Year: 1864

veys from the summit of either the glorious
exhibition of Natures Beauty and grandeur
spread before him, can fail to appreciate the
truth of these observations. Nor will he fail
to be inspired with new and lofty conceptions
Of the present and future glory of that vast
corfederacy of States Joined in one free Re
public which Southern madmen are trying TO
destroy. He will thank God for country so
great, so free, so sublimely beautiful The
very breath of Freedom will seem to inspire
him in the cheerful breeze which anirnaies
his frame, and the music it makes among the
solemn pines will sound like the chant of her
holy and uEceasing anthem. His heart will,
silently perchanee, but none the less truly, join
the sublime paean with its weak, human ut
terances such as these -


''SIy native country thee


Land of the noble free,


Thy name love


love thy rocks and rIlis,


Thy woods and tempted hills


Ny soul with rapture thrills.


Like that above "


The view from the summit of that portion
of the Raccoon Mountain which lies opposite
Bridgeport, Ala. and which has received the
local soubriquet of "Sand Mountain" though
it canuot be compared to the Incompatible
one from Point Lookout, is nevertheless ex-
tremely fine. Far to the Westward and
Northward the Cumberland Mountains heave
against the horizon their massive, billowy
shapes, ever and anon overtopped by some
''beetling crag" or aspiring peak, and tinted by
Gods own hand with shade of blue as deep
ly pure and ethereal as mortal eye ever dwelt
upon. For fifty miles away off to the South
westward the eye follows the meandering
Tennessee wandering hither and thither among
its mountain suitors until like a cequettish
maiden weary of her dallying, it loses itself in
their softly dim embrace At ones feet the
deep valley expands ITSELF threaded by gleam-
ing rils and rivulets, beswept by the stately
river which clasps romantic little island set
like jewel in its bosom, animated by the
steaming locomotive Fastening to and fro on
its swift errands, and by the dark, moving
forms and the evenly-ranged camps of thous-
ands of soldiers. Dumb must be the soul tha t
would not be intoxicated by such sight,
dead The heart that it would not inspire with
an almost unearrhly fervor. Ofsucb an one
it may well be said, as it has been so aptly OF
him that bath no music 10 himself" that he


s'Is fit for treasons stratagems and spoIis;


The motions Of his spirit dull night,


And his affections dark as Erebus.'


To these scenes each days progress of this
war attaches AN additional and historical in-
terest. Upon mountain, stream and valley
the boys in blue" are fastening associations
which will challenge the reverence and won
der OF all coming generations. Tbither
through all the years to be the lovers of hu-
In S.il har,
tized by he blood of so many patriot martyrs
for the cause of free government. The plains
of Waterloo and of Austeritz will be tame
in glory beside Chickamauga and Mission
Ridge While the former names can but
forever stain the page of time, the latter ones
will illuminate it with an imperishable and
soul-inspiring beauty.


x


The crescent and the star have been merged
the l lth and II Corps are blended into one.
Singular vicissitudes in campaigning have
kept these two organizations in close conuec-
ton since the autumn of1862 During the win
ter of that year they formed the fourth or
Grand Reserve Division of the Army of the
Potomac under Maj. Gen. Sigel. They were
closely allied in the battles OF Chancellors-
vile and Gettysburg. In September last
they were sent to the Army of the Cumber-
land under Maj. General Hooker and shortly
afterward joined in the important work of
opening the river and railroad cOmmunica-
tion between Bridgeport and Chattanooga
During the battles of Lookout Mountain and
Mission Ridge, though still nominalIy belong
ing to the same command, the two Corps by
series Of singular chances, became separated
and participated in entirely different opera
tions. They joined company again however
at the termination of the campaign. By an
edict from the War Department the two vet
eran organizations are now made to fuse them
selves into new creation yclept the 10th
Corps. The composition OF the Divisions and
Brigades has been announced and the soldiers
who carried the Star" to the summit Of Look
out and those who unfurled the Crescent
from Mission Ridge are learning to iraternize
under the new regime


Yet the breaking up of these old Organiza-
tions of the army is no trivial matter, and
should not be done except for gravest reasons.
Their names, Numbers and symbols become
entwined with the powerful associations of the
camp and campaign, and accumulate charm
and prestige no less dear TO, than they are po-
tent in their influence upon, every soldier
They are the nucleus OF that esprit du corps
which is the slow growth Of time, and which,
though far from being least of the moral
forces OF the army, lives aud dies with the or
ganization that nurtures and sustains it. The
torn and weather-stained colors that have
been borne through the flame and storm Of d
dozen campaigns, the old regiments, brigades
and divisions which have together withstood
the shock OF many battle, attain sort o
sacredness in the estimation Of the soldiers
which it is next to sacrilege to violate by in
uovatious and substitutions not absolutely
necessary.


II is not strange therefore that the demise
of these two old organizations, venerable fol
their years and hallOwed by SO many memo
ries, should be generally lamented. The mer
who have followed the "star" and the "cres
cent" so long and so faithfully, who have
been guided by them through the smoke anC
fame of so many contests, who have bornC
them through so many weary marches anC
fixed them upon SO many sirongholds of th'
enemy, cannot give up these old emblem
without sadness. Yet all are willing to hops
that the new luminary which appears in th,
military horizon, blending the brilliancy O
the star with the soft and constant CLEAN o
the crescent, may ever shine with a steady
increasing and enduring glory. May it NEE
with no inglorious eclipse, nor its splendo
cesse TO burn until it shows the flag of th