USA > Pennsylvania > History of the First regiment infantry, National guard of Pennsylvania (Grey Reserves) 1861-1911, pt 2 > Part 39
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Thursday. 23rd. This was the only morning the Corps was not engaged. and the members took the advantage individually of visiting of divers places-the Patent Office. War Office. ete .. etc. Among other curiosities was the original Declaration of Independence. About noon we left for home and got on our way as far as Alexandria about 3 r.st. Here we were literally pressed ashore: and after marching through the principal streets. Were kindly invited by a number of citizens to partake of dinner got up on the
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spur of the moment ; in short. they came very near killing us with kit. in It can never be forgotten by our members.
Friday, 24th February. Left for Baltimore at 12 noon and atree. at Baltimore on Saturday about daylight. Raining when we lungul al froze; where we were received by several of the Volunteer Corps of 1 day [they were received by the First Baltimore Light Infantry and .. . tachment of the United States Marines], who escorted t- to our quali- at Barnum's Hotel. Handsomely entertained.
Sunday, 26th. Went to church (Cathedral). Several of our men !. .. got asleep.
Monday, 27th. Left for home per steamboat : clear and cold: land : Chester and stayed all night. [ Here the MIS. abruptly terminates and i. historian continues it with a coneluding entry. ]
Tuesday, 28th. Reached home about HE A.M. and were received in t neighborhood of the Navy Yard by an escort of the National Grays, Og tain Fritz: Philadelphia Grays, Captain Cadwalader, and City Phatuo Lieutenant Coane: the whole under the command of Captain Fritz. Att : marching through some of the principal streets the command was di --- ! at the State House.
The Baltimore American, in its issue that told of the visit, -aid :
Although the weather was unfavorable on Saturday for a parade, y.fr the afternoon the Gray-, without arms, marched to the dwelling of Carro of Carrollton, for the purpose of paying him their respects. The men l ... of the Corps were introduced separately to Mr. Carroll, who received the with great cordiality. He was in excellent spirits and joined with the family in tendering the hospitality of his mansion with a warmth and kind ness of manner in the highest degree satisfactory to the visitors. \ ro quest was made of Mr. Carroll for a lock of his hair. The old geuther .. replied, " I have but little, and as I shall not want that long. I will che er fully comply with your request." His daughter, who was present, took her scissors and out a lock from his venerable head. It was afterward entwinel with a portion of the hair of Washington and placed in the medal of He tion of the Corps as the Washington miniature medal.
From the mass of cumulative tradition surrounding this Moun Vernon excursion we cull the following concerning the visit of the Corps to the President of the United States, Gen. Andrew Jackson As the President approached the right of the line, Johnson's band crashed forth " Hail to the Chief." The President, discovering he had not the right step, promptly changed, and passing along the line, looked every man in the eye. In coming to a " prosent arms," the bayonet of one of the muskets struck a large and costly cut-glass chandelier. Jackson's eve instinctively foll upon the hap- less handler of the musket, not in reproof, but in military curiosity to discover the effect of the incident upon the man'-
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steadiness; but finding him apparently unconcerned and motion- less as a statue, a gratified smile passed over his face: and he afterward expressed his admiration of this evidence of the high discipline of the Corps, and proffered to the hero of the occasion [ Benjamin K. Fox] a commission as first lieutenant in the United States Army. Fox was compelled to decline the appointment.
Upon this unique excursion the Grays expended the sum of $1165.60.
APPENDIX H.
SPEECHES DELIVERED AT VETERAN CORPS SEMI-CENTENARY BANQUET AMERICAN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, APRIL ISTH, 19]1.
Opening Address of Colonel Theodore E. Wiedersheim
"VETERAN CORPS, FIRST REGIMENT, INFANTRY, N. G. P."
April 18th, 1911.
I welcome you all. guests, friends, comrades, and particularly the ladies whose presence add- such a delightful charm to the evening's entertain- ment, and if you will pardon what may seem to be somewhat of a personal allusion, I desire to say that there is present the daughter of the first Commander of the Veteran Corps, Colonel Charles S. Smith, who at sixty- five years of age took the Thirty-second Regiment into active service at Carlisle in July, 1863. That daughter is also the mother of our Surgeon. Dr. Charles S. Turnbull. She is now in her 00th year, and takes as much interest in the First Regiment of to-day as she did fifty years ago to-night, when her father was elected tir-t Captain of Company . I therefore pro- pose the third toast of the evening-to the daughter of the Regiment, Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull.
