CHAPTER XV
NOBLE COUNTY IN THE WAR

SOLDIER'S REUNIONS

Army societies had had their reunions from the clays of Washington, who organized a society composed exclusively of officers of the Revolution. The Army of the Tennessee was formed on that model. It and other similar organizations organized at the close of the war have always had their annual meetings, from which all soldiers below the rank of second lieutenant were rigorously excluded.
     J. M. Dalzell issued his call for a general national reunion, of all ranks of the Union army, to meet in Lansing, Mich., March 4, 1872. For some reason it was a failure.
     His next call was for one of similar character, to meet in Washington City, on the same date of the following year. He had industriously exploited his novel departure in the daily press, to which he had universal entree, and the rank and file had come to understand his idea quite thoroughly. But the place chosen was a bad one for the experiment, and the reunion of 1873 was a failure like its predecessor at Lansing. Everybody now gave over the project but Mr. Dalzell.
     Even more earnest than ever he set about making preparations for another reunion on the old plan, and accordingly, in 1874, issued his call for a national reunion to be held at Caldwell, Ohio, September 15, 1874. That place then had about four hundred inhabitants, and but a single line of railway. Mr. Dalzell had learned something from repeated failure, and this time determined to hold his reunion at home, where he could control it by the help of his old friends. He was the president and secretary. The papers of the whole North threw open their columns to his ready pen, and he spent the most of that year in writing up his beloved project. Letters of encouragement came from near and far, and the press editorially commended the experiment to its readers in every State. It grew in popularity with the boys as they came to understand it better. Mr. Dalzell easily procured the passage of bills by Congress recognizing it as national, and affording it the use of a large number of cannon, and any quantity of ammunition. General Sherman promised to preside. After that all was plain sailing. The reunion came off in splendid style, in the woods west of Caldwell, and Mr. Dalzell was happy.
     General Sherman lent it the influence of his presence, and indorsed the idea unequivocally in an address of rare power and eloquence. Almost every State was represented, and no one estimated the crowd at less than 25,000. It is still remembered as not only the first, but the greatest, national soldiers' reunion ever held, though it has often been imitated since.