Upon calling the question, it was earnestly opposed by Generals Hickenlooper, Belknap, Fairchild, Colonels Joel, Dayton, and others, who were instrumental in the organization of the Society, fully explaining its objects and the propriety of not changing the Constitution. By vote the resolution was rejected. The committee appointed to arrange further business for the action of the Society not being ready to report, on motion: Resolved, That the Society stand adjourned to meet in this hall at 7 o'clock this evening. MERCANTILE LIBRARY HALL The Society met pursuant to adjournment, Vice-President General G. A. Smith presiding. The Local Committee of Arrangements had provided that this evening should be a public entertainment, at which should be delivered the Welcome and Annual Addresses, and had also arranged for other exercises. Tickets of admission had been issued by the Secretary, and beside the members present, there were a sufficient number of the elite of St. Louis, ladies and gentlemen, present to densely pack the hall. Following music by the band. First in the order of exercises was the Welcome Address by Dr. E. C. Franklin, formerly a Surgeon in the 15th Corps, Army of the Tennessee, as follows: WELCOME ADDRESS. MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE :-On behalf of the officers of the “Old Army of the Tennessee" resident here, and in the name of the citizens of St. Louis, I most cordially and earnestly welcome you all to the metropolitan city of the West, where dwell a larger number of officers of this organization than is represented in any other city in the Union. "The Society of the Army of the Tennessee" enrolls among its members as citizens of St. Louis those who, in the perilous times of 1861, when the tocsin of rebellion first sounded, beat back the demon of secession in its fastness at Camp Jackson, and rescued the State from anarchy and misrule. Pursuing the retreating and shattered rebel force from Booneville to the southwestern portion of the State, these same officers and their "three months volunteers," under the command of the gallant Lyon, fought the battles of Carthage, Forsythe, Dug Spring, and the bloody contest of Wilson's Creek, where the star of their, lamented leader went down in the night of immortality. Following these engagements, on the 7th of December of the same year, under the command of the determined and indomitable Grant, who made "no terms with traitors" save "unconditional and immediate surrender," occurred the desperate and bloody battle of Belmont, and which may with propriety be termed the beginning of the growth and organization of the Army of the Tennessee. Under the same able and illustrious commander, were fought in quick succession the important and decisive battles of Fort Henry, Donelson and Shiloh, and others, where Hand to hand, and foot to foot, Nothing there save death was mute; proudly and emphatically attest the indomitable courage and determined spirit of right that animated the hearts of the Army of the Tennessee. Vicksburg, too, the Gibraltar of treason, whose frowning battlements so long defied and held in check the advancing Union hosts, that locked up the industrial resources of millions of Western freemen and paralyzed the commerce of this great city, at last crumbled and fell at the feet of the Army of the Tennessee. Soon after the fall of this stronghold of rebellion, a change of commanders having been effected, this same heroic army, inspired with brave deeds, and yearning for new fields of victory, under the guiding star of the brilliant and intrepid Sherman, helped to fight to a successful issue the desperate struggle at Chattanooga, and to plant the national standard upon the heights of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Wearied, but never faltering in the path of obedience and duty, the 15th Army Corps, hardly rested from the hard-fought struggles through which it had just emerged, moved rapidly forward to succor the hard-pressed forces of Burnside at Knoxville. On the 7th of May, 1864, this same Army of the Tennessee, in conjunction with those of the Cumberland and Ohio, began that memorable series of continuous and desperate encounters, reaching from Dalton to Atlanta, forcing the enemy from his great natural strongholds, and by severe fighting and brilliant strategic movements, secured the possession of the latter place, thereby adding fresh laurels to their lofty patriotism and undying devotion to the cause of the Union. These brilliant and strategic movements, from one to another flank of the grand army, unexcelled in their masterly conception and execution, and for which the Army of the Tennessee acquired the sobriquet of "Whip Cracker," gave us the possession of Atlanta, and with it that thrilling dispatch from the pen of the inspired Sherman, “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won," which caused the national heart to leap with pulsations of joy, and stamped him as the great military chieftain of the age. In the battle for the possession of Atlanta, says a distinguished officer, "there were, perhaps, more individual acts of heroism displayed than in any other in which the Army of the Tennessee was engaged during the war," proving not only your deep devotion to the Union, but the most