Year: 1864

cital of brave deeds and patriotic sacrif-
ces, so long will the lesson still invite gen.
erous men to emulate the heroism of the
past. Among the Greeks it was the GUS
ton that the fathers of the most valiant of
slain should pronounce the eulogies of the
dead. Sometimes it devolved upon their
great statesmen and orators to perform
this mournful duty. Would that De-
mosthenes, or second Pericles could rise
and take my place to-day, for he would
fsd theme worthy of his most brilliant
powers, of his most touching eloquence.


stand here now, not as an orator but
as the whilom commander, and IN the
fathers of the most valiant dead as their
comrade, too, on many a hard fought field
against domestic and foreign foes-in ear
ly youth and mature manhood-moved by
all the love that David felt WI IN he pour
ed forth his lamentation for the mighty
father and son who fell on Gilboa. God
knows that Dayid's love for jonathan was
no more deep than mine for the tried
friends of many long and eventful years,
whose names are to be recorded upon the
structure that is to rise upon this spot
Would that his more than mortal elo-
quence could grace my lips, and do jus
tice to the same


We have met to-day, my comrades, to
do honor to our own dead-brothers uni
ted to US by the closest and dearest ties
who have freely given their lives for their
country in this war-so just and righteous
so long as its purpose is to crush rebellion
and to save our nation from the infinite
evils of dismemberment. Such an occa-
sion as this should call forth the deepest
and noblest emotions ofo nature-eride,
sorrow, and prayer. Pride, that our
country has possessed such sons; sorrow.
that she has lost them; prayer that she may
have others like them that we and our
successors may adorn her annsls as they
have done; and that when our parting
hour arrives, whenever however it may be,
our souls may be prepared for the great
change.


THE VOLUNTEERS.


We have assembled to commemorate
cenotaph which shall remind our childrens'
children in The distant future OF their faith
ers' struggles in the days of the great re-
bellion. This monument is to perpetuate
the memory of a portion only of those who
| have fallen for the nation ID this unhappy
war it is dedicated to the officers and
soldiers of The regular army. Yet this is
done in no class or exclusive spirit, and in
the act we remember with reverence and
love our comrades of the volunteers who
fought and fell by our sides.


Each State will, no doubt, commemo-
rate in some fitting way the services of its
sons who abandoned the avocations ofpeace
and shed their blood in the ranks-will
receive some momento of nations love,
nations gratitude. With what heroism
| they have confronted death, have wrested
victory from stubborn foe, and have IL
lustrated defeat, it well becomes me to say,
for it has been my lot to command them
on many a sanguiDary field know that
but echo the feelings of the regulars when
award the high credit they deserve to
their brave brothers of the volunteers.


But we of the regular army have no
States to look to for the heRors due our
dead. We belong to tho whole country
We can neither expect or desire the Gen
eral Government to make, perhaps, an in
vidious distinction in our favor. We are
few in number, small band of comrades
united by peculiar and very binding ties.
For, with many of Us, our friendships were
commenced in boyhood, when we rested
beneath the shadow of the grahite hills
which look down upon us where we stand !;
/ with others the ties of brotherhood were
formed in more mature years while fight
ing amid the rugged mountains and fertile
valleys of Mexico-within hearing of the
| eternal waves of the Pacifc-or in the
lonely grandure of the great plains of
the far West. With all, our love and
confidence has been cemented by common
dangers and sufferings-on the toisome
march, in the bivouac, and amid the clash
of arms and the presence of death on
her large heart, adopted us all-gradu-
ate, and those appointed from civil life
officers and privates. In her eyes we are
| all her children, jealous of her fame, eager
to sustain her world wide repntation.-
/ Generals and private soldiers, men who
have cheerfully offered their all for our
dear country, we stand here before this
shrine, ever hereafter sacred TO our dead
equa and brothers in the presence of theat
common death which awaits as all-per-
haps in the same field and at the same
hour. Such are the ties which unite US
the most endearing that exist among men !:
such the relations which bind US together
| the closest of the sacred brotherhood of
arms. 1t has therefore seemed, and it is
fitting, that we should erect uponsthis spot,
sacred to us all, an enduring monument to
orr dear brothers who have preceded us
on the path of peril and of honor which it
is the destiny OF many of US some day to
tread.


What is this regular army to which we
belong


Who are the men whose death merits
such hoDors from the living7


Our regular or permanent army is the
nucleus which in time of peace preserves