The Portland daily press., 1890-07-04

Quickly succeeding ranks of coarsely dressed
soldiery with intensest gaze. This then, was the
infantry that had, for four long and weary
years, battled with the superb army of North
eastern Virginia. alike in dark. tangled
and swampy forests, like those of
Chickahominy, the Pc and Iialonei nun ana
upon picturesque and theatrlcal helds, like
those Of sh@rpsbury, Fredericksburg and
Gettysburg. Here were troops which had
fought battles more bloody than Borodino or
Waterloo; corps which had dropped one
third their numbers in single contest, where
individual divisions lost half, brigades
thirds, regiments, three fourths of all they
had carried into action. Here were soldiers
who had, on three successive days engaged the
enemy with unfaltering spirit and unimpaired
discipline, their conduct but rising into sub
Inner heights of courage and devotion as their
ranks grew thinner and thinner. This was
the magnificent Northern infantry which had,
after struggle unparalleled in warfare, con-
quered and captured the magnificent infantry
of Lee.
eSWhile thus this soldier and scholar, from
another cline and of another race, watched
with cool, critical, yet earnest gaze, the march
of that mighty column, pale young union Of
Ger of artillery with an empty sleeve, stood
upon the sidewalk along Lafayette Square and
scanned with eager recognizing eyes each rank
as it wheeled from 18th street to the left and
took its new direction past his
post of observation. He knew that
army well. The exigencies of SER
vice had brought his battery successfully
into the artillery and into the artille ry
brigades of two different corps; while the re
was scarcelya division of the army on to whose
line he had not galloped with is guns in the
heat of some tremendous action. He had
laada IF oh oil fha
front of battle. now into the clouds of smoke,
now out of the clouds of smoke, as the fight
grew fercer and the foemen came closer and
yet closer. Winning credit and promo ton
with each campaign, he had risen to the COM
mand of his battery, when, in one of the
winter operations of 1S64-5, he lost an arm,
only returning to Washington in season to
witness the great review.
What was it which this young union officer
saw upon the 23d of May, 1862 Let US look
with his eyes as we have looked upon that
mighty host with the eyes of a stranger and a
foreiner. He has no order of the day to guide
his mind and it is with eager curiosity and a
fast throbbing pulse that he gazes upon each
quickly succeeding body of troops to gather the
first indications of its identity, and to recognize
if he may its commander.
The long continued strains of martial music
drawing nearer and nearer have wrought ex-
pectaton to its hight, when there wheels from
18th Street into the avenue the brilliant
headquarters staff. There at the head
of two score officers rises the
gallant and accomplished soldier who has
commanded the army, in good and in evil for
tune, since the day when the leading staff fell
from Rockers hands, on the march to Gettys-
burg, % months before. Tall and gaunt,
scholarly, yet knightly in aspect, Gen. Meade,
on this proudest day of his life, bears himself
like true captain, who has struggled and has
conquered. His mistakes have been all made,
his defeats have been all suffered, only victory
remains and fame forever secure.
With him are Webb, chief OF
staff, Hunt, the artillerist Batchelier
chief quartermaster, and Seth Will
liams. the adjutant general, who, through
| all the chickering's and backbitings that belong
| to headquarters, through all the rivallrie- and
| jealousies of a half dozen campaigns, had
| bornethe unqualified respect OF every command
| ing officer below and the absolute confidence
| of all the leadefsof the Army of the Poto-
| mac.
Headquarters have passed, a moment Of
| suspense passes, and then, with full company
front, the magnificent cavalry corps, Sheri-
| dams edaring raiders Sheridan's desperate
| fighters, wheel into view. Their great captain
is not with them to-day. He has gone post
haste to the Rio Grande, to serve notice upon
the French invader that the violent and inso-
lent usurpation which had presumed the dis
ruption of the great republic of the West must
| now be totally and at once abandoned. In
Sheridans place. and no less full of fire and fight
| rides his favorite lieutenant, Wesley Merritt,
| worthy successor to such CHEF, worthy
leader of such host.
| Eight thousand sabres strong, the cavalry
corps or the ARMY OF the rotomac, tnir day
| receives a full measure of applause
in recompense for all their scouting and
marching their watching and picketing, their
raiding and fighting. From sidewalk to house,
| top the whole City of Washington, re- en-
| forced by eager spectators, from all over the
broad northern land, shouts itself hoarse, as
regiment after regiment, and brigade after
brigade of gallant horsemen, bronzed by Vir-
| ginia suns, pass up the Avenue. Here rides
the magnificent Custer, little reckoning in that
proud moment, of an early and Sideous death
amid the iendish yells of a horde of naked
savages There at the head of his division
rides stout Davis; there gallant Tom Devin
| For an hour and twenty minutes the CHATTER oil
sabres and the tramp of horse fill the air, al
| the heroic cavalry of Gainess Mills and Chan
| cellorsville of Brandy Station and Aide, Of
| Getty sburg and Yellow Tavern, of Wine hester
and Fishers Hill, of Toms Brook and Five
| Forks, of Rice's Station and Sailors Greek
| ride proudly by.
| The cavalry are gone and gone forever. 81
| splendid a muster of fighting horsemen viii
never again greet the eye of anyone of the two
hundred thousand gazers of that May morning.
| The cavalry corps of the Potomac army has sale
| good bye to President and to commander in
| chief, and, quickening its march, followed by
the brigade of horse artillery briskly made it
| way to the circle, thence northward to it,
| camps.
What is it which comes next in column, THU
| small command of mixed cavalry and infantry
| Who is the youthful officer with frank, gallant
| face, his right sleeve pinned upon his breast
| who rides TAT tits head. 1t is George Macy, o.
the 2sth Massachusetts, leading the provost
marshal generals brigade, in the command Of
| which he had seven months before relieved oui
| good General Sharpe, SO long the chief pillar
| of this society. Two regiments of cavalry and
two battalions of regular infantry follow him
and then comes the engineer brigade, with its
| well known pontoons, under Benham.
All, what stories those pontoons tell! What
recollections they call to mind, as they GO
| numbering by. How many times have oul
| columns streamed over those bridges of boats
| on the joyous advance, or in the sullen retreat
| Do you remember that dull December day
| of 1862 when we fought our way across the
Rappahannock, and up the streets of Freder-
| icksburgs Do you remember the retreat from
Charlottesville, amid fearful downpour and
over rapidly rising river, as we went back
| in rage and shame, from that splendid iuitia-
| tive, and those three days of bloody, purpose
less, useless fighting? What sight more elo-
quent of the mingled experiences of the great
war, its triumphs and its reverses. its high
hopes and its shameful disasters, than those
great arks of things, at which we used to jeer
as they went their toilsome way down the
steep and clayey river banks of Virginia.
And now moments pause an intervale sue :
ceeds. Evidently it is no mere detachment, no
engineer or provost marshaps brigade which
is taking It's time in the great march. And
well is expectation repaid, as. with fresh burst
of martial music, in all the pomp and circum
stance of glorious war, the noble Ninth Corps.
Burnsdes old command, led now by John G.
Parke, soldier, scholar and stainless GENTLE
man, bursts now into view, Aye thunder forth
your applause, We windows and housetops!
These are the men of the North Carolina ex-
petition, the men of Roanoke and Newbern
who came up under Burnside and Reno to re-
inforce the Army of the Potomac in its dire
strait, at Manassas and Chantilly, and to share
its glories at South Mountain and Antietam
These are the men of Fort Sanders and Fort
Stedman, of Spottsylvania and Bethesda
Church the men who, on the 25th of March,
redeemed the day that had been lost; and in