-- The Kohima Epitaph
Appears on a monumenterected at the British military
cemetery at Kohima, Assam, India, in memory of those
who diedin World War II's largest Asian landbattle 
near there in 1944

I sat there alone on the storied crest,
till the sun went down
as it did before over the misty hills,
and the darkness crept up the slopes,
till from all earthly sight
I was buried as with those before.

But oh, what radiant companionship rose around,
what steadfast ranks of power,
what bearing of heroic souls.
Oh, the glory that beamed
through those nights and days.

Nobody will ever know it here! 
I am sorry most of all for that. 
The proud young valor that 
rose above the mortal,
and then at last was mortal after all."
-- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Commenting on his return to Little Round Top,
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1913.
Chamberlain was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his service there.

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
 Timothy 2:4:7

Alone and far removed from earthly care
The noble ruins of men lie buried here.
You were strong men, good men
Endowed with youth and much the will to live
I hear no protest from the mute lips of the dead.
They rest; there is no more to give.
So long my comrades,
Sleep ye where you fell upon the field.
But tread softly pleaseMarch o'er
my heart with ease
March on and on,
But to God alone we kneel.

-- Audie Murphy

And reverent men and women from afar,
and generations that know us not
and that we know not of,
heart-drawn to see where and by whom
great things were suffered and done for them,
shall come to this deathless field
to ponder and dream;

And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence
shall wrap them in its bosom,
and the power of the vision pass into their souls."
-- Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Commenting on his return to Gettysburg
and the great battlefield there.
 

Executive Mansion
Washington, November 21, 1864

To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department
a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts,
that you are the mother of five sons who have died
gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words
of mine which should attempt to beguile you from
the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot
refrain from tendering to you the consolation that
may be found in the thanks of the Republic they
died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the
anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only
the cherished memory of the loved and  lost,
and the solemn pride that must be yours,  to have
laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln