Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/353

 The Blue and the Gray United. 347

WASHINGTON, D. C, December 18, 1888.

Editor Cincinnati Commercial Gazette :

I have read with a great deal of interest General Boynton's letters suggesting an organization of Union and Confederate officers, who were engaged in the battle of Chickamauga, for the purpose of preserving the battle lines, securing a charter from the State of Georgia, and erecting historic monuments on the field. I have con- versed with a number of my Confederate comrades on the subject, and it seems to meet with general approval.

I fully agree with General Boynton that " there is no other battle- field of the war where the Northern and Southern veterans could meet so harmoniously and with equal satisfaction to preserve the field of their magnificent fighting. Its preservation as one of

the great historical fields of the war signify for both sides, more than anything else, the indelible marking of the theater upon which each of the two armies engaged performed as stubborn, brilliant and bloody fighting as was done upon any of the great battlefields of the war."

General Boynton's suggestions in a general way, for a plan of co-operation between Union and Confederates, will doubtless be adopted. I am quite sure that the ex -Con federates will enter heartily into the movement.

MARCUS J. WRIGHT.

Doubtless " THE MILITARY ORDER OF AMERICA," a bill to in- corporate which was introduced in the House of Representatives by General Joseph Wheeler, was the natural outgrowth of the preceding movement. The bill names forty-three incorporators. Thirty-seven of these are well-known citizens of the District of Columbia, one of Maine, one of New York, two of Maryland, one of Tennessee, and one commanding the United States troops at Denver, Colorado. Thirty-eight are ex-Union soldiers and five ex-Confederates. Thirty- five are members of the Loyal Legion. Eleven served as privates during the war of the rebellion, and every rank in the army, from sergeant to major-general, is represented. Section 2 of the bill pro- vides : " That in view of the great truths that Almighty God, the ruler of nations, has cemented the United States of America in the blood of more than a hundred battles, made of enemies in war friends in