implicit confidence and faith in your illustrious leader. Your fourth commander, that disciplined and distinguished soldier, General O. O. Howard, your leader in a dozen battles, and who achieved a national reputation for his splendid fighting in the Army of the Potomac, and as commander of the 11th and 4th Corps in the West; whose humane and christian character reflects additional lustre to the brightness of his military renown, acquired increase of honor, reputation and fame, while in command of the Army of the Tennessee. From the Mississippi to the broad Atlantic, including that memorable "march to the sea," wherever armed rebellion found a temporary resting-place, the Army of the Tennessee fought on, until the military power of the enemy was destroyed, the supremacy of the Government maintained, and the national flag floated in triumph and splendor over every State in the Union. While we admire and applaud the heroism, endurance and devo tion to country that inspired the hearts of those brave and gallant men who composed the Army of the Tennessee, let us not forget the kindred virtues that animated the various armies engaged in this great struggle for a nation's existence; and most of all, let us hold in sweet remembrance those departed and honored braves Who sleep beneath the blood-stained sod, Consecrated alike to freedom and to God. In the long line of those illustrious dead lie the ashes of your third commander, the loved, the noble and scholarly McPherson, one of his country's proudest defenders, and the only army commander on the national side who fell in battle; of whom it may be said, he has gone with the advance guard of celestials to a higher and more enviable command than falls to the lot of mortals; he commands that grand "army of immortals, the spirits of our martyred dead," who, booted and spurred for that higher command, died the death he most loved, in his own native land. Treason crushed, and the unity of the Government restored, like the Cincinnati of old, you have instituted this Society as a monument of the memorable occasion. Like them, your aim is to cherish and perpetuate the mutual feelings of patriotism, benevolence and brotherly love, cemented by a common experience of the hardships encountered in achieving the supremacy of our Government and establishing its rank among the nations of the earth. Then ring the anthem, loud and long; and thou, Oh, Fame! weave chaplets for our Sherman's brow; Ye tongues of iron, ring it far and wide," Brave comrades of the Tennessee. And I am directed to bid welcome to these heroes here assembled, and while twining your hearts anew, you are thrice welcome to the homes and hearts of the citizens of St. Louis. Following the Welcome Address came a piece of music by the band, when the President presented to the audience LieutenantGeneral W. T. Sherman, who was received with prolonged cheers, and when through he delivered the Annual Address as follows: ADDRESS OF GENERAL SHERMAN. MR. PRESIDENT, COMRADES AND FRIENDS:-Five days ago I was far away, near the base of the Rocky Mountains, when a brief dispatch from General Cavender told me that you expected me here on this occasion, to deliver the formal annual address. Though the task is one that I would have avoided, and is such as I never before attempted in my life, yet I feel under so many obligations to you that I must venture, even at the risk of being misunderstood by the outside world. Many and many a time have you responded to my call, under far less pleasing circumstances, and it is but just and fair that I should now reciprocate, trusting to your charitable consideration. I should even now be at Fort Laramie, at an Indian council, but am indebted to the courtesy of my colleagues of the Peace Commission, and more especially to the personal kindness of General Augur, who represents me there, for the opportunity of being here this night. It is a high privilege for me thus to meet my old comrades once more, in health and comfort, here at my own home in St. Louis, in the midst of peace, plenty and all the luxuries of civilization, instead of far away in the distant camps of the South, surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war; and it is right we should thus meet again, to keep alive the memories of those days and of those events, which are not only woven into our very natures, but into the history of our country itself. It was not my good fortune to be present at your meeting last year in Cincinnati, but I have read in print the address of our President, General Rawlins, which so fully and clearly describes the history of this Society and of the Army of the Tennessee, that a further attempt on my part would be superfluous; and if now I touch on some of the leading points, it will be simply to fill a gap, or to illustrate the subject of my discourse. But little over six years ago, in the memorable year 1861, we were startled by the gathering clouds which portended civil war; but so accustomed had our people become (at the North especially), to the war-like language of the press, that few realized the real danger. Our people could not believe that any part of them had cause to rebel against a government so mild and paternal in its nature; but all at once the storm-cloud burst over Fort Sumter, |