep forever. I know the pangs of hunger. I know all that goes with the hell of war, for I was one of the members of that civil strife.

[00:02:31]Over a half century has passed since then. The snows of 50 winters have silvered our heads and made our steps a little less elastic. I do not think we could step to the music as we did at Chikamaga, Mission Ridge, Nashville, Lookout Mountain, and Atlanta.

[00:02:50]Mighty changes have taken place since those days and the country which we saved in 1861 to 1865 can never forget the days of our struggle and of the nation's rebirth to freedom.

[00:03:04]I would rather take my boy by the hand and let him stand with me upon the street at a national encampment and see the surviving hosts of that great conflict pass with marshall tread through the street and look into the stern kindly faces bronzed in the war than to read a library of volumes on the subject of war.

[00:03:27]We limp a little more and we do not step so freely as we used to and our eyes are growing a little bit dimmer. What varying scenes are pictured in the galleries of our memories. We see the days when we were the young men of the nation and asked no odds of anyone in the prospective race of life. The time when Abraham Lincoln called and we answered. And then there came a time when Grant, that incomparable leader, said, "I propose to fight it out on this line." And the command went out night after night in those bloody days of the wilderness and sponsia by the left flank march.

[00:04:08]The army of the PTOAC had ceased to retire. The cause must triumph. Run the pictures through the years and come to a time when victory perched upon our banners and Johnny came marching home again. How glorious that was. And the boys, many of them waiting only to demand of the girls. They had left behind them the price of their self-sacrifice, the giving of their lives and hands, turning their faces to the far west and out of the so-called American desert.

[00:04:41]They carved new states and new homes.

[00:04:44]And when we get to the last picture, we find no ruins to contemplate. But we find a picture of prosperity. A prosperity that embraces the whole country with that covers the whole land.

[00:04:57]A prosperity and peace that belong alike to the veterans of the blue and the gray and their children, their children's children. And for myself and my comrades, of the Grand Army, the republic, and for the men who fought and did their duty to the bloody end, I say the peace and unity of this land today is what we fought for and what we thank God above for. And if there is a soul in all the land that regrets that this condition exists, then it is my personal humble opinion that that is a soul of such small proportions that you could fit it through a J-bird's quill into a mosquito's eye and the mosquito wouldn't wink.

[00:05:42]The parade.

[00:05:44]How may one speak of the marching hosts of the Grand Army the Republic except in the superlative? These hosts are the epitome of the history of the republic during the four years of southern rebellion against constituted authority and the union government. Their fathers were the makers of the republic, and these the sons were its saviors. from the halting steps and frail bodies of these shrinking hosts of a pitiful 10,000 or so. Memory harks back 60 years to the days when two million strong stalwart boys and blue marched from the north into the south to stay the riot and read ruin of jealous prejudice, the hot passions of misguided partisans and drive foul treason into the sea.

[00:06:33]How well these two million men executed the duties laid down for them by the mighty Lincoln and his lieutenants Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan and their legions. Appamatics tells the story. These marching men were the conquerors in the mightiest war for principle that the world ever waged. a war unexampled for personal and mass heroism unequaled in all the wars of the world from the beginning of recorded history to the present day. It was decided that when the white flag of treason went skyward on the field of appamatics and grants sent the wasted men of Lee's army back to their homes with food, horses, and forage. No murmur of revolt was heard, and there was never any thereafter. The endless peace and prosperity has been her handmade through all the intervening years.

[00:07:29]These men and their comrades sleeping on a thousand hills and in 10,000 valleys are the sires and grand sires of those boys who carried the unfurled flag of their forefathers over the seas to another field of conquest for principles that but for the everlasting and unconquered spirit of American manhood would have ended in defeat and another reign of terror relegating us to the horrors of the dark ages. For over 50 years, these marching men dominated the policies of the growing republic and set the standards of the world. Five of these comrades were exalted heads of the nation and for more than two generations shaped legislation and Congress and cabinet positions as governors of states and in minor offices. Their latter days are their best days. For the whole world pays homage for the glorious deeds of the past and the effects of those urious upon the cleaner and more perfect union of the states and of nations which have profited by their conclusive declaration of principles unwavering through [snorts] four years of suffering and blood sacrifice.

[00:08:46]One of the great features of that tremendous crowd was the school children. From cornfed kindergarteners to high school seniors, happy, laughing, yelling youngsters, most of them carrying flags. They shouted for pure joy of making all the noise they could for once in their lives. They enlivened the whole line of march with their songs of war days and their school slogans.

[00:09:12]They seemed to like best the songs that had harrah in them. Kids who couldn't sing a note could yell harrah, and the marching men joined in, and so did everybody else who could sing it all.

[00:09:25]God and his hosts heard that magnificent music as it rolled up and up to the blue vaulted sunbrite dome of the eternal heavens. In the recording, Angel noted the love and reverence of those who were paying homage to those warworn veterans.

[00:09:43]So, thanks for listening to Benjamin Franklin White House's recollections long after the war as he was looking back on his fellow boys in blue. We'll see you on the next episode of Life on the Civil War Research Trail.