It was a proud and sad, and yet a joyful day, when Harvard welcomed back
those of her sons who had survived the war. All who could come were
there, from boys to middle-aged men, from private soldier to general,
some strong and brown, and others worn and sick and maimed, but all on
that day proud and happy. The names of the ninety-three of Harvard’s sons
who had fallen in the war were inscribed on six tablets and placed where
all could see.
In the church, where then the college exercises were held, the venerable
ex-president, Dr. Walker, read the Scriptures, Rev. Phillips Brooks
offered prayer, a hymn by Robert Lowell was sung, and the address was
made by the Rev. George Putnam. In the afternoon the alumni, civic and
military, with their guests, were marshalled by Colonel Henry Lee into
a great pavilion behind Harvard Hall, where they dined. Hon. Charles
G. Loring presided; Governor Andrew, General Meade, General Devens and
other distinguished soldiers spoke, and poems by Dr. Holmes and Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe were read. The president of the day called on Mr. Emerson
as representative of the poets and scholars whose thoughts had been an
inspiration to Harvard’s sons in the field.
[179] _Page 344, note 1._ This was the mother of Robert Gould Shaw, who
lost his life a few months later, leading his dusky soldiers up the
slopes of Fort Wagner. It was in his honor that Mr. Emerson wrote in the
“Voluntaries,”—
Stainless soldier on the walls.
Knowing this,—and knows no more,—
Whoever fights, whoever falls,
Justice conquers evermore,
Justice after as before,—
And he who battles on her side,
God, though he were ten times slain,
Crowns him victor glorified,
Victor over death and pain.
[180] _Page 345, note 1._
“O Beautiful! my Country! ours once more!
...
What words divine of lover or of poet
Could tell our love and make thee know it,
Among the Nations bright beyond compare?
What were our lives without thee?
What all our lives to save thee?
We reck not what we gave thee;
We will not dare to doubt thee,
But ask whatever else, and we will dare!”
Lowell, “Commemoration Ode.”