flags was a large shield with the motto: "Honor and gratitude to the defenders of our country." The sides of the room were embellished with flags tastefully arranged, and producing a pleasing effect.

The tables presented a very attractive appearance, not only to the eye of the epicure, but also in an artistic and poetical point of view. There were at frequent intervals, on each table, vases filled with rare exotics, which lent their beauty and fragrance to enhance the enjoyment and give increased life and animation to the scene. And not only had Nature lent her charms to grace this festive occasion, but Art had also been reserved a niche wherein to place some of her less pretentious, but still beautiful works, for on each of the tables were a number of handsome and finely executed confectionary ornaments, many of them of spotless white. Among the most attractive was the Temple of Liberty, with the Goddess standing upon the summit, with the stars and stripes in her hand, and beneath the canopy upon which she stood, was a tiny cherub with his harp of gold. There were also a crystal basket on a pedestal, vases surmounted with flowers and fruit, a fancy fountain, with its jets of sparkling crystal, a pyramid of macaroons, a Nugat pyramid, à la Parisienne.

Mr. Stetson, as on all similar occasions, had provided most bountifully for the gastronomical wants of his guests; and to take a survey of the tables, with their elegant service, rich, luscious, tempting viands, and beautiful flowers and ornaments, one would suppose that even the veriest anchorite might be tempted to renounce his asceticism and join in the sumptuous repast.

The Banquet.

At about nine o'clock the guests marched into the dining-hall, to the magnificent music of Gilmore's band, and took their seats at the tables.

At the upper end of the hall, and crossing it, sat the President of the evening, General Devens, flanked on either side by distinguished gentlemen. On his right were seated Generals A. H. Terry, John G. Foster, Henry W. Benham, and Israel Vogdes (all of the United States Army), Mayor Shurtleff, and Rev. H.

Clay Trumbull. On his left were Commodore John Rodgers, U. S. N., Collector Hon. Thomas Russell, Generals H. M. Plaisted of Maine, M. T. Donohoe of New Hampshire, G. H. Gordon of Massachusetts, and J. R. Hawley of Connecticut.

The company were called to order by the President, and the divine blessing was invoked by the Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Trumbull. An hour was then very agreeably spent in partaking of the excellent repast spread before them. Having done ample justice to the good things provided for their physical comfort, the assembly were next treated to a rich mental entertainment.

The President, General Devens, was the first speaker, and when he arose was greeted with enthusiastic applause. The following is his address:

ADDRESS OF BREV. MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES DEVENS, JR.

COMRADES: In the ordinary affairs of life, it is a pleasure to renew our association with those with whom we have been privileged to enjoy much. The student returns to his college, the boy to his school, delighted to recall the scenes of his youth in company with those who once participated in them. Nor is the tie less strong when we meet again those by whose side it has been our duty to endure and suffer much, for mutual sorrows bind us to each other more firmly than mutual pleasures. Life presents, however, no ties so strong to unite men not of the same kindred and blood, as those which connect men who have perilled their lives in the same great cause, who feel that in the hour of danger they have leaned upon the arms, and relied upon the courage, of those who sit by their side to-day, and found their own courage strengthened by their support.

If there were those who might have been of the soldiers of our army, or the other arınies of the Union, and yet were not, I deem them unfortunate that recollections, such as an hour like this enkindles, are absent from their lives.

I know, however, how many there are who would gladly have been of our number, whom mature age or imperative engagements forbade to join our ranks. I know, too, how great were the sacrifices which the war called upon all our citizens to make,

and how cheerfully and nobly they were borne. I know, too, that hard as is the lot, and stern as is the duty, of the soldier who swings on his knapsack for the weary fields of war, the lot of the mother who parts from her son, of the maiden who gives up her lover, is harder still, for it is hers alone to "weep, and watch, and wait."

In the name of all those who have done or suffered anything in the long struggle through which we have passed—in the name of our common conflicts and dangers-in the name of the glorious triumph of our noble cause-in the name of the dear among the living and the dearer among the dead-I bid you welcome, all to this gathering of the survivors of the Army of the James.

This army was practically, rather than formally organized (for I believe no formal order of the War Department called it into existence) under Major-General Butler, in April, 1864. In addition to the departmental troops of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, it was composed of the 10th Corps, under General Gillmore, and the 18th, under General W. F. Smith. But though the organization was new, the troops which composed it, were the veterans of many a well-fought field. They had fought under General Burnside and General J. G. Foster in the conflicts of Roanoke Island and Newbern in North Carolina, and with Gillmore had shared in the tedious and dangerous siege of Charleston. The sands of Morris Island had been wet with their blood, and they had heaped their dead high on the impregnable bastions of Fort Wagner. Of the 18th Corps, a portion were also veterans of the McClellan Peninsula Campaign.

