Having formed, the procession marched to the Court House Square, where E. G. Lapham, Esq., addressed the Regiment as follows. _Officers and Soldiers_:—You have come back, after two years of arduous service in the cause of your country, to receive, as is your due, the gratitude of the State and the homage of the People. The high honor has been assigned me, humble and unfitted as I am for the duty, in the name and behalf of the people of this County and locality to bid you a hearty and generous welcome. You have come among us at a period when our hearts are inspired to make your reception the more cordial by the news of the brilliant achievements of our arms in the south-west. You return with thinned ranks, and diminished numbers, the glorious remnant of a noble band, whose bravery and skill have been displayed on almost every battle-field, from the scene where the great contest for our independence was closed, to the last deadly conflict around Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Each one of you has brought home his tale of thrilling incident or noble daring, which will be repeated from hearthstone to hearthstone, and from generation to generation, as long as the name of America shall be known among men. You have brought back in triumph that banner (pointing to the regimental banner presented by the ladies of Canandaigua), soiled and tattered by the casualties of the war, and it, too, is a witness of your devotion and fidelity to the honored flag of your country. That banner was an object of interest to us when it was confidingly placed in your keeping by the donors. It was an object of interest to you when you received it on your parade ground at Elmira. It was an object of still deeper interest to you when its tattered fragments were borne aloft by brave hands, and dimly seen through the cloud and smoke of battle. It is to become an object of still deeper interest to us when you shall soon return it to the fair hands from whom you received it, in fulfilment of your honored pledge to return it unstained by cowardice or shame, “though stained with blood in a righteous cause.” Soldiers, that flag, like all things earthly, will perish, “Its silken folds may feed the moth,” but the precious lives which have been gloriously lain down in its defence are treasures laid up where “neither moth nor rust corrupt,” and their names will go into the history of this Republic as among its most priceless treasures. We trust, that after a brief respite from the toils and privations of the battle-field, and the enjoyment of the rest and renewed vigor you will derive from the abundant delights and comforts of home and fireside, most, if not all of you, will again be found, if need be, rallying to the support of the flag you have so long and so nobly defended.