moved forward on to the crest of the hill beyond, and halted to organize into line. As soon as the necessary formation could be made the corps moved to the left about four miles to Hatcher's Run, driving and capturing as it went. In this advance nearly all organization was lost, and many were the feats and captures made by companies and squads. Artillery, colors, and prisoners were captured all along the advance.

Near Hatcher's Run the corps was again re-formed and marched back to our right towards Petersburg. Passing the point of attack in the morning, the enemy was met among the hills of that irregular country. Lee had succeeded in re-forming the lines broken by General Parke to our right in the morning, and was striving by new disposition of troops to further dispute our advance upon Petersburg. Again were our lines formed and skirmishers sent to the front. Again the brigade advanced and drove the enemy before it. There seemed no effective resistance until the brigade approached the Turnbull House, where Lee had his headquarters. Here was a battery supported by straggling infantry. The infantry were not inclined to contest our advance, but the artillery showed determined resistance. The commander of the battery stood by his guns to the last, and served them with destructive effect. When all was apparently lost he succeeded in getting away with two guns. The rest were captured, and the most of the men and horses lay dead and wounded by the side of them.

This was the last conflict of the day, but after this our line was considerably advanced and extended. Night came on, and the army halted for rations and

rest.

That night the victorious brigade rested its left on the Appomattox above Petersburg.

I seriously regret my inability to tell more of the incidents of that eventful day. Wounded early in the morning on the picket-line, and weak from the loss of blood, I was absent without leave most of the time, but having completed my toilet and my engagement with the surgeon, and disliking the movements of an ambulance over corduroy roads, I abandoned the hospital, and went to the front, arriving there just in season to take possession of Lee's headquarters for the headquarters of the Vermont Brigade.

How Lee fled under cover of night; how he was pursued, overtaken, and compelled to surrender, is familiar to all and need not be repeated here.

The war was at an end. The army was disbanded. The oft-tried veteran volunteers left the fields of victory and carnage for the peaceful pursuits of civil life.

Twenty years and more have passed. Many have been mustered into the army of heaven, and the survivors are scattered throughout the Union. I meet them wherever I go. The old organization seems to exist in ties of fraternal regard. It is with proud satisfaction these meeting veterans can say, "I too belonged to the Old Brigade."

REMARKS

OF

PAST COMMANDER GENERAL JOHN B. SANBORN,

TRANSFERRING THE COMMANDERY TO COMMANDER GENERAL WILLIAM R. MARSHALL,

AT THE ANNUAL MEETING HELD AT ST. PAUL, JUNE 1, 1887.

COMPANIONS, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN:-The revolving wheels of time have again brought us to the point that marks the second anniversary of our organization. It commences its third year under the most favorable auspices. The commencement of its existence, although not wholly inauspicious, was attended with weakness and uncertainties. At this time strength, vigor, and prosperity are manifested in every feature. Two years ago its membership was twenty; to-day it is one hundred and fifty. As it has increased in numbers and strength its usefulness has been more clearly and fully manifested. It has been a constant source of instruction, pleasure, and satisfaction to every one of its members. In and by its meetings we live over again the exciting scenes of the past, and the high purposes and firm resolves that attended in those direful days of

disaster and gloom again take possession of our hearts and minds, and we are at every meeting rebaptized with that spirit of patriotism and devotion to the country that characterized our people in the early days of the war. We feel and know that in this organization and in its meetings we discharge a duty to those whose lives were sacrificed for the public welfare in the war of the Rebellion, and in our attempts and endeavors to preserve the memory of their deeds and devotion we perform a sacred duty to the coming generations of

men.

No generation and no class of men can perform a higher service for their country and race than to transmit to the succeeding generations a correct history of their best deeds and achievements. It is in this way that patriotism is perpetuated and that national existence is preserved. Can we contemplate or form any just conception of the condition of this nation without the Declaration of Independence and without the Fourth of July? It is indeed true that the principles enunciated in the Declaration are articulated and emphasized by the battles fought by our forefathers for their establishment. They are inseparably connected with Bunker Hill, Trenton, the sufferings of Valley Forge, and the surrender at Yorktown, and without the battles the Declaration loses half its meaning, and the battles without the declaration of principles would be almost unmeaning events in the history of the nation; but the two in combination kindle the fires of patriotism in every breast, and make the hearts of sixty millions of people beat as one on each recurring anniversary.

So, in the war of the Rebellion, in which it was our

duty and privilege to participate, the battles, independent of the principles involved, would be but records of barbarian cruelty and human sacrifice, but when considered in connection with the constitutional principles involved, and with the Proclamation of Emancipation which made every human being within the limits of the territory of the United States equal and free before the law, pride is kindled in every heart, joy lights up every countenance, hope beams from every eye, and all feel that the principles of the Declaration of Independence, which before the war were abstract truths, declared to be the principles on which a nation should be founded, have become for the first time the legal governing principles of the greatest nation on earth, and that a new era in government has at last dawned upon mankind. We come to the conclusion that the Declaration, which was a governing principle in the Revolution, was but the dawning of the day of freedom, and that not till the Fourth of July, 1863, did her rising sun break in full effulgence over the length and breadth of the whole land.

Nations, like individuals, are, in a large measure, governed during the whole period of their existence by the circumstances and the principles which surround their birth. As it is true of every individual that during all his life his thoughts, mind, and memory almost daily, and sometimes hourly, turn to the spot where he was born and where his youth was passed, and draws from hence inspiration and motives to action that direct his course to a greater or less extent in all the future emergencies of his life, so it is true of a nation, that the principles promulgated when it is