E 46Z.I N46P6 California egional icility THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE COMMANDER'S YEAR THE COMMANDER'S YEAR BEING VARIOUS ADDRESSES MADE BY LEWIS S. PILCHER, M.D., LL.D. THE COMMANDER OP U. S. GRANT POST No. 327, OF THE DEPARTMENT or NEW YORK GRAND ARMT OF THE REPUBLIC DURING THE YEAH 1913 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 1914 DEDICATION To my comrades of U. S. Grant Post, of Brooklyn, I dedicate this little book in which I have brought together the vari- ous addresses which the duties of the commandership have required from me fc during the past year. Love of country | will be found to be the dominant note 2= through them all ; pride in the part taken g by my comrades of the Grand Army in preserving the country's flag from dis- honor and in making possible the $ mighty achievements of this country since w those years of war has not been concealed ; but in addition I hope that each comrade will find in it a personal message of afFec- tionate good will to himself, responsive to 8 the many evidences of such good will g which I have myself received from all g throughout my " Commander's Year." LEWIS S. PILCHER. a 2 145 Gates Ave., BROOKLYN, N. Y. January 1, 1914. 461844 CONTENTS I. THE COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED 11 The Installation Address. II. " THE LADY OF THE FLOWERS " 21 Greeting to the Ladies Auxiliary Society. III. GRANT, THE EXEMPLAR OF PATRIOTISM. 33 To the Union League Club at the Grant Birthday Dinner. IV. THE NARROW MARGIN OF SAFETY 41 To the Associate Members. V. A BUILDING'S HONOR 59 Introducing the Speaker at the Mort- gage Jubilee. VI. THE CORPORAL'S STORY 67 An Episode During the Return from Chattanooga. THE COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED REMARKS MADE AT THE INSTALLATION OF THE OFFICERS OF U. S. GRANT POST, No. 327. DEPARTMENT OF NEW YORK, GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, JANUARY 14, 1913 THE COMMANDER'S YEAR THE COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED COMRADES: I accept this gavel and assume the responsibilities of the Com- mandership of this Post for the year with much diffidence and reluctance. This is based upon my knowledge of what is prop- erly expected from the man who occupies this honorable position, and from a famili- arity with the very conspicuous ability and usefulness which has uniformly charac- terized the administration of my predeces- sors in this office. I doubt if any similar organization can show such a list of able, enthusiastic office bearers and laborers are not the terms synonymous ? so many of whom still survive and remain among the most active of the Post's members. Realizing how little my own training and daily work fit one for the duties at- tending leadership in such an organization, I would certainly have peremptorily de- clined to entertain the proffered duty, notwithstanding the great honor attend- 11 12 COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED ing it, had there not come with it the assurance that every assistance would be given me by those most familiar with the requirements of the Post in all their ramifications. In whatever position in life I have been placed, I have meant never to shirk a duty when it was placed before me. It is as a duty, therefore, that I accept this com- mandership a duty the responsibilities of which are lightened by the unanimous call of my comrades and by the many kindly expressions of good will which have come to me from so many sources during the past month. In return for all this I can simply now pledge to you my utmost ef- forts for the good of the Grand Army in every relation, for the advancement of Grant Post in particular, and for the wel- fare of every comrade as an individual. We are greatly honored by the attend- ance at these ceremonies of so many of our comrades from other Posts and of others of our friends and neighbors. We ap- preciate this evidence of your interest in the work of the Grand Army of the Re- public. The Associate Society. In particular we would express our pleasure at the COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED 13 presence of so many of our associate mem- bers. If there is one sentiment which over- shadows everything else in the existence of the Grand Army of the Republic, it is that of loyalty to country. It is that which sent us to the front fifty years ago, and it is primarily for the perpetuation of this sentiment that we have been organized and have labored during the years that have intervened to the present time. Is it not because you share in this sentiment, Com- rade-Associates, that you have allied your- selves with us, and give to us the benefit of your social and financial aid? We oc- casionally find men who scoff at the idea of loyalty to country, as also, indeed, to the existence of any high and noble purpose in the mind of any man. According to them all men are venal, self-seeking is universal, and professed nobility of purpose is a cloak for the pursuit of ignoble ends ! De- votion to a high ideal is a fantastic con- ceit ! It is true that in the practical affairs of men, mixed motives often determine ac- tion ; gold and clay often are found in the same image ; but that man is the happiest man and most nearly understands his f el- lowmen who recognizes in them the best and minifies the baser qualities. Love of 14 COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED country is no fantastic conceit. Danger threatening the honor or material welfare of our land would call it forth in as great and magnificent a volume to-day as it did in the days of '61. Your association with us in the affairs of this Post of the Grand Army of the Republic we welcome and interpret as to a large degree an expres- sion of your loyalty to native land. Ladies Auxiliary. The gracious pres- ence here this evening of the ladies of the Auxiliary Society brings an influence into these halls which is full of the happiest au- gury for the future. To not many of us is left the fond love and the happy com- panionship of the wife or mother or sister who bade us good-by so many years ago as they sent us out to obey our Country's call. I doubt if any of us appreciated then the sacrifices the women of our house- holds made, and the love of country which they displayed as they sent forth those who were dearest to them in life, knowing that many of them would never return. We were young and reckless then; the noise of the shouting and the glory of strife were in our hearts; the nobility of our cause possessed us. They were left behind to wait, to hope, to fear; in many COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED 15 cases to mourn. We have in some better measure since realized what they did and what they suffered, and we have loved and honored them the more for the sacri- fices they made, and their memory now is the more hallowed by our keener sense of what they then suffered for us. Now, in these later days, the women who have taken place by our sides as our wives, and the daughters with whom the years have blessed us, have come to us and have said, " Give us some part in the work which you are doing in preserving the traditions of the Grand Army; let us share in your spirit of loyalty and in the efforts at the relief of those of your com- rades or of their bereaved families who have been overtaken by adversity." This is the spirit of the Ladies Auxiliary. The noble work which these women have done and are doing is appreciated by us all with the deepest gratitude. That they are with us is a source of great gratification, and the spirit which they display commands our admiration and pride. And now, my Comrades, one word more "Lest we forget" These are years of reminiscence and of semicentennial anni- versary observance. Fifty years ago we 16 COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED were in the darkest period of the years