Summary:
Recounts in detail the Union army's successes of 1863 and sees in suggestions of "the noon-day of promise" in 1864.
Excerpt:
"The once slave is now the enlisted soldier, and has dissipated the fiercest prejudices as he won for his race imperishable
fame at Milliken's Bend, at Port Hudson and at Charleston; and the New Year dawns upon us with the bright promise of vindicated
Right; of a perpetuated Republic; of a Nation rescued from the withering blight of slavery. Such are the lessons of memorable
sixty-three; such the noon-day of promise for sixty-four! Who would erase from our triumphs, and their rich fruits in National
Freedom and Progress, one jot or tittle if he could?"
Full Text of Article:
An eventful year has closed. Inexorable Time has consigned it, with its crimsoned and
thrilling history to the eternal past; and upon the chequered canvas of man's imperfect record of
himself, it must ever stand as the mightiest of its century. It opened upon the Republic shrouded
in gloom. The National heart had sunk to the very verge of despair as it turned to the long list of
indecisive or positively disastrous battles, whereby Treason had grown insolent, and appealed to
the world for recognition in the name of its triumphs. Save in the victories of the South west, the
year of sixty-two had shown no progress for the Republic, no hope for Freedom; and excepting
the few pages illuminated by Henry, Donelson, Nashville and Shiloh, there was nothing in the
year's record but humiliation and disasters to the friends of our honored Nationality. The
Peninsula was made historic ground by the heroism of the Union troops who braved the foes of
Freedom and the more deadly miasmas of the Virginia swamps; but our Flag floated in sight of the
rebel capital only to be trailed back discomfited, and thousands of nameless tombs tell how sad,
how appalling were the blunders which wasted a gallant army in ill-directed and fruitless conflict.
Banks' retreat, Cross-Keys, Cedar Mountain, the second Bull Run, and the final retreat of the
Army of the Potomac into the fortifications of Washington, with its ranks thrice decimated, its
spirit broken, its leaders paralyzed by perfidy, and a victorious and defiant foe confronting our
capital, were the thickening shadows which enveloped the National cause in the summer of 1862.
Mad[d]ened by its triumnphs [sic], the arm of wasting Treason reached from its own desolated
land to the free North, and invited battle on our own green fields and heartsome hills. Inspired as
if new life had been given to our defeated and despairing troops, they closed up their broken
ranks, and with weary step they marched to avenge the pollution of loyal soil. South Mountain
and Antietam more than vindicated their heroism, and if but bravely led, would have made
Richmond ours, and left the chief army of crime to exist only in its own fearful history. The God
of battles invited the sluggard chief to decisive victory. The autumn smiled with bright days as the
defeated foe sought safety from conflict; but the impatient columns moved not in pursuit, and the
gory field of Fredericksburg fitly crowned the folly and closed the year.
The New Year of sixty three dawned upon the Nation thus sorrowing and humiliated.
Mourning was in half our households for loved ones sacrificed in what seemed hopeless war. In
the hour of wide-spread gloom, perfidious men had gained power; treason was boasting of its
promised supremacy in the popular branch of our National legislature, and two great States had
confided their Executive functions to men who condemned their own--not the traitor's
government. But loyal men still hoped, still trusted, still sacrificed; and with unfaltering faith
stood Abraham Lincoln, as the treacherous, the weak, and the selfish plead our sorrows and
discomfitures as a justification for National suicide. Instead of bending beneath the weight of
disaster and shrinking from the gloomy future that seemed to confront him, he rose to the full
measure of his great duty, and resolved them in the darkest hour of our history, with the very life
of the Republic trembling in the scale, to disenthral[l] a continent. Appealing to a just God, and
to a loyal People, he smote the colossal crime of Slavery--the fruitful parent of discord and of
death--and bid the Nation prove itself worthy of its own deliverance. Wise men had grave
misgivings; faithful men were racked with painful doubts; but the bold master-stroke was in the
cause of the Right; was true to the teachings and great charter of the founders of the government,
and with unshaken purpose and unfading courage its honored author stood as disaster after
disaster still came to add to our humiliation and peril. The Iron-clads were repulsed at
Charleston; Hooker returned defeated at Chancellorsville; Grant and Banks in vain assaulted the
strong-holds of the Mississippi, and mid summer came ere there was so much as a silver lining to
the cloud that enveloped our National life. Again the insolence of treason grew boundless, and as
our golden harvests were about to invite the reaper to gather in their ful[l]ness, the hordes of Lee
flaunted the traitor's flag defiantly in the very heart of our State, living upon our abundance and
demanding tribute as the price of fidelity to the government. Again the heroic but ill-starred Army
of the Potomac took up its march to repel the invasion of their own homes and avenge the insult
to their own loved ones. By forced marches, weary and foot-sore, they encountered the foe at
Gettysburg, and after three days of matchless bravery, the pride of Treason was humbled, and its
broken, dispirited columns reeled back upon the Potomac, leaving one-third their number behind
them. Their dead were left to find sepulchres in the land they sought to desolate, and at the hands
of those they had made enemies by causeless war; their wounded were committed to our
humanity, and thousands found refuge from rebel desolation and tyranny by fleeing to our
mountains until they were compassed by our lines. On the same day--the natal day of the
Republic, when loyal hearts everywhere were uniting their prayers for its long continuance as the
returning anniversary of our National existence--the stronghold of rebel power on the Mississippi
was surrendered; and the day that witnessed the birth of a great Republic eighty-seven years
before, witnessed its deliverance from the power of traitors. Soon the last rebel fortification on
the Mississippi was given up, and the great Father of Waters severed the boundaries of crime, and
coursed its way "unvexed to the sea." Since then the doomed city of the coast has been encircled
by loyal troops, and to-day it is at the mercy of Gen. Gilmore's artillery. Gen. Banks has
recovered the Rio Grande, with its fortifications, and holds the French under observation in
Mexico and is penetrating the heart of Texas. East Tennessee, with its thousands of loyal men,
who have suffered untold brutality under rebel tyranny, has been permanently restored to the
Union, and its brave sufferers are now swelling our ranks and bidding defiance to their
oppressors. Chickamauga was lost by rebel perfidy in swelling their army with prisoners of war;
but Gen. Grant has more than avenged it by the utter route of Bragg and the possession of his
strongholds, thus ensuring safety to his command and lines until he is fully prepared for a final
blow in the Cotton States. Arkansas and Mississippi have surrendered their capitals and with
Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and East Virginia, will soon be within the
folds of the Union again, with loyal representatives responding to the noble sentiments of
Maryland, Delaware, the Virginias, Missouri and Kentucky, in behalf of Freedom.
Thus closed the eventful year of sixty-three. The Union armies have won decisive fields in
every section and redeemed States, unshaken credit, a confident Army and Navy, a preserved
Nationality, and an accepted policy of Universal Freedom, are the rich fruits of the heroism of our
troops and loyal faith of the people. The once slave is now the enlisted soldier, and has dissipated
the fiercest prejudices as he won for his race imperishable fame at Milliken's Bend, at Port Hudson
and at Charleston; and the New Year dawns upon us with the bright promise of vindicated Right; of a perpetuated Republic;
of a Nation rescued from the withering blight of slavery. Such are the lessons of memorable sixty-three; such the noon-day
of promise for sixty-four! Who would erase from our triumphs, and their rich fruits in National Freedom and Progress, one
jot or tittle if he could?
