USA > Georgia > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 1
USA > Ohio > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 1
USA > Tennessee > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
Gc 973.74 Aalso 1868 2nd 1796611
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL CENEALOGY COLLECTION
E
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01082 2093
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/armyreunionwithr18662chic
THE
ARMY REUNION :
WITH
REPORTS OF THE MEETINGS
OF THE SOCIETIES OF
THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND;
TIIE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE; THE ARMY OF THE OHIO: AND
THE ARMY OF GEORGIA.
Chicago, December 15 and 16, 1868.
Publishing Committee :
F. T. SHERMAN,
R. W. SMITH,
WM. E. STRONG, A. C. MCCLURG.
-
F
1
.
CHICAGO : S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY.
1 869.
494
1796611
CHICAGO): CHURCH, GOODMAN & DONNELLEY, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 109 and 110 Dearborn Street.
4
THE CHICAGO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, to whom was entrusted the local preparation for the Army Reunion in this city in December of last year, have the pleasure of presenting this memorial volume to the members of the various societies represented in that Reunion. It was intended that it should be issued much earlier in the year, but the labor of collecting the material from the various secretaries, and from the many speakers at the Opera House Meeting and the Banquet, and the necessity of submitting the proof, for correction, to various persons interested, have rendered delay unavoidable. While it is hoped that this delay has been favorable to its complete. ness and correctness, it would be presumption to hope that a volume of this kind, hastily prepared, and by so many hands, could entirely escape errors.
The sub-committee, to whom its publication was intrusted, are indebted to the Rev. Edward C. Towne, for valuable assistance; and to his taste and judgment must be credited whatever of merit there may be in the introductions and general editorial arrangement of the material.
It is proper to add, that a small portion of the expense of the publication is borne by the treasuries of the different societies.
INTRODUCTION.
THE proposal of a Grand Reunion of all the Western Armies originated with General W. T. Sherman, whose position as the common commander of all suggested an equal interest in all, and excited a desire to gather, on one grand occasion, representatives of the whole host, undivided and indivisible in spirit and labors, which had been employed in the West in prosecuting tlie struggle of the Nation against rebellion. Four separate organizations, composed of these Armies respectively, the Army of the Tennes- see, the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of Georgia, had been formed, or were contemplated, with a common view to perpetuate the memories and help to preserve the record of camp, and march, and battle; and two of these were about being called to meet for the amiual celebration of 1868. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee was expected to convene in Chicago in September, and that of the Army of the Cumberland was anticipating a reunion, also in Chicago, on the' 15th of December. So early as March (IS6S), General Sherman had given a good deal of thought to a scheme of reunion of all the soldiers of the Western Armies, and had written to distinguished officers in regard to it. From Generals Thomas, Schofield, and Slocum, representing the Cumberland, Ohio, and Georgia Armies, he had received highly satisfactory assurances of cordial concurrence with his proposal for a Grand Reunion ; and on the 24th of March he wrote from the headquarters of
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Army Reunion.
the Military Division of the Mississippi, at St. Louis, to the Pres- ident of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, General John A. Rawlins, to propose the postponement of their meeting from the autumn to the winter, and their acceptance of the plan of reunion. The prompt and hearty concurrence of General Raw- lins and his comrades at once removed every obstacle to the consummation of General Sherman's desires, and enabled the distinguished commander, who so often had summoned the armies of the West to the labors and dangers of battle, to send out his call to all to meet, once at least, amid the securities of established peace, for a common celebration of the deathless memories of the war. Accepting the day which a brother com- mander-a soldier always to be named in history with the great captains under whom he was ever modestly content to serve, General George H. Thomas-had fixed for the assembling of the . Society of the Army of the Cumberland, General Sherman des- ignated the 15th and 16th of December, "the days that we gained Savannah and Thomas fought at Nashville," for a common meet- ing of all the Western Armies, in the city of Chicago. None who know how thoughtfully and cordially General Sherman has inva- riably promoted good feeling in those attached to the service with · him, and how generously and zealously he has cared for the good name of those who have earned the highest distinction under his command, will fail to reflect that he must have named with extreme satisfaction, for the grandest occasion of military reunion yet known to American history, the day already selected, by the man who "fought at Nashville," for the assembling of the gallant and famous Army of the Cumberland.