I congratulate each one upon the pleasant and happy privilege of thus coming together upon such an interesting, important and historie occasion when we may not only commune with one another, but look back, as it were, fifty years-a half century-for this is our Golden Anniversary. L approach my task with considerable embarrassment. as I recognize the responsibilities in an unusual degree-to speak for others is always a responsibility, but to speak for Comrades who have served the City, State and Nation is a rare privilege, and it is with great pride that I stand here to-night iepre- senting and speaking officially for the Veteran Corps of the First Regiment as its Commander.
The 19th of April is one of the most memorable days in the history of our country. It was on the 19th of April. 1775. that Captain John Parker assembled his small company of Minute Men on Lexington Common and confronted the British Forces under Major Pitcairn, and when was fought the first battle of the Revolution and the first blood was shed. While the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in Hst practically closed the War of the Revolution. it was on the 19th of April. 1753. just eight years after the Battle of Lexington, that Washington discharged the Army, and
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proclaimed the War at an end. Then the Colonies became the Um. .... of America. It was on the 19th of April, 1822, that our Artill :: 1 Washington Grays, was organized: and it was on the 19th of My .. that our Comrade, General James W. Latta, was born.
Not the least memorable to u- was the 19th of April, Isch. we! ! patriotic citizens assembled in Sansom Street Hall, organized and te ...
First Regiment Gray Reserves, out of which sprang the 11sth al m . Pennsylvania Volunteers, whose magnificent heroism in fierce ant !. . conflicts to maintain the integrity of the nation, to uphold the car-t and the law and the supremacy of our ever-adored flag. shoubt fill u- enthusiasm and admiration for those brave defender- of the Umi : lowed by the Seventh and the Thirty-second Regiments, in the L'app of Sixty-two and Sixty-three, who rallied at the call of the Giver the Commonwealth for the protection of our homes and the expul-ir .. invader, who marshalled the cohorts of treason and flaunted the bam. rebellion almost at the gates of our State capital.
In 1877, while the First Regiment was on active duty at the front dur !! the dreadful riots at Pittsburgh. the VETERAN Coars in thirty-siv . organized, recruited. armed, equipped and sent into the field the Twenty : Regiment, under Colonel Bonnallon, who performed most excellent arv. In subsequent years, when the Command responded for the maintenat . law and order during the days and weeks of domestic disturbances in : or parts of the State, and the promptness and alacrity with which they come! for the Spanish-AAmerican War. and to all for their generous gift, of to. of labor and of blood. there is due to everyone connected with the Regin .... living or dead-a measure of gratitude for the services they have r : 1. the generation in which they lived, and which must be of benefit to 1!e generations not yet conceived.
And this is the message to you. soldiers of the First Regiment who an still in the Active Command, just as your predece-sors responded so pron. : fifty years ago and likewise their successors upon every occasion w. danger threatened the commonwealth or imperilled the national hi- must you always emulate their example and respond with equal j.r . ness and show that the members of the FIRST REGIMENT are second to body of men-in honor. in valor and in prompt obedience to their count :; . summons.
" Then let reverence of the law and respect for the flag be bret' ! by every mother to her lisping babe. Let it be taught in our school .. .. naries, and colleges. Let it be printed in the primers, spelling. t.h. histories. Let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in b ... halls, and enforced in court of justice. In short. let it be the peili. religion of the land. For by these means will liberty and union be prever and also answer the question why . Paratu- ' was adopted as the the" the FIRST REGIMENT."
Speech of General James W. Latta. " THE SURVIVING EX-COLONELS "
MR. COMMANDER, COMRADES AND FRIENDS: One of our own pet. repeating the views of an English author, said that he "eominends Am : 1 . for not being afraid to praise a man or call him great while he is still had
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and by implication regrets the reserve and tradrion which make it aplicult for the Engli-Inean unreservedly to conanend any person or anything that is not stamped with the " hall mark of time."