of strife. Disloyalty at the North was rampant and seemed likely to paralyze the efforts of the Government. The great Gladstone had declared that the South had already founded a new nation, and that it should be recognized as such with- out further delay by Great Britain. Lee with his army had penetrated into Mary- land, and though checked at Antietam had been permitted to retire unmolested into Virginia, and with little interference was making his preparations for a second in- vasion of the North. This threatening cloud was made still darker by the awful lightnings of Fredericksburg, whose dreadful slaughter was still filling the North with mourning, just fifty years ago. To stem the ebbing tide of loyal effort and to awaken the enthusiasm of the world Lincoln now was signing the proclamation of emancipation which wiped the stain of negro slavery from the fair escutcheon of the Republic. Not until six months more had passed did a break in the clouds occur and then both in the East and in the West did the light break through, and at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg the beginning of the COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED 17 glorious end was ushered in. During the fateful morning of July 3, 1863, the high-water mark of the tide of rebellion was reached at Gettysburg, and then be- gan the ebb which from that time gradu- ally fell until at Appomattox it reached its low- water level ! It was at Vicksburg, however, that the most momentous events were occurring. In the swamps and bayous of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi had been exhibited a tenacity of purpose, a breadth of vision, a mastery of strategy, a keenness and comprehensiveness of foresight, an in- fluence over men that marked a supreme commander. When Vicksburg fell, Ulysses S. Grant had reached his fulness of development in the science of war; he had become a Titan fit to grasp and con- trol gigantic affairs. His star was in the ascendant, and the world began to recog- nize that this was the man upon whom the hopes of the Republic rested. But all this, my Comrades, was fifty years ago ! What a high privilege to have had some share, however humble, in the events of those days, and how fortunate are we to have been preserved in strength until this day to now recall and recite 18 COMMANDERSHIP ACCEPTED them to the men of the present generation 1 But it is a new and greater country that commands our loyal allegiance to-day. The beginning of the last half of the Nineteenth Century has given way to the first half of the Twentieth Century. A new world, material, moral, mental, has been created. New problems, interna- tional, national and civic, call for solution and adjustment. We will not forget the past ; let us not in our devotion to the past overlook our own duties in the present. Charity, loyalty and fraternity command our earnest and constant endeavor in our daily intercourse with each other; let us not close our ears to that other and higher call which comes to such a body as Grant Post to take its part in every movement which makes for a civic betterment, for a purer national conscience, and for Peace and Good Will among men everywhere. THE LADY OF THE FLOWERS REMAKES MADE AT THE DINNER TENDERED TO THE LADIES AUXILIARY SOCIETY BY U. S. GRANT POST, MARCH 18, 1913 II THE LADY OF THE FLOWERS IT is my privilege, as Commander, to welcome this evening the Ladies of the Auxiliary Society to the hospitalities of this Post. This I do most heartily, and with the wish that I could put in better phrase an adequate expression of the ap- preciation by this Post of the kindly inter- est in its welfare which these ladies have so long shown and still continue to show. This annual event has come to be looked forward to by the Veterans of U. S. Grant Post as one of the chief events of the year, one with a special charm be- cause of its family reunion character. It is the " Girl I Left Behind Me," " When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and "The Star Spangled Banner" rolled into one. As you know, Mrs. Pilcher and I are barely home from a trip to Panama and Jamaica. Our minds are still full of our trip, and the inclination is irresistible foir me to indulge at this moment in a bit of reminiscence of another trip to the same waters more than forty years ago, which may not be out of place because it 21 22 LADY OF THE FLOWERS led through some perils to flowers and smiles and wedding bells, and ultimately to the Ladies Auxiliary of U. S. Grant Post. During the five years, 1867-72, it was my privilege to continue in the service of my country as a medical officer in its Navy. At that time, forty-five years ago, the one great spectre which attended the duty of the naval surgeon in the West Indies was yellow fever. My own service was not free from an encounter with this dread visitor and it is to this experience that I would now refer. During the recent weeks I have again enjoyed the balmy trade winds of the Caribbean Sea; the same blue waters are there which I enjoyed in my youth; the flying fish still lift themselves by their glistening finny wings from the water in scurrying squads as the steamer ploughs its way among them, and the iridescent sails of the Portuguese men-of-war still float by us in stately procession. The never-ending succession of brown islets of the sea weed from the Mexican Gulf still pass by us in their silent course along their long journey to their final resting LADY OF THE FLOWERS 23 place in the bosom of the great Sargasso Sea beneath the equator. The decks of the present day steamer are now filled with an expectant host of holiday making squad- rons of the immense army, modern suc- cessors to Morgan's buccaneers of four hundred years ago, who are making a new invasion of Panama, an invasion that has been made possible only by the work of an army surgeon. The enemy that defeated De Lesseps and the French engineers, that caused every railway tie of the rail- road that crosses the isthmus to cost a human life, that ever hovered as a threat- ening incubus over the desired pathway between the Western and the Eastern ocean, has been driven back by medical science and the singular fact remains be- yond dispute that the crowning commer- cial and engineering achievement of the Twentieth Century has been made possi- ble by medical science! Pardon the spe- cial professional pride that leads me to exult in this way, but the conditions are so different from those which prevailed at the time when I last sailed over these seas that the feelings which are awakened by a sense of the new powers of to-day as I once more find myself in these scenes 24 LADY OF THE FLOWERS will not permit suppression; then it was in a pest-stricken ship that we were flee- ing to a Northern refuge; now it is in a holiday throng that we gaily and confi- dently approach the former plague spot of the world! In the summer of 1867 three assistant surgeons were on duty at the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn. These were Mur- phy, Martin and myself. Yellow fever was prevailing that summer at the Pensa- cola Naval Station and among the first victims, as usual, were the medical officers on duty there. To Murphy came the order to go to their relief. Without hesi- tation he went, only to quickly sicken him- self and to die like his predecessor ; Martin was ordered to the South Pacific. His duties soon took him to Panama. Here the same fate overtook him. He, too, was stricken with yellow fever. He died. The turn of the third of these messmates was not long deferred. Relieved from duty at the hospital he was sent to a ship bound for the West Indies, where for nearly two years it cruised, going wher- ever the protection of the Nation's inter- ests required its presence. Meanwhile, the first uprising of the Cubans against LADY OF THE FLOWERS 25 Spain had taken place, and in the harbor of Havana was