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OHIO'S CONTRIBUTION, SACRIFICE AND SERVICE IN THE WAR. 
 
 ORATION 
 
 OF 
 
 JJENL J. WARREN KEIFER. 
 
 OF 
 
 SPRINGFIELD. 
 
 AT 
 
 NEWAEK, OHIO, 
 
 BEFORE A 
 
 "State Re-Union of Soldiers and Sailors; 1 
 
 MONDAY, JULY 22, 1878. 
 
 The Anniversary oj t?i< death of 
 
 MAJ. GENL. JAMES B. M c PHERSON. 
 
 •• Stand by the Flag! nil doubt and treason scorning, 
 ■• Believe, with courage firm and faith sublime, 
 ■That it will float until the eternal mornin 
 •■ Pales, in its glories, all the lights of Time 
 
 *&■ 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, 
 i:i PI BMC PRINTING COMPANY, PRINTERS 
 
 1878. 
 
ORATION 
 
 Soldiers and Sailors, Citizens of Ohio : 
 
 This is a representative meeting of the surviving Soldiers and 
 Sailors of our American Republic's last, greatest, most sanguinary 
 war — a war, when measured by the multitudes engaged, the lives 
 lost, the blood shed, the number of principal battles, affairs and 
 great skirmishes within the period of its duration, the moral gran- 
 deur of the principles at issue, and the material results attained, all 
 former wars on this continent sink into utter insignificance. 
 
 It is a time-honored custom for the surviving actors in the drama 
 of any war which marks the triumph of some great principle in po- 
 litical government tending to the liberation of mankind from the 
 crushing heel of tyranny, to meet and honor their comrades who 
 have paid the penalty of heroic devotion, and also renew fraternal 
 bonds knit in the fiery conflict. 
 
 In our recent war all devotees of the Union, regardless of rank or 
 station, made common cause. 
 
 Animated by-a desire to do honor to the dead, and to strengthen 
 the ties of friendship and love for the living Soldiers and Sailors, 
 this vast assemblage has come together. 
 
 Here the humblest soldier is on a level with those high in authori- 
 ty, or of great war-renown.* 
 
 We have with us and as one of us to-day, His'' Excellency, R. B. 
 Hayes, the honored Chief Magistrate of our redeemed Republic, 
 who, in the war, won laurels bright and lasting. 
 
 McPherson. 
 
 In 1 841 there might have been seen a boy, thirteen years of age, 
 with a sad face, having just kissed the lips of an anxious mother, 
 holding a small bundle in one hand, setting out for the first time 
 from his home, near Clyde, Ohio, to assume the world's responsibili- 
 ties and cares among strangers, and to reach out for the possibilities 
 only attainable in a Republic. He was the son of a blacksmith and 
 small farmer, then and theretofore poor, and at the time referred to, 
 a hopeless invalid. When this young blacksmith-boy had gone a 
 few rods from the parental roof he turned to cast another look at 
 
 *Gen'ls Sherman Gartieki, and others were present. 
 
— 3— 
 
 the house where he was born and so far reared, when he beheld his 
 mother, little sisters and brother standing in the door, gazing after 
 him and weeping over his departure from home while yet so young. 
 To his tender heart this affecting scene almost overcame him, but 
 he clutched his bundle a little tighter, leaned forward, summoned 
 new resolution and made his little feet patter rapidly over the ground 
 until out of sight of mother and home. He then turned aside into 
 a small woods and himself wept and sobbed until his eyes were swol- 
 len and red. This over, his young heart regained courage and he 
 resumed his journey, to accept employment in a small store at Green 
 Springs, five miles away. 
 
 What thoughts, hopes and fears crowded, in the intensity of his 
 feelings and sensibilities, through the mind of this slender youth dur- 
 ing that walk may be only vaguely conceived. 
 
 Twenty-three years later, the body of this once tender-hearted 
 bo\ , then grown to be a man of stately form, was borne back to 
 that mother, wrapped in the flag of his country, as his winding sheet 
 and shroud of death. 
 
