Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2

There were two occurrences at this Young Men's conference which have remained especially bright and clear in my recollection. One was meeting with Friedrich Blumenbach. He had been an officer during the Civil War in the quartermaster's department in my Eleventh Corps. At that time he was a skeptic and inclined to laugh at those who professed to be Christians. Indeed, it was a difficult thing to be a consistent Christian in an active war. Blumenbach had criticised me particularly at that time. After the war, through the influence of one of our Christian officers and his wife he was converted and became as pronounced a Christian as he had been an opponent. He became remarkable for establishing Young Men's Christian Associations, carrying his work into the far South, even through the State of Texas. He and I met at this Berlin conference and I found him actively engaged in Germany, as he had been in Texas, speaking and writing and organizing associations. He was evidently glad to meet me and translated a brief address for me at the conference.

The other occurrence was my visit to Potsdam, where I went with members of the conference. Here we had the opportunity to look at the best-drilled troops that I had ever seen. We went through the rooms of Frederick the Great, which had remained substantially the same as they had been during his life. After our inspection of everything that was interesting, we attended a banquet there given us by our German friends. I had been asked to speak for the Emperor, who had written us a pleasant letter and asked to be considered a “young old man” and to be made at least a nominal member of the association. I was willing to perform this function but I could not speak