Not all the labor of "saving the Union" was done in the
trenches, on the march, on the gun deck of a man-of-war, or in other
military and naval operations, though without these the efforts of all
others would have been in vain. Thousands of men and women who never
"smelled gunpowder," who never heard the booming cannon, or the rattling
musketry, who never witnessed a battle on sea or land, but who kept
their minds and hearts in touch with the holy cause, labored diligently
and faithfully to support and sustain the soldiers and sailors at the
front.
If all those who fought no battles are not honored like the leaders and
commanders in the loyal cause, if they wear no laurels on their brows,
if no monuments are erected to transmit their memory to posterity, if
their names and deeds are not recorded in the Valhalla of the redeemed
nation, they ought not to be disregarded and ignored. It was not on the
field of strife alone in the South that the battle was fought and won.
The army and the navy needed a moral, as well as a material support,
which was cheerfully rendered by the great army of the people who never
buckled on a sword, or shouldered a musket.
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