e closing year of
the struggle had been under the personal direction of General Grant. A
part only of its vast forces marched through Washington on that day of
loyal pride and gladness; but the number was large beyond the power of
the eye to apprehend, beyond any but the skilled mind to reckon. An
approximate conception of it can be reached by stating that one hundred
and fifty-one regiments of infantry, thirty-six regiments of cavalry,
and twenty-two batteries of artillery passed under the eye of the
President, who reviewed the whole from a platform in front of the
Executive Mansion.

On the ensuing day the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of Georgia,
constituting the right and left wing of General Sherman's forces, were
reviewed. There was naturally some rivalry of a friendly type between
the Eastern and Western soldiers, and special observation was made of
their respective qualities and characteristics. The geographical
distinction was not altogether accurate, for Western troops had always
formed a valuable part of the Army of the Potomac; while troops from
the East were incorporated in Sherman's army, and had shared the
glories of the Atlanta campaign and of the March to the sea. It was
true, however, that the great mass of the Army of the Potomac came from
the eastern side of the Alleghanies, while the great mass of Sherman's
command came from the western side. The aggregate number reviewed on
the second day did not differ materially from the number on the first
day. There were some twenty more regiments of infantry on the second
day, but fewer cavalry regiments and fewer batteries of artillery.

The special interest which attached to the review, aside from the
inestimable significance of a restored Union, consisted in the fact
that the spectators, who were reckoned by tens of thousands, saw before
them an actual, living, fighting army. They were not holiday troops
with bright uniforms, trained only for display and carrying guns that
were never discharged against a foe. They were a great body of
veterans who had not slept under a roof for years, who had marched over
countries more extended than those traversed by the Legions of Caesar,
who had come from a hundred battle-fields on which they had left dead
comrades more numerous than the living who now celebrated the final
victory of peace. It was the remembrance of this which in all the glad
rejoicing over the past and all the bright anticipation of the