 Millions of patriotic people mourned in deep sorrow his untimely 
 death. While his aged giand-mother and mother, brother and sist- 
 ers, friends and neighbors followed him to his tomb in the little or- 
 chard where he had in youth so often sported, a great nation of loy- 
 al men and women mourned and refused to be comforted. His life 
 was short, his character exemplary, his disposition was sweet, and 
 his death was of all others the grandest for a soldier. 
 
 In the language of Genl. Sherman at the time, " he fell in battle, 
 " booted and spurred as the gallant knight and gentleman should 
 "wish." 
 
 In the midst of a great battle he received his death wound and 
 fell to rise no more, forever. With a solitary soldier by his side to 
 moisten his lips from a rude canteen, with a Southern forest around 
 him and the canopy of heaven only above him, the sharp crack and 
 crash of musketry, the clank of sabres and the roar of cannon re- 
 sounding everywhere about him, and the battle-shouts of contending 
 cohorts ringing over him, beneath a Georgia sun, amid the smoke of 
 battle ; 
 
 '• With banners blooming in the air," 
 
 and one wounded and bleeding comrade as a witness, his soul, sanc- 
 tified by a life of purity, patriotism and Christianity, passed from his 
 
—I— 
 
 mortal body to cleave the ethereal realms and alight at the foot of 
 the throne of God. 
 
 Though young in years* when death ended his career, he was 
 the commander of an army in the cause of his country. 
 
 This day, fourteen years ago. at the head of the Army of the 
 Tennessee, almost in sight of Atlanta, this typical solider fell. 
 
 Such is briefly the beginning and ending of the career of Maj. 
 Genl. James B. McPherson, one of Ohio's bravest, best and most 
 accomplished soldiers. 
 
 It is in the highest sense proper that the surviving Union Soldiers 
 i if Ohio should assemble on the anniversary of the death of General 
 McPherson, take each other by the hands, look each other in the 
 face, recall the events, great and small, of the late war, and while 
 thus holding friendly and sweet converse together, draw renewed 
 inspiration from his life and death. 
 
 I do not think proper or feel competent now and here to attempt 
 to portray the beauty, grandeur and nobleness of Genl. McPherson's 
 life and character. That task I shrink from. His life should be 
 written by a competent hand and deguerreotyped in the minds and 
 hearts, especially of the young men of this nation. From its study, 
 new hope will be taken and greater possibilities will b£ foreseen and 
 grasped. 
 
 His life demonstrates anew the paramount distinguishing feature 
 between a Monarchy and our American Republic. Only in such a 
 government as ours, is it possible for the son of the most lowly 
 citizen, through perseverance, by steadfastness of purpose, with 
 laudable pride and ambition, zeal and integrity, to attain the high- 
 est rank and the most distinguished honor. 
 
 There is no super-incumbent social or political strata in this- 
 country through which the most humble citizen may not pierce, pen- 
 etrate, and rise to fame. 
 
 McPherson was in an eminent degree a representative Union 
 Soldier of the late war. In him was personified the best and purest 
 type of a soldier of a free Republic. Educated a soldier, he loved 
 not war. Learned in the science and arts of war, he preferred a life 
 of peace. In no sense or degree responsible for the war, he met it 
 as a duty, more in the capacity of a citizen than a soldier. 
 
 He fell, not like Charles the Bold contending for feudalism and a 
 ducal crown for his own head, or like the chivalric Bayard for fame 
 
 "McPherson was born November nth, 1828. 
 
and the glory and renown of knighthood, but with all the qualities 
 of bravery, boldness and chivalry of both combined, he fell righting 
 for no personal or selfish ends, but for the principle of universal 
 liberty. 
 
 OHIO'S CONTRIBUTION OF MEN TO THE WAR. 3 ~ 
 
 In answering the question, What was Ohio's Contribution of Men 
 to the War? I shall chaw no invidious distinctions. From wha 
 ever State the Union soldiers came, they stood shoulder to shoulder 
 in the army as soldiers of the United States, and not of any particu- 
 lar State. In war they were all comrades, and in peace they remain 
 so. They fought for nationality and one flag, not sectionalism or 
 State individuality. The true citizen of Ohio is justly proud to be 
 called such, but still prouder of being called a citizen of the United 
 States. Ohio's sons owe no duty to their State not consistent 
 with their duty to the Union. 
 
