258 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



man, and that Lee had had a supreme test when measured 

 in the high standard of Ulysses S. Grant. 



I had spoken at many soldiers ' reunions and memorial 

 services, but this was the first occasion on which I had 

 the opportunity to address the old soldiers of the other 

 side. Looking in their eyes on that day I believed that 

 they and their children would be true if occasion should 

 offer for the trial. 



In 1898 the opportunity came. Making a hurried trip 

 into Virginia in May last, I met a regiment dressed in 

 blue coming out of one of the gaps of the Blue Ridge: 

 they were on their way to Cuba to fight under the stars 

 and stripes, and they were the sons of Stonewall Jack- 

 son's soldiers. 



Later in the summer I visited Chickamauga and there 

 amid the battle monuments of that heroic field, I found 

 an Iowa regiment brigaded with the First Mississippi, 

 fraternizing on as friendly terms as an Iowa and Indiana 

 regiment used to do. And one Mississippi soldier said 

 to me, ''The only difference between you all and we all 

 is that you all guess and we all reckon." That seemed 

 to be about all that was left and that was not enough to 

 quarrel over. 



The soldier of 1898 showed himself to be a true de- 

 scendant of the soldier of 1861; as the Greek put it, 

 "This is not Achilles' son, it is Achilles himself." 



Our range of vision has wonderfully widened as the re- 

 sult of the short, decisive, and glorious victories of Manila 

 and Santiago. It almost takes one's breath to think of 

 the far reaching effects of recent events. 



The steamer Grant, named after the silent commander, 

 recently steamed under the guns of Gibraltar, passed the 

 shores of Malta through the Suez Canal ; and the Amer- 

 ican soldiers stood upon the deck and watched the clouds 

 hovering around the pinnacle of Mount Sinai, then passed 