I come here to-night as an American, to speak of American- to Ameri- cans. I come unhampered by British reserve or British tradition. I come not afraid to speak well of my comrades or call them great while they are yet living. I calle " not to bury (wear, but to praise him."
Since its organization, deven Colonels have been borne upon the rolls of the First Regiment; seven saw service in the field during the great four years of war waged by the United States to overcome the insurgent armies of the so-called Confederate States of America. Colonel Napoleon B. Kucass was the Colonel of the Seventh Militia in the Antietam and Colonel Charles Somers Smith of the Thirty second Militia in the Gettysburg campaign. Five of these cleven were commissioned officer- in the Volunteer Army through the whole of this great war or the most of it. Each could have joined with the old Roman Veteran in his famous saying of the wars of old, " All of which I was and part of which I saw." Two were colonels of Infantry Regi- ments, both from the loins of the one parentage. our own First Regiment, the 118th and 119th Penna. Vols .. and Colonel Prevost was a Brevet Brigadier General. Col. Peter C. Elhnaker was the Colonel of the 119th and Col. Charles M. Prevost of the 118th. Two were Assistant Adjutants-General of United States Volunteers: one, Col. William MeMichael, the other, nameless but accounted for; the fifth, Col. R. Dale Benson, was a Captain in the line and a Major on the staff. Three were brevetted for specific acts of gallantry. One other, General Wendell P. Bowman, was for a time a soldier in the ranks of the 19Sth Penna. Vols.
Six of these eleven still survive, they are all here, in an unbroken sequence of forty-three years of succession, forty-three continuous years of regimental history. forty-three years of a vaunted, triumphant, feverish con- clusion of one century, and a refreshed, advancing, progressive beginning of another. Figures of prominence in this momentous past. characters of force and influence >till, they deserve some mention here and I am sure your gracious favor will permit it briefly.
Responding while the first blasts of th. trumps of war that summoned to the colors the flower of the nation's youth were still in the echo, enrolled for three years or the war. of all the battles upon the scroll of his eseutcheon the most conspicuous and significant, the Peach Orchard and Gettysburg: afterwards never flagging in earnest zest in bis military zoal to make his regiment. the First Infantry N. G. of Pa .. the best: out with every year in the field through his four years of a Coloneley; leading it amid riot and disorder. unparalleled for venom: perilous and appalling. with temper even and mind clear, on that fateful Sunday of July 21, 1877, he performed a movement happily conceived and wisely executed. that restored confidence and courage to a shattered, weary and worn column on the very verge of rout and disaster; of a commanding influence. charged with many responsi- bilities: much sought after for counsel: business man, citizen, churchman, and soldier, wherever he is and whatever he does. Colonel R. Dale Benson ever has been and always will be a strength, a prop, a stay and a breeder of confidence and courage, so long as there is work to accomplish or a purpose to fulni.
One of three brothers, who. "when the tiger blood of the Nation was up " to free the bondmen and maintain its integrity, all responded to her
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call; at Carlisle through a hideous night of shot and shell; in the Bour ! house amid shout and jeer of the infuriated mob. every shout a shot at 1 every jeer a missile. never missing in peace of absent in war; selected with . caucus or conference, suggestion of persuasion, spontaneously chaven i. unanimous consent to be Colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry, when the Regiment was much in want of guidance and need of counsel, the mighty Colonel, eight years its Colonel and the first to be twice elected, the 11-t commissioned officer to be named for the retired list of the National Word of Pennsylvania and now at the head of that roll of honor and distinction nineteen years the commandant of the Veteran Corps, when not of the Re 2 ment, always with it: of a commanding influence in the sphere of busines and finance; a citizen of repute, character and force. Colonel Theodore F. Wiedersheim has always lent his best energies, hi- earnest efforts, hi- di- tinetive powers of persuasion and endeavor to the advancement and better ment of what has been his closest tie to men and affairs, the First Regiment Infantry, National Guard of Pennsylvania.
