COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, COOPERSTOWN, N. Y., September 10, 1889. Chairman of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee: DEAR SIR:-I have the honor to receive your invitation for the twentysecond reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. You will please believe me honored by the courtesy, and regretingly I state my inability to be present at your reunion. Chairman Invitation Committee, Society of the Army of the Ten nessee: MY DEAR SIR:-I have to thank your committee very heartily for its courtesy in sending me an invitation to your next reunion. I saw a good deal of the Army of the Tennessee during the war, as I had a command (the "Benton") in Admiral Porter's squadron. It would give me much pleasure to be able to renew the pleasant acquaintances which I then made, but I regret to say that owing to pressing duties, I am obliged to decline. When you are pledging each other, probably with "commissary," I will be with you in spirit, and cheerfully respond, "Here!" DEAR SIR:-I regret that I am unable to leave my command long enough to attend the reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, to which you have so kindly invited me. Yours very truly, ALEX. BENHAM, Commodore U. S. N. MADISON, Wis., September 3, 1889. COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, Chairman Committee: COLONEL:-I very much regret that other engagements will deprive me of the pleasure of meeting with the Army of the Tennessee on the 25th and 26th inst. I am always glad to be invited, and attended whenever it has been possible. Thanking you and your committee for kindly remembering me, I remain, GENTLEMEN:-I regret that circumstances prevent my acceptance of your invitation to attend the twenty-second reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee next month. With thanks for your courtesy, I remain, COLONEL MARKBREIT, Chairman. Very sincerely, RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. G. A. NOYES, COLONEL DAYTON, MAJOR HOSEA. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, Chairman Committee on Invitations Society Army of the Tennessee: DEAR SIR:-Thank you very much for the invitation to the twenty-second reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. I regret that engagements, which take me into the field at the date of your reunion, will prevent my attendance. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. MERRITT. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, MY DEAR SIR:-I am in receipt of your cordial invitation to attend the twenty-second reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, for which I desire to express most hearty thanks. Unfortunately for me, I must be in this city upon the 26th prox., and therefore cannot avail myself of the privilege thus accorded. The disappointment is aggravated by the fact that I am to leave here on the afternoon of the 26th, and shall pass through Cincinnati on my way South on the following evening. Instead of a banquet, there will be nothing but "cold vittles" for me in your city, and I shall be denied even the pleasure of witnessing the departure of the last weary veteran. Yours very truly, HENRY B. PEIRCE. COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, Chairman Committee on Invitations. STATE OF MINNESOTA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, Chairman Committee on Invitation, Cincinnati, Ohio: DEAR SIR:-I acknowledge, with thanks, receipt of invitation to be present at the twenty-second reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, to be held at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 25th and 26th days of the present month. It is a matter of regret to me that other engagements already entered into will prevent my acceptance. I trust this reunion may be as successful, and as fruitful in good results, as have its predecessors. Yours respectfully, WM. R. MERRIAM, Governor. COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, FORT NIOBRARA, NEB., September 22, 1889. Chairman Committee, Cincinnati, Ohio: DEAR COLONEL:-In acknowledging the cordial invitation to attend the twenty-second reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, I desire to say that I am sorry I cannot be present to tell the survivors of the grand old Army of the Tennessee all about the last campaign, from which I have just returned. It took place in the vicinity of Fort Robinson, in the north-west corner of Nebraska, where, at Camp George Crook, the largest number of regular troops that have come together since the Rebellion have been in camp for the past month for the purpose of giving the present generation an idea of how to save the country, in case it should be endangered in their day. The camp was necessarily only a partial success, for blank cartridges do not excite the same sensations that loaded ones would, or yield the same instruction; and the picket post loses its principal interest when you have to imagine that the enemy is opposite. We had, however, a number of things that were quite realistic. I think the beans and bacon and hard tack had much the flavor it had in the war, the camp-fires burned about the same way, and were quite as grateful in their warmth, for the men shivered over