Conclusion.
From their organization, ‘The Army of the Potomac,’ and ‘The Army of Northern Virginia,’ had confronted each other, had manoeuvered and fought with skill and valor, if ever, but seldom equaled, and had elevated warfare to an ethical plane never contemplated before. How rapidly the names that were conspicuous in the history of ‘The Army of the Potomac,’ has disappeared from its rolls in succession. In November, 1864, Hancock, the hero of its one acknowledged victory, ‘The battle of Gettysburg,’ took his leave, and Warren, in the moment of triumph, was retired from command. Meade's was almost the only conspicuous name left on the rolls when the crowning victory came. None of those who had been its most conspicuous figures were to be participants in the final triumph. None of them possessed the special qualifications that the administration required, or else they possessed qualities not conformable to its purposes. Of them, Meade, almost alone, appeared in the [178] closing scene of the drama. And, with the disappearance of the distinguished names from its rolls, the distinguishing characteristics of the army had gone also. It had ceased to be ‘The Army of the Potomac;’ it was a component part of ‘Grant's army,’ and scarcely lived in name. In ‘The Army of Northern Virginia’ all answered to its last roll call that had not already made final answer at the summons of the Master. Each of these two great armies had found in the other, a foreman worthy of its steel, and each, in a manner, lies buried in a common grave, overwhelmed by a tidal wave. With the surrender of ‘The Army of Northern Virginia’ ended the life of ‘The Confederate States,’ whose birth-throes shook a continent. “The Confederate States” died a—borning, and upon its ‘in Memoriam,’ With spirit pointing to heaven this inscription:No nation rose so white and fair,Will survive the effacements of time; and two figures will always stand out upon it in bold relief— Jefferson Davis
None fell so pure of crime,
and
Robert E. Lee. Around them, the others will be grouped. Near to them, perhaps, nearest, will be:
