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 2
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 2
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 2
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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
I know that you have laid aside forever the feelings of ani- mosity and anger, then so natural and proper, and that you have dropped into oblivion the little jealousies and rivalries of the hour, and now stand here with hand extended in fraternal friendship to every soldier in the land, whether he belonged to your regiment or in your division, whether in your army or any other, whether upon the land or the sea, provided only he fought for the Union of our fathers, and the flag of our whole country. No mere feeling of self-glorification now animates you, but a just pride in your own actions, and a deep and intense love for the comrade who stood by your side in the day of battle, and shouted with you in the hour of victory. Happily, my friends, you did not belong to that class of our people in whose very youth was planted the pernicious doctrine, that the highest allegiance was due to the place of birth or of residence, and that a citizen should love a part of his country better than the whole. You were reared in a better school, and taught to revere the Constitution of your whole country, and to believe that under its wise and genial influence, man would here attain the largest measure of security and happiness consistent with the general safety. We believed that, by the law of majorities and a frequent resort to the ballot box, we had discovered a panacea for the ills that had from earliest history afflicted the human family, and that we should escape the conflicts and ravages which war had caused in all preceding ages. But we were doomed to realize that we formed no exception to the general rule, that minorities would not always submit to so peaceful a decree, and that we, too, must fight to maintain the privileges of our birthright.
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Address of Welcome.
You may search history in vain for a more flagrant violation · of faith, a more causeless breach of a national compact than that which resulted in our civil war. Never before was an unwilling people so ruthlessly, so needlessly, dragged into a long and bloody conflict, and never before was a Government so utterly unprepared for it. All attempts to avoid its outbreak were charged to cowardice, and the whole civilized world was made to believe that that " bright particular star," which had for a time shone so clear in the Western firmament, had sunk for- ever, and that the fair fabric which had been dedicated to liberty, had vanished as a dream before the first storm of passion which had assailed it.
Here at home reason was unseated; the laws were derided and scorned ; the public property was seized or appropriated as though it were a waif upon the ocean. Good men every where begged and implored for a little forbearance, offering Rebellion the blank sheet whereon to write its own terms of compromise, and were answered back with insult. The orator wasted his elo- quence in vain ; the statesman exhausted his last peaceful remedy ; and then, and not till then, did war, the last arbiter of kings and peoples, assume absolute dominion over this great land of free- dom.
The volunteer soldier stepped upon the arena, and offered his life and his services to defend and maintain the Government against all its enemies and opposers whomsoever. He swore the oath that rebellion and anarchy should not rule this land of ours, but that liberty, justice and law should be restored to their right- ful tlirone. He has kept his oath, and we now behold again the good ship of State, full-rigged, once more on her course, destined toward that future which is hidden from all mortal eyes; and the flag is still there unchanged - " not a star obliterated, not a stripe dimmed"; that same old flag that we have followed so often in the glare of a scorching sun, by the moon's pale beams, and by
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the light of the lurid, blazing pine-torch. Shall I not, then, claim for you, who represent this volunteer soldier, the higher honor - yea, the highest honor that is conceded to mortal upon earth.
You can easily recall how long the war seemed to us in its progress, and how short now looking back upon it after a period of little more than three years. How inconceivable short, then, will it appear to those who a hundred years hence will grope through the pages of history to learn of the events and causes that led five millions of people to rebel, when no single act of oppression or tyranny was even alleged? We owe it to them, while still in the vigor of life and health, to record the parts we played in this grand drama of life, with the motives and feelings that actuated us through its various stages.
Many a time and oft you have lain upon the bare ground, with no canopy above but that of heaven, with its hosts of glittering stars, and I know you have dreamed of a time to come like this, when, seated together in security and peace, surrounded by admiring friends, you would be crowned with a tiara of light which now hangs over your heads. Accept this, then, as the fruition of your dream, and enjoy the hour !
