Soldiers Of The Union
Army: I have been desired by the conductor of the “Soldiers’ Friend” to
address a few words to you at the opening of a new year. I take, the occasion
to offer you my warmest congratulations on what you have accomplished in the
past year, and what you may expect to accomplish in the year before you.
At the beginning of the year 1864 the rebel generals
presented a formidable front to our armies. Lee, at the head of a powerful
force, occupied the banks of the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, threatening
Washington and Pennsylvania. Early and his rebel cavalry held the wide valley
of the Shenandoah. Johnston, with a formidable army, had posted himself at
Atlanta, deemed an impregnable position, in which the rebels had stored the
munitions of war in vast magazines, and collected the machinery by which they
were fabricated.
A glance at the history of the past year will show you how
all this state of things has been rapidly changed.
It will show General Grant transferred from the West, and
invested with the command of our armies, pressing Lee by a series of splendid
and hotly contested victories southward to Richmond, where Grant now holds the
first general of the rebel army and its choicest troops unwilling prisoners.
It will show General Sheridan sweeping down the valley of
the Shenandoah, and, by a series of brilliant successes, driving Early from the
field.
It will show General Sherman leaving his position in
Tennessee, and, by a series of able movements, reaching Atlanta, flanking and
defeating Hood, capturing Atlanta, giving that stronghold of rebellion to the
flames, and then making a triumphant march of three hundred miles through the
heart of Georgia down to Savannah, which yields at the first summons, while the
troops which held it save themselves from capture by flight.
It will show General Thomas, left in Tennessee by Sherman to
deal with Hood, luring that commander from his advantageous position, and then
falling upon his troops with an impetuosity which they cannot resist, till, by
defeat after defeat, his broken and diminished army has become a mere band of
fugitives.
It will show Mobile Bay entered by our navy, under the
gallant Farragut, and held by him until the Federal troops shall be ready to
occupy the town from the land side. It will show Wilmington, that principal
mart of the blockade-runners, menaced both by sea and land, and Charleston
trembling lest her fate may be like that of Savannah.
The year closes in these events, which, important as they
are in themselves, are no less important in the consequences to which they
lead, and which, as the ports of the enemy fall into our hands, as their
resources one by one are cut off, their communications broken, and their armies
lessened by defeat and desertion, promise the early disorganization of the
rebellion, a speedy end of all formidable resistance to the authority of the
Government, and the abandonment of the schemes formed by the rebel leaders, in
utter despair of their ability to execute them.
Soldiers! This is your work! These are your heroic
achievements; for these a grateful country gives you its thanks. Millions of
hearts beat with love and pride when you are named. Millions of tongues speak
your praise and offer up prayers for your welfare. Millions of hands are doing
and giving all they can for your comfort, and that of the dear ones whom you
have left at your homes. The history of the present war will be the history of
your courage, your constancy, and the cheerful sacrifices you have made to the
cause of your country.
I feel that you need no exhortation to persevere as you have
begun. If I did, I would say to the men at the front: Be strong; be hopeful!
your crowning triumph cannot be far distant. When it arrives, our nation will
have wiped out a dark stain, which we feared it might yet wear for ages, and
will stand in the sight of the world a noble commonwealth of freemen, bound
together by ties which will last as long as the common sympathies of our race.
To those who suffer in our hospitals, the wounded and maimed
in the war, I would say: The whole nation suffers with you; the whole nation
implores Heaven for your relief and solace. A grateful nation will not, cannot,
forget you.
The nation has voted to stand by you who have fought or are
fighting its battles. This great Christian nation has signified to the
Government its will that the cause, in which you have so generously suffered
and bled, shall never be abandoned, but shall be resolutely maintained until
the hour of its complete triumph. Meantime, the salutation of the new year,
which I offer you, comes from millions of hearts as well as from mine, mingled
in many of them with prayers for your protection in future conflicts, and
thanksgiving for your success in those which are past. May you soon witness the
glorious advent of that happy new year, when our beloved land, having seen the
end of this cruel strife, shall present to the world a union of States with
homogeneous institutions, founded on universal freedom, dwelling together in
peace and unbroken amity, and when you who have fought so well, and triumphed
so gloriously, shall return to your homes, amid the acclamations of your
countrymen, wiser and more enlightened, and not less virtuous than when you
took up arms for your country, with not one vice of the camp to cause regret to
your friends.
William C. Bryant.
January 1, 1865.
SOURCE: Parke Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen
Bryant, Volume 1, p. 221-3
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