250 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



And so it is the wounded shell fish that produces the 

 pearl. 



The high water mark of the Confederacy was reached 

 at Gettysburg, and that turning point was dedicated by 

 the immortal address of Abraham Lincoln. His declara- 

 tion that ' ' The world will little regard what we say here, 

 but will always remember what they did here, " is as true 

 also of Shiloh. 



Shiloh was dedicated fifty years ago by the men who 

 fought and died and by the men who fought and lived. 



But in the wildest dreams of the participants in that 

 bloody battle no one thought that any of the generation 

 engaged in that contest would live to see the men on both 

 sides setting it apart as a memorial to heroism, and ded- 

 icated to the perpetuity of the Union of the states. 



Vicksburg's grim walls stood as a barrier to the com- 

 merce of the Father of Waters, and there, too, was an- 

 other one of the turning points in our history. There the 

 titanic battle raged for months, and little did the com- 

 batants think that they were preparing the field for a 

 beautiful park dedicated to Peace and Union. 



Both armies worshiped the same God. Lincoln and 

 Stonewall Jackson offered up prayers for victory and a 

 just God answered the prayers as was best for them all. 



The night before Blenheim Marlborough took the Holy 

 Sacrament and prepared to conquer or die. When the 

 Swiss troops at Granson knelt to pray before going into 

 battle the courtiers of Charles the Bold said, "Sire, they 

 are kneeling in submission," but Charles knew they were 

 praying to the Almighty and preparing for death or vic- 

 tory, and that their reverent attitude showed them to be 

 most dangerous to their enemies. They feared God, only. 



A hundred years ago bloodletting was the cure for all 

 diseases. This sanguinary remedy has gone into disuse, 

 and I trust the time will come when such heroic treatment 