 Ohio furnished twenty-three infantry regiments for three months, 
 in response to President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men. and ten 
 other regiments which the Government ; that 
 
 call. 
 
 She furnished one hundred and seventeen infantry regiments for 
 three years, twenty-seven for one year, two for six months, th 
 others for three months and forty-three for one hundred d 
 Thirteen others were cavalry and three were artillery regiments for 
 three years. 
 
 besides these regimental organizations, Ohio furnished twenty-six 
 independent batteries 01' artillery, five independent companies of 
 cavalry. Other companies of sharpshoo! irtions of five 
 
 regiments credited to West Virginia, and tw< entucky, two 
 
 regiments of "United States Colored Troops." so called; also a 
 large portion of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Infantry 
 regiments. There were 5092 " Colored Troops " credited to Ohio- 
 .Many more of her colored citizens, doubtless enlisted and were 
 credited elsewhere. Three thousand four hundred and forty-three 
 men are known to have entered the Western gunboat service. 
 Many others entered the naval and marine service. Still others en- 
 listed during the war in the regular army. 
 
 Ohio furnished 15,766 "Squirrel Hunters" for service when 
 Cincinnati and the Southern State border were threatened in 1862 ; 
 also about 50,000 militia for duty during the "Morgan Raid" in 
 
1863. When the war closed, Ohio had nearly 2,000 men, enlisted 
 but'not yet mustered, ready to go to the field to fill the gaps in the 
 depleted ranks of her regiments. 
 
 Over 20,000 of the three years troops re-enlisted as veterans, to be 
 mustered out only by death, disability or final victory. From the 
 best prepared statistics of the Provost Marshal General and Adju- 
 tant General of the U. S. A., and the Adjutant General of Ohio, 
 excluding re-enlistments, " Squirrel Hunters," and militia, and in- 
 cluding a low estimate for irregular enlistments in the army and 
 navy not credited to Ohio, it is found that Ohio furnished of her 
 citizens 340,000 men of all arms of the service for the war; and re- 
 duced to a department standard, they represent 240,000 three years 
 soldiers. 
 
 Under the ten Presidential calls for troops, Ohio furnished 
 310,654 soldiers, the sum of her quotas being only 306,322. (Many 
 of the States never filled their quotas.) Of this immense army of 
 men only 8750 were raised by the draft ; all others were volunteers. 
 
 More than one-half in number of Ohio's adult male population 
 tendered their lives as a sacrificial offering to the Union. From the 
 first call to arms in 1861 to peace in 1865, 2,668,000 Union patriots 
 answered to the calls of the President of the United States, became 
 the defenders of their country's cause, and the avengers of her 
 wrongs. More than one-eighth of the rank and file of this vast 
 army was furnished by Ohio alone. What a commentary upon the 
 growth and prosperity of a State, which, within the memory of the 
 living was a wilderness, the home only of the wild beast and the 
 savage! 
 
 We are assembled here to-day within an artificial enclosure, 
 planned, laid out and constructed with the scientific skill of a mod- 
 ern engineer, but by another race of people.* 
 
 THE SERVICE OF OHIO SOLDIERS. 
 
 They fought and bled on every great battle field of the war, from 
 Big Bethel (June 10th, '61), the first to Blakely at Mobile, (April 
 9th, 1865) the last battle of the war. 
 
 *The meeting was hold within the " Old Fort," so called, near Newark, former- 
 ly a circular earthwork of more than a mile in circumference, still standing, 20 
 feet in height. These works were huilt by a race with some knowledge of engineer- 
 ing, existing prior to the modern Indians and to them unknown even by tradi- 
 tion. Some eon iecture the works were constructed by tlie " Mound Builders ; " 
 others that they' in-longed to another race called " Image-Builders," irom their 
 works being Often, as here, constructed to represent birds, beasts and reptiles. 
 Whether these works were erected for defense in war. for the purpose of religious 
 rites and ceremonies, or for tournaments or the celebration of games, is wholly 
 left to conjecture. 
 
-7— 
 
 Within forty-eight hours of the first call for troops the ist and 2d 
 Ohio Infantry Regiments were hastening to the defense of the im- 
 periled Capital. 
 
