Today in History:

1076 Series I Volume XLIX-II Serial 104 - Mobile Bay Campaign Part II

Page 1076 KY.,S.W.VA.,TENN., N. & C.GA.,MISS.,ALA., & W.FLA.

Ind., reporting by letter on arrival to the Adjutant-General, U. S. Army, for muster out of service. The quartermaster's department will furnish the necessary transportation for his authorized servants and horses.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

By command of Major-General Thomas:

HENRY M. CIST,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Louisville, Ky., July 11, 1865.

OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS:

In taking leave of you I feel it my duty to express my sense of obligation, not only for the service you have rendered the Government, but also to acknowledge the debt which I owe you personally for the reputation which you valor and good conduct have conferred upon me. In whatever position I may hereafter be placed I shall regard it as a duty to devote myself to your interests. I do not care in this place to recount your services and achievements. They are written in the history of our country, and will not be forgotten by those who love our institutions, or honor the brave men who have preserved them. I choose rather to depart from a custom pleasing in itself, and one which would be especially pleasant in this instance to me, that of recalling your triumphs, and even at the risk of provoking criticism by a departure from the accustomed formalities of a farewell address. I prefer to make some suggestion, which I hope may not only prove useful to you, but beneficial also to the cause of our country, which you have proved that you prized more than your own personal interests. The order for your disbandment, as you are well aware, has already been received, and nothing remains to be done to restore you to your homes and families except the formal discharge from service. Your service demands a better recognition at the hands of the country you have aided to preserve than mere words of applause. The Romans made their conquering soldiers freeholders in the lands they had conquered, and as upon your return to your homes you will find most of the occupations and employments filled by adepts from civil life, and as the Government has vast tracts of vacant lands which will be increased by the war, the interests of the country and your own will concur in the apportionment of these lands to your use and occupancy, establishing a citizen soldiery to maintain internal peace and set foreign foes at defiance. There is one other and most importance consideration to which I will point your attention. Simultaneous with the breaking out of the rebellion against our Government a war was made by one of the most potent of the European States upon the Republic of Mexico, under circumstances and with indications of such an unmistakable character as to leave no doubt that the rebellion and the invasion of Mexico were but parts of a conspiracy against republicanism on this continent. The rebellion has been crushed after efforts and sacrifices that have no parallel in modern war, but the invasion of our sister republic of Mexico has been in a measure successful. Can it be said that we have triumphed and that our republic is re-established on solid and immovable foundations so long as the Hapsbrugs, supported by the bayonets of France, maintain themselves in Mexico, where they have established upon the ruins of the republic a system inimical to our own-an asylum for all the disaffected


Page 1076 KY.,S.W.VA.,TENN., N. & C.GA.,MISS.,ALA., & W.FLA.