THE BANQUET.

The Association then adjourned to the Exchange Hotel where an excellent supper was served. After full justice had been done to the viands a number of regular toasts were read, and eloquent responses were made by Governor Kemper, General W. B. Talliaferro, General W. H. Payne, General J. A. Early, General Fitz. Lee, General W. H. F. Lee, General R. Lindsay Walker, General J. A. Walker, Dr. Cullen, Dr. Carrington, Judge Farrar, General Bradley T. Johnson, General Robert Ramson, General F. H. Smith, Colonel C. S. Venable, Colonel Charles Marshall and Sergeant George L. Christian.

FIFTH ANNUAL REUNION.

On Thursday evening, October 29th, 1875, the Hall of the House of Delegates was packed to its utmost capacity. The First Vice-President, General W. H. F. Lee, called the meeting to order. Rev. Dr. J. William Jones opened the exercises with prayer.

General Lee made a graceful and touching allusion to the recent death of General George E. Pickett, President of the Association, and paid an eloquent tribute to his memory. He then made a brief but most appropriate address, and introduced as orator of the evening Major John W. Daniel, of Lynchburg-"one known in the annals of the State, as well as a gallant soldier who served on General Early's staff."

Major Daniel was received with deafening applause, and was frequently cheered to the echo as he delivered the following address: John X

ADDRESS OF MAJOR DANIEL.

Fellow Soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia-Not with the ringing bugle nor the throbbing drum in our van, nor with the battle flag floating proudly o'er our "tattered uniforms and bright muskets," come we again to the historic city which was once the busy arsenal and the glowing heart of the Confederate revolution.

Stately palaces now line the avenues so lately filled with charred and smoking ruins. The fields around us smile in cultivated beauty where lately trod the iron hoof of war, "fetlock deep in blood." The lordly river, no longer grim with batteries on its banks and iron-clads upon its surface, nor choked with obstructions in its channel, rolls its majestic tides in unbroken currents to the sea. And save here and there, where some rude earthwork, overgrown with grass and weeds, scars the landscape, fair nature tells no tale of the devastation of civil strife.

But long after the elements of changing seasons and the slow process of time have obliterated from the physical world every scar and stain of conflict, the scenes around us, animate with their heroic actors, shall be portrayed to other generations with all the vividness of artist's brush and poet's song, and faithful chroniclers shall recount to eager ears the story which has made

the name of Richmond not less memorable than the name of ancient Troy, and has immortalized those more than Trojan heroes the devoted citizen soldiery of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Surviving comrades of that valiant host, I hail you with a comrade's warmest greeting. In Virginia's name I welcome you back to Virginia's capital city, amongst those generous people who nerved your arms by their cheerful courage, who bent over your wounds with ministering care, who con.cled adversity by fidelity, and plucked from defeat its sting.

Here to-night we come as men of peace-faithfully rendering unto Cæsar the things that are his-but happy to touch elbows once more together in the battle of life, and proud to revive the cherished memories of the "brave days of yore," and to renew the solemn and high resolve that their bright examples and great actions shall not perish from the records of time.

Happier, indeed, would I have been if, on this occasion, the task of reproducing some page of your famous history had been confided to other and abler hands than mine; for in this distinguished presence, with my superiors in rank, ability and military services around me, the soldier's sense of subordination creeps over me, and I would fain fall back into the ranks of those who are seen but not heard.

But since it is I who am appointed to play the role of the old soldier

66 Who shoulders his crutch

And shows how fields were won,"

I bow obediently to orders, trusting that the splendor of my themes may obscure the deficiences of your orator, and that your generosity-as characteristic of the soldier as his courage-may sheathe the critic's sword in its scabbard.

THEME SUGGESTED.

In their courteous letter of invitation, your Committee expressed the desire that I should select as the subject of my discourse some one of the great campaigns or battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. And, acceding to their wishes, I reviewed in my mind the long line of its splendid achievements, no little embarrassed, by their very variety and brilliancy, in fixing attention upon any particular one. There was no campaign of that matchless army that did not abound in glorious exploits of both generals and soldiers. There was no single action, whatever its result, that draped the battle flag in dishonor, and it is a signifi

cant fact—an eternal eulogy in itself to that stout-hearted band of heroes-that it never was driven in disorder from any field of battle under its enemy's fire, until when, worn out by ceaseless strife with constant levies of fresh men, it was overwhelmed by Grant at Petersburg, and closed its career with undiminished glory on the field of Appomattox.

