WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME
There was a hot time
in the old town last Monday. It began at daylight in the morning, and the boys
and girls kept it up till well on toward daylight the next morning. In fact,
the rumpus began on Thursday of last week, when the news came that the war was
over. Not only in Hamilton, but throughout this broad American continent was
the joyful news told that the armistice was signed, and New York and Dundas
went wild over the glad tidings. It was a little premature, the news on
Thursday, to be sure, but as all’s well that ends well, it was only a foretaste
of the happiness to come four days later. It was a ‘seben come eleben’ as the
darkey joyously shouts when ‘rolling the bones.’ Now this expressive sentence
is all Greek to this old muser, but just ask your preacher what it means and he
will tell you that he remembers hearing it when he was a boy at college and
‘gamboled on the green’ with the little square ivory cubes. It has reference to
a purely Ethiopian pastime, occasionally indulged in by white boys, especially
those in the army after the paymaster has visited the battalion. Let us
explain. The first news of the close of the war came on the seventh of the
month, and was repeated as a sure thing on the eleventh – ‘Seven come eleven.’
Do you see the point?
“Figure it out as you will, but the motive
was glorious, and this old town just let loose for four days. It was a blessing
that Premier Heart’s prohibitory law was in force, for if it had been
otherwise, Chief Whatley and his hundred braves could never have been equal to
the splendid order in the streets and to the preservation of life and limb
where so many motorcars were flying hither and thither. It was glorious news
for the wives whose husbands have been in the trenches for two or three years,
and who, thank God, have been spared to hear the command, ‘Cease firing!’ and
to the mothers who will look forward to the time ‘When Johnny comes marching
home.’ It will be a great day in Hamilton when the boys come marching up the
street with the bands playing Home, Sweet Home. Only those who have smelt
powder on the field of battle can realize the joy of the home-coming, and the
loving embrace of mother, wife and children.
Make
ready for the jubilee,
Hurrah ! hurrah!
We’ll
give the heroes three times three
Hurrah! hurrah!
The
laurel wreath is ready now
To
place upon his loyal brow,
And we’ll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.
SIXTY-FOUR
YEARS AGO
“Let us take a look backward to the time when
Hamilton celebrated the close of the first war in its history. It was in the
month of October, 1856, when the glorious news that Sebastopol had fallen was
flashed across the sea, and that night Hamilton celebrated. This town then had
only a small population, but it was full of pep and loyal to the core. It was a
fight between the allied British, French and Turks against the Russians, and
neither of the countries had large armies. Canada had recruited a regiment to go
over and help the mother country, of which Hamilton furnished a part of a
company, but the boys never got into the fight, as peace was declared while the
regiment was awaiting transportation from an English port. One or two of the
Hamilton boys, old men now, are still living in the city. Well, the night that
Sebastopol had surrendered, Hamilton just let itself loose, and there was a hot
time in the old town. The town band, under command of dear old Peter Grossman,
assembled in what is now Gore park, near the old town pump, and they made the
air ring out with all the patriotism that could be blown through those brass
horns. Let us digress for a moment in order that may give the roll of the old
band when it was mustered on the 16th of October, 1856. Peter Grossman,
bandmaster; Gilbert Omand, William Riddler, August Grossman, L. Schwartz, John
Pryke, David Jennings, M. Reichart, Robert Weston, D. Naismith, George Waite,
R. Hooper, A. Bienerhassett, Wm. Omand, Julius Grossman, J. O’Brien, Charles
Bamfride. Only one member of that band now survives, William Omand. Peter
Grossman died in 1901, and his younger son passed away a couple of years ago.
“Now let us briefly tell how Hamilton
celebrated the fall of Sebastopol on that October night sixty-four years ago.
Tom Gray was then chief of the volunteer fire department, and early in the
evening he had the fire alarm rung, and within a few minutes over 500 members
of the different companies were at their engine houses waiting for the word of
command. The boys were marched to the Gore, and there Chief Gray had in
preparation hundreds of cotton balls and gallons of turpentine, and when the
band struck up God Save the Queen, the chief sent hurling through the air the
first fire ball, which was quickly followed by hundreds more; and this was kept
up till a late hour. All Hamilton was out that night, and never was a happier
throng assembled on the Gore.
“That was Hamilton’s first war celebration :
the second being when the volunteers returned from the battle of Ridgway, having
cleaned out the Fenians.
THE
FALL OF LADYSMITH
“Hamilton was a larger town when the Boers in
South Africa rebelled against the British protectorate. South Africa is a
country rich in diamond and gold fields, and attracted the German greed.
Hamilton sent to the assistance of the motherland a part of a company;
therefore, it had more than passing interest in the South African war. When the
news came that Ladysmith had fallen and that the Boer war was at an end, there
was great rejoicing.
