Judge Goolrick was heartily applauded during the delivery of his address, and at its close the cheering was loud and prolonged.
There was no business session of the society the next day and very many of the Union veterans visited the various battlefields. The most of the society and visitors went to Richmond on an excursion tendered the society by Lee Camp, where they were met and entertained by the Confederate veterans of that hospitable city.
Addresses were made on that occasion by Judge D. C. Richardson, Mayor Richard M. Taylor, Gov. Chas. T. O’Ferrall and Attorney-General A. J. Montague, of Richmond, and Gen. Horatio C. King, of New York, and Gen. Geo. D. Ruggles, of Washington.
On the return of the excursionists from Richmond a reception and lunch were tendered them at the Opera House, where they were met by a large number of the ladies and gentlemen of the town, and a most enjoyable evening was spent. Gen. King, secretary of the society, in a brief address, acknowledged the cordial welcome and unbounded hospitality they had met with in our town and the homes of our citizens, extended the hearty thanks of the society to the officials and citizens and stated that the reception was even warmer and more cordial than they had ever before met with.
RESOLUTIONS OF THANKS ADOPTED.
At the business meeting of the society on the first evening the following preamble and resolution, after very complimentary remarks of the town and people, by many of the visitors, were enthusiastically adopted:
The reunion of the Society of the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg is of peculiar significance, and the generous sentiment which prompted the invitation, meets with a hearty response from every patriotic soldier of that great army. Every animosity engendered by the conflict is here buried with the more than one hundred and twenty thousand gallant men who shed their blood and sacrificed their lives in their heroic devotion to conviction and to duty. The work done here is an imperishable record of the unsurpassed courage and bravery of the American soldier: therefore be it—
Resolved, That we tender to the civic authorities and citizens of Fredericksburg, and especially to the efficient local executive committee and Mr. St. Geo. R. Fitzhugh, our most hearty thanks for a welcome that sustains, in the highest, the fame of Virginia hospitality. The generous and unstinted courtesies of all will render this reunion forever memorable, and the most pleasurable emotion will always arise whenever the name of Fredericksburg is mentioned.
As a fitting sequel of this distinguished gathering and the grand reception on the part of the town and citizens, a letter, written by Gen. Horatio C. King, twenty-five years secretary of the society, en route to his home, in Brooklyn, N. Y., is inserted:
Captain S. J. Quinn, Secretary Army of the Potomac Committee: