RECEPTION OF THE THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT.
The Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Regiment, Colonel T. L. Barker, arrived in this city yesterday, and were formally received and welcomed home by the city authorities in the afternoon. The State Guard, Captain Fitch, and Captain Chamberlain's Company of State Militia, with Goddard and Riedle's band, performed escort duty. The line was formed on Front street, and the procession, accompanied by the city government and a large number of past officers who have been in the service from this city, marched down Main street and countermarched to Mechanics' hall, where the formal reception took place, and the returned veterans partook of a collation provided by Hudson, under the direction of the city government.
Many of the buildings on Main street were decorated with the national colors, and flags were flying in all directions. The returned soldiers were welcomed with hearty cheers along the line of march, and on entering the hall were greeted with waving of handkerchiefs and prolonged applause by the crowd of ladies that filled the galleries. After the veterans and their escort had taken their places at the tables, His Honor Mayor Ball addressed the regiment as follows:—
Officers and Soldiers of the Thirty-sixth Regiment:—
Gentlemen,—We are assembled to congratulate you upon your auspicious return from the field of conflict, honor, and danger which has witnessed your daring, your valor, and your heroism, for the past three years. Now we see, consummated in your return, the ardent longing of your hearts when you left us. In this we share with you your joy. Joy, that you should have been preserved to return once more to enjoy the blessings and humanities of civil life, the fruits of your labors. For the honorable part you have borne in the great civil war, accept our acknowledgments of high appreciation of the noble service you have rendered a noble and just cause. Allow us to share with you some of your intense joy at the victories, in achieving which you have borne such a memorable part. In these victories we have rejoiced, as the pealing bell, the booming cannon, and the glaring bonfire have attested. These have been our oratory and have furnished our eloquence. At your success our joy has been too deep for human speech, and our elation too excited to be bounded or measured by mere human speech. We know this to be your joy, and in its realization we congratulate you most cordially, most earnestly; and here we welcome you, in behalf of the city, to this hospitality, in token of our appreciation of the high service you have rendered the city, the State, and the country. We welcome you cordially again to the bosom of civil life. With you we rejoice again in the return of so many of you safe from the perils of the camp and the battle-field to your homes and your friends. With you we join in your sorrow for the noble and the brave that you have left on the battle-field. Their eyes longed to see this hour,—a privilege they have been denied. You have been blessed in the seeing, and with you we will honor their names and respect their memories. We welcome you again to the pursuits of civil life, where victories attend activity, resolution, and energy, as well as in the exciting scenes and service of the camp; and we rejoice with you that you have aided in giving a new meaning to the dear old flag, in whose defence you have endured so much. Be it ours to cherish it evermore with vastly more increased love than ever we did before. Great is our rejoicing that yours is the memory of that great day when Richmond fell. Proud may you be of the recollection of that mighty event; and long may the years remain to you in which to enjoy the peace of your labors; and may we all be one in purpose and aim, hero and civilian, to rightfully cherish these memories, and to use, with pure motives, these blessings vouchsafed to us by kind and indulgent Heaven, through your valor, your sufferings, your patriotism.
The divine blessing was then invoked by Rev. Nathaniel Richardson, Chaplain of the Thirty-sixth, after which the company did ample justice to the collation. During the repast Mr. C. C. Starring performed upon the organ a variety of national and patriotic music, and a quartette of male voices from Dale Hospital, members of the Warren Phalanx of Charlestown (Company B), gave two patriotic songs, which were warmly applauded.
At the close of the repast, in behalf of the regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Smith returned thanks to the city authorities for the courtesies and welcome extended to them. He said it was a proud day for American soldiers, and a proud day for the Thirty-sixth to return and to receive the approbation of the city from which they went away three years ago to fight the battles of the Republic. When we then left this city we received our flag from the ladies of Worcester, and our commander pledged himself and us that it should be honorably defended and returned. He has long since left us; but the promise was binding, and to-day we return it without dishonor. We count it a matter of pride that in all our arduous service and on many hard-fought fields the Thirty-sixth Regiment has never lost a color or a flag.
On account of the lateness of the hour the speech-making was abbreviated; and after the soldiers had cheered for the mayor, the ladies, and the citizens of Worcester, and the spectators had given nine hearty cheers for the Thirty-sixth Regiment, the assembly dispersed.
The following is a list of the officers who have returned with the regiment:—
Colonel.—Thaddeus L. Barker.
Lieutenant-Colonel.—James B. Smith.
Major.—Edward T. Raymond.
Adjutant.—Thomas H. Haskell.
Quartermaster.—Augustus H. Tuttle.
Surgeon.—Albert H. Bryant.
Chaplain.—Nathaniel Richardson.
Captains.—Ames, Marshall, Hodgkins, Fairbank, Burrage, Davidson, and Woodward.
First Lieutenants.—Harwood, Perley, Cross, Osborne, Austin Davis, Jonas H. Davis, Morrow, Mott, and Field.
Second Lieutenants.—Goodell, Phelps, Babcock, and Howe.
On Monday, June 19th, at four o'clock P.M., the regiment assembled at Readville, was paid in full, and discharged from the service of the United States, and its record in the suppression of the Great Rebellion passed into history.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CONCLUSION.
