Willis Fletcher Johnson

“ From 5,000 to 7,000 of these people accompanied the triumphal return of Sherman's expedition, and I defy any human being with as much feeling in his bosom as even Legree in Mrs. Stowe's immortal story to look on such a scene unmoved. Old men with the frosts of 90 years upon their heads, men in the prime of manhood, youth, and children that could barely run, women with their babies at their breasts, girls with the blood of white men in their veins, old women tottering feebly along, leading children and grandchildren, dear to them as our own sons and daughters are to us. ”

“ War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. Those who brought war on our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I had no hand in making this war, and I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. We don't want your negroes, or your houses, or your land, or anything that you have, but we do want, and will have, a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and if it involves the destruction of your improvements we cannot help it. ”

“ As your president has well told you in eloquent words to-night, our friends in Marietta are celebrating a past of vast importance in the history of Ohio, and the United States, and of all mankind. One hundred years ago there landed at Marietta that little body whose influence was then felt and is now felt all over the earth's surface; an organized body of men with discipline, seeking to make homes for themselves and their families and to rear up a State, free, where all men could enjoy liberty and the pursuit of happiness in their own way and at their own time. ”

“ Down here in Georgia, one of the original thirteen States which formed this great Union of this country, you have stood fast. You have stood fast while the great Northwest has been growing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of cultivated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, more colleges—more of everything which constitutes a refined and enlightened State—than the whole State of Georgia. ”

“ Regiments have lost their favorite field-officers; companies the captains whom they have always looked to, with that implicit faith the soldier learns, to lead them to battle.
Meanwhile, there is a lull in the firing. For the first time since sunrise you fail to catch the angry rattle of musketry or the heavy booming of the field-guns. Either the enemy must be preparing for the grand, final rush that is to crown the day's success and save the Southern Confederacy, or they are puzzled by our last retreat, and are moving cautiously, lest we spring some trap upon them. ”

“ The power rested with the victors at the close of the conflict, but not all the honors of the desperate warfare. Indeed, the survivors are now winning honors, enriched with justice and magnanimity, not less worthy than those who won the battles in their labors to restore the country to its former feeling of fraternal regard and to unity of sentiment and action and to promote its welfare. The fidelity of the great General who has just departed in the ripeness of age, and with a history marked by devotion to his flag, was the true and simple faith of an American to his convictions of duty. ”

“ Death has at last conquered the hero of so many campaigns; our cities and towns and villages are decked with flags at half-mast; the muffled drum and the funereal boom of cannon will resound over the land as his dead body passes to the final resting place, and the American people stand mournfully gazing into the void left by the sudden disappearance of the last of the greatest men brought forth by our war of regeneration—and this last also finally become, save Abraham Lincoln alone, the most widely beloved. ”

“ The history of our country is rich in soldiers who have set examples of simple soldierly obedience to the civil law and of self-abnegation. Washington, Grant, Sheridan and Sherman lead the list. Sherman was the last of the illustrious trio who were by universal consent the foremost figures in the armies of the Union in the late war. Among the precious traditions to pass into our history for the admiration of the old and the instruction of the young was their friendship, their most harmonious co-operation, without a shadow of ambition or pride. ”

“ Seldom has history recorded a more sudden and startling change in National affairs than that of the United States in the midsummer of 1863. The closing days of June were dark and ominous. Milroy was almost annihilated at Winchester. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were still wet with fruitless blood. Rosecrans was helpless in Tennessee. Banks was idle at Port Hudson. Grant had been checked at Vicksburg. Lee, on the other hand, was carrying fire and sword through Pennsylvania, while the Army of the Potomac, wandering no one knew where, seemed given up to experimenting with new leaders. ”

“ In the body of my army I feel a just pride. Generals Howard and Slocum are gentlemen of singular capacity and intelligence, thorough soldiers and patriots, working day and night, not for themselves, but for their country and their men. General Kilpatrick, who commanded the cavalry of this army, has handled it with spirit and dash to my entire satisfaction, and kept a superior force of the enemy's cavalry from even approaching our infantry columns or wagon trains. ”

“ His advance-guard is across the river now, waiting ferriage; but what is an advance-guard, with sixty thousand victorious foes in front of us?
We have lost nearly all our camps and camp equipage. We have lost nearly half our field artillery. We have lost a division general and two or three regiments of our soldiers as prisoners. We have lost—how dreadfully we are afraid to think—in killed and wounded. The hospitals are full to overflowing. A long ridge bluff is set apart for surgical uses. It is covered with the maimed, the dead and dying. And our men are discouraged by prolonged defeat. ”

