The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1880-04-11

audience
In answer to the toast.
"ro THE ARMY OF TENNEssEE'
DIR. Markham arose and said.
Mr. President and Coprades-Through four
eventful years. years Of sun and storm, It's
flag flung to the battle and the breeze, there
federaey with its President. It's states men, its
leaders, its soldiers aud its peopie-meu who
suffered and were strong. and women who
and crown. That Ia history That past is
secure. Aud. as tonight it's memo, les gather
about our hearts and tremble on our lips. Its
achievements swell the souls, fire the hearts
and nerve the arms of freemen, and will.
while truth and honor and nobeness have
name and praise among men.
The famed leader who brought tho remnant
escaped from heir burned city. traversipg sea
and land and wandering far and long from
of the arms aud the men, With the warrant
Of his example, in answering to that that is set
IN the toast to which am appointed to respond,
desire to speak Of the arms and the men tnot
Of any one NATL whose spirit and deeds en-.
noble and embalm our land that toas.'
And az speak of the times and the men, 1t ie
dread dispenser Of wrath and death and woe
L hate 1t In every throb OF my heart and fibre Of
my b4ing-hate 1t because | have tried t. as
have you, and therefore apprehend II. Its fore
front lie bright and fair and gay.
The plumed troop, the neighing steed.
The ehrill trump The apirit-stirring drum.
The ear piercing fife the royal banner"
All, these make up Its quality and pride and
pomp and cir cumstance.'
but behind ali this, back Of battles magua.
Gently stern ,alray, , are wounds an and N gr2ans i 3
field are homes, In wre,k aud eyes that weep
and hearts that break. Ah only for truth and
right and land aud home dare true meu war :,
and for all these did our true men war.
| say true, because true men formed he staple
of our armies. OF the oues just toasted, | can
,speek tnat l do know and testify that have
viokeburg 10 Chattanooga, from Dalton to At.
lsnta. from Atlanta to Nashville. from Mash;
yi,le t9 Gatol,pa H. snsW ,1 - these s men, Aye
brought me near to them. | was not the tr com
missary, to be grumbled at about rations; nor
their uuertermaster. to be chafed about slazy
drug them; nor their surgeon. to cut their
ouivering desh and saw their grating bones;
as their chaplain. / was their companion and
friend. their teacher and counsellor. their help
er and comforter
Beside them In battle saw their courage put
to the proof; with them In marches by day and
night In rain and mud and snow and Ice. the
bare ground their biyouac. the sky their tent.
aDce: sitting or aneeilng besde their cots of
pain, | marked their patience: hearing, read.
Ing end answering their letters from home and
Kin learned their hearts by their camp fires
and at their slender meals learned their views
and feelings their hopes and fears. .,
The nSo so ses ssgsn ssH Wher at
saying that ours, though often cad service,
was ever a useful and grateful office: and that
na love Wets ts.s rehy repat 10 the
return ever rewarded time and toll than the
welcome given with embracing arms aud eyes
far away wards In hospitals 10 the here rear. wi When
their chaplain came from camp with words
and letters from home and comrades. Ahi a.
letter written and the message taken. It was a
seI vice that an angel might have envied.
And the men of that army gathered for wor-
preached gospel. Why, In meeting of thirty
dsys. held near Atlanta, 14O men profesaed
faith in Christ and entered the various churches
me, their chaplain: In that day difference In
creeds was Mnnoted Methodists. Bapttsts. Epis-
copaliaps. Presbyterians and Catholics. with
it was sfter the New Hope light beside a wound,
81 s
to Christ land was not He my Christ. tooy, that
man and ! In that act became brothers. and the
Of Mieeissippie gallant THIRD. from the Gulf
coast.of that sister State. were grappled to mine
with hooks of steel.
In many march and on many field did
these Confederate men stamp the seal of their
soldierly worth. But among these the Vicks-
burg siege, the Georgia retreat. the Tennessee
that best showed what manner Of meu they
were: of what stout stuff and noble strain.
When men march from victory to victory, or
when In the heat aud strife OF the batte, the bot
blood hisses through tha veins In what the old
Romans called the delight of the con iet then 1t
is easy to be soldier. then courage communi-
Gates and bravery becomesc ontagious. But to be
shut In behind works through hot and wearing
weeks. to fall back from point to point In toll
some marches through wearyiug months. to sit
in rife pits set In, frozen earth. and then re-
pulsed. yes. routed. to return pursued, along
roads Just passad over as pursuers, this sta
stood the tast
As to their behavior In beleaguered vieksburg.
Its fame has filed the world In their Georgia |
and withdrawing by night-and how II rained-
preserving their morale, their faith in their |
leader strengthening with every retreatins
the peers of their fathers, following Green
through he Carolinas or Washington through |
he Jerseys, SO that they wrung from their ad
Ior the Federal arms when they confronted the |
on the Chatfshoochee "
And when, the leader changed. and the plan
and defense TO attack. the same soldierly quail
.iea shone even more conspicuously. Tas g that
taoks from Peach Tree Greek, July 40 passing.
n swift succession. to Franklin. November 80
, vasIating &C. Atlantai hating awhile on the
,ana, crossinx the Tennessee at Florence
laD l. ing Colum bia "a labor lost by the strange
sspathy at spring Hi,Il, STRUGGLING up that
eaden. fre..Frankin, where the eagle. eyed.
seeu- sighted Forest was misled-for he said.
1t the head Of our line: B ". they haven't any
works worth naming; you'll go over them like
a ash - pressing for fortnight before Nash
lille. and then hurled back. In that biting win
er. the roads etreaked here snd redeemed
rom shoeless feet: and. recrossinR that river
lot mob. but an army-an army which, rested |
md reformed. was of with the early spring to
.ejoin It's trusted leader and strike Its last blow
or land and home among the pines Of Oaro.
ina. tell you that In after time when history
'an be rightly written; IT will place these men
With those who fought In the heat at Monmouth |
md endured the cold Of Valley Forge. For my
elf. REJOICE that. tonight, an privileged TO
md permitted to place this laurel of remem-
,rance On the tomb OF their dead.
And in closing, suffer me to say to you. who.
lere tonight. represent the glorious Virginia |
Irmy that at Donelson and Shiloh, Mt Murfrees-
,oro ,oo and Ghtekamanes. at ohattanooea and
,hamp pton Ht at Vicksburg aud Atlanta at
franklin and Nashville. men as true as brave
nd as enduring as you. echoed and emulatsd |
'our. spirit, though denied your successes The
bones of them whose bodies eleep |
eside the rivers Of the gulf. whose requiem
he Cumberland, the Tennessee. the Cnatta-
oocbee and The Mississippi sang. encased as
H