The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-18

selves and those they represent 70 express Dy & sH
or dead who nobly stood by them in their darkest
With saeh company around me, and this vast
throDg in front, feel, as you may wen ,I ~
,ybicb have been honored an honor for which am
doubtless chiefly indebted TO the accidental clrcum,
lance that was to some extent officially connected
with the initiation of the Cemetery, so far at least as
the selection of its site was concerned When, d.
roctIv after the battle of Antietam, order is
sned by the Executive of Maryland, returning thanks
TO the officers and men of the Union army who had
so successfully expelled the invader from our State,
the Commanding General of that army, to whom it
transmitted, responded to it in terms that cha
Expressing, on behalf Of the Army Of the Potomac,
their thanks for our appreciation of their achieve
again pollute our State he concluded by committing
to us the remains Of their gallant comrades who
cOnded to the people Of the State TO say nothing of
the duty otherwise incumbent on them, could never
become with them subject of indifference neglect;
sentaves, in the General Assembly OF January 1864,
an act passed authorizing the purchase of part
OF the battlefield for the reception OF its dead and an
appropriation of five thousand dollars placed at the
command of the Governor for that purpose. Directly
thereafter he visited the ground examined 1t, and
after consultation with prominent citizens selected
this spot, embracing in its view the most interesting
points OF the field OF battle as the proper site for the
proposed cemetery. Subsequent legislation increased
the States appropriation to fifteen thousand dollars
trustees were appointed to superntend the work;
other States came generously forward to participate
in the undertaking, and by their united efforts 1t is
hoped that the cemetery will become in time, place
worthy the noble purpose to which we to-day devote
it, and OF the nation to whom the charge Of It should
In recurring to the events which, in connection with
this days proceedings, seem to require brief notice
at hands, it is a subject OF congratulatiou that
can survey them at present from standpoint which
ought to secure for them calm and dspassionate
sderation. Those influences of passion policy which
to extent almost nseparable from all accounts
OF military operations, prepared whilst the war itself
il any sti iinger they should find no place on such
an occasion this. Yet in reviewing the details Of
0iflipultv ageigtaupp
established peace and the lapse of time have fur
nished to fix with proper historical accuracy some Of
the facts Immediately connected with IL, more espe-
caly the precise force of the Confederate army in that
action. The number of the Union army engaged
therein, computed as it has been not only from official
records but these records made up after ample time
had elapsed for the correction of errors may be cons
dered as auIhenticaly established 1t comprised
In regard to the Confederate force the accounts
more conflicting. The Union commander, in estimat-
ing it at upwards 900 men, basing his estimates
on all the information received from prisoners, de-
serers and refugees, has probably overstated the
number; whilst on the other hand, our knowledge Of
the size of that army shortly before it crossed into
Maryland, would warrant us in saying that the strag
Cling, to which its commanders chiefly ascribe its
subsequent reduction, must have exceeded all strag
Cling ever known in the history of armies, if when it
reached Antietam, it numbered only 10000.
General Lee, believe in report prepared by him
few days after the action does say that he went into
must undoubtedly have excluded the three divisions
which, under A. P. Hil McLaws and Walker he had
several days before detached to different points to aid
in the investment of Harpers Ferry that had not
turned at the commencement of the action on the
morning of the 10th, but in most opportuney to
his support before its conclusion the following day.
This inference is rendered certain by other Southern
accounts of the number engaged. Confederate his
torians and newspapers in those days. however under
certain circumstances might at times have attempted
to deceive us by an inflated account of their military
power but were by no means given to such an exag-
geration when the battle over, and they
| summing up its Incidents
Yet leading newspaper at Richmond, protesting
TO give, four days afterwards authentic particulars of
the battle declared that it opened the evening
of the 10th of September with ali their available force
100000 strong" later, and looking to the means OF
thority, Confederate historian, who has published
"A southern History of the War" in describing the
battle of Anetam, states that for half the day it
fought on the Confederate side with "a force of 49,
0OO" and for the remaining half with more than
the discrepancies in the Confederate accounts of their
force have been the result of the different periods of
the action TO which they have severay referred,
having regard to the time that preceded the arrival of
their divisions from the neghborhood Of the Ferry,
and others including those divisions in their state
ments. All things, therefore, considered, and allow
ing for that portion OF our force that could not take
part in the action there could not have been much diff
ference in the effective strength of the two armies but
fsuch difference did exist and in favor of the Union
army II was more than compensated TO the Coniede-
rates not only by their choice of positions but by other
influences which justice to all concerned requires us
now to consider.
may be confidently affirmed that at no time during
the progress OF the Rebellion did the loyal heart Of the
country doubt its ultimate result yet 1t is equally cor
tain that there seasons when it quyered with
emotion as it contemplated the results of particular
campaigns, despOnded for moment at the partial
failure of long cherished expeditions At period of
the such feelings more rife than during
the summer of 1862. In the early spring of that year
the Peninsula expedition had set FORTH and the people
of the loyal States looked with anxious solcitude TO
its results, and with earnest hopes that it would
rieye the disasters of the preceding year and place
the Rebel capital at our command. In every move
men of the army in that direction, in all it's marches
all its tolls, its victories and reyerses, from Yorktown
to Williams burg, on the Chickahomny, at Fair Oaks
Gaines Mill, Malvern, and on the James, itneyer took
an inseparable sympathy the throbbng heart OF the
people. So high wrought had become the popular
feeling in that connection, that the slightest indca-
ton Of success defeat in the movements of that army
eNerted, for time at least influence the public
mind entirely dsproportioned to any intrinsic import
ance attached to It,
1t was just when this excitement of the public pulse
was at its hight, after witnessing the heroic struggles
OF that army for many successive weeks with hopes
| and fears alternately predominating, that were
suddenly startled by the information that transports
were conveying it back to the neighborhood of Wash
ngon The people did not pause to consider whether
or how far ulteriOr objects Justified that movement.
They saw only in il the confession that for the pre-
sent Richmond was beyond our reach. Incidents con-
nected with II revealed TO them, also, the factsur
mses in regard to which had already disturbed them
that there was unfortunate difference OF opinion
| between the commanding General of that army and
\ the powers that controlled his movements. The
reluctance with which he yielded to the peremptory
orders for the change of his base of operations soon
| became known, and excited criticisms unavoidabiy
injurious in their tendency Our friends did not care
to inquire and certainly shall not enter into such
inquiry to-day-who was right or who was wrong it
was enough and bad enough, to know that the har-
mony which had once marked our military councils
had given place to ill-conceaed murmurngs and mis-
giYnge. In this moody condition of the public mind
| influenced by the circumstances its ranks
thinned by the casualties of series of hard-fought