Four of your comrades, one from each of the armies specially represented here, will address you and tell you of the deeds you have done. Give them a willing and attentive ear, and when you go back to your homes tell them all that these armies, though dispersed in the flesh, yet live in the spirit as strong and enthu- siastic as they were four years ago, when in the very death grapple with the enemies of our country and of civilization.
And now, in the name of the committee that has made these preparations, I extend to you all a cordial greeting-to the veteran of '61, to the recruit of '65, yea, to the convert of the very last hour of grace.
In the name of the people of Chicago, who have provided the means, I bid you welcome, and assure you that a seat awaits you
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Address of Welcome.
at every fireside. And in the name of every patriot of the land I give you welcome, and tell you that the lightning's flash is not swift enough to satisfy the yearning of their hearts to know what is done here this night.
The presence of the men about me, their high office, and the duties they have left to be with you here, all attest the interest and grandeur of the occasion, and in their names, too, comrades all, I bid you thrice welcome.
The several Army Society Orations were delivered, following the address of General Sherman, in the following order ; - The Oration of General W. W. Belknap, on the part of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee ; the Oration of General Charles Cruft, of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland ; the Ora- tion of General J. D. Cox, of the Army of the Ohio; and the Oration of General William Cogswell, of the Army of Georgia.
General Belknap spoke as follows, after the singing of " America" by the Glee Club.
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GENERAL BELKNAP'S ORATION.
SOLDIERS OF THE ARMIES OF THE CUMBERLAND, THE OHIO, AND GEORGIA ; COMRADES OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE : It all seems like a dream, -the insult to the flag; the Presi- dent's call for troops; the great uprising of the people; the unfurling to the breeze, from every mast and staff and spire of the North, of the nation's emblem; the enthusiastic meetings of men of all classes to devise means in that solemn hour to strike a blow for union and save the nation ; the prompt response of the young men of the land; the muster-in of armed hosts; the waving of handkerchiefs, and the hand-shakings at parting, and the last kisses of the loved ; the first battles in the West ; the eager demand for news; the victory at Donelson, where began the public life of a new leader of the Nation; the field of Shiloh, with its bloody victory seized from defeat ; the gradual opening of the Father of Floods; Vicksburg with its memorable siege ; the return home as veterans of those who but a short time before had left as untried youth ; the proud consciousness of the youthful soldier, as he told of his deeds afar off in the wars ; the return to the field ; the flankings and fightings of our great Captain about Atlanta, until it was "ours and fairly won ;" the sudden departure, as, turning their backs on home, the men of this Army made their march to the sea; Savannah and its pleasant holidays of rest ; the seemingly unceasing swamps of Carolina ; the toilsome march to Raleigh ; the welcome words of the announcement which told of the surrender of the flower of the Armies of the South; the joy of that happy hour turned to gloom, as the hushed intelli- gence of the death of the nation's Chief was broken in low
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Oration of General Belknap.
words to the men; the final march to Washington; the grand review at the nation's Capital ; the last order, and the welcome muster out ; - all these memories seem not like memories, but like the faint glimpses of an imagined picture, as, panorama like, it passes before the eye, and leaves here and there an impress, and is gone ; - like the half-faded recollection of something that we have seen, and yet at times can scarce believe that we have witnessed. And as, day after day, in the quiet walks of civil life, he who was a soldier pursues those duties which are so different from the routine of military life, the meeting with a comrade, the sound of a voice which he has heard on distant fields, reminds him of the days when, by the camp-fire and with his comrades of the bivouac, care was banished in anticipation of a future of victory and peace. And then the vision vanishes, and breaking upon him the realized truth thrills his heart with the treasured memory that he was once a volunteer soldier of the Army of the Tennessee. And yet again, as he turns the pages of his little journal, and reads the hasty jottings of his army notes, he can scarce believe that of those scenes his eyes were witnesses, that of those sounds of artillery his ears were hearers, that on the march his step gave its part to the universal tramp, and that in . all of which he writes he was an actor. It all seems like a dream 1
As the exile from home and friends, after years of separation, feels his heart bound with joy, as his eyes once more rest on the familiar faces of honored friends, and the cherished scenes of carlier days, so are we, my comrades, conscious that to-night our glistening eyes tell of the happiness of this meeting, our bounding hearts beat high in remembrance of the proud deeds achieved by the Armies of the Union. Our hands are clasped with that earnestness of soldierly friendship, which only intercourse among scenes of peril and hardship can insure, and our words tell of those days when life was more earnest, because we spent its hours
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Army Reunion.
