About
Learn More about our progressive online community for the Granite State.

Create an account today (it's free and easy) and get started!
Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?


Search




Advanced Search


The Masthead
Managing Editor
Mike Hoefer

Editors
elwood
susanthe
William Tucker
The Roll, Etc.
Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch paper
Democracy for NH
Granite State Progress
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Pickup Patriots
Re-BlueNH
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
New Hampshire Labor News
Chaz Proulx: Right Wing Watch

Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Landrigan
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes

Campaigns, Et Alia.
NH-Gov
- Maggie Hassan
NH-01
- Andrew Hosmer
- Carol Shea-Porter
- Joanne Dowdell
NH-02
- Ann McLane Kuster

ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC

National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo

50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin

When the Boys in Blue Are Gone

by: cblodg

Sat Mar 12, 2011 at 19:49:58 PM EST


Because I cannot come up with a more eloquent way to describe why it is important for all Americans to remember the Civil War, I choose to use a poem from one of its own veterans.  John Hendricks was the last living Veteran of the 89th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.  The poem expresses his concern that the Union Soldiers, the "Boys in Blue", not be forgotten by future generations.

When the comrades have departed,
When the veterans are no more,
When the bugle call is sounded
On that everlasting shore.
When life's weary march is ended,
When campfires slumber long;
Who will tell the world the story,
When the boys in Blue are gone?

Who will tell about their marching,
From Atlanta to the Sea?
Who will halt, and wait, and listen,
When they hear the reveille?
Who will join to swell the chorus,
Of some old, Grand Army song?
Who will tell the world the story,
When the boys in Blue are gone?

Sons and daughters of this nation,
You must tell of triumphs won;
When on earth our work is ended,
And the Veteran claims his own.
You must all cherish Old Glory,
And its teachings pass along.
You must tell the world the story,
When the boys in Blue are gone.

To that flag, our country's emblem,
You must pledge allegiance, too.
To that flag, our nation's emblem,
May your hearts be ever true.
That the nation be protected,
'Gainst injustice, and all wrong;
You must tell the world the story,
When the boys in Blue are gone.

You must keep your country's honor,
From each stripe withhold all stain;
You must take the Veteran's places,
And repeat the roll of fame.
You must keep your country's honor,
And your flag above all wrong,
Then we'll trust you with the story,
When the boys in Blue are gone.

cblodg :: When the Boys in Blue Are Gone
Tags: , , , , , , (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email
My two cents (0.00 / 0)
We're at a really good point to make efforts to help remember them.  Here at the beginning of the twenty-first century we are at the cusp right now of the transition between paper and digital - more and more you read and use records and books on your computer rather than as a paper artifact.

Paper decays, the interest in moldy old books wanes. and the records of the lives of the people that are so essential to remembering them are gone.  Moment by moment irretrievable cultural artifacts crumble and blow as dust into the wind.  Just in Japan, a couple of days ago, who knows how many books and scrolls and other artifacts that could have told the Japanese of their forefathers were destroyed in the earthquakes and tsunamis, now forever beyond our reach in the here and now.

We can hold back some of the tide if we work hard to digitize these things before they are lost, then generations of humankind to come can all have these records and memories and tangible pieces of those who lived and loved and lost and fought and died in this same world with us.

The Internet Archive does this sort of work: do whatever you can to help them; they take donations but I think that if you can get to the Boston Public Library there's an arrangement so that you can pick a book out of the archives, perhaps a Civil War record or novel, and scan it right then and there and it gets uploaded to the Internet Archive.

Or if you have a scanner at home a better option might be somewhere like Wikisource, an affiliate of Wikipedia, which provides you with a web site to put up a book that you've gotten hold of and scanned or transcribed at home.

And there are many other sites, we just have to get this stuff before it disappears.


Many images are already online (0.00 / 0)
The way I view it, we're simply shifting these men's memories and sacrifices from being relegated to dusty book stacks/shelves, to processor chips and databases.

All of this Nullification stuff that is/was going around in NH truly spits on the memory of these men.  That there would even be notions of nullification or secession (as by association, after nullification it is a logical second step) after what these men fought and, in many cases, died for is simply stupefying to me.  