The scheme of the celebration itself, as well as the conception and proposal of it, was matured and brought forward by General Sherman. In his letter to General Rawlins of the 24th of March, he proposed that while the several Army Societies should meet separately during the days of the 15th and 16th, the evenings
7
Introduction.
t
should be devoted, in grand reunion, the first to commemorative orations from representatives of the respective armies, and the second to a reunion banquet, which should be as complete a festival of social communion as the wisdom of a joint local committee could devise.
The necessity for early action in the matter of orators from the respective Army Societies was met at once by the selection, on the part of these Societies, of the following distinguished gentle- men ;- General W. W. Belknap, of the Army of the Tennessee ; General Charles Cruft, of the Army of the Cumberland ; General J. D. Cox, of the Army of the Ohio; and General William Cogswell, of the Army of Georgia. And for the further execu- tion of the plans thus matured, General Sherman issued the following notice and invitation :
WASHINGTON, D. C., April 20, 1868.
Notice is hereby given, that the Societies representing the Armies of the Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio, and Georgia, will meet on the 15th and 16th days of December, 186S, at Chicago, Illinois. The object is purely social, and designed to preserve the memories of the war, and to cherish the friendships formed during that period of our national history. All are cheerfully invited to be present and participate.
An orator has been appointed for each Army, and addresses will be delivered on the night of the 15th of December, and a grand banquet will be held on the night of the 16th.
Letters of inquiry may be addressed to General William E. Strong, Chicago, Illinois, who will attend to all preliminary business, until a joint committee of arrangements has been appointed to carry into effect the above plan.
W. T. SHERMAN, Lieutenant-General U. S. A.
The joint committee alluded to in General Sherman's call, to which was committed the work of preparing for the Grand Reunion, was composed of the following committees, namned by
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Army Reunion.
the several Army Societies : - ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE ; - General John McArthur, Chairman ; General John M. Corse ; General Joseph Stockton ; General William E. Strong ; Colonel John Mason Loomis ; Major D. H. Gile. ARMY OF TIIE CUM- BERLAND ;- General F. T. Sherman, Chairman ; General A. C. McClurg ; Major A. H. Boyden. ARMY OF THIE OINIO ;- General R. W. Smith, Chairman ; General W. Scott Stewart ; General Julius White ; General Thomas J. Henderson ; Colonel W. W. Wheeler. ARMY OF GEORGIA; - General A. C. McClurg, Chairman ; General E. S. Salomon ; General J. D. Morgan ; General William Coggswell; General H. A. Barnum ; Major H. W. Buck.
These committees, representing the several Army Societies, were organized as the Executive Committee of the Reunion, at a joint meeting held in Chicago, October 24. The following were chosen officers of the Committee ; - General F. T. Sherman, Chairman ; General William E. Strong, Secretary. For a short time after the organization of the Committee, the engrossing engagements of the Presidential campaign required the postpone- ment of active preparations for the Reunion, but immediately upon coming together, on the Sth of November, when the political · contest had been settled by the election of General Grant, the Executive Committee called to its aid a large number of brother officers resident in Chicago and the vicinity, and designated the following sub-committees : *- Finance, Colonel John Mason Loomis, Chairman ; Banquet, General William E. Strong, Chairman ; Railroads and Transportation, General I. N. Stiles, Chairman ; Invitations, General John McArthur, Chairman ; Reception, General J. D. Webster, Chairman ; Halls, General A. C. McClurg, Chairman ; Decorations and Flags, Major W. L. B. Jenney, Chairman ; Printing and Badges, Major S. S. Hart, Chairman ; Music, Captain L. B. Church, Chairman.
* A full list of the members of these committees is given at p. 202.
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9
Introduction.
