There is one parade I wish I could have attended–the one that ended the Civil War. Over two days the Armies of the Union traversed Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House, a seemingly unending sea of soldiers.

In the case of General Sherman’s Army, it took most of a day for all 65,000 to make that last march. In Sherman’s words:

“For six hours and a half that strong tread of the Army of the West resounded along Pennsylvania Avenue; not a soul of that vast crowd of spectators left his place; and, when the rear of the column had passed by, thousands of spectators still lingered to express their confidence in the strength of a Government which could claim such an army.”

The great majority who made this march were not professional soldiers. They were civilians, some ex-slaves, recruited for war. The Army of the West had walked (marched) 2,000 miles–from Vicksburg and the Mississippi, across Tennessee, then down through Georgia, then up through South Carolina, North Carolina, Viriginia and finally to their Capitol. It had taken them two years.

This was their last march. They would then be heading home. The poignancy of it, the relief and exhilaration of it, the knowledge that a terrible Civil War was now over…it all came together in this last combined act of their Army, this march down Pennsylvania Avenue. It was a parade like no other.

When you read Sherman’s remembrance of that day, it makes our present squabbles and national debate seem pale, almost meaningless. What sacrifices have we made that can even compare to it? Where would we be if slavery were still the law of the land? What if we had two countries, instead of one?

And, we think that our nation today is divided and that things are contentious? Compare today to over 600,000 American war dead, families divided by civil war, the blood that was shed, the battle over slavery on this continent, a war to save the Union…our present problems, in that context, seem miniscule, just a small footnote in our history.

Reading this old history also reminds us that what we enjoy today and take for granted–this democracy we live in–did not come to us by chance. It came through the sacrifice and vision of predecessors. We rise from the shoulders of others.

It is humbling to remember this. We have so much today, that we tend to forget about these early days.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a strong man, a proud man. He did not “suffer fools” easily. He could push back and was, sometimes, strong-headed to his detriment. Yet, he knew that without his Army, he would have been nothing. His soldiers called him “Uncle Billy.” I can see Sherman now, standing on the White House reviewing stand, after he had led that parade and then had joined the dignitaries, watching his troops go by, phalanx upon phalanx, and saluting them throughout the day. I wish I had been there.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident and a Vietnam veteran.