Address, delivered at the reunion of the Eighth Kansas Veteran Volunteer Infantry, held at Fort Leavenworth, October 10th, 11th and 12th, 1883.

Surviving members of the Eighth Kansas Veteran Volunteer Infantry, to the number of about one hundred, assembled at Camp Pope, on the Fort Leavenworth reservation, on the 10th, 11th and 12th of October, 1883. The headquarters of the “Society of the Eighth Kansas” were established in a tent opposite the general headquarters for the soldiers’ reunion, designated by a banner bearing the following inscription:

Beneath this was painted the badge of the Third Division, Fourth Army Corps—to which the regiment was longest attached—a blue triangle, bearing the names of the most prominent engagements in which the Eighth took part, viz.:

On the afternoon of October 10th the roll was called by companies, and the day was spent in social greetings, in revisiting Fort Leavenworth, and in reviving recollections of the campaigns in which the command took part.

The Society elected the following officers for the ensuing year, viz.:

At the conclusion of the exercises in the “big tent,” the President, Colonel John A. Martin, delivered the following address, which was ordered printed in pamphlet form, together with the proceedings of the reunion and the names of those in attendance:

Comrades of the Eighth Kansas: There is always a charm in revisiting once familiar places after a long absence, and to a Kansas soldier this reservation will ever possess a fascinating interest. Here nearly all the troops young Kansas sent to the war were organized or equipped. And to those who were mustered here; who slept for the first time under canvas in the old blue-grass pasture, and there ate for the first time a soldier’s fare, Fort Leavenworth will always be holy ground.

I have paid many visits to this Post since the far-away days of ’61, but never have the scenes and incidents of that period been so vividly recalled as during the present occasion. The white tents, the trampled grass, the groups of men, half uniformed, half in citizens’ dress; the straggling stacks of arms, the marching columns, the orderlies coming and going, the notes of bugles and the music of fife and drum—these scenes and sounds seem to belong to the turbulent past rather than to the peaceful and prosperous present. The alien and unfamiliar feature is this great tent, and the speech-making within its canvas walls. The days of ’61 were not distinguished for talk. They were days of action. The speech-maker did his work then, as now, but not here on this reserve. I fancy that if “Old Prince,” that terror of the Kansas recruits, had caught a man making a speech on the reservation, he would have organized a drumhead court-martial at once, for his prompt trial and execution.

The place and the surroundings, as I have said, are familiar. And yet how vast the changes that have been wrought since the mustering here twenty-two years ago! It is doubtful if the adult male population of Kansas at that time greatly exceeded the numbers present at this reunion. The poor, harassed and feeble Territory has grown to be one of the greatest States in the Union, rich in all the elements of substantial prosperity; richer still in the imperial manhood of a citizenship which includes representatives of every regiment in the Union army. Plodding along in all the walks and ways of our now peaceful and quiet Kansas life are men who have fought on every battle-field of the civil war; men who were active participants in all the events of the greatest and most stirring drama of the world’s history; men whose personal recollections embrace the story of every march, camp, bivouac, skirmish and battle in which the armies of the Union engaged; men whose blood has been poured out in every combat where patriotism maintained the supremacy of our flag.

Is it any wonder that Kansas has, in the nearly two decades that have elapsed since the war closed, grown to be one of the greatest, most intelligent, and most prosperous of the States? Of what achievements, in the enterprises of civil life requiring courage, energy and resourceful vigor, is such blood and bone, and heart and brain, as make up her population, not capable? From the most sterile and reluctant soil a manhood of this order would wrest plenty. Is it wonderful that, when earth and air combine to aid its labors, this population should have made Kansas one of the greatest and most prosperous States in the Union?

I need not say how glad and proud I am, my dear old comrades, to meet and greet you, one and all, once more. It seems but a brief time since the Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry pitched its tents in the blue-grass of this reserve and was mustered into the service of the United States, “for three years or during the war.” But the whitening locks of many of its survivors, gathered here to-day, tell the story of time’s flight. The youngest soldiers in its ranks have reached middle age; the oldest are now old men, nearing the sunsets of their lives. The hardships and privations of march and camp, and the casualties of battle, decimated its ranks again and again during its long term of service; very many have since died, their lives shortened by wounds, or by the wasting effects of the campaigns in which they participated; and the survivors, scattered all over the country, probably do not number one-third of the 1,081 men who have answered “here” at its roll-calls.

It is no vain-glorious or empty boasting to declare, as I do, that to have served in the Eighth Kansas is a fact of which any man has a just right to be proud. No regiment in the army of the Union during the civil war can cite participation in campaigns of greater magnitude, events of more romantic and exciting interest, or marches over a vaster scope of country. Nor did any regiment more conspicuously illustrate, in camp or field, a loftier devotion to duty, a more unselfish patriotism, or a more constant courage.

The Eighth Kansas served in four of the great armies of the Union. Its service began in what was afterwards known as the “Army of the Frontier;” thence, early in 1862, it was transferred to the “Army of the Mississippi;” in the summer of the same year it joined the “Army of the Ohio;” and in November became a part of the “Army of the Cumberland.” With this military division it served until its final muster-out, in January, 1866.

