Fourteenth Toast: "LOYAL WOMEN-WE REMEMBER THEIR SYMPATHIES AND SACRIFICES FOR US WHILE IN THE FIELD, AND PROUDLY RECOGNIZE THEM AS Response by GENERAL H. A. BARNUM. COMRADES: No nobler theme could be given to eloquent tongue or facile pen than the sentiment just read, and though I bring you not eloquence in my response, I do offer a sincerity of appreciation which has no limit save the capacity with which God has endowed me. Woman! How beautiful she is. The artist spreads upon canvas his glowing colors, the architect erects his graceful structures, the leaping brooklet, the waving grain, and the bending forest give us the very poetry and the musician entrances us with his wondrous notes of motion, but what is the artist's dead paint compared with the lilly whiteness of her skin, the varying damask of her cheek, and the liquid color in her eyes? What architect's work can rival the symmetry of her form, the rounded fullness of her limbs, the arched grace of her neck, and the proud poise of her head? What motion can equal the undulations of her heaving bosom, the saucy toss of her comely head, or the dainty tripping of her little foot? And what music is so sweet as the gentle tenderness of her voice and the thrilling peal of her intoxicating laughter? Only the flowers in their wondrous beauty can rival woman's charms; and after God had made the flowers He deemed man's gifts incomplete, and He gave him woman, with all the beauties of the flowers, and added to these animation, intelligence, emotion, love! And we find this beauteous, gentle, and loving creature not only fulfilling all allotted duties of mother, wife, and sweetheart, and making man's home so sweet a place that he scarce war, would exchange it for heaven assured, but when our hearts indignantly swelled with outraged patriotism she rose with the occasion, and buckling on to father, husband, son, and lover, the outfit of bade him hasten to meet the insolent foe, though every step he took did rend her heart strings, and without his return life would be a dreary, desolate waste. The history of our war should be written on double pages, and while one recounts in glowing colors the glorious and grand deeds of our veterans and statesmen, the other should portray in no less brilliant hues the achievement of our loyal women; how she freely gave her heart's choicest treasure to her country and to the right; how she toiled that the wounded and sick might be comforted; how she sought her closet and prayed that God would give to us the victory and protect the brave men who battled for it. O loyal women! Little do you know how many brave deeds were done, how many grand victories won by the inspiration given us by clearly seen visions of your sweet faces and your anxious hearts. Truly do we remember your sympathies and sacrifices for us while we were in the field, and most proudly do we recognize in you worthy mothers, wives, and sweethearts. It would afford me great pleasure to be with you on the occasion of the meeting of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, on the 24th and 25th inst., if it were possible. The time, however, is so near the beginning of the next session of Congress, for which I have to prepare, that it will be impossible. I very much appreciate these army society reunions, and hope that they may long be kept up. The dead who lost their lives in their country's cause, and those who have died since exposing their lives in the same cause, should be ever held in grate ful remembrance. No more conspicuous or beloved soldier has gone to his final rest than your late commander. His memory will be kept green in history and in every meeting of your Society in the future. With great respect, Your obedient servant, U. S. GRANT. FROM GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, Major John Coon, Chairman, etc., Army of the Cumberland. DEAR MAJOR: Your note inviting me to attend the Society meeting on the 24th and 25th inst., is received, and I will endeavor to attend. Please, if possible, send me a programme of the time and order of exercises, that I may arrange accordingly. Yours truly, W. T. SHERMAN, General. FROM ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER, U. S. NAVY. SIR: Washington, D. C., November 7, 1870. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 1st inst., inviting me to be present at the approaching Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland. If the state of my health will permit, I shall take great pleas ure in being present and thanking you in person for the compliment tendered me. I feel a deep interest in these reunions of the brave soldiers who periled their lives for the safety of the republic-a service for which millions will be grateful when the actors in the eventful drama of the late war shall have passed away. It is well that those who have shared together the dangers of the field should meet from time to time, to renew old associations and recall to the memory of the people the stirring events in which was endangered the best of governments-events of which many seem to have lost sight, since they often fail to do justice to the actors who participated therein. While I would not encourage anything that might appear like exultation over a fallen foe, yet I always feel gratified when I hear of a Reunion of the Armies of the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Potomac. Such meetings should convince those whose wild fanaticism attempted to involve us all in ruin, that the spirit of 1861 still animates our people, that there can be but one government in this country, and that there are still strong hands and willing hearts to enforce these opinions. Although all of the present generation may not fully appreciate what has been done by our great soldiers, and detraction has in some instances attempted to take from them their well-earned honor, history will yet do them justice, and the memory of their deeds will be as enduring as the adamant. Hoping you will have a full and happy meeting of comrades long severed, but never disunited in feeling, |