A volunteer in the sixties: hastening to the standard when the indu- trial disturbances of 1877 had the country in leash, and from thence on. for thirty-odd years, an officer of the First Regiment; always maintain ... its honor and sustaining its prestige; keeping pace with the tactic- froti squad to problem; from column doubled on the centre, to the extended order. from rally on the reserve to the advance and retreat, from the smooth-bol musket to the rifle of the finest groove, all the while the law his mistr ... and abreast with his profession. Col. Wendell P. Bowman, prominent in affairs and a leader among men, twenty years the Colonel. the third of the four lost by promotion. rounds up the years of a generation in the Pennsylvania National Guard, every duty well done, every responsibility faithfully discharged, with highest rank the service can confer, Major Genera! and Division Commander.
Instinctively of a soldier turn. inbred. too. it would appear in the son who follows him, enlisting ere manhood years had come: carving his own way, in his own way, all the while in the one organization; advancing through merit, and not from fellowship; trusted by his superiors, relied upon by subordinates, facing every crisis, meeting every emergency, at the front in every riot, with the colors in all disturbances, with a proud record of success and achievement, through his six months' service as Colonel Com manding during the country's clash with the Kingdom of Spain, a factor in public affairs; successful in business, of strong friendship and wile acquaintance. more than forty years continuously a soldier of the u. legion, the First Regiment Infantry, Col. J. Lewis Good. justly earned the advancement he so well deserved, when as the fourth of our honored Colore- to be selected. he was nominated and appointed a Brigadier General in the National Guard of Pennsylvania.
An eminent United States Senator, himself aging. said of a fellow United States Senator, who had aged still more, "He is living in the dead and silent past; when that time comes to me then let thy servant depart in peace."
The past we have been talking of is not yet either a dead part of a silent pa-t. It wants to speak to you and to those who shall come after you of the rich fruits of the heritage it transmits. It has been well sarl by one of America's foremost State-men, that the " past alone is secure." and though this past of ours may not be altogether dead nor vet entirely
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silent, it supplies a past so secure that it furnishes solid and substantial foundation upon which may be reared the splendid structure of this pro- gressive present, now ripening toward a rich maturity.
And that this past is neither dead nor silent yet, in quite evidenced here to-night that we have " a chiel among us taking notes," not so much of a child, either. neither does he need se much to be taking notes, for he preserves intact in his own proper person that Regimental tradition that no man, unless he has been bred of war, or reared among yon, shall ever be - Colonel mine." William F. Eidell had well nigh a quarter century of service to his credit, half the life of the tradition, before selected by his brother officers of the line, when from the line he was made the eleventh Colonel of the series. He had had five years' training with the artillery, discharged from the battery one day, ere the day was over he was again enlisted in Company "B" of what is now his own Regiment. He was six months in war, all the while a First Sergeant: no better school exist, to study temper, know character or estimate value. Before one with such a training, sterling worth is sure of recognition, the shirk, the drone, the malingerer is beyond the pale. A First Sergeant learns just enough to be firm with his soldiers and discreet with his superiors. Eidell knows how to stand up for his own rights and assert the rights of others that have come to his keeping. He has confidence and convictions, has kept pace with the times; knows how to do what he is obligated to do, and does it with full and forceful purpose.
Speech of C. Stuart Patterson, Esq. "THE SOLDIERS OF THE UNION"
COLONEL, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN : I have been honoured by being seated at the high table, and in the society of officers of rank, but I feel that it becomes me to speak from the floor, and from among the rank and file.
The days of 1861 bring to my mind a painting. As you look at it, you see before you the Coliseum in Rome. Above is the blue Italian sky. The sun beats fiercely down upon the Roman citizens, who crowd the benches. and upon the Emperor, who sits in royal state, surrounded by his guard -. The great gates are open. and the gladiators, with swords and shields uprai-ed. are marching in: and. as you look. you fancy that you hear them cry, " Hail, Cæsar, we who are about to die. salute you."
When. in Is61. it was flashed over the wires that the flag had been fired upon at Sumter, there was no need for any governmental proclamation, for the people called themselves to arms. The assembly was sounded in the market place of every town, and on every village green. Loyal men forgot their political affiliation -. their personal friendship-, and their family ties. There was the enthusiasm of youth. and the stern resolve of manhood. There were shouldering of arms, mounting in hot haste, the drawing of swords. the parting tears of those left behind, sharp words of command, and "the pith and marrow of the nation" marched to the front, saluting not King, nor Kaiser, but paying their homage to that government "of the people, by the people. and for the people," which commanded their loyal devotion.