 Ohio soldiers followed Thomas to victory at Mill Springs, and 
 Garfield of Ohio, at Prestonburg, Ky. in January, 1862. 
 
 Ohio Soldiers formed a large part of the army that stormed the 
 works and captured Fort Donaldson, where, under Grant, a son of 
 Ohio, the eagles of the Union soared first to victory on the grander 
 theater of war. They fought at Island No. 10, at Shiloh, Corinth, 
 Iuka and Perryville. Her soldiers bore a large share in the deadly 
 conflicts at Stone River and Chicamauga under Rosecrans, another 
 of Ohio's great and patriotic Generals. 
 
 They were of the grand army under Grant, Sherman and McPher- 
 son — what a trio of Ohio Generals ! — which swung around to the 
 South of Vicksburg and fought and won the battles of Champion 
 Hills, Jackson and Big Black River, and joined in the siege and 
 capture of Vicksburg, 
 
 They fought at Arkansas Post, Port Hudson and Grand Gulf. 
 They also manned gun-boats under Admiral Porter, which, with the 
 aid of the army opened the " Father of Waters " to the Gulf. 
 
 During the war they campaigned against the Indians in the far 
 West. They were with Hooker, and thundered down " the defiance 
 of the skies " from above the clouds at Lookout Mountain. 
 
 They were under the eagle-eye of Thomas in scaling the heights 
 and seizing the redoubts on Mission Ridge. 
 
 They formed a great part of each of the grand divisions of that 
 triune-army in which solid " old Pap Thomas " led the center, Mc- 
 Pherson the right and Schofield the left; the whole under "old 
 Tecumseh Sherman," who is neither last nor least of Ohio's great 
 warriors. Under his directing eye that army blazed a pathway al- 
 most through mountains, forced the passage of streams, overcame 
 natural and artificial defenses, and a great army, well commanded; 
 fought battles daily for weeks, with more regularity than they par- 
 took of their daily bread ; stormed the fortified heights at Resaca 
 and Kenesaw Mountain; assaulted the works at Ruff's Mills, 
 where the gallant General Noyes lost a leg ; also the fortifications 
 at Jonesboro and Atlanta, and after capturing the latter place and 
 leaving behind a considerable detachment, swept off Eastward to 
 Savannah and the Sea, thence Northward through the Carolinas to 
 
the Old Dominion, tearing out the vitals of the Confederacy, strik- 
 ing terror to the enemy and carrying the flag to victory. 
 
 They were present at the captures of Nashville, Memphis, New 
 Orleans, and Richmond. The Ohio soldiers fought and triumphed 
 at Franklin, under Stanley, of Ohio, and at Nashville, under Thomas. 
 
 Ohio '■'■boys in blue" fought at Pea Ridge and assaulted at Forts 
 Wagner and Fisher ; they also, under General Win, B. Hazen, of 
 Ohio, stormed Fort McAllister, on the Atlantic coast. 
 
 They fought at Rich Mountain, Bull Run, Cheat Mountain, Port 
 Republic, at Fair Oaks, Malvern Hills, Cedar Mountain, Groveton 
 and Manassah, South Mountain and Antietam, Winchester, Freder- 
 icksburg, under Burnside ; Chancellorsville, under Hooker, and 
 Gettysburg, under Meade ; also, at Mine Run. They were of the 
 Army of the Potomac in that "All Summer" campaign of 1864, in 
 which an almost continuous battle raged from the Rapidan to 
 Petersburg. They bled and died at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania 
 and Cold Harbor. They constituted throughout the war, a part of 
 the body-guard of the capitol. 
 
 They were under that other son of Ohio, General Sheridan, at 
 Opequon and Fisher's Hill, in the Shenandoah Valley, in the former 
 of which, General Crook (an Ohio man), with Hayes (now Presi- 
 dent of the United States), at the head of the Kanawha Division, 
 hurled, like an avalanche, the Army of West Virginia upon Breck- 
 inridge's forces, overthrew the left wing of Early's army and insured 
 its defeat and rout. 
 
