something startling in the ideas it suggested. No one who was subject to the process had ever witnessed its operation, the country had only a kind of traditional knowledge of the character of the proceeding, all the more exciting for its very vagueness.
approach, we may imagine to-day, though even now can scarcely appreciate the responsibilities of the Union commander, and understand some of the reasons for what, in the nervous anxiety of that moment, might have been considered by some as too tardy a pursuit. He was, however, on the right track ; the van of his army reached Frederick on the 12th of September, Lee, with the greater part of his command, having left it two days before.
the great cause for which they had already sacrificed so much, could have possibly sustained them.
us with success elsewhere. But on this line, too, disappointments awaited us, all the keener for the expectations thus excited. Our first reverse occurred at Cedar Mountain on the 9th of August, when the corps commanded by General Banks, arrayed unsupported against three divisions of the Rebel army under Jackson, Ewell and Hill, most advantageously posted, after accomplishing all that heroic men could against overpowering odds, was forced back with severe loss.
people. So high wrought had become the popular feeling in that connection, that the slightest indication of success or defeat in the movements of that army exerted, for a time at least, an influence on the public mind entirely disproportioned to any intrinsic importance attaching to it.
that had not returned at the commencement of the action on the evening of the 16th, but came in most opportunely to his support before its conclusion on the following day. This inference is rendered certain by other Southern accounts of the number engaged.
authorizing the purchase of a part of the battle field for the reception of its dead, and an appropriation of five thousand dollars placed at the command of the Governor for that purpose. Directly thereafter he visited the ground, examined it, and after consultation with prominent citizens, selected this spot, embracing in its view the most interesting points to the field of battle, as the proper site for the proposed cemetery. Subsequent legislation increased the State's appropriation to fifteen thousand dollars. Trustees were appointed to superintend the work.
THE ORATION OF EX-GOVERNOR BRADFORD.
Ex-Governor BRADFORD then delivered the Oration.