Then followed weary months and years of waiting: there were inde- cisive combats: there was the gloom of defeat, and there was the joy of
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victory; there were campaigns and battles which will always be of absorbno, interest to students of military history: great generals won imperishable fame; a multitude of officers and men gave splendid illustrations of the military virtues of obedience and endurance, and contempt of death; and at last came Appomattox, and there the Angel of Peace rose from out of the carnage, and spread her wings over the land, and all the world knew that t .. cause of liberty and order had triumphed, that the country had been saved from a present of disnnion and a future of anarchy, and that her own son: had saved her.
Let me recall to your minds the appalling record of the country- losses in men. The total enli-tments in the Union Army during the four years of war, including 230,000 enlistments for short terms, were 2.898.301. There were killed in action 07,058. 318,157 were wounded, of whom 43.012 died, and there died from disease 249,458. The total deaths were, therefore, 359,528, and the total dead and wounded were 634,703.
We, "with uncovered head. Salute the sacred dead, Who went, and who returned not-Say not so! "
No ban of endless night exiles the brave." 1 " Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave,
Every soldier of the Union feels that the greater honor is due, Hot to the living veterans, but rather to "those other living called the dead," to those who died that the country might live, to those for whom at roll call the proud reply is made. " dead upon the field of honor."
In the arbitrament of arms, the verdict was for the North, and it is the irreversible judgment of history that the verdict was just; and yet no soldier of the Union ean fail to pay his tribute of respect and admiration to the courage and devotion of those who fought for the South; nor can any soldier of the Union fail to rejoice that the wounds of civil war have been healed, and that when, in 1898, foreign war threatened the country, the soldiers of Grant and the sons of the soldiers of Grant marched shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of Lee and the sons of the soldiers of Lec.
But, in the war for the Union, all the services were not rendered, nor were all the sacrifices made, by the men who fought. Women, always more heroic than men, sent their nearest and their dearest to the war, smiled on them proudly, as they marched away, and then, with breaking hearts. scanned day by day the lists of killed, and found their only comfort, and their only consolation, in caring for the wounded and the sick. Charity opened its stores, and through the Sanitary Commission, the Christian Commission, and countless other voluntary agencies, poured forth wealth in un-tinted profusion for the relief of suffering. Men, whom age, or circum- stances beyond their own control, held back from service in the army, founded the Union Leagues of Philadelphia. New York. and Chicago; rendered invaluable aid to the Government, in providing the sinews of war, and gave force and direction to the loyal sentiment of the country. And, in the White House was the heroic, and yet pathetic. figure of Lincoln, who lived, and who died, " that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."
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" Great Captains, with their guns and drums,
Disturb our judgment for the hour, But at last silence eumes;
These all are gone, and standing like a tower, Our children shall behold his fame.
The kindly, carne-t, brave, foreseeing man,
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame.
New birth of our new soul, the first American! "
In the years of the war, there was a seriousness and a solemnity in life, of which no words can give you a realizing sense. Every newspaper had stories of battles, or skirmishes, or told you of friends wounded, or killed, or dying. or dead, of disease. You could not walk without meeting people garbed in deepest mourning. Every young man, in or out of the service felt that soon his life must end. The shadow of death was over all. And yet, finest of all, finer even than death or sorrow, was the resolute deter- mination of the loyal North to carry on the war, at all costs, to final vietory. in the assured conviction, that no sacrifices could be too great, if only they made certain the preservation of the Union, and the enforcement of obedience to the Constitution and the laws.
The war for the Union has obvious lessons for the men of to-day. The nation is constituted of states, which are not, and which ought not to be, in all respects, subject to Federal control: and whose independence of action, in the past, has affected, and may, in the future, affect, the interests of subjects of foreign powers. There are increasing commercial rivalries with other nations. The modern interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine has imposed upon the United States grave responsibilities for South American countries, Colonies have been acquired. The Panama Canal is in process of construction. The unrestrained liberty of the press, the freedom of speech not always wisely exercised by politicians in high otlice, the excitability of the mass of the people, and the influence of public clamour, form a combination which may some time render ditlienlt the preservation of peace. The peaceful arbitration of all international complications is, as yet, an iridescent dream. Because of these conditions there is an ever-present possibility of war.
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