The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-01-22

Total membership Dec 81, 1854 WaS......... LOO
Received during year"-...-...................- $50
Loss during year ............. 633
l9l7
Net gain in 242
All the Posts in the Department, except one,
had made gains. The lowest point reached by
the Department was in 1876 when its member
ship had sunk to SO. Since that time it has
gained steadily. 1t now exceeds Ii other De-
Tartments in numerical strength, and is only
200 behind the Department of Maryland.
Death removed % comrades during the year.
During the year the 10 Posts expended in
charity Sl,55S.93. This amount was dispensed
TO 156 persons, many of whom had families de-
pendent upon them for support.
The lnSpector-Generalr reported the discipline,
ETC., of the Order to be better than ever before.
An election Of officers for the ensuing year
followed, resulting thus:
Department Commander-N. NJ. Brooks.
Senior Vice Commander. B. Burke.
Junior Vice Commander. w. Wilmer.
Medical Director-Dr. F. Donohoe
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Swallow
Council of Administration-N. B. Fithian, J.
ii. Baxter, w. w. Granger, D. W. Atwood, J.
C. Pomeroy.
Delegates to National Encampment - At
large, c. II. Ingram; Alternate, J. NJ. Pipes;
Delegates, Gen. Dan Grosvenor, Gen. Jos. Dick
inson; Alternates, NJ L. Urell NJ. A. Dillon.
All those entitled to seats in the National En-
campment were instructed to support S. S.
Burdett for Commander-in-Chief.
PAST DEPARTMENT COMMANDER ALEXANDER.
At the head of the list of efficient working
members of the GAR. in this Department
stands the Hon. d. S. Alexander, the retiring
Department Commander. He is one of the
young veterans of the late war, having just
passed his 3Sth birthday. He spent the first
year Of the war in trying to get mastering
officer TO accept him as recruit. In May, '62,
he was accepted. and assigned to the 12Sth
Ohio. Belonging to that class of our comrades
vino are red-headed and hopeful he supposed
that the only duty of a soldier was to fight
and he was therefore greatly discouraged dur
ing the first month or two that he had not
been able TO get at the ''rebs." The active
service did not come, and the feeling for it
grew so strong-as with all good soldiers-that
he spent his surplus energies in trying to get
into business regiment. He partly succeeded
and found opportunity to smell powder many
times before the expiration OF his three-years
enlistment.
Comrade Alexander was appointed Fifth
Auditor OF the Treasury Department by the
late President Garfield. Being a man of fine
legal mind aud rare executive ability, he has
scored success IN that Office, as In everything
he has ever undertaken. He entered Burnside
Post, OF this Department as charter member
and was elected its first S. V. C., Judge Law
renee of Ohio, being the Commander. In the
following December he was chosen Commander
by reclamation, and at the end OF the year
turned over the new Post in fourishng con-
dition His record as an efficient Post officer
and his enthusiastic love of our Order brought
him to the attention Of the whole Department
and a year ago he was elected Department
Commander. His conduct in that position has
won for him the admiration of ali comrades
who have the honor Of knowing him. During
ne Naqr ftrHer hara hog Eaa.
porous, and to-day he turns over his trust in
most hourishing condition. The duties of a
Department Commander in this city are quite
onerous and at many times perplexng but
Comrade Alexander has at all times cheerfully
attended to the poor and deserving of our
Order who have called on him for aid in pro-
curing employment or charity, and no comrade
has ever left without feeling sure that he had
found a friend.
ASST ADJ'T-GEN. INGRAM
mention of the retiring Department Com
mander would be incomplete If il did not in
clude some notice of the Iaan to whom much
of the credit OF making that administration
success-that is, Asst Adj't- Gen. Ingram In
gram had rather unique experience in the
army. he went in as an enlisted man of Co.
4, lst Pa, which was about as edriy as Penn
sylyanlan could be. By faithful and meritori-
Gus conduct he managed to hold his position as
private through to the end of the war which
was what lew men who were really as good
soldiers as he can say. His company was one
of exceptional material, being made I'D of
young men of unusual brains aud education.
and furnished no less than IS commissioned
officers during the war. Ingram was present
with his company at every battle in which the
corps was engaged, but with the exception of
two slight wounds at Gettysburg escaped IN
hurt. He tells in humorous way how the
day before his term of enlistment expired
corporal in his company was killed, and the
Captain intended TO promote him to the vacant
place, but the time was so short it was not
worth while, SO Ingram escaped his only oppor-
tunlty for promotion.
For number of years he has been an enthu-
siastic Grand Army man, and his zeal and
clerical ability made him superb Assistant
Adjutant-General. He has been elected Com
mander Of Burnside Post in Washington, and
will no doubt discharge the duties of that re-
sponsible position with as much efficiency as he
displayed upon the staff Of the Commander of
the Department.
THE NEW COMMANDER.
Newton II. Brooks, who has Just been chosen
Commander to succeed Comrade Alexander is
well and favorably known in this Department
Comrade Brooks did his fighting in the 18th
n. J., in the Potomac Army, rounding up a
brilliant career very suddenly at Chancellors-
vile, III Biay, 1864, on account of having had
leg knocked off by rebel shot He was
mustered out as a Lieutenant After the war
he settled in Virginia as an agent of the Freed
mans Bureau, etc. He came to this city long
time ago, and is now the Chief Clerk of the
Foreign Mail Division in the Post Office De- |
partment. he Is member of Lincoln Post |
Of which he was twice elected Commander |
The boys in that Post swear by Brooks They
would vote for him for anything he wanted |
and that tells the whole story lie is a hard |
worker and great lover of the Order and has |
the ability and special fitness to make an ex-
cellent Commander.
THE coMMANDER-IS-C CHIEF IN THE CITY,
On Sunday evening Commander-in-C Chief |
Kountz arrived in the city from Baltimore.
and was met at the depot by members of the