Head Quarters “Keystone Brigade,’
Washinglon, of. ., olhay 28, 1568.

158th, Penn., Col, McKIBBIN, “68th. Penn, Col. JOSEPH JACK,
Ist. “ Col. BIERER, 17th. © Cok DYER,

ADDRESS:

T avail myself of this opportunity of saying to the officers and men of the Keystone Brigade that the
time has arrived for me to take my leave of you ; and, as your term of service will sooa expire, many of
you, I presume, will abandon the scenes and excitement of the battle-field again to assume your usual pur-
suits of industry. In parting allow me to assure you that I entertain an exalted opinion of you both as
officers and soldiers; and, in my official character, I thank you for the prompt and cheerful manner in which
you have ever performed your arduous and dangerous duties, —and I shall always look back upon my asso-
ciation with you as among the pleasantest hours of my life. You were put under my command at a time
when you were fresh from your native state, and, with a few exceptions, entirely unacquainted with the
toils and dangers of war: you were placed in no “school of instruction” but marched. directly to the front,

where you have remained performing your duty in a manner reflecting great credit on yourself and great

HOOT UpoM your owe.

Your march from Suffolk, Va., to Newbern, N. C., has no equal since the war began except in General
Banks’ retreat from Winchester,—and that differed from yours in this important particular—yours was
toward the enemy, his was from them: Your conduct at Mill Creek and White Oak River was equal to that
of veteran troops: Your march to Polloclcsville, for the purpose of encompassing the enemy at the second
battle of Newbern, developed your powers of endurance, and, at once, gave you a prominent place among
the best troops in the service. '

While aboard of the transports in front of the Rebel batteries on the Pamplico River you were both willing
and anxious to incur any risk, or to encounter any danger necessary to relieve the beleaguered city of
Washington, N. C., and no troops in the army could have manifested greater willingaess to make any uec-
essary sacrifice to reinforce the garrison and to relieve it from the perils which surrounded it : but author-
ity higher than either you or me checked your patriotic desires.

Your conduct at Blount’s Creek fully developed your impetuous desires to encounter the enemy, and no
soldier ever retired from tho battle-field with greater reluctance, after it had been demonstrs ted that the
column could not advance owing to the destruction of the bridges which crossed the stream.

Your reconnoissanee to “ New Hope School-house” was all that could have been asked of any troops ; it
was a success in every particular.

Your march to, and occupancy of Swift Creek Village, with its aecompanying sharp skirmishing, as you
approached the place and drove the Rebels from it in precipitate flight, at the dead hour of night, were
worthy of the “Old Guard” of Napoleon.

Your conduct throughout has been of a character that has placed the Brigade in an enviable position :
intemperance and immoral practices, as well as vice in its various forms, have been strangers to the Officers
and Soldiers of the Keystone Brigade. Instead of participating ‘and indulging in the practices which are s0
prevalent and demoralizing among soldiers, you have invariably been found on the Sabbath day joining with
each other in prayer and uniting your voices in singing praises to the Great Ruler of all.

No cause can fail my Countrymen, wher supported by such men as constitute the Keystone Brigade t
You have done your whole duty to your Country, to your State, and to your families, in a manner that no
man among you need be ashamed to acknowledge that he is one of the Keystone Brigade,—while the
authorities of your State can, with pride, point to you as an emulation for others who are to follow you to
the field !

We are all called upon to make some sacrifices in times like the present, but the American, who would
not obey the call of his Country in her hour of peril, is unworthy of enjoying the benefits and blessings of
a free government, which cost many lives and much treasure to establish. No army ever suffered like that
of Washington! No men ever boro their sufferings with less murmuring than the brave patriots who
pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors, that you and [ might enjoy civil and_ religious
liberty! You necd go no further than your own home to find the spot that gave shelter to the Father of
his Country, together with the eleven thousand famishing patriots who wintered at Valley Forge,—to which
place they were traced by the blood which oozed from their unshod feet !

At the expiration of your term of service it is fair to presume that many of you, from age and other
causes, will not again enter it: but, inthe name of Liberty and a bleeding Country, [not only appeal to the
young men of the Brizade to enlist again, but, I implore you, in the name of the men who suffered every
conceivable hardship and privation in order to show to the despots of the world that man is capable of self
covernment, that you will prove yourself the proud representatives of the patriots of “76, and never quit the

f es

field until this diabolical attempt, to destroy the government which Washington and his associates gave us,

has been ploughed out by the roots. ;
E. B. SPINOLA,
Brig. General,

 
 

 

ss a

 

 

ine