Happy 4th of July from the 72nd Indiana

With the recent work looking at motivations of soldiers and other aspects of the mind of the Confederate soldier it should not be forgotten that there were United States soldiers who would display some of the same views and attitudes, in this case I'm refering to a diehard hatred of the enemy, similar to my previous post on the matter. The following is a good example of that, A special thanks to Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP Historian Jim Ogden for bringing this to my attention this morning, the account is from the History of The Seventy-Second Regiment Indiana on July 4th, 1863, "We gathered in the afternoon at headquarters and Col. Kirkpatrick, who was the only politician in the regiment, was called out for a speech. He responded in one of his happiest efforts. When he spoke of the 'dear old flag, the stars and stripes' in a grand burst of eloquence he said, 'they should wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave when the last mother's son of the rebellion should be dead and rotten, damned and forgotten.' We cheered him to the echo...This occasion was an oasis in the many dreary days of our service."