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ST. LOUIS, November 18, 1896.

To the Society of the Army of the Tennessee:

I hereby designate my oldest daughter, Mary Harlan Hedley, to succeed to my membership.

Very respectfully,

F. Y. HEDley.

Approved, G. M. DODGE.

SALT LAKE CITY, November 14, 1896.

GENERAL G. M. DODGE,

President Society of the Army of the Tennessee:

I designate, subject to your approval, my son, Lee H. Lakin, as the person to whom my membership shall descend.

J. H. LAKIN, Late First Lieutenant Co. F, 3d Iowa Infantry.

Approved, G. M. DODGE.

ST. LOUIS, November 18, 1896.

GENERAL G. M. DODGE,

President:

GENERAL-I have received this commnication from Mr. Charles M. Baker, the only son of the late Captain Edward L. Baker, a gallant soldier of the Third Minnesota Infantry; a member of our Society, who died December 23, 1891:

COLONEL CORNELIUS CADLE,

LOS ANGELES, CAL., February 15, 1897.

Secretary Society of the Army of the Tennessee:

DEAR SIR AND COMPANION:-Being the only son of Captain Edward L. Baker (deceased), of Racine, Wis., I make this application for membership in the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. Was born at Red Wing, Minnesota, June 17, 1867; came to Los Angeles, Cal., 1887. Have been a member of the Loyal Legion of California since 1893.

Yours very respectfully,

CHARLES MINTON BAKER.

I ask that he be made a member of our Society, under the Third Amendment to the Constitution.

Approved, G. M. DODGE,

Yours respectfully,

President.

CORNELIUS CADLE.

On motion of General Pearson, the Society adjourned until half past nine tomorrow morning.

EVENING MEETING.

The exercises on the evening of November 18th at Entertainment Hall, Fourteenth and St. Charles streets, were opened with music by the Third United States Cavalry Band, which was followed by "The Assembly" by the trumpeters. "America" was then sung by the Veteran Glee Club of the Loyal Legion, after which the chairman of the Local Committee, Colonel Nelson Cole, introduced Mayor Wallbridge, of St. Louis, who delivered an address of welcome in the following terms:

I have spent the most of this day in a visit to the new water works, in company with the water commissioner, Mr. Holman. As we went through the works, the commissioner would point out to me improvements in machinery and in labor saving devices, and all manner of contrivances to facilitate the execution of the work for which the plant was constructed. In the midst of this talk he said to me that he believed that the greatness of the American people was due to their ability to adapt themselves to new conditions; and said he, the most striking example of this was the disbandment of that vast army thirty years ago. I said to him, I am to welcome the Army of the Tennessee tonight, and if you do not object, I shall use that as a text for my remarks. The text hardly needs elaboration in this audience. I doubt if there is any one here tonight who will not admit that that act, peaceable as it was, was the greatest achievement of American citizenship. That vast army, drilled and equipped, had in its hand the absolute power to control the destinies of this Nation by force of arms. In a day they surrendered that power and submitted to civil control. For four years you had been marching to the time of fife and drum and the stirring movement of martial airs. In a day you changed the cadence of your step to meet the peaceful movement of anthem and domestic song. It may truly be said that peace has its victories no less renowned than those of war. Great was the victory of Gettysburg and of Vicksburg, and of Nashville and of Atlanta, but greater still was that victory of the spirit of citizenship over the spirit of war. Great was the con

Far greater

ception and the execution of your march to the sea. was the march of that million men from fields of battle to fields of industry. Far greater was the march of that million men from their camp fires to their hearthstones. Greater still has been your march through the succeeding years of a generation to the present day. All honor to that noble army. All honor to the Army of

the Tennessee.

I welcome you to St. Louis, not because the circumstances demand it as a courtesy, but because you ought to be welcomed by every citizen of every state in this great land.

Captain Loyd G. Harris then sang Sherman's March to the Sea, after which the address of welcome was responded to by the President of the Society, who said:

MR. MAYOR, COMRADES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

The Society of the Army of the Tennessee appreciates most fully your cordial greeting and welcome. It is no stranger

to St. Louis or Missouri.