Its organization was commenced in August, 1861, and its first company was mustered in on the 28th of that month. By the 12th of October, eight companies had been recruited and mustered; in December, the ninth was added; and early in January the regiment had its full complement. In February, however, a reorganization of Kansas regiments was made. Companies D and H, of the Eighth, which were cavalry, were transferred to the Ninth Kansas; Companies F and K were consolidated, and three companies of Colonel Graham’s battalion were transferred to the Eighth, making it a full regiment of infantry.

From the date of its organization, in September, 1861, until May, 1862, four companies of the regiment did duty along the Missouri border, in Southern Kansas; others formed part of the post garrisons at Forts Leavenworth, Riley, Kearney, and Laramie. Early in May five companies were ordered to Corinth, Mississippi, and proceeding to Columbus, Kentucky, by steamer, they marched thence along the line of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad to Corinth. After a service of two months in that army, the Division to which the Eighth was attached was ordered to reinforce General Buell. By rapid marches through Eastport, Mississippi, and Florence, Alabama, it joined the “Army of the Ohio” at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and took part in the extraordinary campaign which ended at Louisville, Kentucky. Thence it moved southward again, with the command to which it was attached, through Perryville and Lancaster to Crab Orchard, and thence to Nashville. There it remained nearly six months, doing provost duty, and there, in February and March, 1863, the five companies left in Kansas joined headquarters, and for the first time in its history the regiment was united.

Early in June, 1863, the Eighth rejoined its Division at Murfreesboro. It participated, during that summer, in the campaign against Tullahoma, and, late in August, forming the advance guard of the Twentieth Corps, crossed the Tennessee river at Caperton’s ferry, in pontoon boats. It took an active part in all the movements of the campaign which followed, ending with the battle of Chicamauga and the siege of Chattanooga. On the 23d of November, covering the front of its brigade as skirmishers, the Eighth captured Orchard Knob, the headquarters of Generals Grant and Thomas during the battles of the succeeding two days. On the 25th it participated in the storming of Mission Ridge, and its flag was one of the first, if not the first, planted on the summit.

Two days later the Eighth marched, with its corps, to the relief of Burnside, at Knoxville; took part in all the movements of that dreadful winter campaign, and formed a portion of the rear guard on the retreat from Dandridge.

Early in January, 1864, at Strawberry Plains, East Tennessee, four-fifths of all the members of the Eighth then present reËnlisted as veterans. Returning home in February, the regiment received a furlough for thirty days. Reassembling at this Post, early in April, it returned to the South, and took part in the campaign against Atlanta. Thence, with its corps, it moved back to Nashville, and participated in the battle which ground the Rebel army of the West to atoms.

During the first six months of the year 1865, the Eighth was stationed at various points in Alabama and Tennessee, but late in July it was ordered to Texas, where it remained until the 29th of November, when it was mustered out, and ordered home for final discharge. It reached Fort Leavenworth on the 6th of January, 1866, and on the 9th was formally disbanded.

Its career, it will thus be seen, commenced at a very early period of the civil war, and terminated long after the last hostile shot had been fired. From the date of its organization until its final muster-out, there were 1,081 names on its rolls. But its largest numerical strength at any one time was 877, in March, 1862. The largest aggregate force, “present for duty,” was 656, at about the same date.

The records of its service show that it traveled 10,750 miles; participated in fifteen battles and many skirmishes; and lost in battle three commissioned officers and sixty-seven enlisted men killed; thirteen commissioned officers and two hundred and seventy-six enlisted men wounded; and one commissioned officer and twenty enlisted men missing; or a total of seventy killed, two hundred and eighty-nine wounded, and twenty-one missing; and an aggregate of three hundred and eighty killed, wounded and missing. Of the missing, nearly all were killed, and of the wounded about one-fifth died of their wounds. The regiment’s loss by the casualties of battle, it will thus be seen, was nearly sixty per cent. of the greatest number it ever had present for duty.

In addition to these losses three commissioned officers and ninety-two enlisted men died of disease; one hundred and ninety-two were discharged for disabilities resulting from wounds or disease; and fifty-three died of wounds. The total loss by death, including the seventy killed in battle, was two hundred and eighteen, and by discharge because of wounds and disease, one hundred and ninety-two, making a total loss, by death or disability, of four hundred and ten.

The regiment brought back to the State, and deposited at Topeka, three flags. Under the first, carried until it returned home on veteran furlough, in February, 1864, it marched 3,681 miles, and lost three commissioned officers and forty-nine enlisted men killed, ten commissioned officers and two hundred and eighteen enlisted men wounded, and twenty enlisted men missing. Under the second, carried until after the battle of Nashville, it marched 2,660 miles, and lost three commissioned officers wounded and one captured, and eighteen enlisted men killed and fifty-eight wounded. Under the third it traveled 4,409 miles, but sustained no loss in battle.

The largest loss the Eighth sustained in a single engagement was at Chicamauga, where out of a total of four hundred and six officers and men present, its killed, wounded and missing numbered two hundred and forty-three, or sixty per cent. of all engaged.

