Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-12-08
SPEECH OF GENERAL ROSE
GRAMS.

SPEECH OF GENERAL ROSE
GRAMS.
At Cleveland, in Response to a
Toast to ''The Army of the
Cumberland"
In rising to respond to a toast
touching so nearly every fibre of my
heart, the difficulty is not what to
say, but what to leave unsaid.
You, comrades of the Army
of the Cumberland. and you,
illustrious soldiers and guests, know
full well how much is comprised in
that word Army!
The fourteen elements of which
the human body is composed, before
their organization under the laws of
vital force, are not more helpless
than a great armed multitude with
out organization. But as particles
of dust of the earth, organized into
the human body, moving under the
laws of vital force, directed by en-
lightened intelligence and energized
by adequate will, become that won
der of the universe, Man, so a great
mass Of men, armed units, organi-
zed under the law OF military force,
directed by the light of combined
intelligences, and moved by con-
currence of al! wills in one, from a
pitiable mass of helplessness be-
comes one of the mightiest engines
of human power-AN ARMY.
An army then is a great com
pound man, having a body, a life, a
spirit, a soul, and history of his
own as individual as those of each
unit OF which it is composed. 1t is
ennobled by the same qualities, and,
ike individuals, has turning points
in it's life, and epochs of heroic ef-
forts and of glory which especially
fix attention and challenge admira
ton. -l-.
A review of the epochs and turn
ing points in the lite of the Army
of the Cumberland would be highly
interesting to the members of this
Society. But neither time nor oc-
casion permits my entering into de
tails, nor even an enumeration oil
its great marches and victorious
combats. But l think it fitting that
l should tell you how our army first
received its name; and you will
pardon me, and perhaps be pleased
if also tell you what consider its
crowning effort of heroic action.
The Army of the Ohio became tn,
Army of the Cumberland in tn,
best of ways, by its own heroic ac
tions.
On the 9th of October, 1862
twenty three days after the battle o
Corinth. under orders from Wash
ington, 1 assumed command of the
Army of the Ohio and such other
troops as had Joined it during tn
campaign in Kentucky, all concen-
trating at Bowling Green, Ken
lucky.
You, comrades, we'll remembel
that the veteran divisions of tina
old command, thinned by marching
and battles, andthe new troops wer
consolidated by order of the Wa
Department, and distinguished a
| the
| FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
to the command of which 1 was as
signed. You remember how thi
Fourteenth Army Corps was organ
lied into Grand Divisions-Righ,
Left and Center. You remembe
how the process of organization
concentration and arming of tn
cavalry, the establishment of the In
spector General sysiem-began t.
knit together the elements of tina
Fourteenth Army Corps, and max
it mole and mere an army.
| My orders from Washington in
formed me that Kentucky belonge
to the Department of the Ohio
where the Fourteenth Corps was br
a temporary guest. But that W
might take possession of any an
all territory we could get from til
rebels south of Cumberland rive
and call it the department of I'll
Cumberland" And when, in tt
A dark days of December, clouds owe
hanging our country and caus
amid snow and frost, the Fou
8 teenth Army Corps drove the eneu
; from the bloody field of Stone Riv
and took ground enough for Il
? Department so generously bestow'
. upon its commander, grateful E
n ecutive of q grateful people rewar
!. ed its heroism by creating its graz
Division Commanders, Corps Coz
i manders, and making our cent
: under Thomas, the Fourteenth, Q
right under McCook, the Twentiet
and our left, the Twenty first, und