"We start working to beat these guys right now." -Jed Bartlet


[ Parent ]
150 years ago (0.00 / 0)
2nd Regiment Infantry

Organized at Portsmouth May 31 to June 8, 1861. Moved to Washington, D.C., June 20-23, and duty there until July 16. Attached to Burnside's Brigade, Hunter's Division, McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia, to August, 1861. Hooker's Brigade, Division of the Potomac, to October, 1861. 1st Brigade, Hooker's Division, Army of the Potomac, to March, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 3rd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to February, 1863. New Hampshire, Dept. of the East, to June, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 3rd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, to July, 1863. Marston's Command, Point Lookout, Md., District of Saint Marys, to April, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 18th Army Corps, Army of the James, Dept. of Virginia and North Carolina, to June, 1864. Provost Guard, 18th Army Corps, to August, 1864. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 18th Army Corps, to October, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 18th Army Corps, to December, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 24th Army Corps, to June, 1865.

SERVICE.--Advance on Manassas, Va., July 16-21, 1861. Battle of Bull Run, Va., July 21. Duty in the Defenses of Washington, D.C., at Bladensburg and Budd's Ferry, Md., until April, 1861. Moved to the Peninsula, Va., April 4-8. Siege of Yorktown April 10-May 4. Battle of Williamsburg May 5. Occupation of Williamsburg until May 24. Battle of Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, May 31-June 1. Picket affair June 23-24. Seven days before Richmond June 25-July 1. Oak Grove June 25. Savage Station June 29. White Oak Swamp, Charles City Cross Roads and Glendale June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing until August 16. Malvern Hill August 5. Movement to Centreville August 16-26. Pope's Campaign in Northern Virginia August 26-September 2. Bristoe Station or Kettle Run August 27. Battle of Groveton August 29. Battle of Bull Run August 30. Chantilly September 1. Duty in the Defenses of Washington until November. Operations on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad October 10-12. Movement to Falmouth, Va., November 18-28. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15, "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. Operations at Rappahannock Bridge and Grove Church February 5-7. Ordered to Concord, N.H., February 26. Duty there and at Fort Constitution, Portsmouth, until May 25. Moved to Washington, D.C., May 25-28, and duty there until June 11. Moved to Hartwood Church, Va., June 11, and rejoin Army of the Potomac. Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 2-4. Williamsport July 11-12. Manassas Gap, Va., July 22-23. Ordered to Point Lookout, Md., July 25, and duty there guarding prisoners until April, 1864. Ordered to Yorktown, Va., April 7; thence to Williamsport April 22. Butler's operations on south side of James River and against Petersburg and Richmond May 4-28. Capture of City Point and Bermuda Hundred May 5. Chester Station May 6-7. Swift Creek or Arrowfield Church May 9-10. Operations against Fort Darling May 12-16. Drury's Bluff May 14-16. Bermuda Hundred May 16-27. Port Walthal May 26. Moved to White House, thence to Cold Harbor May 27-June 1. Battles about Cold Harbor June 1-12. Non-Veterans left front June 8, and mustered out June 21, 1864. Regiment detached from Brigade June 9, and assigned to duty at Corps Headquarters until August 13. Assaults on Petersburg June 15-19. Siege of Petersburg June 16, 1864, to April 2, 1865. Duty in trenches before Petersburg August 18 to September 1. Ordered to Wilson's Landing September 1 and duty there until October 1. Expedition to Barnett's Ferry September 27-28. Moved to Aikens Landing October 1. Duty in trenches before Richmond until March 3, 1865. Battle of Fair Oaks October 27-28, 1864. Moved to Fort Monroe, Va., March 4-5; thence to White House Landing March 18 to establish a depot for General Sheridan's Cavalry, and duty there until March 24. March to lines north of the James March 24-28. Occupation of Richmond April 3. Duty there and at Manchester until July. Provost duty in District of Northern Neck, Dept. of Virginia, until December. Mustered out December 19, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 15 Officers and 163 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 6 Officers and 166 Enlisted men by disease. Total 350.  

http://www.civilwararchive.com...



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    



Connect with BH
     
Blue Hampshire Blog on Facebook
Powered by: SoapBlox