to be made a demonstra- tion of our naval strength. Among the ships ordered there were my own ship, the Penobscot, and the naval apprentice training ship, the Saratoga. We had not been at Havana a week when I was sum- moned to visit the surgeon of the Sara- toga, whom I found dying from yellow fever, the first fruit of an epidemic to prevail on that ship. The immediate de- parture of the fever-stricken ship for a colder latitude was imperative. It was one of the last of the old-fashioned sail- ing frigates to be retained in the service. It was used as a schoolship for the instruc- tion of naval apprentices and there were seventy-eight of these boys on board her. Beside these there was a contingent of sailors and officers, 224 souls in all. To whom now should be entrusted the medi- cal care of the Saratoga during its slow flight from the pestilential city where it had become infected? The medical officer of the Pendbscot, for the moment serving it, was not yet 23 years of age ; he was the youngest surgeon in the fleet; this was his maiden voyage. For two weeks at least the Saratoga would be isolated in 26 LADY OF THE FLOWERS the wide ocean as it sailed northward. Would it not be better to replace this in- experienced young surgeon with an older man? This, as I learned afterward, was a question that was under discussion on the flagship. On the other hand, I was already at the post of duty; since my arrival at the bedside of the dying sur- geon, Quinn, I had remained ministering to the Saratoga's sick. Whatever of ex- posure was possible had already been in- curred by me. Surely I ought to remain with the ship and it would be folly to send another medical officer to incur further peril. Such, indeed, was the view taken by the Admiral and the fleet surgeon, and I remained on the Saratoga, to my own great satisfaction, for I would have felt it as a sort of slur upon my own pro- fessional character to have been displaced thus in the face of the enemy ! Had it not been for that very day and trial that I had entered upon the service, and should I refuse my "baptism of fire" when it came! I shall not dwell on the days that followed. Wafted by favorable winds and by the helpful current of the Gulf Stream, the bulky frigate slowly fled northward. LADY OF THE FLOWERS 27 It was in the early days of June, 1869. The summer sea was at its loveliest. But the dread infection continued to do its work within the fated ship; day by day new cases of the fever sickened; with many, thank God, the disease terminated in convalescence, but in far too many the most dreaded symptoms early appeared and the toll of death was daily taken. As each morning its officers assembled at the mess table, each looked with concern into the face of his fellows and wondered which seat would be vacant next. Every one tried to keep as cheerful as possible. One of the pleasant memories of that voyage that remains in my mind is the way the apprentice boys used to gather on the spar deck in the evening and sing; especially do I remember the clear boy soprano voice of one of them whose favorite song was " Tommy Dodd," and who, as a volunteer nurse, was very helpful also in the sick bay. This boy sang and smiled himself safely through the whole trial. He later, perhaps stimu- lated by this experience, became a phy- sician and for many years has practised here in Brooklyn. On the 14th day out we had arrived in 28 LADY OF THE FLOWERS the latitude of New York. Up to that date 37 men in all had been stricken with the fever and 17 had died. I suppose that the Captain must have seen evidences that his surgeon was beginning to get wobbly, for he determined not to continue the voyage to Maine, as had been the original intention, but to put into the harbor of New York. With what feelings of joyful expecta- tion of speedy deliverance did we witness the change in the ship's course and hail the longed-for city of refuge ! At anchor in the lower quarantine a relief cutter from the Navy Yard arrived with surgeons and supplies ; responsibility over; the tension of a fortnight broken; duty performed, the doctor's battle was over, and he himself, sustained to that moment by the sense of the responsibility that was upon him, was a patient being hurried by sympathetic hands to a hos- pital, now to receive from others the ser- vice which he himself had been striving to render to those till then dependent upon him. When the days of convalescence came, flowers began to make their ap- pearance upon the table at his bedside, for information as to his presence and LADY OF THE FLOWERS 29 condition had reached the sender. In due time he was declared strong enough to venture out. There must have been some- thing appealing in the gaunt and jaun- diced youth when he began to mingle again among his fellows, for people would rise to give him a seat when he entered a street car, and the Lady of the Flowers, what could she do but " surrender uncon- ditionally " and agree to become a future member of the Ladies Auxiliary of U. S. Grant Post! Under what different conditions have I now returned from those tropical seas! I have seen the yellow monster strangled by the simplest sanitary means, applied with intelligence, with vigor and without intermission. Throughout the hitherto most deadly region of the continent, I have seen health and vigor established, and a mighty work, uniting two oceans, carried to a magnificent completion in a manner worthy a mighty nation. By my side stands now the same " Lady of the Flowers " whose messages of remem- brance greeted my returning conscious- ness forty-five years ago. Children and grandchildren have greeted our return. Added to these, like 30 LADY OF THE FLOWERS a garland that crowns a cup already full, is the warm greeting of my comrades of this Post. To them all I bring a hearty hail and good wishes. With pleasure I take up again the duties of the Com- mander. What could have been more de- lightful than to find that the first of these duties is to welcome to these halls the Ladies of our Auxiliary Society? Again do I say to you, Madame President and Ladies, you are welcome. All that we are and have is yours. GRANT, THE EXEMPLAR OF PATRIOTISM REMARKS AT THE GRANT BIRTHDAY DINNER AT THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF BROOKLYN. APRIL 26, 1913. REPLYING TO THE WORDS OF WELCOME SPOKEN BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB Ill GRANT, THE EXEMPLAR OF PATRIOTISM GRANT POST reciprocates fully the kindly and cordial expressions of regard which you, Mr. President, have so felici- tously tendered to us. For these many years it has been the privilege of U. S. Grant Post, G. A. R., to share with the Union League Club of Brooklyn the honor of celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of the great commander of the war for the Union. We have appre- ciated the patriotic feeling which has prompted you to join us in the observ- ance; each year has added strength to the bonds of sympathy between us; each year as it passes increases the importance of the part which such an organization as the Union League Club must play in fostering the spirit of loyalty to the flag in this nation. Though the loyal interest of a comrade of the G. A. R. can never be lessened, still our numbers and activities are diminishing; it is inevitable that this should be so. Dur- ing the thirty years that Grant Post has 34 GRANT been in existence already two hundred and thirty-nine of its comrades have gone to their long home; upon those of us who are left the years have multiplied; the men who twenty years ago were fifty years of age, men of vigor, prosecuting with energy their work in the community, are seventy now, and too often have to acknowledge the disabilities and infirmi- ties incident to three score years and ten. We have been preserved to see a greater country develop out of the fragments, the scattering of which we fought to prevent fifty