The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-05-24
willing to conquer under western general;
the orator denied its truth and declared that
the reception the army gave Grant and sher-
idan sufficiently refuted ii.
GENERAL GEO. B. MCCLELLAN.
Gen. McClellan's Speech at the Ban
quet OF the Army Of the Potomac
Society, r." ="

Gen. McClellan's Speech at the Ban
quet OF the Army Of the Potomac
Society. -~
Washington, Special:-Nothing could
have surpassed the enthusiasm with which
Gen. George B. Mcclellan was received at
the banquet Thursday evening, when he
arose to reply to the toast. "Army of the
Potomac" He said:
In days long past aud gone forever, when
we were young and strong, full of life and
hope with the future all before us, there
were such relations between us that it seems
to me too cold and foraal to address you
simply as Mr.. Chairman" and gentlemen"
Our chairman often brought me intelligence
that needed, up from the very jaws of death,
and when assigned to the command of d.
vision Of new troops, he hurried by forced
marches to the assistance of his comman-
der on the bloody field of Antietam. There
can be no form or ceremony between him
and myself. Very many perhaps most, of
you we're with me when, in this very city,
| I assumed command of that mass Of brave
men, unorganized and uninstructed, who
composed the nucleus of what afterward
| became the army of the Potamac. Those
of you who were with me then were to me
| more than dear comrades, more than
brothers in arms; you were as my. children.
He spoke of the ''trying times in which
you and did our very best for the coun'-
try" and recalled 'fthe well-loved and famil
! lar faces which all missed from their ranks
| and proceeded:
see now that city the capital Of nation,
as it was when it came here from Western
Virginia, full of disorgaaized troops in i'm
minent danger OF attack. I see order and
quiet restored. as # by magic, when you
| at once responded to nv appeals and Sec
onded my endeavors. remember well the
mass Of raw troops pouring in badly armed,
Improperly nn!sS equipped t but cover eVsr
the highest and purest motives Of patriot
ism, discussing, no party ques~
tions, knowing but one thing-,that the
country was III danger and that they
were ready to give their lives to save it.
saw an army come out of that mass. saw
it accounting order, discipline and instruc-
ton. Then followed that tedious and "un-
necessary" work on the ratification of the
capitol-a work which set the army free to
strike where its blows were felt, and which
more than once saved the capital. l saw
that army become capable of being handled
on the march and under fire, and leave the
camps in which it Lad been created and go
to the peninsula. Then you stood by me,
and stood by you, and do not forget
how nobly yeu passed through your first
experience of battle.
| He sketched briefly at this point some OF
the principal battles, and alluded to the
seven days fight as made ''in obedience to
orders from Washington to cover an advance
Of reinforcements, which never came
though the enemy came instead"
fortunately" he continued. ''this had
teen toreseen, and, days before, transports
with supplies had been sent to the James to
await the army"
He then spoke of the gal]antry with
which the army fought when removed
from his command, and the glad confidence
with which it welcomed his return; of the
battle ofAntietam; of his withdrawal from
the army of the Potomac on
what he then believed and still believes was
the eve Of decisive bat lie, never to meet
that army again as commander. Conclu'
ding, he said:
The army which it was my fortune to or.
ganize and create, the army that became
an army of veterans, I, as its earliest and
only living commander, am glad to know
was unsurpassed by any of the historic ar
mics of the world in efficiency, valor OF
| achievement.