ught a higher sense of duty to the
true man, who had raised the Nation to a loftier conception of faith
and hope and charity. A countless multitude of men, with music and
banner and cheer and the inspiration of a great cause, presents a
spectacle that engages the eye, fills the mind, appeals to the
imagination. But the deepest sympathy of the soul is touched, the
height of human sublimity is reached, when the same multitude, stricken
with a common sorrow, stands with uncovered head, reverent and silent.

CHAPTER II.

From saddening associations with the tragical death of Mr. Lincoln,
popular attention was turned three weeks after his interment to a
great military display in the Capital of the Nation in honor of the
final victory for the Union. The exigencies of the closing campaign
had transferred the armies commanded by General Sherman from the
Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic coast. The soldiers of Port Hudson
and Vicksburg, the heroes of Donelson, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, had
been brought within a day's march of the bronzed veterans whose
battle-flags were emblazoned with the victories of Antietam and
Gettysburg and with the crowning triumph at Appomattox. It was the
happy suggestion of Secretary Stanton which assembled all these forces
in the National Capital to be viewed by the Commander-in-Chief.
Through four years of stern and perilous duty, there had been no
holiday, no parade of ceremony, no evolution for mere display, either
by the troops of the East or of the West. Their time had been passed
in camp and in siege, in march and in battle, with no effort relaxed,
no vigor abated, no vigilance suspended, during all the long period
when the fate of the Union was at stake. It was now fitting that the
President, attended by the chief officers of the Government, should
welcome them and honor them in the name of the Republic. They had
brought from the field the priceless trophy of American Nationality as
the reward of their valorous struggle. By the voice of the people a
"triumph" as demonstrative, if not as formal, as that given to a
conqueror in Ancient Rome was now decreed to them. They had earned
the right to be applauded on the _via sacra_, and to receive the
laurel-wreath from the steps of the Capitol.

The first day's review, Wednesday, May 23, was given to the Army of the
Potomac, of which General Meade had remained the commander since the
victory at Gettysburg, but whose operations during th