The labors of these committees were entered upon as soon as the Presidential election was over, and preparations pressed forward as vigorously as possible. The Secretary of the General · Committee, General William E. Strong, was instructed to send a dispatch through the Associated Press, requesting officers throughout the country to at once advise the Committee if they intended being present at the Reunion, in order that timely notice might be had of the number for whom provision should be made. An early invitation was extended to General Sherman to deliver an Address of Welcome on the evening of the 15th, and his acceptance secured ; the Committee feeling that such words would come most properly from the common commander who had suggested and summoned the gathering, and around whom, with the President elect, and their honored comrades, the other great captains of the war, the soldiers of the Western Armies would most cordially rally.
Another important feature of the preparation undertaken by the joint Executive Committee was the obtaining of colors and battle-flags, which had been carried by troops sent by different States into the Armies of the West, and had finally been laid away, at the capitals of these States, as sacred memorials of the . march and the battle, and almost holy emblems of patriotic devo- tion to country. Urgent and repeated applications were made, in the hope of obtaining a complete collection of these endeared and venerated relics, and with a highly gratifying result. The natural hesitation of those in charge of these priceless memorials pre- vailed in some instances, but the Committee had every occasion to return most cordial thanks to those who cheerfully assisted them to reproduce the most hallowed and powerful associations of the old war days.
Special invitations, amounting to considerably more than one hundred, were issued by the Committee, requesting the presence, as honored guests, of the President and Heads of Departments at
P
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Army Reunion.
Washington ; the General, Lieutenant-General, Major-Generals and Brigadier-Generals of the regular army ; Corps Commanders of Armies in the war not included in the Reunion ; Governors of States which furnished troops for any of the Western Armies, and ex-Governors of these States, who were in office during the war.
The more strictly local arrangements for the grand festival were also prosecuted with gratifying success. By the generosity of citizens of Chicago, who had given honorable distinction to the metropolis of the North-west in the dark days of the war, when labors,'sacrifices and suffering were more in order than festive celebrations, ample means were placed in the hands of the Finance Committee for all the necessary expenses of the Reunion. The Opera House was secured for the evening of the 15th, and for the banquet of the 16th the commodious Chamber of Com- merce was freely tendered by the Chicago Board of Trade, and was thankfully accepted. The decoration of these places of assembling, and every other feature of the preparations required for the proposed nights of high festival, engaged the careful attention of the Committee. The feast was generously spread ; music and song were enlisted ; banners, battle-flags and colors, and other accessories of a tasteful and brilliant display, were arranged ; and nothing left undone to prepare a scene worthy, as near as might be, of the noble company to be convened. Facili- ties for coming from all parts of the country, at a moderate expense, were solicited, and obtained, from the railroads ; head- quarters for the various Army Societies were designated; the ample resources of private hospitality were put in requisition ; and the entire community was stirred with patriotic ardor to give a fitting welcome to the representatives of those armies whose deeds had been our redemption, and whose fame had become a household word in every corner of our land.
In placing on record the proceedings of the Army Reunion for which these preparations had been made, we are obliged to
II
Introduction.
remember that the grand occasion embraced at once distinct meetings of separate Army Societies, held during the days of the 15th and 16th, and Reunion meetings, for which the evenings were set apart.
The Society of the Army of the Tennessee was organized at Raleigh, North Carolina, in the spring of the last year of the war, before its members had turned their backs on the scenes of their last can:paign-the brilliant march of Sherman through the heart of the Confederacy. It met for the first time, after the coming of peace in the land, in Chicago, in the fall of 1865. A second meeting was held the following year in Cincinnati, and a third in St. Louis in 1867. The meeting of December 15th and 16th, in Chicago, in connection with the great festival of Reunion, was the fourth in order from the founding of the Society. Orig- inally appointed to be held in September, it was considerately postponed to the date of the Grand Reunion, a generous concession from the oldest of the Army Societies, in order that the common meeting might take place after the engagements and excitements of the presidential campaign should be over. The official report of the proceedings of this meeting shows that the Society of the Army of the Tennessee emphatically and decisively determined to continue its separate organization. The committee appointed by it to consider propositions for the consolidation of the several Army Societies, were strictly instructed not to accept any such proposition.
