A brief, dull sketch this is of the services of the Eighth Kansas, I know. But I am anxious to condense it into as brief a space as possible; and dull as it is, it will revive in your memory a thousand thrilling recollections; meager as it is, it will give any soldier or any intelligent civilian who was an interested observer of the events of the war, a fairly comprehensive idea of the part the regiment bore in that great struggle. This is all I have sought to do. It would require volumes to tell the story in full. For this regiment not only saw all “the pomp and circumstance of war,” but all its ghastly desolation, misery and despair as well. It sounded all the notes alike of war’s pæan and of its dirge. The tramp of its swift and steady march echoed in the highways of twelve different States. Its bayonets flashed from Fort Laramie to the Gulf, and from Kansas to North Carolina. At Nashville it did duty in white gloves; at Strawberry Plains it was shirtless, shoeless, and in rags. It was feasted in Kansas and starved in Chattanooga. It hunted guerrillas in Missouri, combatted Longstreet’s veterans at Chicamauga, stormed the blazing heights of Mission Ridge, fought a continuous battle from Kennesaw Mountain to Atlanta, and broke the lines of Hood at Nashville. It built roads, bridged rivers, convoyed trains, destroyed railroads, operated mills, policed cities, gathered crops, and made history. And wherever it was, or whatsoever it was doing, the calm and patient endurance, the magnificent courage, the splendid discipline, and the unfaltering patriotism of its soldiers could always be relied on. It is pleasant to remember, too, and I am sure there is no true soldier of the Eighth who will not proudly recall the fact, that on many different occasions the drill, discipline and military appearance of the regiment were complimented in official orders, issued from corps and army headquarters. At Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in June, 1863, the following order was published: INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, 20TH ARMY CORPS, } MURFREESBORO, June 19th, 1863. } I take pleasure in reporting to you the following extract from the report of the Inspector of the First Division, especially as the same regiments have attracted the notice of the Corps Inspector: _Extract_—“The drill, military appearance and dress of the Eighth Kansas is the best observed in the Division; that of the Twenty-fifth Illinois next. (Signed) H. W. HALL, _Captain, and Inspector First Division_.” Very respectfully, HORACE N. FISHER, _Lieutenant-Colonel, and Inspector-General_. HEADQUARTERS, 20TH ARMY CORPS, } June 20th, 1863. }