where death was a constant companion, and where his presence lurked in the gleam of every gun ; where the realities of hardship scarce made an impression, so like a luxury did every favor seem where a blanket was a sumptuous bed ; where the repose of the soldier at night was made none the less refreshing by the reflec tion that perhaps by reveille, he might " sleep a sleep which knows no waking" here.
And as we revive these memories, and recall these scenes, there cluster around us the recollections of those days, then unapprecia- ted but now dear by the associations which gather around them, as our armies fought for the national life, and put forth their energies to preserve its liberties. And as the trials and hardships endured are recalled, how can we fail to be lost in wonder at the fortitude and faithful bravery, the energy and unflagging devotion, the perseverance and untiring zeal, which prompted the move- ments, and nerved the arms, of that remarkable body of men who formed the volunteer soldiery of the Armies of the United States? Doubts had entered the minds of many as to the possibility of procuring the men in numbers sufficient to form an army of the power and efficiency desired, even were the means at hand to equip and arm it, but that doubt dissolved, when from every hamlet and village and city ; from every farm and fireside, flocked · the noble hearts to do their country's bidding. The mechanic left his bench, the farmer's boy forsook his field, the student threw aside his books, the briefs of the lawyer were forgotten, the phy- sician left the bedside of the sick, the merchant closed his accounts, and the ease of quiet life was abandoned by the man of leisure. All with one will fell into line at the call of the country. From all these occupations and pursuits, from all these habits of thought and practices of life, was to be moulded an army, the power of which no man had conceived, the mighty influence of which no man had measured, the combined achievements of which no prophet had predicted ; for it was left for the Armies
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. Oration of General Belknap.
of the West to write their own histories, to carve their deeds in letters of life on the unbroken columns of their country's union, and to send down to the future, forever to be unforgotten, the names of those men, who, as the leaders of that mighty host, had made themselves immortal.
As the drums beat they gathered ; here one and there another, and there a company of two or three. Beneath the protecting banner of their fathers, as its consecrated folds floated in the breeze, with hearts beating with the earnestness of youthful patriotism, and with hands ready for the task, they fastened in the faith those who had once been doubtful, and the flag of the land, touched by the breath of heaven, seemed now to give token more signally than ever, that, while with its blended colors it was the flag of the union, it was also the flag of the free.
Back to those firesides many of them never marched again. There are times when the hearts of men are more easily touched than at others; when the feelings of our better natures tire of the burdens of active life, and, turning to more quiet duties and more peaceful scenes, yield to the quiet influences of home. Thus it was in the solemn moment of the soldier's departure. Family and friends and fireside were to be left, and thoughts of them coming between him and his duty made the strong man weak. The tear of affection's farewell dropped down the cheeks of those whom he loved so tenderly, but it was not the tear of regret. The arms of woman's love were twined around those manly forms, but they pressed them not to stay. The sincere expression which marked the last benediction of those endeared to the soldier by all 'the ties of kindred and of family, only assured him of the intensity of that devotion which gave him up that the land might live, and when this was all over and he had gone, his form erect and strong, his step firm and soldierly, but ill concealed the grief which truly attests the sorrow of the parting. Though that fireside may now be desolate and lonely, and that form be always
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Army Reunion.
missed, those whom he left will remember that he fell manfully where heroes love to die, and though that parting was the last, with their's the tears of thousands mingle.