them and chased the smoke in the same old fashion that we were wont to do a quarter of a century ago. The tents were there, brighter and cleaner than I remember them in the war, but the effect of an army in camp was there, sufficiently vivid to require no aid from those who served in the war to recognize the tented field. It was a very good spectacular representation of the scenes of the war, for the exercises were those of the days of muzzle loaders, and gave some idea of how we conducted the war of the Rebellion; and this was the limit of its usefulness, for no attempt was made to anticipate the methods of the next war. I wish the veterans of the Army of the Tennessee could have seen Camp George Crook only for the sake of the memories it would have revived, and then there would have been a great deal more good in the camp, to my mind, than has been the case. It is your example of patriotism and endurance that the coming soldier must imitate, for they will serve as examples for all the generations of the Nation's defenders for all time to come. It is only the means and the manner that we must vary to repel the improved methods that the Nation's enemies will certainly avail themselves of. I can think of no more important sentiment to offer you on this occasion than to remind you that it will not be sufficient for you to inspire the coming generations with your patroitism alone; they must also be impressed with the importance of keeping pace with the art of war to enable them to resist the enemies of freedom and good government. Let your efforts, in time of peace, thus be directed to the preparation for war, and you will thus more certainly save your descendants from the ordeal to which you were subjected, and through which they may not come out as grandly as you have done. Regretting that I cannot be with you, I hope you will have a successful and happy reunion, and live to enjoy many more in the Queen City of the West. Yours fraternally, AUGUST V. KAUT, Colonel 8th U. S. Infantry, Brevet Major-General U. S. Army. NEW HAVEN, CONN., September 20, 1889. GENTLEMEN:-I am much indebted to you for your kind invitation to be present at the reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, to be held at Cincinnati on the 25th and 26th inst., but I regret that the condition of my health forbids me to accept it. I thank you heartily for your courtesy, and I am, Very sincerely yours, ALFRED H. TERRY. COLONEL L. MARKBREIT, PORTLAND, OREGON, September 6, 1889. Chairman Committee on Invitations, Cincinnati, Ohio: DEAR SIR:-Receipt of your kind invitation to attend the twenty-second reunion of the Army of the Tennessee is hereby acknowledged. I regret very much that distance and business prevents me from accepting the same. I will extend my very best wishes for the success of your Society, and hope that at some future time I may have the pleasure of attending a meeting of the Order. Yours very truly, B. B. TUTTLE. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE COLUMBIA, } GENTLEMEN:-I regret that long distance and the lack of time will prevent my acceptance of your cordial invitation of the 14th ult., to be present at the twenty-second reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, in Cincinnati, on the 25th inst. With my wishes for a pleasant time, as usual, I am, JOHN GIBBON, ZANESVILLE, O., September 14, 1889. COMMITTEE ON INVITATION, Army of the Tennessee: GENTLEMEN: I have delayed answering your polite invitation to attend the reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, September 25th and 26th, 1889, hoping that it might be possible for me to participate in the festivities of that occasion, but I regret now to say that I find it will be impossible for me to do so. Yours very respectfully, R. S. GRANGER, Brevet Major-General U. S. Army. ST. PAUL, MINN., September 5, 1889. GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE ON INVITATIONS: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your very kind invitation to be present at the twenty-second reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, on the 25th and 26th inst., and regret very much that I shall not be able to be present. L. MARKBREIT, Very truly, your obedient servant, THOS. H. RUGER, Brigadier-General U. S. Army. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 29, 1889. Chairman, etc., Cincinnati, O.: MY DEAR SIR:-Please accept for yourself and the others of the committee my sincere thanks for your invitation to attend the twenty-second reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, at Cincinnati, which I was about to call my native city, but from which I am restrained by the reflection that I was born in Delaware county, within eleven miles of the county seat. The fact that I have never had an opportunity to meet with your Society would make it all the greater pleasure for me to attend; but, having arranged to be present at the reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, on September 18th, 19th, and 20th, I regret to say that official and personal duties compel me to forego the pleasure of being with the comrades at Cincinnati. With most cordial greetings and best wishes for the welfare of all participants, I remain, Fraternally yours, W. S. ROSECRANS. |