Immediately after its organization, this army, by a movement of General Butler-the rapidity and brilliancy of which cannot be too much admired-was placed at the well-known spot on the south side of the James, called Bermuda Hundred, where it dangerously threatened the lines of communication of Lee's army. This movement was contemporaneous with the movement of General Grant from the Rappahannock, with the Army of the Potomac. Indeed, the Army of the James was always, in a military sense, a wing of the Army of the Potomac, rather than a purely independent force; at this period acting as its left wing; at a later period as its right.

From its position, the conflicts in which it was engaged were severe, desperate, and of varied fortune. Swift Creek, Chester Station, Proctor's Creek, Drury's Bluff, and almost daily nameless battle-fields attested the valor of the soldiers who composed it. At the end of May, after the battle of Spottsylvania, a detachment of more than one-half its available troops was temporarily ordered to the Army of the Potomac. This detachment, under command of General Smith, consisted of two divisions of the 18th Corps, under Generals Martindale and Brooks, and a division of the 10th, under General Devens. So closely had this movement been calculated, that these troops moved down the James, up the York and Pamunky, and marching a whole long summer's night, reached the field of Cold Harbor just as that battle was opening, being actually engaged before the men had time to cook a cup of coffee, as a refreshment from their long and arduous march. In that most terrible battle of the war, they bore themselves most bravely in support of their brethren of the Potomac; and I believe it is but simple justice to the division of the 10th Corps to say, that it, and Ricketts' Division of the 6th Corps, were the only two divisions that broke and carried the enemy's lines on that day.

The movement of the Army of the Potomac to the south side of the James, followed rapidly after the battle of Cold Harbor, and the Army of the James, from its left, became its right wing, lying mainly on the south side of the James and resting on the Appomattox, while Gen. R. S. Foster held Deep Bottom on the north side.

On the 30th of July occurred the unfortunate affair of the mine in front of Petersburg, but the troops of this army formed on this occasion only a supporting force.

On August 14th and 16th, the well-contested engagements of Deep Bottom and Fussell's Mills, fought mainly by the Second Army Corps, under Hancock, and the Tenth, under Birney, took place. During the last days of September the whole Army of the James, under Gen. Butler, moved to the north side, the Tenth Corps under Birney, and the Eighteenth under Ord, and a severe engagement took place, resulting in our carrying the strong position of Newmarket Heights on one of the roads leading to Richmond,

and one of the strongest field-works ever constructed, and known as Fort Harrison, upon the other. This brilliant affair, costing the lives of many of our bravest officers and men, gave us possession of the nearest point ever occupied to Richmond until its final surrender.

The subsequent conflicts of the Fall and early Winter I do not stay to particularize, although the severest were those on the wellknown Darbytown road and on the old battle-ground of Fair Oaks. Suffice it to say, that there was not a movement of the Army of the Potomac which was not supported by the Army of the James.

In the winter of 1864-5 a reorganization took place, by which the colored troops, which were originally distributed in both the Eighteenth and Tenth Corps, formed a new corps, as the TwentyFifth, under Gen. Weitzel, and the white troops a new corps under Gen. Ord, as the Twenty-Fourth.

An unsuccessful attempt to take Fort Fisher soon followed, the events connected with which have been the theme of much unpleasant controversy, into which it would be out of place to enter here. I prefer to hasten to the successful attempt, made entirely with troops of this army, which, under the gallant and distinguished General Terry, whom we all welcome so cordially to-day, resulted in the downfall of that rebel stronghold. From that hour, no seaport was open to our foes, and the coast of the South was hermetically sealed.

The troops which performed this gallant exploit were soon detached from our Army of the James, and their place in somė measure, supplied by a veteran and gallant division from the Eighth Army Corps, who had won their laurels under Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia.

The hour for which the wise and prudent General who commanded our armies had long waited, and the time for the fatal blow, approached. In this, too, the Army of the James, now, under command of Gen. Ord, was to take its part, and in the last days of March, Turner and Foster's Division of the Twenty-fourth, and Birney's Division of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps, moved, with Gen. Gibbon of the Twenty-fourth, to join the Army of the Potomac in its last assault upon the army of Gen. Lee; while