After nearly four years of war, with the great Rebellion subdued, with not an armed enemy within our borders, the 57th Pennsylvania Volunteers was mustered out June 29, 1865, and we write "finis" on the last page of the military history of one of the grandest organizations that ever took up arms for the preservation of a "Government of the people, for the people and by the people."
Upon separating for your homes, your officers issued an address to the surviving members, from which I quote: "Parting as a band of brothers, let us cling to the memory of those tattered banners under which we have fought together and which, without dishonor, we have just now restored to the authorities, who placed them in our hands. Till we grow gray-headed and pass away, let us sustain the reputation of this noble old regiment." That you have observed the injunction of your officers in that address, the testimony of your neighbors in every place in which you have lived since the war will prove. When you were discharged you had but one ambition. In that one supreme moment of triumph, your only thought was of home and family and friends. You went back into the localities from which you came, into the ranks as citizens; taking up the daily burden of life where you had thrown it down when enlisting, ceasing to be soldiers and becoming again private citizens. There was no evidence of the contaminating influence of camp life in your characters. There was no disorder where you went. On the contrary, your presence became the sign of order. You showed the world that great as you had been as soldiers, you had never forgotten that you were citizens.
Most speakers who have made similar addresses upon this great battlefield of the war have made more extended remarks upon the movements of the army during the three days' fighting here, and some have censured certain commanders. The battle of Gettysburg has given rise to a great many controversies, and each commander has been censured and complimented in turn. Doubleday charges that Howard's troops gave way; Howard affirms that Doubleday's troops broke. General Meade is charged with ordering a retreat. One speaker charges that General Sickles made a great blunder in taking up a position too far in advance, which well nigh proved disastrous to our army. With all these charges I have nothing to do. I am not here to censure or find fault. I have only to do with the part you took as a regiment. Whether, as some speakers claim, Sickles saved the day and gained a victory by taking and holding an advanced line on July 2d, until the Roundtops could be occupied, or whether, as others assert, Hancock, the "Superb," gained the victory by brilliant generalship and magnificent fighting on the 3d, I will leave the historian to decide. Suffice it to say, the 57th did her duty by obeying orders, and that is all that is required of any soldier or set of soldiers. You went as far as the farthest and left seventy per cent. of your number behind, when you were obliged to abandon the line. In regard to the movements of the 3d corps, I will simply read what President Lincoln wrote to General Sickles in reply to a request that a court of inquiry should be convened to inquire into his conduct during the battle. The President writes: