The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1892-09-21
Aged Survivors Of the War Repeat
the Historic Review OF
1866.
A Great Contrast Between This One
and That OF a Generation
Ago.
The Parade Reviewed by Vice Presi.
dent Norton, General Palmer
and Others.

WASHINGTON. Sept. 21.--The Grand
Army of the Republic has made its
second triumphant march along Penn
sylvania avenue. Times ravages in its
ranks make it possible to attempt in one
day what it required two long days to
accomplish in 1865. To the survivors
of the 160, 900 men of the armies Of the
Potomac and the West, who on the
memorable 23d and oath of May, 1865,
passed in review before the president
and his cabinet dncluding Secretary
Seward, just recovering from the assas-
sins knife), the foreign ministers, the
military attaches of all the great powers
of Europe and their own beloved and
illustrious generals,
Grant, sherman and Sheridan.
the contrasts and "reminiscences called
out were necessarily striking. 1t took
seven hours-from 8 to 4-each day for
the armies of 1865 to pass the reviewing
stand, and the estimated length of the
two days procession was thirty miles.
Washington was very different city
then. The Capitol in 1865 was walled
in and surrounded by heavy timber.
Neither of the present stately
marble wings now occupied by senate
and house was then completed. The
cobblestone pavement of Pennsylvania
avenue was worn into alternate ravines
and hillocks by the passing of heavy
commissiariat wagons and artillery.
Tiber sewer rolled its filthy waters un-
covered. Not one handsome building
was to be seen from the Capitol to the
treasury department.
The leading features of that great re-
view live in memory and have passed
into history. First the resonant hoof
beats and Gathering sabres of Sheridan's
5000 cavalry, Clusters magnificent
horsemanship and his theatrical dash up
to the reviewing stand. Next in line the
battle-worn Ninth corps, with its bullet
torn flags, and the shattered remnants
of what once had been regiments
a thousand strong and reduced to barely
more than full company-ths One
Hundred and Ninth and the Fifty-irst
New York, the Fiftieth Pennsylvania,
the Thirtieth and Thirty-fifth Massa-
chusetts and the Second Michigan. Then
came the Fifth corps with its trophies of
Yorktown, Chicahominy and Antietam,
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the
Wilderness. The grim earnestness and
steady marching of Meade's magnificent
Army of the East left nothing to be de-
sired as spectacular military display
the first day.
But the enthusiasm of the second day,
When 'Sherman's Bummers, the
First and Only Original wild West show.
marched past with all their picturesque
lot of coons and chickens and goats and
cooking utensils and mules and contra
bands of war, were all regularly mixed
up, as in the actual march through
Georgia, with the swarthy veterans
themselves, with their long swinging
stride that told Of forced marches and
hard fighting, some of them barefooted,
but with musket and cartridge box
bright and ready--all of them bearing
the marks of gallant service done--all
this no one who witnessed it will ever
forget.
And many of those in the second
march were those in 1865, and not few
Of the spectators of this saw that other
historic scene of ftwenty-seven years past.
The arrangements for the movements
of the armies on the second day were
admirable. The right wing, composed
of the Army of the Tennessee. including
the Fifteenth and Eighteenth corps
Major General Logan commanding, and
the left wing, composed of the Army OF
Georgia, including the Fourteenth and
Twentieth corps, Major General Slocum
commanding. had bivouaced on the
night previous, without knapsacks. and
with two days cooked rations in theil
haversacks, on the Virginia shore of the
Long bridge. AT daylight in the morn
ing they had moved across the bridge
and taken their position upon the streets
and grounds east of the Capitol. But
there both armies were in position
awaiting, with stacked arms, the sigma
for marching. Their marching was
irregular and with frequent gaps, but
the cheering which Sherman and hi
army received from first to last of thai
long day knew no cessation. In the
third division of the Twentieth army
corps at the head of the first brigade
marched Breyet Brigadier General Ben
iamin Harrison, of Indiana.
The hour for the moving Of the parade
was $50 o'clock, but it was long after
that ere the body started. For two
hours previous to the hour designated
the streets leading to the avenue were
thronged with hurrying people eager Il
secure an advantageous view point fol
the days event. All along the broad
thoronghfare tiers of seats had beer
erected commanding good views of the
procession. These were crowded, as