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I am just back from a month's absence, and find

your kind invitation to the twenty-first Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, on the 17th and 18th of September, instant.

As much as I would like to meet the members of your Society on that occasion, I regret that my engagements will not admit of my so doing, and I must therefore beg you to excuse me.

Wishing you all a very pleasant and thoroughly successful meeting,

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Will you please accept for yourself, and tender

to the Committee you represent, my sincere thanks for the kind and courteous invitation you extend to me.

I regret very much to say that the condition of my health absolutely prevents me from taking any part in public meetings or festivities, and I am forced, therefore, reluctantly to decline what I know. would be a great pleasure and satisfaction to me, and to deny myself the privilege of being with you on an occasion so full of interest.

With renewed thanks,

I am your friend and comrade,

JNO. POPE.

FROM MAJOR-GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD, U. S. A.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 11, 1890.

GENERAL HENRY M. CIST,

Corresponding Secretary, Society of the Army of the Cum

berland,

CINCINNATI, OHIO.

MY DEAR GENERAL CIST:

I regret very much that it is not practicable for me to attend the Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland

this year.

As time and our members diminish, comradeship becomes more dear to us, and the memories of those who fell in battle, or have since departed, become more tender and precious. Although my service as a member of the Army of the Cumberland, with the old Third Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, was but short, it was to me of the most agreeable character, while my close association with that army in the campaigns of 1864 in Georgia and Tennessee developed an attachment fully akin to that which I have always felt toward the Twenty-third Corps and Army of the Ohio with which I was more intimately associated. Indeed, the later Army of the Ohio and that of the Cumberland, which originally bore that name, are inseparable in their attachment as fellow soldiers as they are in their proud history of patriotic sacrifice and loyal services in defense of the Union.

In addition to this affection born of common service and sacrifice, there is the even more tender regard which had its birth in earlier life. Many of the heroes of the Army of the Cumberland were the friends and companions of my youth. SILL and TERRILL, who nobly died on the fields of Stone River and Perryville, were my classmates and intimate friends at West Point. STANLEY was my com

panion at West Point as at Atlanta, Columbia, Spring Hill, and Franklin, and as in the long subsequent service up to the present time. THOMAS was my instructor in artillery at the military academy, respected and loved by us then for his kind, just, and generous nature, as he was afterward revered by all for the noble character which made him one of the foremost patriots and soldiers of the age. We who thus knew him so much longer, and in such varied phases of life, loved him even more dearly, if possible, than the soldiers who found him the very rock of their strength on so many bloody fields.

Your present beloved President, ROSECRANS, was the intimate friend of my family even before the days of my youth, while lamented SHERIDAN was my classmate and friend.

WOOD, KIMBALL, and WAGNER, with their gallant officers and brave men, shared with Cox and PUGH and my dear old Twenty-third Corps the honors of Columbia, Spring Hill, and Franklin, while scores of other gallant officers were endeared to me by those strongest of ties that bind true comrades in battle.

These associations will ever be most dear to me, and though I may seldom have the pleasure of meeting my old comrades at their annual Reunions, I shall cherish toward them all the most affectionate regard.

Yours, very truly,

J. M. SCOFIELD.

FROM ADMIRAL D. D. PORTER.

DEAR SIR:

JAMESTOWN, R., I., August 28, 1890.

Nothing could afford me greater pleasure than to meet the members of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland on their Twenty-first Anniversary, but I have arrived at that time of life when I am unable to travel, as I am an invalid, and am con

fined mostly to my house. I wish the members of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland a most enjoyable Reunion and a most happy

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OFFICE OF MAJOR-GENERAL COMMANDING,

HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE ATLANTIC, GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY, September 6, 1890. COLONEL HENRY S. BUNKER,

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Secretary Local Executive Committee,

ROOM 7, DRUMMOND BLOCK, 318 MADISON STREET,
TOLEDO, OHIO,

DEAR SIR:

Your kind invitation received. I did hope that this year I might have attended the Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, but engagements and distance will again prevent.

Hoping that you may have, as ever, a most pleasant and profitable good time, full of cherished reminiscences, I remain, as ever, a friend of the Army of the Cumberland.

OLIVER O. HOWARD,

Major-General U. S. Army.

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