Commander-in-Chief John S. Kountz's address. delivered at this encampment, contained the following items, among others:

membership.

March 31, 1884, 36 departments reported 4,323 posts and 233,595 members. March 31, 1885, 38 departments reported 5,026 posts and 269,684 members. This statement includes the last quarter of the administration of comrade Beath.

The report of the adjutant-general shows our membership to be 285,637. During my term, embracing a period of but 11 months, there have been added to the rolls by muster. 66,729 members; by reinstatement and transfers, 2o,355; total increase, 87,084.

finances.

Attention is called to the report of the quartermaster-general wherein it will be seen that rigid economy has been practiced, and that our finances are in excellent condition, there being a cash balance on hand amounting to $15, 163.60. He recommended the careful attention of the encampment to the disposition of this large fund, and suggested no further accumulation be allowed.

official visits.

The Commander-in-Chief, during his term, visited thirty departments, being every department except Florida, Arkansas, and New Mexico, traveling over thirty thousand miles.

His report continued as follows:

Everywhere, in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, I have received the most cordial greetings, and cannot refrain from taking this opportunity to express to the comrades my sincere appreciation of the fraternal courtesies, warm soldierly welcomes, and generous receptions extended, for all which they shall ever be held in grateful remembrance.

Because of the liberality of the railroad companies and the generous hospitality of the comrades, my expenses for these journeys have been, to the Grand Army of the Republic, only about one-fourth the amount appropriated for this purpose.

His report concluded as follows:

When chosen to this exalted station, I promised to my utmost to promote the interests of this great comradeship. In returning to the ranks I am conscious of no faith broken or pledge unkept. This evening of another year’s march toward the close of life's enlistment finds us once again in friendly meeting and fraternal counsel. As we scan the rolls and glance along the ranks we see an army of new faces and names which more than fills the vacant places. But, as we view the line of the year’s marches and battles, we find that many have straggled by the way, and we mark the transfer of many more to that sacred silent army on the other side. It is generous to believe that the great mass of those who stand on the suspended list are there from necessity. Many of them are in the decline of life; the changing seasons and the rolling years are adding to the stings of wounds or broken health; opportunities lost while in the army, or not offered when the war was over, have left many with broken energies or scanty store. The wife and children of many need every penny earned by the soldier husband and father, and then are often not half clothed or fed. There are other causes of which the world little knows, which keep many comrades away and cause many to drop from the ranks. Be it ours to search them out and help them to a better lot and life.

Immediately after the reading of the address of the Commander-in-Chief was finished comrade R. B. Brown, of Ohio, offered the following resolution and asked unanimous consent to its adoption :

Resolved, By the nineteenth national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, assembled in the city of Portland, Maine, representing 30o,000 ex-soldiers and sailors in the United States, that in this first hour of our assembly we tender to the distinguished comrade, soldier, and statesman, General Ulysses S. Grant, our profound sympathy in his continued illness, and extend a soldier's greeting to our beloved Commander and comrade, who has for months endured unspeakable agony with that characteristic fortitude that has challenged the admiration of the world.

The resolution was adopted amid applause and cheers. On motion the Commander-in-Chief was instructed to telegraph the resolution at once.

The adjutant-general in report stated, regarding the amounts annually disbursed for charitable purposes, that many posts and in some cases entire departments fail to make any reports of the amounts expended or comrades relieved, and submitted the following, which shows the amount reported as expended by each department, and the number of comrades and others assisted during the past year:

At this encampment Samuel S. Burdett, of Washington city, ex-commissioner of the general land office, and an ex-congressman from Missouri, was elected Commanderin-Chief; Selden Connor, ex-governor of Maine, Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief, and John R. Lewis, of Georgia, Junior Vice-Commander-in-Chief.

The twentieth encampment was held in San Francisco. It commenced August 2, 1886, and the proceedings are, on account of their exceedingly interesting nature, given in this book in full. The manner in which the city was decorated, which was far more elaborately than has been on any occasion heretofore in any other city of the United States, the profuse hospitalities, the numerous excursions to the surrounding country, gotten up for the benefit of the visitors, are so well remembered by those attending the encampment as to be in a measure unnecessary to recall, though the mention of them may be pleasant to absent friends.

The visiting comrades, as they took their departure for home, expressed themselves in the warmest terms as to the manner in which they had been treated. They were answered by those who bade them “good-by" that they were only treated as they deserved to be—as the survivors of the great armies which had fought so hard, had gone through such great hardships and sufferings to preserve the nation, there was nothing within the reach of hospitality that was too good for them. They represented the flag, the unity of the country, and there was a warmth of feeling that could only be expressed by the term, “God bless you all." These patriotic and personal feelings were strongly evinced on the occasion of the grand procession at the commencement of the encampment, which was cheered in the most enthusiastic manner, from the beginning of the march to its termination. San Francisco had never before witnessed such a pageant, nor was there ever any other association or organization received with such a greeting. These veterans—in the fact that not only all the corps, divisions, and brigades were represented, but that there was scarce a regiment mustered into the service of the United States during the Rebellion that had not in the ranks of the procession one of its members—represented the whole history of the war, its prison and hospital sufferings, its battles, and its glories.

TWENTIETH ANNUAL SESSION

of the

National Encampment

Grand Army of the Republic.

Held at San Francisco, Cal., August, 1886.

reception of comrades. decoration of city.
entertainments and excursions.

Several months previous to the date of the encampment preparations were commenced to arrange for the reception of the delegates and visiting comrades. The department commander of California appointed a general committee of management. Comrade S. W. Backus, the present Vice Commander-in-Chief, was made chairman. and to his unceasing labor, energy, and executive ability much of the credit of the success of the reception and arrangements is very properly due. The general committee consisted of twenty-five members.

The subordinate committees, the members of which were carefully selected for their particular aptness for the duties assigned them, were the executive, finance, auditing, programme, transportation, hotels and accommodations, public halls and places of registration, rosters and meetings, mechanics’ pavilion, press, decorations, printing, invitations, badges, receptions, entertainments, parade and review, music, horses, carriages and equipments, police and streets, grand banquet, camp fire, fireworks, Army of Potomac, Loyal Legion, Woman's Relief Corps, Mexican Veteran Association, advisory committee, excursions.

This long list of committees is enumerated to show how completely the general managing committee covered every point that could possibly arise. No contingency could occur for which there was not immediate means of adjustment. There was management down to the most minute details; everything which looked to the success of the encampment was anticipated. Good judgment, keen foresight, and admirable taste characterized the whole preparations. The comments of the delegates and visiting comrades, that at no previous encampment had the preparations been so complete, nor the receptions anywhere near approaching the magnificence of that of California, was a handsome but just acknowledgment of the labor done by the committees.