“ The sun never rose on a more beautiful morning than that of Sunday, April 6th. Lulled by the general security, I had remained in pleasant quarters at Crump's, below Pittsburgh Landing, on the river. By sunrise I was roused by the cry: "They're fighting above." Volleys of musketry could sure enough be distinguished, and occasionally the sullen boom of artillery came echoing down the stream. Momentarily the volume of sound increased, till it became evident it was no skirmish that was in progress, and that a considerable portion of the army must be already engaged. ”

“ Now that war comes home to you, you feel very differently—you deprecate its horrors. But you did not feel them when you were sending car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and were moulding shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes under the government of their inheritance. ”

“ In a few brief closing words permit me to say that the high privilege of having moulded and directed such a character as that of General Sherman—a character which has so eminently honored our country and blessed the age in which we live—is a matter of honorable and just pride to any man and family and a constant source of inspiration to high and noble living. ”

“ Time has convinced all reasonable men that war in theory and practice are two distinct things. Many an honest patriot, full of enthusiasm, zeal, and thirst for glory, has in practice, found himself unequal to the actual requirements of war, and passed to one side, leaving another in his place; and, now, after two years, Ohio has in the field one hundred and twenty-six regiments, whose officers now are qualified, and the men of which would give tone and character to the new recruits. To fill these regiments will require fifty thousand recruits, which are as many as the State could well raise. ”

“ General Horace Porter also seconded the resolutions. He paid a warm tribute to General Sherman's memory, and continued: "By no act of ours can we expect to add one laurel to his brow. The Nation raised him to the highest rank in the army, universities vied with one another in conferring upon him degrees. We can only come together to express our esteem for the soldier, our respect for the man. There was something characteristic of the soldier born within him. In war he was bold in conception, fixed in purpose, untiring in action. He knew that great danger makes brave hearts most resolute. ”

“ The General commanding, while thus claiming for his division their just share in this glorious result, must, at the same time, remind them that much yet remains to be done, and that all must still continue the same vigilance and patience, and industry and obedience, till the enemy lays down his arms, and publicly acknowledges for their supposed grievances, they must obey the laws of their country, not attempt its overthrow by threats, by cruelty, and by war. They must be made to feel and acknowledge the power of a just and a mighty nation. ”

“ In our campaign many, yea, very many of our noble and gallant comrades have preceded us to our common destination, the grave; but they have left the memory of deeds, on which a Nation can build a proud history. McPherson, Harker, McCook, and others, dear to us all are now the binding links in our minds that should attach more closely together the living, who have to complete the task which still lays before us in the dim future. ”

“ The last of the immortal trio has joined his waiting comrades. Already in the fields of the blessed one may believe that their spirits sadly regard our simple tributes to the earthly casket which holds the dust of Sherman. The mourning thousands who have lined the highway of the sad procession have gone to their homes with a tenderer reflection upon the meanings of existence and death. ”

“ Let the emigrant to Georgia feel and realize that his business and social position result from his own industry, his merits and his virtues, and not from the accidental place of his birth, and soon the great advantages of climate, soil, minerals, timber, etc., etc., will fill up your country and make Atlanta one of the most prosperous, beautiful and attractive cities, not alone of the South, but of the whole continent, an end which I desire quite as much as you do. ”

“ May I be forgiven for the malicious thought, but I certainly did wish one or two might drop behind the bluff among the crowd of skulkers hovering under the hill at the river's edge.
Very handsome was the response our broken infantry battalions poured in. The enemy soon had reason to remember that, if not "still in their ashes live the wonted fires," at least still in the fragments lived the ancient valor that had made the short-lived Rebels' successes already cost so dear.
The Rebel infantry gained no ground, but the furious cannonading and musketry continued. ”

“ How far the operations of this army contributed to the final overthrow of the Confederacy and the peace which now dawns upon us must be judged by others, not by us; but that you have done all that men could do has been admitted by those in authority, and we have a right to join in the universal joy that fills our land because the war is over, and our Government stands vindicated before the world by the joint action of the volunteer armies and navy of the United States. ”

“ A new commander is now here to lead you. He is chosen by the President of the United States, who is charged by the Constitution to maintain and defend it, and he has the undoubted right to select his own agents. I know that all good officers and soldiers will give him the same hearty support and cheerful obedience they have hitherto given me. There are honors enough in reserve for all, and work enough too. Let each do his appropriate part, and our nation must in the end emerge from this dire conflict, purified and ennobled by the fires which now test its strength and purity. ”

“ His thirteen years of army life had brought no distinction. McClellan, Fremont, Halleck, Hooker, Rosecrans and a score of other young retired officers of the Army were remembered as brilliant soldiers, according to the standard of those old army days. Sherman had left no name. The eight years of civil life that followed had added little to his fortune and nothing to his fame.... But the heart of the man was sound to the core, and his impulsive abandonment of his place in Louisiana did more than all his life thus far to fix him in men's minds. ”