River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-05-24
GENERAL GEO. b. MoCLEnLAN.
Gen. McClellan's Speech at the Ban
quet of the Army OF the Potomac
&nnsnfu


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 lie and
| hope, with the future all before us, there
were such relations between us that it seems
| to me too cold and formal TO address You
simply as Mr.. Chairman and gentlemen.
Our chairman often brought ME intelligence
that needed, up rom the very jaws ofdeath,
and when assigned to the command of di-
vision of new troops, he hurried by forced
marches to the assistance of his comman-
der on the bloody field ofAntietam. TEere
can be no form or ceremony between him
and myself. Very many perhaps most, of
| you were with me when, in this very city,
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 We're 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 "the wcll-loved and fanail
! lar faces which all missed from their ranks
and proceeded:
see now that city the capital OF nation,
| as it was wher it came here from Western
| Virginia, full of disorganized troops in inn
minent danger OF attack. | see order and
quiet restored, as f by magic, when you
sto1
| onded my endeavors- | remember well the
mass OF raw troops pouring in badly armed,
| improperly equipped, but COM
posed of men that ever
responded to an appeal TO arms, actuated by
the highest and purest motives OF patriot
| ism, discussing, no party ques-
tions, knowing but one thing-that the
country was IN danger and that they
were ready to give their lives to save it.
! it acquiring order, discipline and instruc-
| ton. Then followed that tedious and ''un-
necessary" work on the fertilization 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. | saw
| that army become capable of being handled
on the march and under fire. and leave the
camps in which it al been created and go
TO the peninsula. Then you stood by me,
dliN L otOOd Ny SOuf anu L w AACt tOisCA
| 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 lin obedience to
orders from Washington to cover an advance
of reinforcements, which never came,
though the enemy came instead"
Fortunately" he continued, "this had
5een toreseen, and, days before, transports
with supplies had been sent to the James to
await the army"
He then spoke OF the gallantry 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 /, as its earliest and
only living commando, am glad To know
was unsurpassed by any of the historic ar
mics of the world in efficiency, valor or
achievement.