George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army
George Gordon Meade, Ed.

[304] the same city, the bishop had joined him in wedlock to her who was now left to mourn his loss. The Right Reverend Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, whose visits to him when in camp had been so full of solace, made a touching address to the crowded congregation. He said:

I do not come to-day to lay a tribute of affection on a great soldier's grave; the city, the State and the nation have done this. So long as our country lives, these names which are inwrought in her history will be household words. I stand by the grave of one I loved. My thoughts can only be of the One on whom he leaned as he went down into the dark valley, and of the land of beauty which is afar off. How poor are words of praise! How empty are the honors of the world beside the grave! Far sweeter to the ear are the words from heaven, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”

If I asked any of you to describe our brother's character, you would tell me he had a woman's gentleness with the strength of a great-hearted man. I believe it was the lessons of faith, inwrought into a soldier's life, which made him know no guide but duty, which made him so kind to the helpless, which placed him foremost in all public works, and made his name a household word in all your homes. During the dark days of our Civil War I happened to be in Washington. He telegraphed me to come and celebrate Easter in his camp with the holy communion. It was a strange place for Easter flowers and Easter songs, and the story of the Resurrection, but I do not recall a sweeter service or one more redolent of the peace of heaven. Of the bronzed veterans who knelt beside the Lord's table, some, like Williams and Meade, are sleeping with the dead, others are scattered far and busy in life's work.

That day I knew that we had in our camps centurions who feared God and prayed always.

The solemn service ended, the congregation rose, while the coffin was borne from the church, followed by the male relations of the general, his intimate personal friends, the President of the United States, the general of the army, and many other distinguished officers both of the army and navy. It was placed, covered with the national flag, upon the caisson upon which it was to be transported. The funeral escort, consisting of regular troops and the national guard of Pennsylvania, commanded by Major-General McDowell, closed around the caisson, which was followed by General Meade's faithful old horse, Baldy, who had carried him through many a hard-fought field, and by a long line of carriages containing his male relations, personal