years ago; new issues have arisen; new perils lurk in the new conditions that have taken shape; the thirty millions of people of 1860 have become a hundred millions; the islands of the Pacific, the glaciers and mines of Alaska, the planta- tions of Porto Rico and finally greatest miracle of all the Canal Zone has been added to our territory. Our progress in all material things, those things which make for comfort, for wealth and for power, has exceeded the wildest dreams of the most enthusiastic patriot of fifty years ago. All that has been, all that is, and all that we hope for the future of our common land constitutes the prize for GRANT 35 which these veterans offered their lives fifty years ago. During the years that have since elapsed they have felt them- selves charged in a peculiar manner to be guardians of its honor. To younger hands, however, we must soon pass on this duty, this privilege, this honor. To whom shall we turn with greater assurance of full discharge of this sacred trust than to you, Gentlemen of the Union League? You do well to honor the memory of Ulysses S. Grant by such a gathering as this, for it was by the wide embracing vision, the unquestioning loyalty and con- fidence of success, the tireless energy, the simple and direct and ceaseless efforts, the masterful tactics, the overwhelming mili- tary genius of this man, more than of any other one man, that the dismemberment of this country was prevented, the Ameri- can Union was preserved and all the magnificent prosperity and power of to- day was made possible. With you and all other lovers of their country the veterans of Grant Post share in these sentiments of grateful remembrance. But, in addition, it is ours to remember him as our comrade and our leader - silent, simple and approachable, lovable 36 GRANT and loving, human all through, but with a tenacity that would never be shaken and a directness of purpose that knew no swerving until the end was reached. We love best to think of him as he galloped up to the Appomattox farmhouse that fateful April morning to reap the reward of all his toils and to restore peace to his torn country, not with pomp and circum- stance, but dust covered and roughly garbed, without a sword and wearing a common soldier's blouse; thinking not of his own glory, but depressed by thoughts of the humiliation of his vanquished foe, and planning not for his own triumph, but for the welfare of those prisoners of war, " how they might put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter," to use his own homely words. I feel that it is a great honor to stand in this presence to-night and be the spokesman for the post of the G. A. R. which bears his honored name. The per- sonal records of these men in whose name I speak cover nearly every important battle and field of operation of those dire- ful four years. With Slemmer at Fort Pickens, Farragut at New Orleans and Mobile, Porter and Terry at Fort Fisher, GRANT 37 Grant at Vicksburg, Thomas at Nashville, Meade, Hancock and Warren at Gettys- burg, Sheridan at Cedar Creek and Win- chester, Sherman in his march to the sea, Weitzel as he entered the fallen capital of the confederacy, and finally with Grant himself during all the engagements of the final terrific struggle from the Wilder- ness to Appomattox, there are men here to-night who marched and fought; suffered cold and hunger and overwhelm- ing fatigue. That they suffered wounds let absent or maimed limbs and disfigur- ing scars testify ; that they knew privation let the records of Libby and Salisbury Prisons and of the Andersonville stockade witness! We do not forget these experi- ences; we can never forget them, but we would not parade them, nor ask for con- sideration because of them. We refer to them now only that they may furnish a background for the patriotic fervor of this hour, and explain the devotion and reverence which we pay to the one who after four years of strife was able to gather into his one powerful hand the dis- cordant elements of the nation's forces and marshal them with resistless power to the destruction of rebellion and the estab- 461844 38 GRANT lishment of peace. As I recite these mighty events, and recall the part in them which these, my comrades, have played, I feel that it is a privilege to be one of the least among their number; how much more a source of gratification that to me has been given the honor and duty of speaking for them to-night and of ex- pressing their pleasure at being able once more to join with you, gentlemen of the Union League, in honoring the name of the great commander of the war for the Union, and in kindling anew at our Nation's altar the pure and white flame of love for and devotion to our common country. THE NARROW MARGIN OF SAFETY REMARKS AT THE ANNUAL DINNER TO THE ASSOCIATE MEMBERS OP THE U. S. GRANT POST, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1913 IV THE NARROW MARGIN OF SAFETY No duty is more agreeable to the Com- mander of Grant Post than that which falls to me now, to extend a welcome to the members of our associate society upon the occasion of this annual dinner. Comrade-associates, the veterans of this post of the G. A. R. appreciate most fully your co-operation with them in the work of cherishing the memory of deceased soldiers of the war for the Union, provid- ing systematic relief to needy comrades and widows of deceased comrades, and in maintaining undiminished the spirit of loyalty to country, for which objects the Grand Army exists. Without your help it would have been impossible for us to render annually those honors to the memory of our great com- mander, which have formed so conspicu- ous a part of the public labors of this post, and which have always commanded the admiration of a grateful people. To invite you now to this table and to extend to you these assurances of our 41 42 MARGIN OF SAFETY esteem is but a faint expression of the sense of obligation which we feel toward you. To keep inviolate the honor and prestige of the nation and to foster a spirit of patriotic devotion to its flag has been the special mission of the Grand Army of the Republic from its organization to the present time. With the lapse of years the enthusiasm and devotion of the comrades of this army has not diminished, but has become more intense. To a share in this spirit we invite you and when we have to transfer the traditions of the Grand Army to your younger shoulders, we shall do it in the hope that you will see to it that what these men of the sixties did will not only not be forgotten, but also that the country which their blood and their toils saved and consecrated shall receive no harm. During the past year the duties of my position have tended to recall to my memory with special vividness the strife of so many years ago ; the semicentennial observances of this particular year have still more accentuated these reminiscences ; personal visits to the fields of Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and MARGIN OF SAFETY 43 Lookout Mountain have served to make most vivid the memories of the deeds that were done on those hallowed spots. As I have stood on the soil which witnessed those memorable scenes I have as never before realized the narrow margin which separated vie Lory from defeat, glorious success from serious disaster in those days of struggle. Thus at Gettysburg, what is more rea- sonable and likely than that the Federal troops, who worn out by the forced marches to reach the position had en- trenched themselves on Gulp's Hill, should have been so discouraged by the reverses of the first day and so exhausted by the exertions to which they had been sub- jected, that they could not withstand the onset of the fierce and fresh southrons, flushed with a sense of approaching victory. It needs no violent stretch of the imagination to see the Union forces being steadily pushed back, and the hill everywhere carried by the