Among the living is a vast army: black and white,--shattered and maimed,
and blind: and these say, "Here we stand, shattered and maimed, that the
body politic might be perfect! blind forever, that the glorious sun of
liberty might shine abroad throughout the land, for all people, through
all coming time."
And the dead speak too. From their crowded graves come voices of
thrilling and persistent pathos, whispering, "Finish the work that has
fallen from our nerveless hands. Let no weight of tyranny, nor taint of
oppression, nor stain of wrong, cumber the soil nor darken the land we
died to save."
NOTE
Since it is impossible for any one memory to carry the entire record of
the war, it is well to state, that almost every scene in this book is
copied from life, and that the incidents of battle and camp are part of
the history of the great contest.
The story of Fort Wagner is one that needs no such emphasis, it is too
thoroughly known; that of the Color-Sergeant, whose proper name is W.H.
Carney, is taken from a letter written by General M.S. Littlefield to
Colonel A.G. Browne, Secretary to Governor Andrew.
From the _New York Tribune_ and the _Providence Journal_ were taken the
accounts of the finding of Hunt, the coming of the slaves into a South
Carolina camp, and the voluntary carrying, by black men, ere they were
enlisted, of a schooner into the fight at Newbern.
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