The Society of the Army of the Cumberland was organized in February, IS6S, at a general meeting of the Army in Cincinnati. The meeting reported in this volume is thus the second which the Society has held. The third reunion was appointed, it will be noticed, to be held at Indianapolis, in the present year, and the idea of a united society of all the Western Armies was only so far entertained, that a committee was appointed for the purpose of conferring with such committees as might be appointed by the
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Army Reunion.
other Societies in reference to a joint meeting at the same time and place.
The members of the Army of the Ohio, who came with their comrades of other armies to attend the general reunion summoned by the common commander, improved the occasion to organize a Society, for purposes similar to those which had called into exist- ence the older Army Societies. Similar action was taken by the members of the Army of Georgia, which had met the preceding year with the Army of the Cumberland, to which a large propor- : tion of them had belonged until the organization of the Army of Georgia, at Atlanta, in the last year of the war. Henceforth, therefore, the Society of the Army of the Ohio, and the Society of the Army of Georgia, will do their part, with sister societies of soldiers who served in Western Armies, to preserve the mem- ories, and perfect the records, of that portion of the great conflict which was waged by forces mainly organized, or employed, in some part of the western half of the country.
But the portion of this reunion record which takes precedence, by common consent, is the report of the two general meetings, the imposing assemblage of gallant soldiers in the Opera House, on the evening of the 15th, to listen to commemorative orations from representatives of the several Army Societies, after fit words of noble welcome from the almost incomparable Captain of the March to the Sea, and while the stoutest and stanchest of patriot Generals sat in the chair of peaceful command ; and again, the festival throng of the following evening, in the great hall of the Board of Trade, when a feast of good things, with song and speech, and numberless varied demonstrations of fellowship, brought back to brave men the recollection of camp and battle days, and melted a thousand hearts with one glowing and enno- bling sense of the joy and honor it had been to have part in the grand undoing of wicked rebellion. The simplest record of these scenes will amply preserve, for those who took part in them, the memory of a great occasion.
13
Introduction.
None of the great soldiers of the war had aroused in the Armies of the West a more worshipful enthusiasm than he who sat first among the leaders assembled on the ample platform of the Opera House, on the evening of the 15th-General George H. Thomas. The events of his career, and the qualities of his character, had equally wrought in all observers the conviction that history rarely shows the world a man more compact of all the abilities and manners of a great soldier, and rarely affords to greatness a finer opportunity than was his on the memorable field of Chicka- manga, and when the last desperate advance of the Rebellion was crushed before Nashville. An incident of this evening of com- memoration, the unexampled burst of irrepressible emotion which greeted a reference to General Thomas in the oration of General Belknap, strikingly confirmed the judgment of those who selected this modest hero and admirable soldier to sit between Grant and Sherman at the head of the great Reunion assemblage. With gallant courtesy the orator of the Army of the Tennessee had spoken of " the determined soldier" and "beloved commander" of the Army of the Cumberland, " Thomas, the rock of Chicka- mauga," when with instant accord every heart in the vast assembly, soldiers of every army and all ranks, leaped beyond all bounds of usnal excitement, into such a storm of applause as hardly once in a century falls upon human ears. It was a fit recognition of one who is justly thought to have shown himself, by the side of his great equals, an ideal soldier.
The Presidential election of November 7th had set the seal of accomplished history to the nation's appreciation of our most eminent commander, when the Reunion of the Western Armies was held. Fitly, on every ground, therefore, the guest of the hour, in the seat of honor on the right of General Thomas, was the General of the Army of the United States, the President elect of the nation. Inflexibly silent, a doer of deeds and not a man of speech, his part played always in the simplest and most
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Army Reunion.
practical fashion, the quiet presence of General Grant, first in horror as in rank, sufficiently indicated the exceptional dignity of the occasion.