Confederates. A similar state of affairs might have been witnessed on the Round Tops. Warren had discovered their strategic importance, but so had Longstreet, and in the race for their occupation which followed had 44 MARGIN OF SAFETY Washburn and his men been fifteen minutes later, these strongholds had already been seized and fortified by the Confederates. At the close of the sec- ond day's fight the Confederates would have been everywhere victorious and the disorganized Union forces would have been hemmed in on three sides by their enemies. Let us suppose for a moment that this really was the outcome of the second day's fight: inevitable destruction awaited Meade's army on the morrow; from either flank and in front the in- vincible army of the South was closing in upon them. What would have followed? A rapid withdrawal of the Union army into Maryland and return to their in- trenchments about Washington. The retreat was imperative and with all celerity was begun; all night long the Federal troops silently stole away, leav- ing but a remnant under Hancock to keep up a semblance of occupation on Cemetery Hill. On the morrow the ad- vance of the Confederate centre against this remnant met with but feeble resist- ance. The attack from either flank was simultaneous. Hopelessly entrapped, Hancock surrendered to Lee all that was MARGIN OF SAFETY 45 left of Meade's army. The rout was com- plete. The victory was decisive. Lee's strategy was vindicated and his position made secure among the masters of war. Sending a division to harry the rear of the retreating Federals, Lee was free to press on at his leisure to Philadelphia and to levy tribute from a conquered North! In the West almost at the same hour we can picture an equally decisive advan- tage gained by the Confederates at Vicks- burg. The silent and indefatigable Grant after struggling for weeks among the lagoons and morasses of Arkansas in an effort to encompass Vicksburg, finally routed by Joseph E. Johnson at a decisive battle in Mississippi, and his command either taken prisoners or so scattered in their flight as to lose all semblance to an army. Sherman driven back by Pemberton upon Memphis; the siege of Vicksburg raised! As a necessary consequence an impartial fate would have meted out in Tennessee an equal disaster to the North- ern arms. Rosecrans, impetuous and over- confident, had led the armies of the Ten- nessee and the Cumberland quite to the Georgia border when he was checked by 46 MARGIN OF SAFETY Bragg at Chickamauga and driven into the flat, hill surrounded plain of Chatta- nooga, where he remained beleaguered, cut off from all supplies, until starvation compelled him to surrender his entire force as prisoners of war. In the West, in the Central South, in the East, every- where victory attending the Confederate arms during that fateful season. With no organized force of any strength left to oppose him, Bragg would have pushed steadily northward, reoccupied Nashville, taken possession of Kentucky, and finally encamped his troops along the southern bank of the Ohio River. Meanwhile in the East fancy depicts the most mo- mentous events transpiring. Lee was im- pregnably entrenched near Philadelphia, and controlled all railway communications from the North leading to Washington; the Federal capital was at his mercy and the Army of the Potomac were virtually prisoners in their entrenchments. The pathway to the sea down the Potomac was the only outlet open to them, and this more valuable as a way of escape than for any other purpose. Everywhere throughout the North the opponents of the war were multiplied and MARGIN OF SAFETY 47 incessant in their demands for the abandonment of further attempts to coerce the South. The end speedily came; the Union cause had practically to sue for terms and to accept what the South felt disposed to give. Mason and Dixon's line and the Ohio River became the northern boundaries of a new republic within whose boundaries was included the former Capi- tal of the original Union. Throughout the Northern States a revulsion of feeling took place that swept from every position of power or influence those who had sup- ported this disastrous war. Valandigham became governor of Ohio and to have been a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle became a mark of distinction. Lin- coln died of a broken heart as he saw the calamity that had overwhelmed the Union, for the perpetuity of which he had given his entire strength. Such, then, would have been the out- come of the contest in the sixties for the preservation of the Federal Union. The immediate result would have been a new republic, the motive of whose creation was the perpetuation of negro slavery, as an economic institution of divine ordination, and of such importance to the welfare of 48 MARGIN OF SAFETY that section of America in which it had been planted that every other considera- tion was secondary to it. Second only in importance to this dic- tum as to negro slavery was the doctrine that any sovereign state preserved the right to withdraw from association with other states at any time according to its own will. To-day, after fifty years, we can see the only superstructure that could have been erected on a foundation of slavery and disunion. In everything pertaining to material welfare the rest of the world has made tremendous strides during this period. But the new republic has been out of tune with the other nations of the earth. Cotton, and rice and sugar and slaves have continued to be produced; de- velopment of any white self-respecting middle class has been impossible; while the white population has decreased, the blacks have multiplied to an amazing de- gree; many of the more energetic and in- telligent among them have from time to time escaped across the border to the free states, from whence they have not failed to foment discord among their fellows left behind. Servile rebellions have kept the MARGIN OF SAFETY 49 land in a state of continued agitation and every home has been continually over- shadowed by the terror of the expected time when among the blacks should arise a leader who could combine and marshal them to the destruction of their white masters. A state of martial law has reigned throughout the slave states most of the time. The new Confederacy has become impoverished, bankrupt, a dere- lict among the nations of the world. Simultaneously with the creation of the Slave Republic, its neighbor to the south, Mexico, had crowned as its emperor a scion of European royalty, Maximilian. The new monarch was backed by the power and prestige of France, and the establishment of the new empire was aided and approved by the leaders of the new South. But here the spirit of State in- dividualism in which the southern con- federation was begotten bore unexpected fruit. For the great state of Texas, realizing that its material interests could be more advanced by a union with the new empire, early abandoned the Con- federacy and became a part of the Mexi- can domain, in the management of whose affairs it at once took a dominating place. 