In obedience to that resolution, and in compliance with the contract between the Association and yourself, referred to in said resolution, we, the Executive Committee, give you hereby the formal order to proceed and complete, as soon as practicable, the fourth or Cavalry group.

You are hereby authorized, in pursuance of said contract, to draw upon the Association for four thousand five hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents, the first payment for said group.

JOHN T. STUART,

JAMES C. CONKLING,
JOHN WILLIAMS,

}

Executive Committee.

At a special meeting of the National Lincoln Monument Association, November 16, 1880, the death of two of the members of the Association was announced, namely:

Orlin H. Miner, died May 27, 1880.

David L. Phillips, died June 19, 1880.

Their vacancies have not been filled.

The Association having been notified that the models for the Artillery and Cavalry groups of statuary had been shipped from Florence, Italy, and arrived at Chicopee, Massachusetts, in October, 1880, and that Mr. Mead had drawn on the Association for the second payment on each, which, according to the contract, was four thousand five hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents each, therefore a formal order was passed that the two several drafts be paid.

At a meeting of the National Lincoln Monument Association, Debember 19, 1881, Hon. John T. Stuart, on the part of the Executive Committee, made a report including various subjects. From that report I make some extracts concerning the Monument grounds.

It will be remembered that the original grant of land in 1865, from the city of Springfield, to the National Lincoln Monument Association, was about six acres. In October, 1877, the Executive Committee applied to the city council for a modification of the south line of the Monument grounds, to make it conform to the lay of the land, but they did not ask for anything additional. In response to this request, and after having

a committee examine the land and make a report thereon, October 27, 1877, the city council acceded to the request to change the line, by adding about one and one-third acres on the south of the Monument grounds, making a total of about seven and one third acres, for which a deed of conveyance was made, by the proper authorities of the city, to the National Lincoln Monument Association.

The Citizens' Street Railway Company having purchased eight acres of land immediately west of the Monument, and built a railway to land passengers within less than one hundred yards of the same, there was danger that some of the land belonging to said railway company might be so used as to be objectionable to visitors at the Monument. In order to avert this danger, the Executive Committee applied to the Board of Directors of the Citizens' Street Railway Company and received a title deed, September 1, 1880, to one acre or more of said land, for a nominal sum, making it practically a donation. So that now the Monument Association has the title to between eight and nine acres of land.

Information was before the meeting of December 19th that the Artillery group of statuary had been completed and was subject to the orders of the Association. The Secretary was directed to notify Mr. Mead or his agent, Mr. A. D. Shepherd, to have the group forwarded to Springfield. It was shipped at Chicopee, February 4, 1882.

A meeting of the Association was held February 24, 1882. The Artillery group having arrived the day before, the draft of Mr. Mead for four thousand five hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents, being the last payment on that group, was ordered to be paid. The Executive Committee was authorized to put the group in position without delay. It was accomplished April 13, 1882. The Artillery group represents a section of artillery in battle. The enemy has succeeded

seems

in directing a shot so well as to dismount the gun. The officer in command escapes unhurt, mounts his dismantled gun, and with drawn saber is keeping a bold front to the enemy. The youthful soldier with uplifted hands oblivious to danger from the approaching enemy, but is horrified at the havoc beneath and around him. The flying pieces of the gun carriage may have killed and wounded half a dozen of his comrades. This would be a sufficient cause for him to feel as his looks would indicate. The wounded and prostrate soldier, with a look of intense pain, bravely keeps his face toward the enemy.

During the war to suppress the great slaveholders' rebellion, Mr. Mead, the artist, was employed on illustrated publications with the Union army in Virginia. That was the very best school in which to qualify himself for producing these groups. In a letter to the writer, dated Venice, Italy, June, 1882, Mr. Mead says: "The Artillery group represents a scene which I witnessed before Yorktown."

Fault has been found with this group, that it is not sufficiently massive. Those who raise such objections are of the same class of minds as that of the Indian who could see no difference between the ingenuity displayed in producing the finest mechanism of a watch, and a wheelbarrow, but thought that if there was any difference, the wheelbarrow evinced the greatest skill, because it was the biggest.

The writer, as Custodian of the Monument, was explaining this group to a small party, among whom were a couple of old veterans that he knew had good fighting records of four years in the Union army. One expressed his disgust by saying that an old soldier never looked to badly scared as that man with his hands raised. The other, replied: "Charley, that only proves that you did not carry a looking-glass in the army."

The model for the Cavalry group was shipped with that of the Artillery, from Florence, Italy, and arrived at Chicopee in October, 1880. The casting and finishing is well under way, and will be placed on the monument early in 1883. The Cavalry group consists of two human figures and a horse, and represents a battle The horse, from whose back the rider has just

scene.