 They were with Sheridan, too, at the bloody battle of Cedar 
 Creek, where he rode from Winchester, "twenty miles away." to the 
 music of the cannons roar, and at the end of the day, achieved a 
 victory, which for completeness, is without a parallel among the im- 
 portant field engagements of the war, if in the annals of history. 
 
 The battle of Marengo, in Italy, in some degree affords a parallel 
 to the battle of Cedar Creek in its dual character — practically two 
 battles in one day — and also in the complete overthrow and almost 
 total annihilation of the army, victorious in the onset of the battle. 
 In other respects the two battles were widely dissimilar. Napoleon 
 won the battle of Marengo by the opportune arrival on the field of 
 Desaix, the hero of the battle of the Pyramids, with six thousand 
 fresh troops. The battle of Cedar Creek was won by the timely ar- 
 rival of Sheridan without troops. 
 
— 9— 
 
 Ohio soldiers were in th'e seiges of Petersburg and Richmond ; 
 also of Charleston, under Gilmore, another of her heroes. They 
 defended Knoxville under Burnside. They rushed to glory over the 
 ramparts at Petersburg. They bared their breasts to the storm at 
 Five Forks and at Sailor's Creek. 
 
 The)- were in at the crowning success and witnessed the surrender 
 of the Army of Northern Virginia, under Lee, at Appomattox, to 
 General Grant. They were with Sherman at Bentonville, and in the 
 redemption of North Carolina and the capture of that other great 
 Confederate army, under General Joseph E. Johnson. 
 
 Her Generals and soldiers held posts of honor, when they were 
 posts of responsibility and danger. Many of the scenes of conflict 
 where Ohio's sons fought and fell are nameless, and they are almost 
 numberless. They were in every place of danger and duty, where 
 the battle-flags were unfurled. They marched, bivouaced, fought 
 and died along the shores of the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, on the 
 Rio Grande, the Mississippi, the Cumberland and Tennessee. They 
 as sailors and marines, were under Dalhgren, DuPont, Porter, Foote 
 and Farragut, and with them also, on the Rivers, the Gulf, and the 
 Sea. won glory and renown, and paid the debt of patriotism and 
 valor. 
 ~~"*Ohio blood was poured out wherever sacrifices were required. 
 They were neither sectional in their opinions nor their duty. Be- 
 lieving in one flag and one country, they fought side by side 
 with men of all sections and of all extractions, and for the preser- 
 vation of the God granted and natural boon of liberty and equality. 
 
 They were component parts of each of the grand Union armies 
 which contended upon the thirty-one principal battle fields of the war. 
 They were generally present at each of the 2,731 battles, affairs or 
 skirmishes of the war. Their trials, sufferings and dangers were not 
 confined to the combats of the contending hosts. 
 
 Ohio's human sacrifu 
 
 The scythe of destruction cut a wide swath, and death garnered 
 a super-abundant harvest of Ohio's, sons during the more than four 
 jears war. 
 
 There were 24,591 Ohio soldiers killed or mortally wounded in 
 actual combat, or who died before the expiration of their terms of 
 enlistment of disease. Of this number 6,536 were of the mar, 
 
—10— 
 
 slain, who died where they fell on the field of action, and 4,674 
 others ebbed out their lives in field-hospitals after receiving mortal 
 wounds, and 13,354 died of disease in hospital or prison, from ex- 
 posure or cruel starvation. 
 
 Thirty-seven were killed or mortally wounded, and forty- seven 
 died of disease, &c, out of every thousand of Ohio troops. 
 
 The " Destroying Angel," neither in peace nor war, respects per- 
 sons, rank, caste, class or station. The Angel of Death spread 
 wide his wings and swooped in his victims from among the heroes 
 of the bayonet and sabre, the musket, the cannon and the sword. 
 
 . The vigilant, nervous and accomplished General O. M. Mitchell 
 fell a victim to disease. The brave, but gentle, General Sill (Joshua 
 W.) grandly and heroically met his late at Stone River. The chiv- 
 alric and knightly Lytle (General William H.) died, as he had wish- 
 ed, of a mortal wound on the field of glory, at Chicamauga. Gen- 
 eral R^b't L. McCook, after a most brilliant career of usefulness, and 
 with still greater promise, also died of a mortal wound. There was 
 also General Daniel McCook who, when he entered the army, bade 
 friends farewell with the remark : " Here goes for a star or a sol- 
 , dier's grave," and both came together. 
 
