I will not attempt to recount the deeds of the soldiers of Pennsylvania; to do so would be to repeat the history of the war. For with but few exceptions there is not a battlefield from Gettysburg to Mobile where the ground has not been stained with the blood of the soldiers of Pennsylvania. There is not a State, loyal or insurrectionary, which was the seat of war, that does not hold within it the honored and sacred remains of the slain heroes of Pennsylvania. When Beauregard first trained his murderous guns upon Fort Sumter, Pennsylvania was there. Pennsylvania volunteers were the first to reach the National Capitol. We were at Appomattox when traitors fired their last volley; and in all those terrible intermediate struggles in every rebellious State, in every important battle on land or water, where treason was to be confronted or rebellion subdued, the soldiers and sailors of Pennsylvania were ever found, confronting the one and conquering the other. Therefore, it was in true historic order that the wicked struggle to terminate the Union should culminate upon our soil, that its topmost wave should be dashed against our Capital; that its decisive defeat should be secured here where literal bulwarks of upheaved slain preserved the North from the despoiling foot of a traitor, and, accordingly, the rebellion staggered back from Gettysburg to its grave. Remember that at Gettysburg the blood of the people of eighteen loyal States, rich, precious blood, mingling together, sank into the soil of Pennsylvania, and by that red covenant she is pledged for all time to Union, to Patriotism and to Nationality.
Comrade, with a record like this have we not much to be proud of? Such heroism as I have recounted is too sublime for the common language of humanity; a heroism which is patriotic, and a heroism which is heroic; a heroism which blends in beautiful symmetry the moral and the physical; a heroism which will shine with increasing luster as generations pass away. No longer need we look back through the centuries for deeds of noble daring. We can point with pride to our own record in the great War of the Rebellion for achievements that will rival Spartan valor or Roman fortitude.
The 57th regiment was organized early in the fall of 1861, at Camp Curtin, Pennsylvania, and in December of that year was ordered to Washington and went into camp on the Bladensburg pike, near the old toll gate, and subsequently became a part of the Army of the Potomac. From that time until you were mustered out, the history of the Army of the Potomac was your history. You received your first baptism of fire at Yorktown on April 11, 1862, and from that time until the close of the war you participated in every important engagement of that Army, excepting Antietam. That you did your duty faithfully and well your list of casualties will prove. The records of the War Department show that in every engagement you lost men and in some of them from forty to sixty per cent. of the whole number engaged. The original strength of the regiment was eight hundred and fifty men, and your casualties were over eight hundred during the war; and at the final muster out but one of the original officers of the regiment remained to be mustered out with you, Chaplain W. T. McAdam.
I will now quote from the speech of Hon. Chauncey Depew, before the Society of the Army of the Potomac. He says: "Each of the great armies had its distinguishing merit; but in the achievements and in the records of the Western forces, following the precedent of previous wars, are largely represented the genius and personality of great commanders." To the Army of the Potomac belongs the unique distinction of being its own hero. It fought more battles and lost more in killed and wounded than all others; it shed its blood like water to teach incompetent officers the art of war, and political tacticians the folly of their plans; but it was always the same invincible and undismayed Army of the Potomac. Loyal ever to its mission and to discipline, the only sound it gave in protest was the cracking of the bones as the cannon balls ploughed through its decimated ranks. A good soldier does full honor to his adversary. Although Americans on the wrong side, no more formidable force of equal number ever marched or fought than the Army of Northern Virginia, and it had the rare fortune of being always under the command of one of the most creative and accomplished military minds of his time, Gen. Robert E. Lee.
To conquer and capture such an army the captain of the Army of the Potomac must overcome what the greatest tactician has said was impossible, "an armed enemy in his own country," with the whole population venomously hostile; acting as spies; furnishing information, removing supplies; preparing ambuscades, and misleading the invaders. But it did accomplish this military miracle. It was hard and trying to be marched and countermarched for naught; to be separated and paralyzed at the moment when a supreme effort meant victory; to be hurled against impassable defenses, and then waste in repairing the mistake. The Army of the Potomac, was composed of thinking bayonets. Behind each musket was a man who knew for what he was fighting, and who understood the plan of campaign, and with unerring and terrible accuracy sized up his commander. The one soldier in whom he never lost confidence was himself.
This army operated so near the Capitol that Congressmen and newspapers directed its movements, changed its officers and criticised its failures to conquer on blue lines penciled on Washington maps. It suffered four years under unparalleled abuse, and was encouraged by little praise, but never murmured. It saw all its corps and division commanders sign a petition to the President to remove its general, and then despairingly but heroically marched to certain disaster at his order. It saw its general demand the resignation or court martial of its corps or division officers, and yet, undemoralized and undismayed, it charged under his successor in a chaos of conflicting commands. "On to Richmond!" came the unthinking cry from every city, village and cross roads in the North. "On to Richmond!" shouted grave Senators and impetuous Congressmen. "On to Richmond!!" ordered the Cabinet. No longer able to resist the popular demand, the raw and untrained recruits were hurled from their unformed organizations and driven back to Washington. Then, with discipline and drill, out of chaos came order; the self-deserting volunteer has become an obedient soldier; the mass has become moulded into a complex but magnificent machine; and it was the Army of the Potomac! Overcoming untold difficulties, fighting with superb courage, it comes in sight of the spires of Richmond, and then, unable to succeed, because McDowell and his corps of thirty thousand men are held back, it renews each morning and carries on every night in retreat the Seven Days' Battle for existence; and, brought to bay at Malvern Hill, asserts its undaunted spirit in hard won victory. It follows Pope and marches and falls back; pursues enemies who are not before it, and finds foes for which it is unprepared, and fights and is beaten under orders so contradictory and councils so divided, that an army of European veterans would have disbanded. Immediately, it recognizes a general in whom it has confidence. The stragglers come from the bush and the wounded from the hospitals; regiments, brigades, divisions and corps reform, and at Antietam it is invincible and irresistible.
Every man in the ranks knew that the fortified heights of Fredericksburg were impregnable, that the forlorn hope would charge, not into the imminent deadly breach, but into a death trap, and yet with unfaltering step this grand army salutes its blind commander and marches to the slaughter!
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs but to do and die!"