50 MARGIN OF SAFETY With the infusion of Texan energy, and capacity, and the continued supply of material help and large emigration from France, the new empire developed its resources and established peace and se- curity within its borders. Meanwhile, in its isolation on the high tablelands among the Rocky Mountains the Mormon Commonwealth continued to grow in population, material wealth and political power. Its religious propaganda was assiduously pushed among the igno- rant masses of Europe from whom it con- stantly received accessions of converts and emigrants. It early declared itself free from any allegiance to any other power and neither the Northern States nor the Southern Confederacy was in any condi- tion to coerce it. Its fanatical people were not lacking in energy nor in political sagacity, and they pushed themselves in every direction from their great central point, the temple at Salt Lake City, until they controlled all that vast and rich terri- tory which extends between the Rockies and the Sierras from the border of British America on the north to the Mexican boundary on the south. Here polygamy continues to be practised as a religious MARGIN OF SAFETY 51 observance and the world witnesses in this Western continent the existence of two nations whose reason for being is re- spectively human slavery and plural marriage. Meanwhile, the States upon the Pa- cific Coast, California and Oregon, cut off from all organic relation to the Atlan- tic or Middle States, naturally early de- clared themselves independent and formed a Republic of the Pacific. Most significant, however, has been the growth and development of British America. It acquired by purchase from Russia the great territory of Alaska with its endless stretch of seacoast and its wealth of minerals and fish and timber. It pushed its railroads from ocean to ocean. The fertility of the great wheat fields of Alberta and Manitoba drew so many settlers from the Northwest portion of the old United States that these states were nearly depopulated. The whole Canadian country received an impetus that carried it with tremendous strides along the path of material success and political power. It alone of the nations of North America exercised a continuity of government from ocean to ocean; its 52 MARGIN OF SAFETY people enjoyed a freedom that was suited to the vastness of its domain and the purity of its moral code as a nation. In the courts of the world it was recognized as a great and progressive power. Mean- while a most singular and lamentable position is now occupied by what is left of the old United States of America. It is not difficult to analyze the conditions which have combined to depress this peo- ple. To some extent they have shared in the commercial and scientific activities of the time. The soil has been fertile, manu- facturing industries have been main- tained ; mines and wells have continued to produce; the railway and telegraph, the steamboat and the electric motor and the automobile have brought men near to one another and broadened methods and created opportunity, but all spirit of pride in country, of loyalty and patriotism seems to be dead. The United States have no longer a place of influence among the nations of the earth. It has been put in a strait- jacket. It has no glorious past. Its present is ignoble. Its future is a problem. Such, alas, is the lamentable condition MARGIN OF SAFETY 53 which has overtaken this once proud Re- public. The seeds of dissension were sown at its birth; that unity among its discordant elements should continue for any length of time was impossible. At the end of the first seventy-five years of its existence the institution of negro slavery had become the dominating force, social, political and economic, over one- half of the Republic's domain, and out of its conditions, to defend it and extend it had arisen a body of men closely bound together by a common aim and practi- cally ready to sacrifice everything else to secure one purpose. They acted as a unit ; they controlled twenty millions of peo- ple; opposed to them were a group of states who had no common bond; a large proportion of whose people were in sympathy with their brethren of the South; a people given to commerce and manufactures, without warlike spirit, as a people devoid of the sentiments of de- votion to country, among whom the terms loyalty and patriotism were empty names. No, no, my comrades and associates, I will not push the vision farther. It was the unexpected, the impossible that hap- 54 MARGIN OF SAFETY pened. At the call of their country from out of this peace loving, trade en- grossed, apathetic, discordant North nearly three millions of men rallied to the flag of the Union for the defense of its integrity; 350,000 of these proved the depth of their devotion by the gift of their lives. The spirit of loyalty and patriotism was not extinct; it needed but the pressure of the country's need to bring it into the fullest flower. Had this service been half-hearted, all the things that my historical fancy has depicted might have followed. That we have to- day a united, powerful, glorious country, first in all the forward movements of the Twentieth Century, is due to the devo- tion exhibited, the sacrifices, and the toils endured by the men who were following its flag in the fields of combat fifty years ago. Gulp's Hill was not taken by the assaulting Confederates, nor did Long- street reach first the Round Tops, but everywhere on this critical field of Gettys- burg the defenders of the Union were victorious, and it was the army of Lee that slunk away across the Potomac and not that of Meade. But had the en- MARGIN OF SAFETY 55 thusiasm of the men of the North failed on these dreadful days of July, of 1863, what could have prevented the results my fancy has drawn for you? Among our own number there still re- main nearly a score of men who con- tributed to the victory of that day. Tait and O'Reilly, Woodhead and Cowen, French and Clark and Rapp, Shafer and Southerton, Paine, Raymond, Lawrence, Miller and McDonald, are still with us to enjoy the fruits of their work on that field and to receive the meed of well de- served, grateful appreciation which their country awards them. Grant was not ex- tinguished in Mississippi and among those who were with him in his triumph at Vicksburg were our own comrades, Hed- ley and Gardner and Baird. Comrade-associates! If I have been somewhat prolix in my effort to depict our country's crisis fifty years ago, and to suggest some idea of what we were saved from by those who came to the de- fense of the Union in those dark days, it is only that I might strengthen in the hearts of every generous and noble youth of this generation those sentiments of 56 MARGIN OF SAFETY patriotic service and loyal devotion, for which the Grand Army of the Republic most conspicuously stands. We appre- ciate your co-operation with us in this work in the past, and we implore its con- tinuance in the future that the fires of patriotism may never grow dim on the altars of American hearts. A BUILDING'S HONOR REMARKS IN INTRODUCTION OF SPEAKERS AT THE MORTGAGE JUBILEE OF GRANT POST, G. A. R.. DECEMBER 19. 1913 A BUILDING'S HONOR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, Department Commander, Ladies of the Auxiliary So- ciety, associate members, comrades of the Grand Army: That it is no ordinary occasion that has brought us together is witnessed by the very presence of such an audience as this. It is my privilege and my great pleasure, as Commander of this Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, to welcome you now to these head- quarters. From its organization in 1883 until the year 1907, twenty- four years, this post held its encampments in hired halls. In December, 1906, just seven years ago, having acquired it by purchase, we took formal possession of this com- fortable building for our headquarters, to which we had added this most com- modious and suitable hall for our encamp- ments. This house was formerly one of the old homesteads of Brooklyn and this building is identified with much of the his- tory and growth of this great city. It witnessed the outburst of loyalty in the spring of '61, when our flag was fired 59 60 A BUILDING'S HONOR upon at Sumter. It welcomed the re- turn home of the victorious army in '65. It has been a part of the wonderful com- mercial and political development of New York that was one of the fruits of the victory which that army won. But now its crowning honor has been achieved in having become the home of a body of men who, unsurpassed by any in this genera- tion, exemplify the spirit of patriotic de- votion and of loyal service to their country's flag; who still carry with them the