entious man, and I must perform this painful duty of exposing him. See the man! He was tried for larceny-the worst kind of larceny!! Yes, my Comrades, he stole a negro'! This heinous offense was committed on the sacred soil of Kentucky-all of the soil of the border states was sacred, you remember, in the early days of the war. Our army had just gone down into the beautiful blue-grass region of Kentucky, where neutrality on the slavery question was strictly observed, and at a time before the invention of the "contraband." This barbarian from Michigan, without the fear of God or border state potentate, without respect for the sons of Kentucky, then and there, by force and violence, stole a negro!-a good, strong, healthy, twelve-hundred-dollar negro. His master missed him, appealed to the general commanding for his property, which he had reason to believe was concealed in the camp of a Michigan regiment commanded by one DOOLITTLE. The commanding general said: "Let the law take its course!" Then came a Kentucky constable, armed with a deadly warrant loaded to the muzzle, prepared to capture the negro or arrest the regiment. The property could not be found. It was last seen on the person of COLONEL DOOLITTLE— figuratively, in accordance with a law-fiction, you know. There was a tremendous hubbub raised in camp. The negro was a good cook, and the boys, therefore, being determined to keep him, hustled him about from group to group, till he sank below the crowd, and was lost to the constable beyond recovery. But it was proved beyond a question of doubt that COLONEL DOOLITTLE stole the property, and was responsible for its loss. He was therefore court-martialed for this dreadful offense against the laws of the state. I was just out of a law school when I entered the service shortly before then, and was therefore supposed to be a good man to be assigned to duty

judge advocate, to conduct the trial of this celebrated case. Of course, I knew so little about the duties of such office that I supposed a judge advocate was a prosecuting attorney, in that his duties were to try to convict the offender-paying not much attention to whether he was guilty or not-only presuming he must be guilty, or he would not be brought to trial. In a word, for I shall not de

tain you with a long recital of the facts of this melancholy case, COLONEL DOOLITTLE was tried. I did my best to convict him, and he was convicted and sentenced-well, I don't remember the sentence, but it was dismissal from the service, imprisonment, or something equally severe. But he was pardoned by the "Lincoln hirelings" at Washington, who did not appear to understand or appreciate the enormity of his offense, and was restored to his orphaned regiment. This temporary punishment must have had a good effect, for he was afterward one of the best and most gallant officers in our army. Now, having done this conscientious duty in exposing him, I leave him to the tender mercies of his Comrades and you citizens of Toledo.

My Comrades, please pardon me for detaining you so long from the symposium.

LIEUTENANT COCHRAN :

This is GENERAL FERD. VANDERVEER, ladies and gentlemen.

GENERAL VANDERVEER:

I told the presiding officer that I didn't come here, Comrades, for the purpose of making a speech. However, I will say this, the little I have to say, and that is that you gentlemen sitting here in this front row didn't do all the fighting in the country, or in the Army of the Cumberland. You did very well; you did your duty, no doubt; you are entitled to credit for it; but the men who did the work were the men who carried the bayonets, and they are the men who are entitled to the credit. You talk about your officers sending the men to do this and that. Why, gentlemen, it was the bayonets all the time that achieved the victories.

The American army, the army that was sent into the war, was an army of intelligent men, men who knew that they had behind them at home their friends, fathers, mothers, sweethearts, and wives, and they knew that they had a country that was worth preserving. They

are the men who are entitled to much more credit than you generals. But I don't want to make a speech; I will simply say this: We will all expect to leave here in love with the Lady of the Lake. We think she has done her duty nobly, and we feel grateful.

LIEUTENANT COCHRAN :

Our friend, GENERAL VANDERVEER, when he is talking to the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, is talking to a great many men. who carried muskets, because we are proud of the fact that in our Society every honorably discharged soldier of the Army of the Cumberland is entitled to become a member.

Now there is one other item. The other day a few of us were over in Boston. At that grand army gathering we went to a meeting in one of the club rooms, and I heard a voice that I recognized instantly. It was GENERAL ROPER, and he was running all Boston at that time. He can tell a good story and sing a magnificent song. I want you to insist that GENERAL ROPER shall sing you the song of "Illinois."

COLONEL ROPER:

One object in my coming forward will be to show the chairman that I am not a general-the only one not a general in hearing. There was an old soldier, a typical tramp, who lives out in my country, in a little town in Illinois, who was traveling in hard favor in the latter part of the war, and who wrote a song which I will try to sing, not because it fits in here particularly-it is hardly an army song; but it is a kind of a promise to those of us who are "roughing it that we may strike better quarters.

it"

COLONEL ROPER here sang "The Golden Bells,” and, on being loudly applauded, sang "The State of Illinois."

The meeting then adjourned.

Thursday Morning, September 18, 1890.

BUSINESS MEETING.

THE PRESIDENT:

Comrades, the first thing that comes before the Society this morning is the report of the Committee on Orator, GENERAL T. J. WOOD, Chairman.

GENERAL FULLERTON:

GENERAL WOOD will be in in a few minutes and report.

THE PRESIDENT:

We will proceed then to the next report, and call that afterward. The next report is that on the Time and Place of the next meeting.

GENERAL BARNETT:

Mr. President—Your Committee beg to report that they have considered several places. It was their opinion that the meeting of the Society should be held at some place that would be centrally located, for the convenience, as far as possible, of the larger number of the members of the Army of the Cumberland, and Indianapolis was named, and received the unanimous vote of the Committee at the meeting yesterday.

Since that time we have had an invitation extended to the Society by members who are residents of Columbus, inviting the Society to meet at Columbus.

The Committee, therefore, respectfully name as the two places to be acted upon by the Society-Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana and the time to be as heretofore, Wednesday and Thursday of Chickamauga week.

THE PRESIDENT:

What disposition will you make of the report?

CAPTAIN GARY:

I move that Columbus be the place selected.

GENERAL PARKHURST:

I move that a vote be taken by ballot by the Secretary of the Association.

The motion was carried.

GENERAL PARKHURST:

I now move, in order to get it before the Association, that the Secretary be authorized to cast the vote of the Society for Columbus as the place for our next meeting.

LIEUTENANT COCHRAN :

I second that motion, and in doing so I respond with pleasure to a request made by our fellow member, MAJOR GOODSPEED, who comes to represent them at Columbus, urging cordially that the Society adopt that for its next place of meeting. I understand that there is no formal invitation from Indianapolis, and that there is one from