At the left hand of the president of the evening every eye in the vast assemblage marked the third of these equal masters of war, a soldier who uses his pen as happily as he handles the sword, and to whom had been assigned the task of speaking the welcome of the leaders to all who had met them in reunion. The form which had moved so often through the ranks of battle, like victory's own standard, bent as gently as a woman's for the courtesies of the hour, and eyes which had flashed the great rage of war were kindly as a mother's looking into the devotion of that sea of martial faces. No soldier there needed to be told that General Sherman keeps the aspect of severity for the uses of war, and that as man to man he bears always a countenance of kind- liest courtesy.
We have mentioned only the first names of the long list of leaders of the Armies of the West who had gathered to the grand Reunion. Grant, and Sherman, and Thomas, were the centre of a company such as no previous American occasion, of war or of peace, had gathered. So many distinguished military men had never before, in all the history of the country, been brought into a single scene. Besides distinguished guests from other armies, here were a large proportion of the army, corps, and division commanders who had led into battle the Armies of the West. To even call the roll of their honored names, and make the briefest fit mention of each, would far exceed the limits we are bound to keep.
And it is all the more necessary not to enter upon particular mention of the large number who sat rank behind rank around Grant and Sherman and Thomas, because in front of them, densely crowding the great audience-space of the Opera House, were hundreds upon hundreds who had won, in their places, a
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Introduction.
name in the war, and who brought now the dignity of heroism and the honor of noble deeds to enhance the significance of this splendid occasion. And with these, in such parts of the house as could be set apart for them, sat others, not less than they soldiers of the great conflict and heroes of the great battles, those true and tried women of mercy and sisters of compassion, those wives and daughters and sisters who had buckled on courage, and carried the tenderness of love and the sweetness of home wherever the soldier's path had led, under the cloud and through the sea, until the days of wandering and suffering, of painful toil and painful endurance, were all ended. No hearts of all that great reunion company throbbed in quicker, finer, holier sympathy with the sacred commemoration of the hour.
When General Thomas rose before this assemblage, and called for the reveille by the drum corps, an outbreak of enthusiasm from reunited comrades followed, which, for the moment, made all other demonstration insignificant. The call which the drums gave was that which had, through all the war, roused the soldier from his hurried rest, to preparation for his long days of labor and peril. Its notes were familiar as the ticking of the home clock over the domestic hearth, while their associations were of scenes and events, incidents and deeds, at the remembrance of which the coolest blood became on fire, and the least ardent souls were kindled with inspiration. It had not been expected that this reveille would be sounded, and when the martial tones of the drums were heard, a passion of ardor swept through the throng of soldiers, and a storm of great emotions rose and broke, rose and broke again, as if a hundred score of gallant men had said, Let our country but call again, and we are still ready. So, nobly, as heroes should, did those who participated in the grand reunion, listen to the orations to which it is now time to turn.
THE ORATIONS.
1.
THE assemblage of the evening of December 15th, to listen to Orations from representatives of the several Army Societies, was called to order by General George H. Thomas, who said ;---
COMRADES OF THE ARMIES OF THE TENNESSEE, CUMBERLAND, OHIO, AND GEORGIA : Having been selected to preside over this interesting meeting, I take this occasion to express to you my most heartfelt thanks for the honor conferred upon me. As a good deal of time has already been spent in arranging your seats, we will now proceed to the business before the meeting in its regular order. The first thing will be the reveille by the drum corps.
After the outbreak of enthusiasm which greeted the reveille ordered by General Thomas, the following address of welcome was made by Lieutenant-General Sherman :
GENERAL SHERMAN'S ADDRESS.
FELLOW-SOLDIERS : It is made my pleasant duty to address to you this evening words of welcome to the feast that is to be spread before you. From the city and the country, from the town and village, you have come together, the representatives of four of those grand volunteer armies, which responded to our country's call in her hour of danger, fought her battles - sometimes, side by side ; sometimes far apart ; yet always in unison - and then, at her bidding, returned to your homes as farmers or mechanics, as artizans and citizens.
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Army Reunion.
After a short rest you have again assembled to stand, as it were, on a high pinnacle, to look back across that wide valley wherein you struggled so long, to point out to each other the spots of greatest interest, and to live o'er again the hours and days and months of deepest anguish or of joy.
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