Comrades: — We
have just closed an eventful year in our soldier life. During the year 1862 the
Twenty-third Regiment has borne well its part in the great struggle for the
Union. The splendid fight of Company C at Clark's Hollow, the daring,
endurance, and spirit of enterprise exhibited in the capture of Princeton and
Giles Court-house, the steadiness, discipline, and pluck which enabled you, in
the face of an overwhelming force of the enemy, to retreat from your advanced
position without panic or confusion and almost unharmed, the conspicuous and
acknowledged achievements of the regiment at the battles of South Mountain and
Antietam, amply justify the satisfaction and pride which I am confident we all feel
in the regiment to which we belong.
We recall these events and scenes with joy and exultation.
But as we glance our eyes along the shortened line, we are filled with sadness
that we look in vain for many forms and faces once so familiar! We shall not
forget them. We shall not forget what they gave to purchase the good name which
we so highly prize. The pouring out of their lives has made the tattered old
flag sacred.
Let us begin the new year — this season to us of quiet and
of preparation — with a determination so to act that the future of our regiment
shall cast no shadow on its past, and that those of us who shall survive to
behold the opening of another new year shall regard with increased
gratification the character, history, and name of the gallant old Twenty-third!
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 384-5
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