On us who daily witnessed their efforts, and under whose eye their labors came, the uncomplaining patience and the untiring energy of the Western soldier, are impressed with an ineffaceable stamp. Though often guided by ambition, yet often forsaken by hope ; though solicitous for advancement, and desirous of position, yet in the midst of disappointment he was ever dutiful. In the weary watches of the night, he did his work on the picket post faithfully and well. On the tiresome march, on roads soft with mud for miles, and deep with water, he strode along. Losing sleep when nature was well-nigh exhausted, after a weary day's march, he was contented with the meal which a haversack afforded him, and among all the trials and perplexing mishaps of his soldier-life, was unforgetful of his duty to his country, though to him she seemed sometimes thankless and ungrateful. The winter's cold was to him as nothing, for his frame had become inured to it under the pitiless storms of his Northern home. The severe heats of a Southern sun beat upon him, but they seemed only to renew his fainting energies and to render his step more firm. Though the army's road lay through woods which before were pathless, the spirit and will of its leader clove a way, through which this army marched, and its track through the South was followed, where the axes of the hardy pioneers of the corps of Dodge and of Logan and of Blair, blazed the way of the Army of the Tennessee to victory. Through those dark swamps where the rank growth of tangled briars and thorns formed a barrier to his progress, he moved, regardless of their presence ; across large tracts where the treacherous earth yielded to the moving mass, he wearily labored, as the lengthened trains of the advancing columns were lifted from the quicksand, and sent on their way ..
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Oration of General Belknap.
What the private soldiers of the Army endured, the world will never know. We recall that skirmish-line advancing from point to point, until the sharp cracking of occasional rifles is lost in the opening crash of the conflict. We remember those rifle-pits, so closely under the fire of the enemy, that the snapping of a twig, or the rustling of a leaf, would be the signal of death ; those lines of battle in the face of the foe ; those embrasures from which the thundering artillery sent its messengers screaming to the front, and those frequent cannonadings, which, with bursting shell, covered the Divisions; and we seem to hear the shouts and yells of the men, as, in the heat of the action, rallying by the side of the flag, which to the fighting soldier among such scenes shines with renewed lustre, the faint-hearted grew strong and the falter- ing were nerved amid the havoc of the battle. We recall this at Shiloh, when, on the first day, the national lines wavered before the advancing attacks of that well-appointed army ; when, on the second day, under the eye and cool leadership of their first com- mander, they swept to defeat those who had been defiant victors ; and at Corinth, where the brightness of the deeds of valor per- formed by the enemy was dimmed by the mistaken cause for which they fought; and again at Vicksburg, where in charge after charge the men marched like men at the blazing mouths of the guns; and still again at Atlanta, where, again and again, on July 22, 1864, flanked and turned, they fought from either side, and both sides, and all sides of the works, and won the victory in a manner peculiarly Western.
And when the contests were over, when the sounds of strife were stilled, and only the low moans of the wounded, or the breathings of the dying, touched the ear, we remember that among those scenes of suffering our wounded comrades lay with scarce a murmur. Among all our visits to the hospitals we can remember the resigned and patient conduct of those who had been stricken down. The hand of affection was not there to
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Army Reunion.
smooth the soldier's pillow ; the tender caresses of the loved ones at home were missed from the field hospital. The hands that nursed them, though prompted by kindly hearts, were rough; but from the lips of the dying heroes came no words of complaint, and no repining, save at times the manly regret that they could do no more for the country and its cause. The blood of many of the best and bravest of the Army of the Tennessee moistened the soil of the South ; the bones of many of our comrades whitened the battle-fields of the war. On field and hill and plain their graves were made, by the banks of the Tennessee, beneath the cliffs of Lookout Mountain, under the frowning heights of Kene- saw, and here and there along the line of march, until, for some, the sea sounds forth a requiem. Peace to their ashes ! Remem- bered be their lives and deeds, while we willingly pause in our pleasure to drop a soldier's tear on the honored graves of the early dead. They lie there in companies, battalions, and divis- ions, and side by side with the private soldier, the true and tried leader fell in death.