 The list of distinguished officers, whose lives paid the forfeit of 
 our Nation's sins, is long. Among the most conspicuous names are 
 Colonels Lorin Andrews, Minor Milliken, Frederick C. Jones, Wm. 
 G. Jones, John T. Toland, J. H. Patrick, C. G. Harker, J. W. Lowe, 
 Geo. P. Webster, J. K. L. Smith, James M. Shane, J. D. Elliott, 
 Leander Stem, Augustus H. Coleman, Barton S. Kyle, and M. S. 
 Wooster. 
 
 It is invidious to name any. Almost every cemetery or village 
 grave yard in Ohio attests the number. 
 
 The grand total of losses in the Union army, from Sumpter to 
 the final peace, was 294,000 men, 9,000 of whom were officers, and 
 285,000 enlisted men. The loss in Ohio officers alone, is known to 
 have reached 872, nearly ten per centum of the grand total of offi- 
 cers, and every eleventh enlisted man of the Union army who fell 
 in the war, was an Ohio soldier. 
 
 The total of the losses in battle of all kinds in both the Ameri- 
 can and British armies in the seven years war of the Revolution, 
 excluding only the captured at Saratoga and Yorkstown, is 21,526. 
 This number falls 4,000 below Ohio's dead-list alone during the la:e 
 war. 
 
-11- 
 
 In summing up Ohio's sacrifices, mention has only been made of 
 the dead during the war, omitting those who have since died of 
 wounds and disease contracted in the service, and the many mangled 
 and disabled living soldiers. 
 
 The soldiers suffered and died in camp, on the march, as guards 
 and sentinels by day and by night, during the bivouac, in tent, hos- 
 pital and prison, and while exposed to storms in all seasons and 
 climes. In all the movements of the army disease and death fol- 
 lowed in the train. 
 
 I have spoken so far of the blood shed, and not of the broken 
 hearts and bitter tears of sorrow incident thereto. Who knows or 
 who can measure the sorrows and sufferings of the agonized hearts 
 left desolate at home ? Here all human calculation ceases. Heav- 
 en's Recording Angel has not failed to note these sacrifices. 
 
 What a grand army of Ohio soldiers now muster beyond the 
 grave ? Such is briefly and imperfectly Ohio's human sacrifice to 
 the principle of national unity and freedom to all beneath the 
 stars and stripes. 
 
 Costly, Oh ! how costly the sacrifice ! 
 
 Her sons died to atone with their blood, for our Nation's sins against 
 humanity. Let us now and ever hope and pray that this atoning 
 sacrifice may not have been in vain. .' Nay; more, let us swear, by 
 the blood and sufferings of our maimed and fallen comrades, and 
 by the tears and sorrows of the broken-hearted widows and orphans 
 of_ these comrades, to so act that they shall not have died in vain. 
 j Did time permit I might recount other material sacrifices made by 
 Ohio in the war. Those who went to the field were not the only 
 sufferers ; nor were they the only persons who devoted their service 
 and lives to their country. The moral grandeur of the war was in- 
 tensified by the heroism with which the loyal ladies labored at home, 
 in hospital and on the field, to ameliorate its horrors. 
 
 The work of Misses Mary Clark Braton and Ellen F. Terry in or- 
 ganizing the Sanitary Commission, at Cleveland, and conducting its 
 affairs on a scale co-equal with the magnitude of the war, crowns 
 them as " Queens of Mercy." To mention names in this connec- 
 tion is again invidious. Florence Nightingale was the central fe- 
 male figure of the Crimean war. Her philanthropic labors, in an- 
 gelic grandeur, there outshone all others. In their sublimity and 
 holiness they have been pronounced a sufficient compensation for 
 the horrors of a long and bloody war. 
 
—12- 
 
 The second war for freedom in America produced a thousand 
 Florence Nightingales. By their work, they closed a hell of agon- 
 ies and opened a Heaven of joy. 
 
 Ohio's galaxy of generals. 
 
