The National tribune., 1903-05-28
The Most Imposing Military Pageant the
World Ever Saw.
THE GRAND REVIEW.
BY JOHN N'ELROY.

By JOHN M'ELRoY.
Senior Ficc Commander, Grand Army Of tn
Republic.
This strifeful old world has seen many
imposing military pageants since first tho
sword began to dcvour, by way of say
ing the last word in dispute. But never
not even
In the glory that was Greece.
And the grandeur that was Rome,
not even when Napoleon marched his
eag,e-bearing legions back to Paris from
the wreck of empires and the destruction
of dynasties, did the hours keep pace
with the march of so mighty torrent of
warlike power as swept in unbroken tide
along Pennsylvania Avenue for two wide
arching May days of 1865.
In numbers it was bewildering; in his
tory, startling; in character, overwhelm-
ing.
Its banners showed the scars of 200o
battlefie!ds, many of them the bloOdiest in
history, and were consecrated by the lives
of a million young men who had fallen
around them since first unfurled. A
mightier army than Napoleon led to the
mastery of Europe had perished in carry
ing forward those banners to victory.
Each one of the myriads of bronzed young
veterans who strobe up the avenue in the
pride of trained and perfected soldier
half score of youthful companions who
had started in with him. but who were
now sleeping in shallow graves, lingering
ON beds of pain, or scattered back to their
homes as wreckage drifting from the yor
tex of the far flung battle line"
-Four years of incessant battling with
foe of finest mettle had also burned out
oil hn bn l. linz.
nodded and tempered that marching host
into incomparab,y the finest military
weapon ever forged to execute a Nations
will.
1t was led by men whose names will
forever shine in our history as types of the
highest soldiership, joined to the purest
patriotism.
The first day, the Army of the Poto-
mac, in a dense column which filled the
wide avenue from curb to curb marched
by from early morn until late at night.
No better demonstration of the marvellous
efficiency which had been attained in its
four years schooling in war can be given
pass in perfect military order by n given
point in single day. This would be im-
possible in the best drilled legions of Eu-
rope to-day. And with that army, what
recent and vivid memories marched? OF the
months of bloody welter on the Peninsula.
Of the battle surges over the oft-reddened
plains of Manassas. of that awful Sep
tember day, on the banks of the Antietam.
which closed with Il, 2,00O boys in blue ly-
ing dead or wounded. OF that still more
bitter December day at Fredericksburg,
when American valor reached its supreme
exaltation, and 1900 fell in an assault
fore-dOomed as hopeless. Of that wasted
opportunity at Charlottesville, which
cost 10000 men and the sanguine hopes
nf hn <.ln of fI,o fl,ox ,nx,f
Gus three days at Gettysburg, which fin
ally turned back the tide of audacious re-
bellion. at the price of 5000 Union dead,
and 1900 wounded. OF those so days of
mortal wrestling between the Union and
Confederate armies from the Rapidan to
the James, which cost the Union army
$1,000 men, and filed every household in
the South with mourning. of the months
of anxious, persistent, iniexible siege of
Petersburg. OF that most magnifcently
thrilling of all man-hunts IN history, the
bloodhound rush of Grants whole army
after Lees. for hundred miles, over Vir-
ginia's brakes and 5ournes until the end
came at Appomattox.
For four long years the people had been
walking daily with the grand, grim, ,ln-
conquerable Army of the Potomac through
the Valley of the Shadow of Death, with
only lnfrenuent ascents to the mountain
peaks of Victory. but now it was fresh
from the complete overthrow of its mighty
antagonist. These were the men who had
been through all this, the Survivors of the
host which had accomplished it all, bear
ing the flags around which they had un-
falteringly gathered, no matter how dis
asters thickened.
At the head of this Mississippi of war
like force rode its Commander, George
Gordon Meads-tall, grim, spsctacled, his
broad shoulders bent as if by the weight
Slf fhl hy1r1 Ian, 1,A1 1,nl 81
burg to Appomattox.
Sheridan, the whirlwind of battle, was
missing from the glorious Cavalry Corps,
which lie had wakened TO its strength,
and fashioned in the forge of war into the
mightiest mounted force that ever drew
saber. He had been rushed of to the Rio
Grande, to throttle an exotic Empire
counted us too little worth. Sheridan was
well-sparsd, however, for awhile later ti.e
imported Emperor was taken out and
shot.
The Cavalry was led by such incompar-
able lieutenants as the theatric dashing
George A. Custer, and the quiet, gray
eyed George A. Crook
The Second Corps, each man In its per
fectiy aligned ranks prouder of his clover
leaf badge than of a peerage in the United
Kingdom, was led by Andrew A. Hum
phreys. an ideal American soldier and
corps commander.
The Fifth Corps, whose Maltese Cross
had badgsd the dead in the forefront OF
every line Of battle of the Army Of The
Potomac, was led by tall, slender, knight
ly Charley" Griffin. who had four years
before entered the corps as an enthusias-
tic young battery Captain, and was nov
wearing the double stars OF Major-Gen.
eral. well earned in more than a score Of
hard-fought battles.
Those who on breast or cap wore
Greek cross as proud armorial bearing
were the men who had followed the leon
Inc John Sedgwick until his character had
become theirs. They were led by tail,
precise, formal Horatio G. Wright, an en-
giDeer officer all through But he could
drop his theerems and triangulations with
remarkable quickness when the bugie
called, and hurl the Sixth Corps hike an
avalanche to brehk the backbone of the
Confederasy at Petersburg, or smash the
heads of Lees column. at Sailors Greek.
The Ninth Corps-"Burnside's Geos-
raphy Ciass'-which had carried its can
non and anchor bad>> from Roanoke Isl
and TO the Antieta md tben to Vicks-
burg and East Tennessee, to return TO
fLo Of b~ Dnt.,nao -, A.