On the evening of July 20th, 1865, at the Lindell Hotel, General Sherman, at the banquet given in his honor, said:

"I see by the paper before me that you bring me before you as an actor in the scenes just past, and classify me as one of those men who have simply wafted our country past a dangerous abyss and placed it on a firm ground, where it may sally forth again on a new career of prosperity and glory. It seems as a dream that men reared in our lines, men who were enjoying the prosperity which they themselves admit never was surpassed, should rise up in rebellion against the land and government of Washington. It seems to me an impossibility, yet it was a possibility. It is now past, thank God. We have the right as citizens and historians, to cast our eyes and memory back and see if in the past event we can learn lessons. Lessons of wisdom that will make us better men, better citizens and better patriots in the future, and if I can trace anything in the past calculated to effect this object, I will account myself repaid.”

This army present here tonight, speak the same sentiments, the same words and apply them all just as thoroughly as did General Sherman, and they are appropriate to the experience of this year.

It is a great satisfaction to the Army of the Tennessee that those who so early grasped the situation in Missouri, and saved it to the Union, all became a part of our great army.

Blair, with consummate courage and tact, rallied to his support all those who, whatever their political affiliations, were yet loyal

to the Union, and succeeded in electing a convention not a single member of which was an avowed secessionist.

Any one who reads the war records of the early days of the contest in Missouri is struck with the ability shown by the young officers who held it in the Union and shaped its destiny. Take the letters of Lyon, Schofield, Stanley, Sturges, Totten and Sweeny, and consider them in the light and circumstances in which they were written, and one would say they were inspired. It would not be necessary to ask what rank and what commands such men at the end of the war held. If the young volunteers could have had the benefit of their sentiments, their forecast, their experience, and the opinions of these young officers, that are new to us now, thirty years after the war, they would have been of great aid to us.

Perhaps no one can appreciate this more fully than I can. As soon as I landed in Missouri, I was pushed to the front, given command of its most important post close to the enemy, and absolutely placed upon my own resources, and obliged to act upon my own judgment, for it was impossible then to receive or obtain advice, or even get answers to my letters and telegrams. No one can appreciate what a relief it was to me to have sent to me as quartermaster that incomparable soldier, Captain Phil. Sheridan, whose abilities and resources were evident to us within a week after his arrival. There was no more desolate a place than Rolla in those days, and to him and his advice that little command can never know how much they were indebted. Their distinguished services for years after in the war were particularly due to the soldierly treatment and example he gave us. Then Missouri had the benefit of our greatest and first commander, and it was the home of our first two commanders.

It has often been asked of me and of every member of the Army of the Tennessee of our experience with Grant and Sherman, and how we measured them, and what were their pecularities that stamped themselves so effectively upon our army.

Grant was modest, retiring, unassuming and easy of approach, seldom, if ever, showing anger, and in those he trusted or gave responsibilities to, standing by them and supporting them even in their failure, if he believed that they carried out his commands to the best of their ability and the strength of the force under them. He had no use or any sympathy for any officer who, in battle or holding any positiou, did not use to the utmost limit, and fight to

the utmost strength every person under him. Such action on the part of an officer covered a multitude of other omissions with Grant.

The secret of his strength of character is better illustrated by quoting his answer when asked what he claimed for the battle of the Wilderness, and which it is claimed by the Confederates that if it had been fought under any other commander with similar results, would have caused a retreat instead of a forward movement. Grant answered that all he claimed was that thereafter the Army of the Potomac would not longer fear Lee, and that Lee's loss could not be replaced and he would have a much smaller force to meet in the rest of the campaign than he had at the beginning of the Wilderness fight.

Grant's fame came from the fact that he was generally victorious and finished successfully the Civil War, but the vital question is, why did the people with unerring instinct look to this unknown man when there were many more prominent in the field who were gaining applause while he was under a ban for his first great victories? What led them to stand around him through all the time he was in the midst of a storm of abuse and ridicule? My answer is, that Grant was the first commander who gave the North to understand that he would use the force placed under him for all it was worth. They said, here was a General at last who would not temporize, who would not compromise, and who would fight at every opportunity regardless of numbers, and would attempt to capture every stronghold of the enemy and beat down by main. force their armies. He believed the North had superior numbers and sinews of war, and if he used them for all there was in both, victory was sure to finally rest with him. Superiority of numbers and equipment would not succeed unless used with a determination and continual force equal to their strength. Grant saw this; saw that the Nation demanded action, and the secret of his success is that he above all others met this demand. The people saw it and demanded his services, no matter what critics, strategists or officials said of him or his acts, and today the world admits that his methods in war are the only ones to bring quick and sure

success.

It was his determination in every battle to use against the enemy every gun in his command, and it is wonderful when you study his battles to see how he marshalled his forces. It proved

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