the Committee since the meeting of our Society at Chattanooga last year, but there has been some action taken, certainly, by some one, whether in the aggregate of a Committee or individually, which deserves recognition on the pages of our forthcoming volume. GENERAL BOYNTON sends to our Committee, in response to our notice sent to him, a most interesting letter, which, with your permission, I will now read:

COLONEL H. S. BUNKER,

Secretary.

WASHINGTON, September 12, 1890.

MY DEAR SIR:-It is with deep regret that I find myself unable to attend the approaching Reunion. I can not allow the occasion to pass without congratulating my comrades of the Society over the consummation of the project to which they gave so much attention at the Chattanooga meeting a year ago. I refer to the Memorial Park at Chickamauga.

While there has been no meeting of the Committee of the Society which had been charged with the matter, nor any correspondence between its members in regard to it during the past year, the project was taken up in a new form by several members of the Society resident in Washington City, including its distinguished President, and vigorously pushed by them before Congress. This non-action by the Committee does not imply any neglect on the part of its members or of its Chairman, but conforms to the announcement of GENERAL CIST at the Chattanooga meeting (see page 22, Annual Proceedings) that the work of this Committee was fully completed, and that it had ended with the organization of the Chickamauga Memorial Association.

A bill was therefore prepared at Washington providing for the purchase outright of the thirteen square miles of territory which embrace the battle field, and the cession of thirty-eight miles of roads, outside of this tract, which include those along Missionary Ridge and over the north point of Lookout Mountain. Over this territory and these approaches Congress is to assume full jurisdiction, and establish them as a National Military Park under the direct care of the Secre

tary of War. Condemnation proceedings preparatory to acquiring title by the government are now in progress.

A great amount of work was done by the resident members of the Society, and by the noted veterans of Chickamauga who are in the present Congress in explaining the provisions of the GROSVENOR bill, setting forth the real character of the several great battles for Chattanooga, and in interesting Congress in the work. Speaking from an experience of twenty-five years in observing national legislation, I can say that their success was remarkable; indeed, I may properly say it was phenomenal.

All the leading influences of the House and of the Senate rapidly manifested their interest and gave their support. The Military Committee of the House granted an immediate hearing for the bill, and promptly made a unanimous report. SPEAKER REED and his associates on the Committee on Rules, both Republicans and Democrats, gave their assistance, as did the other controlling 'committees and influences of the House. Though the bill carried a large appropriation, it was taken up out of its order, by unanimous consent, and passed without other explanation or debate than the reading of the bill by the clerk afforded. Those who desired to speak contented themselves with printing their remarks in the Record.

The Senate Committee on Military Affairs also acted promptly, and made favorable and unanimous report. The President pro tem., SENATOR INGALLS, and all the chief influences on both sides in the Senate, gave their cordial support to the measure. It passed the Senate, as it had the House, without debate, and upon the mere reading of the bill. The conference report was unanimous, and it also was adopted in each House without debate and without a dissenting vote.

Outside of Congress, PRESIDENT HARRISON, both as President and as an Army of the Cumberland man, SECRETARY PROCTOR, and GENERAL SCHOFIELD, gave the project most important aid. In common with Congress, these three high officials richly deserve the special thanks of the Society for the interest they have manifested in this project, and also in the work on the Chickamauga maps now in course of rapid and most able execution by COLONEL KELLOGG. There is no

room for doubt that under the energetic administration of SECRETARY PROCTOR the battle fields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga will soon become the most complete military object-lesson to be found in the world.

I inclose copies of the report of the Military Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and of the law establishing the Park. Sincerely yours,

H. V. BOYNTON.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

[June 5, 1890. - Ordered to be printed.]

MR. MANDERSON, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following report:

[To accompany H. R. 6454.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6454) to establish a national military park at the battle field of Chickamauga, have considered and amended the same, and recommend that, as amended, the same do pass.

The report submitted by the House Committee on Military Affairs is adopted by your Committee as a part of its report and is hereto annexed.

HOUSE REPORT No. 643, FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. [March 5, 1890.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.]

MR. LANSING, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following report:

[To accompany bill H. R. 6454.

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6454) to establish a national military park at the battle field

of Chickamauga, having had the same under consideration, respectfully report the same with an amendment, and recommend that the bill as amended do pass.

The bill under consideration establishes as a national military park the approaches which overlook and the ground upon which occurred some of the most remarkable tactical movements and the deadliest fighting of the war of the Rebellion, namely, the fields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga.

The preservation for national study of the lines of decisive battles, especially when the tactical movements were unusual both in numbers and military ability, and when the fields embraced great natural difficulties, may properly be regarded as a matter of national importance.

This your Committee understands to be the underlying idea of that noted organization of Union soldiers, the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, with whom the pending project originated. Interested with them and supporting them in the movement, we find leading representatives of all the Eastern and of all the Western armies; and for this we find ready explanation in the fact that all the armies and nearly every state of the North and each state of the South had troops on one or both these fields.

The proposition to mark the lines of both sides is held to be absolutely necessary to a clear understanding of the fields and to the sufficient illustration of the persistent, stubborn, and deadly fighting of American soldiers, which made the field of Chickamauga for both sides, as the statistics show, one of the bloodiest, if not the bloodiest, battle field for the numbers engaged and the time of their fighting, of of the great battles of the modern world from the days of the first Napoleon to the close of the war for the Union.

any

The corresponding field for eastern operations is Gettysburg, where every state in the Union is interested, and the necessity of marking both lines to an intelligent study of the field has been recognized in a proposition before this Congress to provide for marking the Confederate lines upon that noted field.

The proposed Chickamauga and Chattanooga national park con

It is ex

sists of two features-the approaches and the park proper. pected that title to the former will be obtained by the United States, without cost, through cession of jurisdiction of the States of Tennessee and Georgia, respectively, of the public roads now in existence, and which it is proposed to utilize as approaches to the park. No appropriation is therefore made for their purchase, and informal assurances have been given for their prompt cession to the United States.

The battle field of Chickamauga proper forms the body of the park. As described in the bill, it embraces about 7,600 acres. It is proposed to obtain title to this by condemnation under the general act. In order that no resident on the tract may feel himself driven from home or from his possessions, it is provided that the Secretary of War may ar range with all who desire to remain to lease their lands at a nominal rent, the conditions on their side being that they will aid in the care of the grounds and in preserving all the natural features of the field as they now exist.

The approaches to the field form most important adjuncts of the proposed national park. The approach from Chattanooga begins at or near Sherman Heights, at the north end of Missionary Ridge. This is the battle field of the Army of the Tennessee, under GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN, during the operations about Chattanooga, November 23, 24, and 25, 1863. From this point this approach runs along the crest of Missionary Ridge to Rossville Gap. Throughout its whole length it overlooks the battle field of GENERAL HOOKER'S troops from the Army of the Potomac on Lookout Mountain and terminates where these troops after the battle on the mountain reached and crossed Missionary Ridge. This approach also overlooks the ground of the first day's operations about Orchard Knob, and coincides throughout its length with the lines of GENERAL BRAGG's army, and thus passes along the entire front of the famous assault of the Army of the Cumberland, under GENERAL THOMAS, upon Missionary Ridge.

The continuation of this first-described approach is the La Fayette or State road from Rossville, Ga., passing through the center of the battle field of Chickamauga, and being the axis and the prize of the fight, to Lee & Gordon's Mills on the Chickamauga river, which was