spirit of '61, unquenched by the scars of wounds sustained, or the memories of perils and hardships endured, and un- dimmed by the passing years. This post bears the name of the great chieftain who brought to a successful issue the war for the preservation of the Union; a detail from its ranks guarded the remains of General Grant at Mt. McGregor and never abated its watch until they were de- posited in the vault provided for them at Riverside. On each recurring Memorial Day since, this Post has paraded at the tomb of General Grant at Riverside and conducted commemorative services that have commanded the interest and tender approval of the whole nation. THE HOUSE HONORED The Headquarters of U. S. Grant Post, G. A. R., 489 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. A BUILDING'S HONOR 61 During its history U. S. Grant Post has borne upon its rolls the names of more than 600 comrades, of whom 240 still sur- vive. Mindful that impartial time was steadily and inevitably lessening this number, and that the burden of years was sure to become more and more heavily felt by the living and that the claims of fraternity and charity were certain to steadily increase, it has been an ever present, an important and pressing prob- lem with us and with our friends to make sure the continued possession of needed comforts and facilities for the work of this Post and to increase its relief funds. The final absolute wiping out of any indebtedness upon this, our headquarters property, appeals to us therefore most vividly at this time. To join with us in celebrating this event we have invited you to come here to-night. We appreciate highly the cordiality and readiness with which our invitation has been accepted by you all and in particular we wish to acknowledge the effort made by the Commander-in-Chief , and by our Depart- ment Commander in coming from the dis- tant cities in which they have their homes to be here to-night. 62 A BUILDING'S HONOR In September last for the first time in the history of the Grand Army its Na- tional Encampment assembled on soil which during the war for the Union was fighting ground. Among the most en- during and delightful memories of my own life are the scenes of that Chatta- nooga Convention; all the capacities for hero worship in my soul were called forth as I looked on the thousands of veterans gathered in council in the great audi- torium of Chattanooga, and thought of what they represented, thought also of the thousands of graves in the National Ceme- tery almost in view from the windows of that auditorium and of the death which the comrades who lay there suffered that their country might live; thought of the greater auditorium constituted by Chatta- nooga's plain with Lookout Mountain on one side and Mission Ridge on the other, and between them the vista that extends to the field of Chickamauga, and of the scenes which that auditorium had wit- nessed. It was fitting that upon one whose blood had been poured out on those very fields and who had braved the perils of the contests that those hills had witnessed A BUILDING'S HONOR 63 should be conferred the highest honors of the Grand Army at that time. To the Grand Army in Brooklyn is given now the honor to receive the soldier selected by those veterans gathered on that sacred spot to be their Commander-in- Chief, WASHINGTON GARDNER. To him we ex- tend salutations and await his words. THE CORPORAL'S STORY THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN VI THE CORPORAL'S STORY WE were a congenial company who sat at the corporal's table that Sunday after- noon in September. There was Gilman, with his empty but eloquent sleeve and his silvery voice ; Cummings, who had been the honored Department Commander of a great State; Parsons, who had ridden with Sheridan, and was at Appomattox; George Brown, that model Officer of the Day, who had undergone the tortures of the Andersonville stockade but had lived to tell of them; the Commander of Grant Post, thirsty for information and full of admiration for the glorious records of his comrades, and the corporal, him- self, eager, enthusiastic, intense, a wonderful example of what an indomi- table will can do with a mangled body. Then there were the ladies, the gracious daughters of the host, and Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Pilcher, the Lady of the Flowers. We had all arrived in Washington that morning, returning from a week in Chattanooga in attendance 67 68 THE CORPORAL'S STORY on the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic which had been held on that historic site. The week had been a full one, for not only Look- out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and the hills of Chickamauga awakened in us the most intense emotions, but the presence among the throngs of thousands of aging veterans who filled the streets and clus- tered around each historic spot, many of whom had been themselves actors in the drama that was played there fifty years before, gave a reality to the legends of the place that was thrilling. We were therefore in a receptive mood during the day we were privileged to stay in Washington on our return trip. The morning was bright, later to cloud over and break into rain, like so many life stories. Washington was beautiful with the browns and yellows and reds of the early autumn foliage. We had enjoyed the crisp morning air in which we made the drive through the Potomac Improve- ment, to be made memorable as the site of the glorious Lincoln Memorial ; thence through the picturesque roads of the Rock Creek Park, and the ground of the Sol- diers' Home, which had so often been the THE CORPORAL'S STORY 69 refuge of the great President when he sought respite from the cares of the White House. Naturally the conversa- tion turned upon Lincoln during the after-dinner talk, the more so as we knew that our host had been on duty in Wash- ington during the later years of the civil strife. " Yes, I was at his death-bed," said Tanner. " I wonder if you would be interested to hear my story? " And then to our eager requests he told us the following tale:* In April, 1865, I was an employee of the Ordnance Bureau of the War De- partment, and had some ability as a short- hand writer. The latter fact brought me within touch of the events of the awful night of April 14. I had gone with a friend to witness the performance that evening at Grover's Theatre, where now stands the New National. Soon after ten o'clock a man rushed in from the lobby and cried out, " President Lincoln has been shot in Ford's Theatre." There was great confusion at once, most of the audi- ence rising to their feet. Some one cried * Published by permission of the Hon. James Tanner. 70 THE CORPORAL'S STORY out, " It's a ruse of the pickpockets : look out!" Almost everybody resumed his seat, but almost immediately one of the cast stepped out on the stage and said, ;< The sad news is too true; the audience will disperse." My friend and myself crossed to Wil- lard's Hotel and there were told that Secretary Seward also had been killed. Men's faces blanched as they at once asked, "What news of Stanton? Have they got him, too? " The wildest rumors soon filled the air. I had rooms at the time in the house adjoining the Peterson House, into which the President had been carried. Hasten- ing down to Tenth Street, I found an almost solid mass of humanity blocking the street and the crowd constantly en- larging. A silence that was appalling prevailed. Interest centred on all who entered or emerged from the Peterson House and all of the latter were closely questioned as to the stricken President's condition. From the first the answers were unvarying, that there was no hope. A military guard had been placed in front of the house and those adjoining but upon telling the Commanding Officer THE CORPORAL'S STORY 71 that I lived there, I passed up to my apart- ment, which comprised the second story