 Genl. Grant won his way from retired life to the rank of General. 
 Skill, pluck and perseverance crowned his career as an officer with 
 uniform success; and success in war is the only royal road to great- 
 ness. 
 
 Sherman, now worthily succeeded to the rank of General-in-Chief 
 of the Armies of, the U. S. fore-cast the war in the West on too 
 large a scale for the comprehension of many in authority, and for a 
 time he was allowed to stand aside, as insane, until the logic of 
 events brought others up to his far reaching comprehension. He. 
 too, won his high rank. He did not acquire it by influence or acci- 
 dent. 
 
 Lt-Genl. Sheridan was a Captain, newly made, when the war 
 broke out. He wrote to a friend thus : " Who knows? Perhaps I 
 may have a chance to earn a Major's Commission." Such vaulting 
 i ition was never to be realized. He earned a Major General's 
 Commisson, during the war and with it the acknowledged title of the 
 first General of Cavalry. This only does him partial justice for he 
 was, as an Arm)' Commander, a great strategist. He leaped over 
 the rank of Major, also Lt. Col. in the regular army, and he never 
 held a rank below Colonel in the Volunteer Service. At the head 
 of Cavalry he was to Grant what Marshal Murat was to the first Na- 
 poleon. 
 
 Maj. Genl. Rosecrans was, 1 \ many competent military critics 
 placed at the head of the great strategists of the war. He fought in 
 W. Ya., he triumphed at luka, Corinth and Stone-River, and fought 
 against odds, the great battle of Chicamauga and seized and held 
 Chatanooga, the prize to be won. 
 
 Genl. Quincy A. Gilmore was the greatest of Artillerists. It will 
 seem unjust to pursue this review of Ohio's Chiefs further. 
 
 Ohio's complete list of Volunteer Major Generals, most of whom 
 wrote their names high on the scroll of fame, was a store in number. 
 They were Geo. B McClellan. Wm. S. Rosecrans, Phil. H. Sheri- 
 dan, James P. McPherson, O. M. Mitchell, Q. A. Gilmore, Irvin 
 McDowell, D. C. Buell, Robt. C. Schenck, James A. Garfield. Wm 
 B. Hazen, Jacob D. Cox, Geo. A. Custer, J. B. Steadman, Godfrey 
 
-13 
 
 Weitzel, David S. Stanley, Geo. Crook, Wager Swayne, Alex. McD, 
 McCook and M. D. Leggett. 
 
 Twenty-seven was her list of Brevet Major Generals; thirty of 
 Brig. Generals and one hundred and fifty of Brevet Brig. Generals. 
 Two hundred and twenty-nine completes her list of General officers. 
 
 Proud as we may be of Ohio on account of her high military 
 
 chieftains, we are yet more proud of her on account of her 340,000 
 
 volunteer soldiers. 
 
 of Ohio's civilians, 
 
 Who held exalted positions during the war and contributed in a 
 high degree to insure success, I can only here name Edwin M. Stan- 
 ton, the great War-Secretary ; Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the 
 Treasury ; Senators Wade and Sherman, the former Chairman of the 
 Committee on the Conduct of the War, and the latter Chairman of 
 the Senate Committee on Finance, and her War Governors, Den- 
 nison, Tod and Brough. 
 
 THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE WAR 
 
 are commensurate with the sacrifices made. The States were, by 
 many, supposed to be united only, by links with an " open weld.'' 
 In the fiery furnace of red-handed war, these links were indissoluble 
 forged together. 
 
 I The word Nation, as applied to the United States meant not a 
 mere league alone. By the " wager of battle " the right of secession 
 was tried. The decree rendered should be final. 
 
 The "irrepressible conflict" came, and slavery died at the foot of 
 the victor — Freedom. Between freedom and slavery, there were no 
 affinities ; and concessions and compromises could no longer avail. 
 Freedom is to slavery what water is to fire. Slavery was buried be- 
 neath the rubbish and mad havoc of war. The manacles of the 
 slave were shivered to fragments by the precision of the fire of the 
 . sons of freedom. 
 
 The Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Constitutional Amend- 
 ment gave to the poor slave a legal form, only, to his rightful liber- 
 ties. 
 
