Morning journal and courier., 1892-09-16
lRMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.

ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND.
Gathering OF the Survivors mt Chat
tanooga-Vfsited the Battlefield OF
Chickamauga-Gener Rosecrana
Presides-Oration by General Boyn.
ten.
CHATTANOOGA, Sept. 15.-The Society OF
the Army of the Cumberland met to.day
at Chiokamauga. General WIS. Rosecrans
presided. Only routine business was trans
acted. This afternoon the veterans visited
the battlefield. About six hundred guests
were present at the reunion.
General Il. V. Boynton delivered the
GRAFTON before the society. After referring
to the great mass of writings in disparage-
ment Of the Army of the Cumberland he
said:
And what, in the presence of our hon.
ored and beloved president. General Rose
Grams, shall say of the light which the
record has thrown over his pathway, to
the confusion of many writer's, both of
high and of low degreeG What need be
said further than to name Rich Mountain,
| Carnifsx Ferry, Iuka, Corinth and Stone
River, the unparalleled strategy of theTul-
lahoms and Chickamauga campaigns, and
| the final capture of this mountain strong
hold of Chattanooga? As, in the case of
General Buell., we now know that General
Thomas vehemently protested against the
proposition to remove General RosecTans,
even going 80 far as to privately threaten
to resign if it were finally ordered. a decis-
fculty persuaded. When General
Garfield started for Washington,
a few days before this removal, General
Thomas, in parting with him, said: Gear
field, you know the whole of this matter,
and the wrong that Ia being done Rose
Grams. Make 1t your first business to set
him right with those people in Washing
ton" Notifying to relate, this commits
sion was not executed, and, as the direct
about him, and the man who will, without
doubt, stand pre- eminent ss the most bril- |
liant strategist of the war, and who, by his
last campaign and the capture of Chat |
tanoogs, had as effectuslly divided the
confederacy as had Grant and Porter by
opening the Mississippi, was obliged to sit
down in shadow and wait on the slow
But, in the evening of his life, with his |
faculties to enjoy it undated, it has come, |
and 1t will abide for him forever. |
Next We come to name that excites |
universal acclaim from every fair minded |
student or writer of our military history |
wherever its wide and still-spreading fame |
has reached. George q. Thomas is rapid |
~ coming to his own. His stature in his |
tory is rounding out to the full dimen-
sions which we know to have been his. |
Of him, and of him alone, among all our |
- I.
truthfully said that he never lost move
ment or battle. Mill Springs was
the first Union victory of the three years.
campaign, and it was complete. We know
how the center held and what it did at
Stone River. The world knows the signi-
fcanoe of his title. 'The Rock of Chica-
mauga." Every successful feature of the
three days battles about Chattanooga was
his, and not another's. Every modifica-
ton of the plan of battle was his, and
every portion of the plan which succeeded
was modified.
Of the battle of Chickamauga the gallant
general continued:
Then came the deadly battle of Chicka-
manga for the military possession of the
town. Bragg, reinforced from Richmond
by Longstreet, started again towards Chat
tanooga, planning to thrust his columns
between Rosecrans and the city. The lat
ter, by night march, playing at the same
game, succeeded in placing his head of |
column in the Chickamauga forests be-
tween Bragg and Chattanooga, and the
fierce struggle for the roads to the city
began. When it ended. a new record of
bitter, persistent and deadly fighting had
been made, not only for our war, but for
the modern world. In percentages of
losses and for the time of fighting there
are no battle records which equal it from
and including the days of the first Ma
poleon. It was, for both sides, as the fig
ures of strength and losses show, the best
illustration of the pluck, the endurance,
American soldiers which the war pro-
duced. And now that the bitterness of it
has all passed, it is we'll for the nation to
mark this field and preserve it as an object |
lesson of what Americans can do in war. |
After graphically recounting the sue
ceesful assault of Lookout Mountain-the |
storming of Missionary Ridge-the speaker |
concluded with these words of patriotism: |
Comrades: There is in these gloriously |
gilded memoirs a Joy and reward that |
nothing else in life can bring to us or re-
place. 1t is past over which there has |
been and shall be an enduring sunset |
whose soft and enhancing coloring can |
never grow dim or disappear. And at the !
same time, doubling this joy and this re-
memories there is the sheen and the beauty |
of morning such as has never before held |
out its bright promise to any nation.
For one, I believe that the vast majority |
of those who fought against us would, if |
foreign foes attacked, spring as quickly as
any of us to the defense of our common |
flag. A quarter of a century has brought |
this about-a period which is but as day
in the life of nation. He would indeed
be impatient who looked for more speedy
progress.
While we glory in the deeds of every
union army and Irvine laurel for the brows
of all our great commanders, we glory
most because our lot was cast with that
army which was organized and baptized in
battle by General Buell.; which reached its
fighting manhood under General Rose
Grams: and which under George q. Thomas
stood immovable at the Kelley farm and
on Snodgrass hill, stormed the heights of
Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge,
and crushed Hood at Nashville. We now
write his name above all names, and when
history shall have rendered its final YER
dict upon the soldiers of the union, we be-
lieve that Thomas will surely lead all the
rest on the list of great soldiers and sue
cessful generals.
MRS. HARRISON,S CONDITION.
Tho phvsicsans Make Anotber Ex.