front of the house. There was a balcony in front and I found my rooms and the balcony thronged by the other occupants of the house. Horror was in every heart and dismay on every countenance. We had had just about a week of tumultuous joy over the downfall of Richmond and the collapse of the Confederacy and now in an instant all this was changed to the deepest woe by the foul shot of the cowardly assassin. It was nearly midnight when Major- General Augur came out on the stoop of the Peterson House and asked if there was any one in the crowd who could write shorthand. There was no response from the street but one of my friends on the balcony told the General there was a young man inside who could serve him, whereupon the General told him to ask me to come down as they needed me. So it was that I came into close touch with the scenes and events surrounding the final hours of Abraham Lincoln's life. Entering the house I accompanied General Augur down the hallway to the rear parlor. As we passed the door of the 72 THE CORPORAL'S STORY front parlor the moans and sobs of Mrs. Lincoln struck painfully upon our ears. Entering the rear parlor, I found Secre- tary Stanton, Judge David K. Carter, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, Honorable B. A. Hill, and many others. I took my seat on one side of a small library table opposite Mr. Stanton with Judge Carter at the end. Various wit- nesses were brought in who had either been in Ford's Theatre or up in the vicinity of Mr. Seward's residence. Among them were Harry Hawk, who had been Asa Trenchard that night in the play " Our American Cousin," Mr. Alfred Cloughly, Colonel G. V. Rutherford and others. As I took down the statements they made we were distracted by the distress of Mrs. Lincoln, for though the folding doors be- tween the two parlors were closed, her frantic sorrow was distressingly audible to us. She was accompanied by Miss Harris of New York, who, with her fiance, Major Rathbone, had gone to the theatre with the President and Mrs. Lincoln. Booth, in his rush through the box after firing the fatal shot, had lunged at Major Rathbone THE CORPORAL'S STORY 73 with his dagger and wounded him in the arm slightly. In the naturally intense excitement over the President's condition, it is probable that Major Rathbone him- self did not realize that he was wounded until after he had been in the Peterson House some time, when he fainted from loss of blood, was attended to, his wound dressed, and he taken to his apartments. He and Miss Harris subsequently married. Through all the testimony given by those who had been in Ford's Theatre that night there was an undertone of hor- ror which held the witnesses back from positively identifying the assassin as Booth. Said Harry Hawk, " To the best of my belief, it was Mr. John Wilkes Booth, but I will not be positive," and so it went through the testimony of others but the sum total left no doubt as to the identity of the assassin. Our task was interrupted very many times during the night, sometimes by re- ports or dispatches for Secretary Stanton but more often by him for the purpose of issuing orders calculated to enmesh Booth in his flight. " Guard the Potomac from the city down," was his repeated direction. 74 THE CORPORAL'S STORY " He will try to get South." Many dis- patches were sent from that table before morning, some to General Dix at New York, others to Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. Several times Mr. Stanton left us a few moments and passed back to the room in the ell at the end of the hall where the President lay. The doors were open and sometimes there would be a few seconds of absolute silence when we could hear plainly the stertorous breathing of the dying man. I think it was on his return from his third trip of this kind when, as he again took his seat opposite me, I looked earnestly at him, desiring yet hesitating to ask if there was any chance of life. He understood and I saw a choke in his throat as he slowly forced the answer to my unspoken question, " There-is-no-hope." He had impressed me through those awful hours as being a man of steel but I knew then that he was dangerously near a con- vulsive breakdown. During the night there came in, I think, about every man then of prominence in our national life who was in the Capital at the time and who had heard of the tragedy. A few whom I distinctly recall THE CORPORAL'S STORY 75 were Secretaries Welles, Usher, and Mc- Cullough, Attorney-General Speed and Postmaster General Dennison, Assistant Secretaries Field and Otto, Governor Oglesby, Senators Sumner and Stewart, and Generals Meigs and Augur. I have seen many asserted pictures of the death- bed scene and most of them have Vice- President Andrew Johnson seated in a chair near the foot of the bed on the left side. Mr. Johnson was not in the house at all but in his rooms in the Kirkwood house and knew nothing of the events of that night 'til he was aroused in the morn- ing by Senator Stewart and others and told that he was President of the United States. With the completion of the taking of testimony I at once began to transcribe my shorthand notes into longhand. Twice while so engaged Miss Harris supported Mrs. Lincoln down the hallway to her husband's bedside. The door leading into the hallway from the room wherein I sat was open and I had a plain view of them as they slowly passed. Mrs. Lincoln was not at the bedside when her husband breathed his last. Indeed, I think it was nearly if not quite two hours before the 76 THE CORPORAL'S STORY end, when she paid her last visit to the death chamber, and when she passed our door on her return, she cried out, " Oh! my God, and have I given my husband to die!" I have witnessed and experienced much physical agony on battlefield and in hospi- tal but of it all, nothing sunk deeper in my memory than that moan of a breaking heart. I finished transcribing my notes at six forty-five in the morning and passed back into the room where the President lay. There were gathered all those whose names I have mentioned and many others, about twenty or twenty-five in all, I should judge. The bed had been pulled out from the corner and owing to the stature of Mr. Lincoln, he lay crosswise on his back. He had been utterly uncon- scious from the instant the bullet ploughed into his brain. His stertorous breathing subsided a couple of minutes after seven o'clock. From then to the end only the gentle rise and fall of his bosom gave indication that life remained. The Surgeon-General was near the head of the bed, sometimes sitting on the edge thereof, his finger on the pulse of the THE CORPORAL'S STORY 77 dying man. Occasionally he put his ear down to catch the lessening beats of his heart. Mr. Lincoln's pastor, the Rever- end Dr. Gurley, stood a little to the left of the bed. Mr. Stanton sat in a chair near the foot on the left, where the pictures place Andrew Johnson. I stood quite near the head of the bed and from that position had full view of Mr. Stanton across the President's body. At my right Robert Lincoln sobbed on the shoulder of Charles Sumner. Stanton's gaze was fixed intently on the countenance of his dying Chief. He had, as I said, been a man of steel throughout the night but as I looked at his face across the corner of the bed and saw the twitch- ing of the muscles I knew that it was only by a powerful effort that he restrained himself. The first indication that the dreaded end had come was at twenty- two minutes past seven when the Surgeon- General gently crossed the pulseless hands of Lincoln across the motionless breast and rose to his feet. Reverend Dr. Gurley stepped forward and lifting his hands began, " Our Father and our God " I snatched pencil and notebook from my pocket but my haste Thi (ram which It wa, borrows* Form L9 15m Plluli&l* = 462.1 The Commander's 1T40PC Year. Illllllll I' !J !i r-C Oft1 7 E 462.1 N48P6 Univ< So L