The Portland daily press., 1890-07-04
The Grafton.

Twenty five years ago, on the 23d of May,
the Army of the Potomac, having fought a
good fight and finished its course with
honor, passed in final review before the Presi-
dent of the United States, prior to dsband-
ment.
On the reviewing stand were Pres. John
son, Gen. Grant, Gen. Sherman, the secretary
of war and other members of the cabinet,
Senators Wilson, Wade and Sherman, War
Governors buckingham of Connecticut, Fenton
of New York and Andrew of Massachusetts,.
One important exception only there was to
the completeness, the personal interest and the
poetic justice of the Grand Review. The gal
liant and greathearted sixth corps, under
Wright, was still detained at the South, in the
vicinity of its old battlefelds; but its pickets
were no longer disturbed by the crack of hos
tile rifles, and no four oclock- in the morning
yell broke the well earned sleep of its veteran
regiments. Peace reigned where so lately
ragged furious war.
The weather was all that could have been
desired for the great pageant. The sky was
clear, the air cool, and a pleasant breeze
blew steadily from the north. The head of
column moved promptly at o'clock. and
six full hours Thereafter that fiery food of
living valor poured along Pennsylvania avenue.
The line of march was from the Capitol past
past the Treasury; past the White House
where Lincoln had watched and waited through
four long years of terrible anxiety; on to the
Georgetown Circle, where the column parted
and the troops took their several ways to camp
never again to be assembled either for pageant
or for battle.
While that long march was in progress,
man from foreign land, an officer trained to
arms and Injured to war; who had seen almost
every army of Europe operating in the field,
from the Crimea to the Danish Duchies, and
had known all the great captains of the day
who had watched the course of the civil war in
America with both military and a political
interest," and had made himself familiar with
its chief names, whether of leaders or of battle
fields, leaned from the balcony of house
fronting upon the Avenue, noting with eager
interest every feature of that mighty display.
What was it which this man from foreign
parts saw?
He saw body of cavalry highly unique,
little like any other on which his eyes had
fallen, yet more formidable to foe than any
equal number of horsemen who ever rode
together into battle. Those stern and serried
ranks owed almost nothing to the drill sergeant,
still less to the riding master. Those grim
troopers had been trained but little in camp
or barrack. In some cases, they had actually
been mustered in the field. In all, they had
there learned nearly everything of practical
value which they knew. Of the few precepts
relating to the practice of mounted warfare
that had been taught them they had rejected
more than they had retained. Little by little,
prescriptions and traditions had dropped out;
little by little, the stern experiences of
war had built up the American
cavalry TO an extraordinary efficiency,
1t was in the presence of the enemy and under
the pressure of actual service that the soldier
acquired his seat the officer his tactics
Hammered into shape by hard blows in tbe
white heat of battle, the cavalry which that
day rode at the head of the Army of the Pc
tomac represented the utmost which human
daring and skill could do in a mounted service.
They had invented the raid, that hitherto I'M
known instrument of wal, and had developed all
its capabilities. They had comprised long and
rapid marches, cut their way through forests
bridged streams or swum them, skirmished in
thick woods, amid tangled underground, dem
onstrated as infantry upon the TANKS of the
enemy, and, when necessity arose, had fought
with infantry on equal terms, mounted or on
foot. Beginning with no technical discipline
and generally unaccustomed to the saddle, they
had encountered at grave disadvantage the
choicest body of native horsemen the world
had seen, the flower OF the Southern chivalry,
led by captains as brave as ever rode light
hearted into battle; but gradually the firm
Northern temper and the stern experiences of
four years of continuous campaigning had
brought them the mastery.