Litchfield enquirer., 1878-09-12
The Reunion.

liage itself, ,gaily decked with flags and stream CTS, never looked more beautifully. The dec
 rations of the central square, especially of the
 Center Park, the Soldiers Monument and o1
 Arnory Hall, were particularly effective. Al
 the Town Room weredisplayed the regimental
 flags, showing the wear and tear of hard field
 service, Col. Kellogg's sword and other regi-
 mental relics. The speakers platform was
 built under the naples at the east end of East
 Park, an excellent location.
 Early in the forenoon the Wolcottville Band
 put in an appearance, and afterwards the Cur
 tiss Band, of Woodbury, came up with some
 of the veterans from that locality. In spite
 of the threatening weather large crowd, ,num-
 bering not less than twenty-five hundred, came in by team and from the railroads: and over three hundred veterans of the old regiment were in Attendance. a
 At twelve the stand was occupied by the officers of the association, officers ladies and other invited guests. The proceedings were opened by prayer by the Rev. w. H. Phelps of Egremont, Mass, chaplain of the regiment MT. J. Deming Perkins, chairman of the Citi- zens Executive Committee, then introduced the Hon. Chas. B. Andrews, of this place, who made the following address of welcome
 Veterans: :-The town of Litchield welcomes you this day to it's Inequalities
 We have always felt in a great measure res ponsible for you. We thinh2we have sort of franchise in your good name. We have a deep interest in your continued life. In your fame and glory we take peculiar pride and satis- faction.
 It was here that your birth as military or ganization took place-here that your career as soldiers began; and it was here that at the close of your term of service in war, your return to the quiet of civil life was first welcomed. Your glory is our history. And it is in this feeling that am directed to bid you welcome.
 Welcome! survivors of the Second Conn. Heavy Artillery.
 In the summer of 1862, that darkest period of the war, in response to the call for 300, 900 men, the formation of Litchfield County Reg lment was determined upon. At every house and hamlet the demand was made for the strongest and healthiest member of the family. In every village was heard the sound of fife and drum. From all these green valleys and from all these fertile hill-sides-the air is still tremulous with the tread-your steps-you were younger then than now-were turned to Litchfield hill to camp. It is little more than sixteen years since you first gathered here. Sixteen years ago yesterday you received, from one of the noblest of our matrons, the gift of those beautiful flags which today greet your gaze. To look upon them rouses your patri- otic ardor. To behold their generous donor will fill you with more than youthful enthusi- asm. Sixteen years ago to-day you were mus tered into the United States service; and it will be sixteen years ago come next Sunday since ID long and solemn procession you march, ed away to the. scenes of conflict It were OOotleSs to sneak of ti4ss sssuiless ot that day now many hearts followed you with loving what heaviness we all lay down It night to dream of you.
 From day to day, with alternating hopes and fears we followed you. We were with you in the defences around Washington. On that fatal day of your first great battle, that of Cold l1arbor, when in less time almost than it takes 10 relate it more than four hundred of your number were killed or wounded 1t seemed as though the angel of death had gone through all our borders and had failed to find the sprink- ling of the hyssop on the lintels of single door, There was one dead in every house. During all your brighter days our hearts swell ed with your renown. When at Winchester your steady valor turned the wavering tide of battle into the assurance of victory. When you charged with resistless impetuosity at Fishers Hill. When you marched and coun- ter-marched in all the intricate strategic man. euvres south of Petersburgh; and above and be- yond all when you made that pursuit of un- parallelled length and rapidity which ended at Appomattox. In and through all these our hopes and hearts were with you.
 For these things we welcome you to-day.
 But there is another and perhaps higher reason why we welcome you. It is that in the doubtful uncertain days of the war, when Lb- erty herself seemed almost vanquished-when it indeed seemed that governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, were about to perish forever from off the earth, you stepped into the conflict and by your heroism aided in establishing on sure basis the doc trines of the Declaration of Independence. For this you not only have our welcome but the of all men everywhere who love liberty, and hate oppression.
 Ariosto tells pretty story, and 1 copy this exactly from Macaulay, of a fairy, wh0, by some mysterious law of her nature, was con- demned to appear at certain seasons in the form of foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during the period of her dis guise were forever excluded irons participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But to those who in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterwards re- vealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form which was natural to her. accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes filled their homes with wealths made them happy in love and victorious in war.
 Such a spirit is Liberty. At times she takes hisses, she stings But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her And hap py are those, who having dared to receive her in her degraded and frighful shape, shall at length be rewarded by Ter in the time of her beauty and her glory.
 It is your praise and glory that you discov- cred the form of Liberty even through the most hostile of disguises.
 But am not to make any address. My du- ty is simply te welcome to our midst 1; Again, in the name of the Town of Litchfeld and all it's inhabitants, bid you welcome May this days doings so influence your minds and hearts that each of you will say of this an cient' town what Othello said of Desdemona-
 .she loved n.s for the dangers had passed, t
 And loved her that she did pity them.
 Col. A. H. Fenn, President of the regiment al association, made an eloquent reply. He trusted that out of the abundance of the heart he could not fail to give some expression to his gratitude for the warmth of their reception to-day. Such had been the hearty welcome their little band had received here and else where, at their annual reunions, that he felt able to deny the common aspersion that re- publics are ungrateful sa
 ''We come back here to Litchfeld with a feel. ing of peculisr interest--like thai of children returning to the scenes of their childhood. It WIS here, at Camp Dutton, that the regiment was organized Here they began to learn that discipline which waste be put to such dread ful test in our baptism of fire at Cold Harbor, and in other hard fought battles. Here, on this very spot, from the fair hands of de- scendant of one of the most gallant officers of the Revolution, we received our regimental flags, beautiful and new. How we thought we loved ''0ld Glory" as we marched away to defend it. To-day, as it greets our eyes once more, torn and blackened in battle-s stained with the blood of our comrades grand thing of the brand DaSt-wifh hov, r,,,,cl ,3aa,,or a