earthly employment.
While the officers and soldiers of the Army share in the general grief
which these considerations so naturally and irresistibly inspire, they
will doubtless be penetrated with increased sensibility and feel a
deeper concern in testifying in the manner appropriate to them the full
measure of a nation's gratitude for the eminent services of the departed
patriot and in rendering just and adequate honors to his memory because
he was himself a soldier, and an approved one, receiving his earliest
lessons in a camp, and, when in riper years called to the command of
armies, illustrating the profession of arms by his personal qualities
and contributing largely by his successes to the stock of his country's
glory.
It is to be regretted that the suddenness of the emergency has made it
necessary to announce this sad event in the absence of the
Vice-President from the seat of Government; but the greatest confidence
is felt that he will cordially approve the sentiments expressed, and
that he will in due time give directions for such further marks of
respect not prescribed by the existing regulations of the Army as may be
demanded by the occasion.
JOHN BELL, _Secretary of War_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 20.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, April 7, 1841_.
The death of the President of the United States having been officially
announced from the War Department, the Major-General Commanding in Chief
communicates to the Army the melancholy intelligence with feelings of
the most profound sorrow. The long, arduous, and faithful military
services in which President Harrison has been engaged since the first
settlement of the Western country, from the rank of a subaltern to that
of a commander in chief, are too well known to require a recital of them
here. It is sufficient to point to the fields of Tippecanoe, the banks
of the Miami, and the Thames, in Upper Canada, to recall to many of the
soldiers of the present Army the glorious results of some of his
achievements against the foes of his country, both savage and civilized.
The Army has on former occasions been called upon to mourn the loss of
distinguished patriots who have occupied the Presidential chair, but
this is the first time since the adoption of the Constitution it has to
lament the demise of a President while in the actual exercise of the
high functions of the Chief Magistracy of the Union.
The members
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