" Their swords are rust - Their good steeds, dust - Their souls are with the saints, we trust."
Wherever man could go, they went; whatever man could do, they did, and as a body of energetic, enterprising and resistless men, achieved for themselves and their army a name which will live as long as the land lasts for whose liberties they fought ; for they commanded the prompt approbation of their leaders, and challenged the admiration of the people, while the astonished military leaders of other nations, wrapped up in theories of their own as to the formation of armies, paused in their perusal of the history of the rebellion, surprised by the reality. And after it was announced that the cause of the South was a lost cause, and the shell of the Confederacy was crushed ; after the Army of
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Oration of General Belknap.
Northern Virginia had surrendered to our first Commander, and the Rebel Army of Tennessee to our second ; after the head of the Rebellion, followed by the quick eye, and pursued by the Cavalry of the untiring Wilson, had yielded to capture, baffled, discomfited and lost, what a sight it was for the contemplation of the world, as the Armies of the Union, passing in review before their leader, and before the Nation's Executive, filed off to their homes, and calmly, peacefully, and gladly returned to the quiet walks of civil life ! In no other land could such a scene be wit- nessed. Years before, the citizens of the Republic had become her soldiers ; her youth had become her men, and the smoke of the marches of military life had hidden from their view the green fields of other days, but, as the cloud lifted, it revealed the men of the Army who had survived the shock of War, dropping the weapons of the conflict, and the button of rank, and effacing all traces of the contest in the industrious avocations of life. As quickly as arms were taken up, as promptly were they laid aside, and almost imperceptibly, with the last roll of the drums of the rebellion, an army of strength and power and numbers, was dissolved without commotion. As they were mustered out, hearts which throbbed heavily with anguish during their absence, bounded with joy at their approach; the faces of the aged, marked by the anxiety of separation, as well as by the touch of time, kindled with the old smile as the hour of reunion came ; and, clasped in the close embrace of those around whom the best affections of his heart clustered, -mothers, wives, sisters and lovers,-the soldier of the Army, exultant in his well-earned fame, received the rich reward he had won so worthily. What though his marches had been long and weary, his rations some- times scant and poor, his battles bloody, and his hardships at times unheeded ; not a page would he take from the history of the campaigns in which he bore a part, not a word would he blot from the orders which told the congratulations of his chief,
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and not a leaf would he pluck from the wreath of renown in which these very struggles and trials were woven. In the hearts of the people his reputation was fadeless, for while to the nation he was the defender of its liberties, the character and conduct of the American volunteer were the wonder of the world. Wher- ever we go, these men are found now, in all the labors that industry invites, and as they were good soldiers, so now they honor the paths they tread. In the presence of the dissolved army, the public men of other nations stand in astonishment. That hundreds of thousands of men, untaught in war, should so suddenly become a skillful army, and as suddenly return again to the work-shop, and the office, and the farm, surpassed even the expectations of the well-wishers of the land ; for the occurrence stood without a parallel. As the young Republic emerged from these trials, her leaders sent to nations far beyond the Atlantic lessons in the art of war.
There was a feature of the Western Armies which has been remarked, and which, though personal to every soldier of the corps and divisions represented here to-night, is yet an honest cause of proud satisfaction to us all; that the unity of their actions, the harmony of their counsels, and their combined efforts to conquer, were not impaired or weakened by internal feuds, nor tarnished by unsoldierly jealousy. In the personal valor, in the soldierly honor and persistent energies of their comrades of the armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, and of Georgia, the Army of the Tennessee ever had firm reliance. Shoulder to shoulder with them they passed through the perils of the Atlanta Campaign, and with joyful ears listened to the salute of exploding magazines, which told that the Twentieth Corps were entering the city ; and on the great march from the " Gate City" of Georgia to the coast, the soldier of the West knew that when trouble came, the soldier of the East, adopted into this Western host, would find no word like fail written in his orders. The leader of one of
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