The Portland daily press., 1890-07-04

Davis and James d. Fessenden, of Maine.l
Inc 9th corps Column is appropriately closed
by Its artillery brigade, under Gen. John C..
liooall, to whom more than to any other man
was due the repulse of the confederates on the
10th OF March, and the recapture Of Stedman
Again comes the pause which tells that
nothing vulgar or common place is to be ush-
cred IN; again burst of music fit to marshal
heroes to receive the thanks of restored, re-
deemed, triumphant nation; and the splendid
Fifth Corps fresh from Five Forks wheels
around the Treasury and with the cadence
step, advances to greet Lincoln and Grant
At its head is not the gifted young officer
whose presence saved Gettysburg to the Union
arms, and at Bristol turned his rear guards
upon both the pursuing columns Of Lee.
Why Warren rides not with the
9th corps to-day, this is not the
time or place 10 ask; but surely, if he is, in
deed, to stand aside, silent end mournful, while
the gallant troops 60 on to receive the thanks
of a grateful country, no worthier man
could have been found to take his place than
the grim, taciturn, resolute veteran, Charles
Griffin.
Here march all that are left of the old
First corps which fought, under the accom-
plished but unsuccessful Mcdowell, at Grove
town and Manassas; under the daring and
impetuous Hooker, at Antetam; under John
f. Reynolds, at Fredericksburg, and again at
Gettysburg, where on the LIST of July, that
most able and heroic officer laid down his life
that Cemetery Ridge might be held for the
troops fast coming up to that greatest battle of
modern times.
Behind Griffin, too, on this day march all
that are left of the old Fifth corps, which un-
der Fitz John Porter bore the brunt Of the
confederate assaults through the memorable
seven days battle on the peninsula, at
Gaines's HILL Glendale and on the Heights of
Malvern which at the second Bull Run, upon
the Both of August, under the same gallant
and accomplished leader, made itself an i'm
mortal name by the reckless fury of its attack,
and the stubborn gallantry of its defence
and, at Fredericksburg, under Butterfeld, and
| at Gettysburg, under Sykes, added fresh lustre
| to its ever stainless arms.
| Such was the body of troops which under the
| personal direction of the Lieutenant General,
| Warren led into the great campaign of l864-5,
and which, all the way from the Wilderness to
| Five Forks, whether at Spottsylvapia or on
the North Anna, at Bethesda Church or at
| Cold Harber, over the bloodstained earth
works of Petersburg or amid the tangled
| thickets of Hatcber's Run, had borne itself as
| became the renowu of its two constituent
corps, out of the old Army of the Potomac
| The order of divisions is that of Chamber
lain, who led his gallant regiment the goth
Maine, in the fierce hand to hand fight that
| ragged along the sides of Little Round Top,
and in the closing struggle of 1865, swept with
his well appointed brigade over the Confederate
entertainments on the White Oak Road, and
| who now rides at the head of the old division
of Morell and Griffin; then comes the division
of Ayres, brave Ayres, the soul of honor,
courage and duty, ever ready and resolute,
stoutest at heart when the hearts of others
fail, and finally the division of Crawford
Conspicuous among the many gallant regi-
ments which thus form the 9th corps column
are some which, by reason of their long service
sustained heroism and prodigious losses, can
never be mentioned without emotion. There
are the 10th and Goth Maine. the 22d Massa-
chusetts, the 9th, 140th, 146th and 147th. Ney,,
York, the 18th, SD, ll8th, l2lth, EId and
155th Pennsylvania; the LIST Maryland, one Of
four fine regiments from that State, at the head
of which rides Dennison|w with his empty sleeve,
and those four noble Western regiments, LIST
and Goth Michigan and 9th and It'll Wisconsin.
The two regiments last named belonged to that
:, famous brigade of the old First corps known
as the Iron brigade from the West, out OF
whose five regiments there fell during the war
not less than l, l3l men, killed or MORALLY
wounded.
With two Of the regiments l have named the
deadliest day had been G aines's Mill; with
two, the second Bull Run; with one Antie-
tam; with one Shepardstown Ford; with
three, the deadliest day had been Fredercks-
burg; with two the Wilderness; with one
Spottsylvania.