 By the irresistible might of an organic law, our Government is 
 shorn of all power to enslave or oppress any of its subjects ; and 
 from whatsoever country or clime a man may flee to our shores, sla- 
 very's chains shall never bind him. 
 
 Slavery, as an evil, stood in the way of the material prosperity of 
 our county. The war eradicated the evil. 
 
-14- 
 
 Four million slaves were set free. 
 
 All the material and important results of the war cannot be named. 
 War is not an unmixed evil. 
 
 Christianity and civilization moved forward a pace, amid the bar- 
 barities of the war. 
 
 Genl. Thomas said in 1868: "We have not only broken down 
 " one of the most formidable rebellions that ever threatened the ex- 
 " istence of any country, but the discipline of the Army of the Cum- 
 "berland alone has civilized 200,000 valuable patriots and citizens.'' 
 
 No human calculation is adequate to set forth the blessings which 
 are yet to flow from the sacrifice made. 
 
 God, in his Providence, will not permit the Temple of Liberty, 
 sanctified and purified anew by the blood of so many patriots, to 
 perish from the earth. 
 
 The trophied glory of the splendid deeds of our soldiers and sail- 
 ors are insignificant, when measured by the triumph of a hallowed 
 cause. It was more glorious to suffer and to die, breaking, than 
 forging fetters for the feet of humanity. 
 
 Henry the Great will be known in history, less for his military 
 prowess and the white plume of Navarre, than for the cause of re- 
 ligious liberty in which he fought. The Edict of Nantes, the crown- 
 ing result of his triumphs, was to the Huguenots, what the Emanci- 
 pation Proclamation of the immortal Lincoln was to the American 
 slave. 
 
 IN CONCLUSION, 
 
 I repeat again, that the achievements of Ohio's soldiers and sail- 
 ors are the common property of all. Ohio claims a share in the 
 high deeds and the glory of the Union soldiers and sailors of the 
 other States. 
 
 The survivors of the war are welcome here to-day, from whatso- 
 ever State they may have donned the " Union blue." All jealousies 
 and'rivalries dissipated in front of the enemy. 
 
 Duty did not end with the muster-out. The duties incident to 
 perfect citizenship are multiform. 
 
 This meeting is worthy of the surviving soldiers and sailors. 
 
 Here let us renew those friendships formed when — 
 
 " The soul of battle was abroad 
 " And blazed upon the air." 
 
 Among the duties as citizens, not yet fully discharged, are those 
 
—15— 
 
 we owe the still afflicted families of our deceased and disabled com- 
 rades. 
 
 Among the possible higher duties, are those we owe to ourselves 
 and to posterity to preserve, perpetuate and transmit untarnished a 
 regenerated Republic. 
 
 To our common enemies of the war, who laid down their treason, 
 secession and rebellion with their arms, all true soldiers are mag- 
 nanimous. 
 
 Such of our old enemies require no forgiveness ; need no concilia- 
 tion and demand no concession. 
 
 To those of our old enemies who demand the killing of the " fat- 
 ted calf" before they have eschewed the husks of secession and re- 
 turned from their riotous livng, and still predict, as does the arch- 
 traitor, Jefferson Davis, that secession will yet be a reality, we say, 
 no conciliation, no concession 
 
 While Mercy's mission has been invoked in behalf of all our foes • 
 yet let us not nurse under her mantle, the deadly bane of secession! 
 We had better let bandaged-eyed Justice loose, to assert her rights. 
 
 Let it never be said that the only permanent achievement of the 
 war was — glory. 
 
 If this is all, then — 
 
 " What boots the oft-repeatecTtale of .strife, 
 " The feast of vultures and the waste of life." 
 
 Remembering our comrades, the martyred slain, stepping to the 
 music of " Freedom's Lyre," and with the cadence of war's disci- 
 pline upon the gory field, let us keep our places in battle-line while 
 life lasts, ever crying — 
 
 " Stand by the Flag! all doubts and treason scorning, 
 ''Believe, with courage firm and faith sublime ; 
 "That it will float until the eternal morning 
 " Pales, in its glories, all the lights of Time." 
 
*B 
 
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