INDECISIVENESS OF THE VIRGINIA BATTLES.

But there is this equally remarkable fact in the history of the Army of Northern Virginia-that almost all of its engagements were attended by no decisive results. The capitals of the two belligerant nations (Washington and Richmond) were but one. hundred and thirty miles distant, and that portion of Virginia lying between them became an immense amphitheatre of conflict, within which the armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia, like fierce gladiators, repeated from year to year their bloody contests, with fortunes varying only sufficiently to brighten hope or beget depression, but continually postponing the glittering prize which each aimed to attain.

To and fro-from the heights around Alexandria, whence the soaring dome of the National capitol loomed up before the Confederate's vision, back to these memorable fields around Richmond, whence the Federal pickets sighted its tempting spiresrolled the incessant tides of battle, with alternations of success, until all Northern Virginia became upheaved with entrenchments, billowed with graves, saturated with blood, seared with fire, stripped to desolation, and kneaded under the feet, hoofs and wheels of the marching columns.

At the first battle of Manassas the cordon of fortifications around Washington prevented a rout from becoming an annihilation, and that battle only decided that other battles would be needed to decide anything.

At Williamsburg, McClellan, who succeeded McDowell, the displaced commander of Manassas, received a sharp rebuff, which decided nothing but that the antagonists would have to close together.

At Seven Pines the fall of our skillful General Joseph E. Johnston, at a critical moment, and the consequent delay which enabled Sedgwick to cross the swollen waters of the Chickahominy, ended the prospect of making that more than a field of gallant and brilliant endeavor.

At Malvern Hill a curious mistake, which led one subordinate to pursue a wrong road, and the lamentable delay of others, combined with the really valorous defence of that key-position, ex

tinguished the high tide of victory in the volcanic fires of that battery-crowned summit, and closed with the escape of the enemy to his gunboats and the disappointment of his adversary.

The second field of Manassas, in which the redoubtable John Pope, who, having seen before "only the backs of his enemies," entered the fact of record that his curiosity was entirely satiated with a single glimpse of their faces, was only the prelude of a more deadly struggle at Sharpsburg; and as Manassas only decided that it would require another effort of the Federal army to beat us on our own soil, Sharpsburg only decided that we would have to gird our loins once more to overwhelm it upon its own. At Fredericksburg in December, 1862, Burnside, having blindly hurled his army against Lee's entrenchments, managed to repeat the manœuvre of the French King, who "marched up the hill and down again”—and to regain the opposite bank of the Rappahannock without a foot of ground lost or won-leaving that ill-starred field behind him as a memorial of nothing but wasted life and courage on the one side, and cool, steady, self-poised intrepidity on the other.

And at Chancellorsville, in the spring of 1863, when Hooker assailed by flank the same field which Burnside charged in front, a famous stroke of generalship, directed by Lee and executed by Jackson, placed him side by side on the stool of penitence with his predecessor. But there a great calamity planted a thorn in the crown of victory, gave pause to the advance of the conquering banner, and turned to safe retreat what promised to be the rout and annihilation of the Federal army. That calamity. was the fall of "Stonewall" Jackson-Lee's incomparble lieutenant-whose genius had shed undying lustre on the Confederate arms and before whose effigy to-day the two worlds bow in honor.

And so the end of two years found the two armies still pitted against each other in the same arena, with proud Washington behind the one, still egging it to the attack for the honor of the old flag and the solidarity of the Union; and defiant Richmond still behind the other, upholding it with words and deeds of cheer, and bidding it never to weary in well doing for the cause. of liberty and Confederate independence.

THE CRISIS OF 1863.

But while the status of the combatants in Virginia had received no decisive change, it became obvious in the spring of 1863 that an hour big with destiny was near at hand. The Army of the Potomac had become disheartened by continuous adversity. Five chosen chieftains-McDowell, McClellan, Pope,