In the case of most of these regiments there
had been some one day of terrible trial, where,
in the crisis of some desperate battle the con-
| hguration of the ground and the formation OF
| OnnnsinU lines a IN that mint marianne also
that the mis- behaviour of other troops had
brought upon its front an intolerable and I'M
immaginable height of fire, when men dropped
like leaves in autumn gales and all who stood
drank deep of the very bitterness Of death. In
instances, these losses of a single day, perhaps
I OF ur1er nour- of hgnt1ng, muue up one
third or even one half of all
sustained during three or four years of SER
vice. Other regiments there were which had
never known one transcendant, moment of
mortal agony, but had spread their gigantic
total of the killed not very unevenly over a
half score of battles.
Such, its column closed by Wainwright
brigade of artillery, is the 9TH corps, as il
passes swiftly and steadily up the Aven ne this
May morning, amid the plaudits of the specta-
tors, past the reviewing stand, and then, taking
the route step, makes its way to Georgetown
where it marches across the Acqueduet Bridge
to the well remembered camps at Balls Cross
Roads.
1t is now four full hours since the giant
column began to moves every eye is strained
and weary from watching the quickly reced-
ing divisions and bligades. But of all who
gaze from sidewalk or balcony, window or
housetop, no one leaves his post,
for corps not less renowned than any
which had fought out that bloody
strife to a triumphant issue, advances to salute
the chief under whom it has conquered. At
its head, on a snow white horse, followed by a
score of officers similarly mounted, rides that
heroic and thrice accomplished soldier and
scholar, Andrew A. Humphreys.
His serene and nobie face is lighted by the
joy of triumph and the pride he feels in the
troops which follow him; the corps of Sum-
ner, Couch andiHancock; that corps which, in
fair fight with Lees great army had taken A
Confederate flags ere first it lost color of its
own which had left more than forty thousand
of its numbers. killed or wounded, on the
battlefelds of Virginia, Maryland and Penn
sylvania; the corps which crossed the Chicka-
hominy to the rescue of the beaten left at + air
Oaks, which delivered the great assault on
Marve's Heights on which fell Longstreet 6
attack at Gettysburg, which stormed the
Saliant at Spottsylvania on the 18th of May,
| 1864, and at Farmside on the 7th of April
1865, fought the last infantry battle of the war
Out of the hundred regiments sustaining
the largest losses in all the armies of the
| United States east or west. thirty-five have
served under this corps banners; some of
| these. long since wasted to skeletons, have
been sent away from the front, but there
| still remain enough to witness to these years
| of desperate battle. Here is the 1st Maine
| Heavy Artillery, which leads the rop OF
| regiments suffering the greatest absolpte loss
| In single battle, 632 of its officers ana men
having fallen in its desperate charge OF the
18th OF June at Petersburg. OF whom 2lO
were killed or MORALLY wounded. just one
month before, at SpottsylFania It had lost IN
q brief action LAT killed or mortally wounded.
Its aggregate for the war is 423, or 10 per
| cent of its total enrolment. Here, too, is
| the Fifth New Hampshire regiment, gallant
| Cross's gallant men, which leads the roll OF
| all the infantry regiments OF the army IN the
total number of its fatal casualties, 295 men
having been killed or mortally wounded in
| its ranks. There marches the 1st Minnesota,
| the regiment suffering the largest proper.
| tional casualties in single action, having
| lost 224 men killed or wounded out of the
| 262 it took into action at Gettysburg, or SO
| out of every 100.
| Here, too, are such renowned regiments as
| the 18th and 10th Maine; the LIST regiment Of
| Heavy Artillery from Massachusetts,, and
the 18th, 10th, Goth and 2Sth regiments of in
fantry; the 9Th regiment of Heavy Artillery
from New York, and its 40th, 52nd, 18th,
61st, 63d, Gath, Goth, 73d, S6th SSth 93d, 111th,
120th, 124th, 10Th, 10th, 164th and 10th
regiments of infantry. the 18th Sth 18th and