THE
LAST WORLD WAR JUST CLOSED
“But the greatest of all the world wars was
the climax, It lasted 1,567 days, with a total casualty list estimated at
26,000, 500 men. As Hamilton and the world has been surfeited with stories and
figures of the most destructive war that the world has ever passed through, why
should we harrow up the feelings of our humble musings by a recital of what
they have already read? The story of Hamilton’s celebrations of the victorious
event has already been told by our local papers in the fullest detail, and we
could add but little to it.
“Hamilton’s part in the great world war is
creditable to the loyalty of the old town. We can only give estimates of the
number of men who enlisted. Not less than 12,000 men left home and wives and
children and mothers as volunteers to fight in the great world war. Of this
number, it is estimated that at least one thousand will never return. Colonel
John McCrae’s, In Flanders’ Fields, tells the sad story:
In
Flanders’ fields, the poppies blow
Between
the crosses, row on row,
That
mark our place; and in the sky
The
larks still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce
heard amidst the guns below.
We
are the dead. Short days ago
We
lived, flet dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved
and were loved, and now we lie,
In
Flanders’ fields.
Take
up our quarrel with the foe!
To
you from falling hands e throw
The
torch – be yours to hold high!
If
ye break faith with us who die,
We
shall not sleep, through poppies grow
In
Flanders’ fields.
“It is estimated that not less than
26,000,000 brave men sacrificed life and health and limb to satisfy the
ambition and greed of one man. And, after all, he is now an exile from his
country, and, with his six sons, passed through the more than four years of war
without getting a scratch. Here is the list of casualties, as estimated :
Germany, 6,690,000; Austria, 4,500,000; France, 4,000,000; Great Britain,
2,900,000; Turkey, 750,000; Belgium, 350,000; Rumania, 200,000; Bulgaria,
200,000. No estimate is given of the Russian casulaties. The United States
casualty list numbered 69,420, of which 12, 460 were killed in action, and
150,000 maimed or ruined in health. It will be many months before a complete
list can be obtained.
“Official reports give an army of 35,000 men
in Canada ready for the field, but who have not been out of Canada. Recruiting
has been stopped, and arranements are already being made to discharge from the
service a part, if not all, of this 35,000 men. The men across the sea may be
kept in service for many months, as the allied armies will remain on duty till
after the final settlement of the war. The cost of the war is estimated at
eleven hundred million dollars up to the end of October. When the bills are all
paid, many more millions will be added. To this will be needed a large pension
roll for the widows and for the maimed soldiers and for those who are unfitted
to provide for themselves through loss of health.
____________________________________________
THE
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
“Within the last century occurred the two
greatest wars in history. The American civil war was only a skirmish compared
with the world war just closed, yet for the number of men engaged it will take
second place in war history. The civil war began on the 12th of
April, 1861, with the bombardment of Fort Sumpter by the Confederates of South
Carolina, and came to a close in the last days of the month of April, 1865,
with the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, an English
actor, who became a rabid secessionist during his temporary residence in the
United States. A former Hamilton lady, whose home for many years has been in
the United States, is in the city at present, the guest of Mrs. S. Glassco, 43
Robinson street, and she has in her possession a copy of an extra of the New
York Herald, dated April 15, 1865, giving an account of the assassination,
which occurred in Ford’s theater, in Washington on the evening before. The
assassin entered the box occupied by the president and Mrs. Lincoln, and shot
Mr. Lincoln in the back of the head. The assassin then jumped from the box to
the stage, exclaiming as he made his escape, ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis!’ The
president lived till the following morning when he passed away.
“In its scope, the civil war was one of the
greatest struggles known to history down to that time. It made a record of
2,400 battles and combats. Eleven southern states seceded from the union.
Jefferson Davis, a colonel in the regular army, deserted the flag under which
he was educated and made a record as an officer, and was elected president of
the Confederacy. The United States had but a small standing army, which was
principally officered by southern men, graduates from West Point. President
Lincoln issued his proclamation calling out 75,000 men, which was promptly filled
many times over the number called for. But few realized that there was going to
be a war. On the 21st of July, 1861, the first battle of the war was
fought at Bull Ru. Raw troops were on both sides, but they fought with an
obstinacy that foreboded the future battles of the war. The south had the
advantage in having regular army officers to command its men. The battle of
Shiloh was fought on the 6th of April, 18162. Gen. Grant had an army
of 45,000 in his command. Gen. Grant was taken by surprise by the combined
Confederate armies of Generals Johnston and Beauregard. It was a savage fight,
in which the Union army was defeated. General Johnston, one of the ablest on
either side, was killed at Shiloh. During the war, the Union Army numbered
2,778,304 men, whose ages ranged from ten years to forty-one years and over.
The total loss of life was 359,528. Adding the many thousand discharged as
disabled or otherwise unfit for duty, or who died from wounds or disease
incurred in the army, the total casualties numbered about 500,000. No complete
report of the number of men enlisted in the Confederate army or its casualty
list is at hand. At the close of the war, the union army had over a million men
under arms, and the Confederacy about half a million. The war expenses of the
Union government were $3,400, 000,000. In 1864 a barrel of flour in Richmond
cost $300, and a pair of boots commanded $150. But then Confederate money had
no great value.
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