A brief, dull sketch this is of the services of the Eighth Kansas, I know. But I am anxious to condense it into as brief a space as possible; and dull as it is, it will revive in your memory a thousand thrilling recollections; meager as it is, it will give any soldier or any intelligent civilian who was an interested observer of the events of the war, a fairly comprehensive idea of the part the regiment bore in that great struggle. This is all I have sought to do. It would require volumes to tell the story in full. For this regiment not only saw all “the pomp and circumstance of war,” but all its ghastly desolation, misery and despair as well. It sounded all the notes alike of war’s pÆan and of its dirge. The tramp of its swift and steady march echoed in the highways of twelve different States. Its bayonets flashed from Fort Laramie to the Gulf, and from Kansas to North Carolina. At Nashville it did duty in white gloves; at Strawberry Plains it was shirtless, shoeless, and in rags. It was feasted in Kansas and starved in Chattanooga. It hunted guerrillas in Missouri, combatted Longstreet’s veterans at Chicamauga, stormed the blazing heights of Mission Ridge, fought a continuous battle from Kennesaw Mountain to Atlanta, and broke the lines of Hood at Nashville. It built roads, bridged rivers, convoyed trains, destroyed railroads, operated mills, policed cities, gathered crops, and made history. And wherever it was, or whatsoever it was doing, the calm and patient endurance, the magnificent courage, the splendid discipline, and the unfaltering patriotism of its soldiers could always be relied on.

It is pleasant to remember, too, and I am sure there is no true soldier of the Eighth who will not proudly recall the fact, that on many different occasions the drill, discipline and military appearance of the regiment were complimented in official orders, issued from corps and army headquarters. At Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in June, 1863, the following order was published:

I take pleasure in reporting to you the following extract from the report of the Inspector of the First Division, especially as the same regiments have attracted the notice of the Corps Inspector:

Extract—“The drill, military appearance and dress of the Eighth Kansas is the best observed in the Division; that of the Twenty-fifth Illinois next.

Respectfully referred to Colonel Heg, commanding Third Brigade, First Division, who will have this creditable compliment conveyed to the above-mentioned regiments.

By command of Major-General McCook.

On the 15th of July, 1863, the following order was issued:

Colonel: I have the honor to make the following extract from the semi-monthly inspection report of Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. Fisher, Assistant Inspector-General 20th Army Corps:

Extract—“The Eighth Kansas, lately attached to this corps, is splendidly equipped and well cared for. Its long stay in Nashville has enabled it to attain a polish to a certain degree impracticable in the field, but its example is valuable to the corps.”

To Lieutenant-Colonel Goddard, A. A. G.

Respectfully referred to the commanding officer of the Eighth Kansas.

By command of Major-General Rosecrans.

A few weeks later the following order was issued:

Colonel: I have the honor to call your attention to the following extract from the report of Captain H. W. Hall, A. I. G. First Division, on the camps of the Third Brigade:

Extract—“The camps of the Eighth Kansas and Twenty-fifth Illinois are the best in the Division. These regiments vie with each other in excellence in every respect, and are models worthy of imitation for any troops with which it has been my fortune to associate.”

Respectfully referred to the commanding officer, Third Brigade, First Division. The General commanding the corps is pleased to hear so favorable a report of the regiments of this Brigade.

By command of Major-General Sheridan.

With these extracts I may fitly close this brief story of a regiment whose career was alike creditable to the State it represented and to the men who served in its ranks. I do not claim for the Eighth higher soldierly qualities than belonged to many other regiments. I simply assert that, having great opportunities to serve its country, it was always equal to them, and that wherever it was placed it did its whole duty. It was the only Kansas regiment that served in the great “Army of the Cumberland.” Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and many other States had scores of splendid regiments in that grand army, but the Eighth alone represented the martial spirit of Kansas in its ranks. It would not be fair to say that the regiment was ever treated unjustly because of this fact; but it is true that when it first joined the army the Eighth was regarded with some suspicion and a great deal of curiosity. Whatsoever respect it won, whatsoever reputation it made, whatsoever fame it afterward enjoyed in that great army as a well-disciplined, brave and patriotic body of soldiers, was squarely and fairly earned by honest deserving, for it had neither original good repute nor the kindly aid of other regiments bearing the name of the same State, to promote its fortunes and its reputation. Alone in a great army of two hundred thousand, this little body of seven hundred men kept stainless the honor and added luster to the fame of Kansas. In less than six months after it joined the Army of the Cumberland, no regiment was better or more favorably known; and until its final muster-out it steadily held the respect and confidence of its commanding generals and of the troops with which it was most intimately associated.

In the noisy and distracting political feuds which were so numerous in Kansas at that day, the Eighth had no part nor lot. It was so far away as to be beyond even their echo. No man who belonged to it ever made money out of the war. One and all, officers and men, they came out of the army as poor in purse as when they entered it; but they brought back and deposited in the State House at Topeka three torn and tattered flags that all the wealth of this year’s harvest could not buy. Kansas will preserve among her priceless treasures, as long as her government shall endure, these ragged and faded flags—all that remain of the Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry except its few hundred scattered survivors and the history with which it glorified the name of the State.