The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-05-25

paigns and twenty battles-fought with ter
rife vigor and attended with appalling loss,
against our great antagonist, the Army OF
Northern Virginia, whose dashing cavalry,
skiliful artillery, and natchless infantry made
the best fight for the poorest cause that Is
known to the annals of man; along this line
everywhere spotted with blood; In great
patches ensanguined by stubborn battles;
through the roar and smoke, summers heat
and winters cold, surged the struggling arm
les, now drawn hither by the cry Of Rally
on Washington and now pushed yonder by
the shout "On to Richnondp
From here to Richmond is hundred miles
or more The roads all cross plateau which
falls to tbs coast. Ten rivers run down
across this bench land, and make as many
lines of defense. The country is wooded,
rough and difficult. Under the shadows OF
its thickets defensive armies can lie con-
cealed; and he who would plunge into their
recesses had reason to expect masked batter
les and the chimera which early imagi nation
conjured up. Active, vigilant, hostile, the
country people gave every intelligence to the
| Confederates; aud their friends in Washing
| ton flashed over the wires to Richmond the
| decisions Of our Government before they
were formulated, and the orders Of our Cen
erals before they were transcribed. The in
vader, with one arm tied behind him for the
| defense of this city must strike out with his
| offensive arm, and stagger on like blind
folded giant attacking his open-eyed adver-
sary. Mountain ranges parallel the lines of
advance, affording cover for an enemy to turn
| the flank or by threatening this city to divert
the advance.
1 49, What had this victory cost? From May,
1861, to March, 1864, the losses of the Army
| of the Potomac were, in killed, l5,220; in
wounded *, $50; captured, 81, $40; in all, 49,
44S. From May /, 1864, to April 8, 1865, in
| killed, II, 500; wounded, 60 800; captured or
missing, 5000. aggregate, 10000. From the
beginning to the close of the war, killed,
q ,72O wounded, 155, 652 captured or missing,
59,37S A grand aggregate of 2l2, 100 Adding
| those who died of gunsho wounds, the num-
Der of men who lost their lives in action in
the Army of the Potomac was 1892, proba-
bly, one-half of all who died from wounds on
the field of battle in all the armies Of the
] United States.
But another and greater martyr was to
fall beside the Potomac. In the midst of all
our rejoicings eur great friend, our Presi-
dent, was stricken down; the commander in
chief of our veteran armies, the gieatest III
the world; the grand admiral of all the ma
vles that guarded our coasts or ranged the
distant seas. All the serrled battalions
which would have laid down their lives
could not save him, or frigate or lroncad
| carry him over the river TO whose brink We
must all come. Like the humblest of his
heroes-whose unknown face looked up from
the sod--the man whose name shines on tn.
rock of immortality, above the waves of OBJ
livion and the tides of time; the great ecu
trail figure of the war, stepped down from hl'
high office into the cold waters of death ant
disappeared on the shadowy shores of tn,
|. | hereafter.
But, comrades, the result is worth it al
Who could have dreamed that problems, in
| volvlng not only the Government but societ,
itself, could have been so soon and 80 salts
factorily settled? Romance and poetry will
embellish and the ivy of time make pictur
esque the heroism of defeat; but every pass
ing year will make more plain the decree o
the god of battles that the lost cause wa
justly lost. Even now, those who fought Il
f glory in the strength and greatness of tina
nationality which they proudly share ant
would willingly defend. They See the han,
of Providence in the defeat of a cause tina
T would have left America, like Europe,
, group of warning States, and sharing n all it
T privileges and blessings, rejoice in the sue
cess of the war for the Union. This recon
3 Citation and renewed allegiance-whic
I | conauering monarchies have failed to win i
. centuries of endeavor-is the glory Of a re
public.
r Peace has been greater than war. Tn
= skillftil hands of science have brought int
use unknown powers of the air and myster
Gus forces OF the earth, and the lovely hand
of art are browning our country with beauty
The numbers and wealth Of our people hav
nearly doubled. So has our territory; for tn
condemned deserts of the West turn out t
be granaries of bread and pastures OF inca
for the world. The forbidding rocks of oil
| Biographies have resolved themselves int
mines of silver and gold, and under thei
frowning peaks are found parks, cahon'
. waterfalls, and geysers; the sublime glorie
of nature, the pleasure ground of mankint
, The genius Of America has united our di.
tant coasts with bands of steel, and plante
her feet on those blue precipice, which oil
explorers used to call "The land of the shir
. ing mountains, beyond the western plains.
, To this city, where they bad met, the con
i, rades of many years were called, that the
= might part. You crossed the Potomac, an
turning your backs upon its banks, marche
in review up the avenue. That river of stee
y wave after wave, passed the White Hous
and moved by the Capitol, tc break and pa
and return to the uttermost parts of I'll
y. Union. But of all these whose tattere
standards floated on the air, and whose tr
umphal music filled the heart with joy, no
> few there were of the faces that four yea
before had marched down that avenue tb
other way; had marched down to the bait
field, the hospital, the grave. How niue
. vaster the shadowy hosts of the dead, who's
' pale memories moved with the column an
kept time to the march. From scores
fields, consecrated by their deaths, forevs
u sacred to their memories, they could N,
. come, unless 1t shall be to meet us under tn
walls Of city more desired than Richmon,
more Respondent than Washington, in I'll
y last Reunion of the Army of the Potomac.
Flood at peadwood
CHICAG o, May Ca Dead wood, Dakot
special says: A storm began here yesterda
= with the highest water ever known. 4
Whitewood q stream runs through the hea