The Portland daily press., 1888-08-10
oth-2eth MAINE.
Their Reunion at Long Island Yes
terday.

One hundred and ninety veterans of this
old regiment and about as many more ladies
and visitors assembled at Reunion Hall,
Long Island, yesterday, and enjoyed them
selves in spite of the rain. The hall has
been painted and the piazza rooted since the
last reunion, and all were comfortably
housed. The old regimental band brought
their instruments, and gave good music.
Col. Charles Fred King, of Boston, was
elected president for the next year.
photographs of the members and guests
were taken by jackson & Kinney.
A letter Of coincidence, written. by Gen.
Beal and addressed to the widow of Gen.
Sheridan, was sent in the name of the Asso-
citation.
Comrade Storer S. knight recited the
well-known poem of Sheridan Twenty
Miles Away" and Maj. Gould read the fol-
lowing:
If recall incidents which are precious
to myself, 1 should doubtless find that all of
you who served under Sheridan can share
them and prize them as highly as do. No
man can tell the hopes or fears we felt on
the 9th day of August. 1864, when it was
rumored that a new General named Sheri-
dan, was to command us. We had already
served under ten army commanders, from
Winfield Scott to David Hunter, an had lit
tie hopes of bettering ourselves by new
General; but we felt the change week later
when we advanced up the valley with su-
perb cavalry force and were man9uvered in
a way we had never known before. Then
followed a retreat; and we noticed 1t was
the first retreat we had ever made without
suffering a depression of spirits. None of
us could have told then why this was so :;
but it came to us soon after that we were un
der one OF the. greatest warriors OF modern
He seemed to hold every man in his firm
| grip and to impress his own tremendous en-
| ergy upon all in contact with him.
You may, perhaps, not know that Europe
| an military critics Of the Generals of our late
| war single out Sheridan as the one man of
| great genius. They cite men Of their own
| who have equalled or surpassed Grant, Lee,
Sherman and jackson, but they speak
Of Sheridan as the great cavalry
| leader of this age. 1t concerns
| of all our ten commanders, was the first to
| turn us into cavalrymen, and that too. with
out mounting us on horses. We who were in
| Antietam, remember with shudder our
| frightful march, closed in mass, into the enc
my's fire. Gen. Mansfield was taking us in
| by the old school tactics which required that
men should be handled in that way. We
| saw the error Of these tactics, Sheridan ais o
learned the same in the West and devised a
method more In harmony with his own great
| genius. We really first saw Sheridan in his
| own way, at Fishers Hill. There he routed
the enemy by flank and rear attack and
then called upon us foot soldiers to go it"
ali the e. order we could get that evening. "
remember seeing our ''old man" Emory then
| peace to his ashes). His well drilled corps
was streaming through the rebel earthworks
in 20 or 30 regimental driblets. He was so
| rrio ell ot this ttarin0 of fs
and so thoroughly astounded when all his
efforts to restore order were met by Sheri-
| dams incessant go on, go on" that he
could neither restrain his temper nor talk
| coherently.
Later that night Gen. Dwight, our division
commander, one Of the clearest headed and
bravest of men, was trying to restrain one OF
his regiments assthey pushed ahead into the
darkness. Sheridan heard and rebuked him
with the most tremendous blasts of profanity
which made us forget that we were sleepy
and supperless. We had great respect for
Dwight, but somehow Sheridan's swearing
seemed most timely and inspiriting. A day
or two later ne again reversed the old meth.
DDS; he sent off his cavalry and put our regi-
ment among others in the front to chase
rebels up the valley. He pushed us ahead SO
fast that the troops behind had hard work tc
keep up. When the rebels tried to check him
he increased his fo0t-cavalry line and pus he'd
on the harder. When the rebels brought out
their guns he ran his artillery out into the
same skirmish line, thing unheard :of till
then, and the enemy had to run or surrender
IL only he could then have been with Averill
whom he wasisent to head off the enemy, we
should have jointly bagged Jubal Early and
all the remnant Of his army.
But the crowning glory of Sheridan was al
Cedar Greek. You do not read 1t In the
books-it sounds too badly sometimes to
tell the truth-but there were about 40,00t
men in our army that morning, and with
these Gen. Wright lost the battle for us
Many more than half the foot were gone
when Sheridan started to redeem the day