This narrative of the prominent events in the campaigns of the regiment, its enrolment, journeys, marches, battles, camps, and final discharge, conveys but little idea of its interior history, the associations of its members with each other, the routine of army life, and the daily experience of the individual soldier. All this is a portion of that unwritten history impressed indelibly upon the memory of the surviving members.
A spirit of fraternity and good-will pervaded the regiment throughout its term of service. It was a compact, homogeneous body of men, remarkably free from envy, strife, and jealousy. It came into the service under the second call for three hundred thousand men for three years. The early enthusiasm, caused by the breaking out of the war, had in a measure subsided. The military service was known to be arduous, dangerous, and severe. Hardship, hunger, disease, battle, and death must be confronted, and this very fact was the inspiration of the hour. Men knew that the war was likely to continue for the full term of their enlistment. The regiment was composed of good material. While there were many men above the age of thirty-five, and many even above the age of forty-five, yet the number of young men was so largely in excess of these that the average age of the entire regiment was hardly twenty-four years.
It was composed, in the main, of men of good moral character. But few were addicted to the vice of intemperance. The hard-earned pay was carefully husbanded, and sent to those who needed it at home. Not an officer or man was dismissed the service, or dishonorably discharged; not an officer or man was court-martialled. The high standard of moral character was due doubtless, in a great degree, to the influence of home; but the example of many men of strong religious character, prominent among whom were Orderly Sergeant White and the lamented Sergeant Merrick, had much to do in maintaining the tone of morality. All the vacancies existing among the commissioned officers were filled by promotion from the rank and file. After the muster-in, in 1862, not a commission, excepting to a chaplain, was issued to a person outside the regiment, nor was there an appointment made from civil life. Officers and enlisted men of the Thirty-sixth were commissioned in other regiments, and many others, of all grades, were detailed to various positions of trust and responsibility in the several divisions and corps of the army. As we recall the names of those who received appointments to honorable positions in other organizations we cannot fail to remember and claim the following-named as our own: Captain Prescott and Lieutenants Gird and Tucker were commissioned in the Fifty-seventh Massachusetts. Prescott as Major, and Gird as Captain sealed their devotion with their lives,—the first in the Crater, the second in the Wilderness. Tucker rose to the command of his regiment, after receiving fearful wounds, which hastened his death. Private Swords of Company B, was commissioned Captain, was wounded at North Anna, captured at Fort Stedman, and brevetted Major. Lieutenant Levi N. Smith, of Company D, was called to a position of great responsibility in the Commissary Department at army head-quarters, and was brevetted Colonel for efficient services. Sergeant Brown, of Company B,—one of the first of the Color Sergeants,—was commissioned Captain in the Twelfth Kentucky, and won a medal of honor for gallantry at Franklin, Tennessee. Private Snell, of Company E, and Corporals Benjamin Edmands and Chapman, of Company B, were commissioned Lieutenants in different regiments of colored troops, and rendered gallant service. The first served upon the staff of General Crawford; the second won a good name in South Carolina; and the third was killed in the great explosion at Mobile, on the very day of our muster-out of service, leaving the record of a gallant and faithful soldier. These are treasured as a part of the contribution of the regiment to the cause of Freedom in other organizations.
Nor do we forget the many brave and faithful men, as worthy as any of these, who served their entire term without any of the honors and privileges conferred by rank: Sergeants, capable of commanding companies, who were wounded in battle, and unable to rejoin their comrades in the field; or were, in some cases, commissioned, but not able to avail themselves of the rank on account of the reduced number of men in their companies and consequent inability to muster; or, as in the case of others, mustered-out of service as supernumerary Sergeants by reason of consolidation and transfers, and others equally brave and trusted, who toiled, and labored, and fought in the ranks with no incentive but a desire to render their full measure of loyal service, and who made a record of which they and their comrades may well be proud.
The associations born of common suffering and danger, and cemented by battle-blood, have continued and strengthened with the lapse of time. Soon after the war a Regimental Association was formed, which bears the name of "The Burnside Association of the Thirty-sixth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers." General Burnside, then Governor of Rhode Island, acknowledged the receipt of an invitation to attend one of its reunions in the following characteristic letter:—
State of Rhode Island, Executive Department,
Providence, Dec. 4, 1866.
My dear Sirs:—I am more than sorry not to be able to attend the meeting of your Association to-morrow. The occasion would be interesting to me, not only as the anniversary of the raising of the siege of Knoxville, but as a reunion with my old comrades of the Thirty-sixth. You know what good reasons I have for honoring your gallant regiment. It served in the Ninth Corps from its first arrival in the field until the close of the war, and made for itself a record second to none in the service. The affection in which I hold all its surviving members, and the reverence with which I cherish the memory of the departed, have been begotten by a long and pleasant acquaintance in the field as comrades in arms. My best wishes and prayers will follow you through life.
For the honor conferred upon me by calling your Association after my name, please accept my warmest thanks.
With the hope that I may have opportunities of meeting you at some of your future anniversaries, and with the wish that you may have a most joyful reunion, I remain, sincerely your friend,
A. E. BURNSIDE.
The Annual Reunions of the regiment, held at Worcester on the 2d of September, the anniversary of the departure of the Thirty-sixth for the seat of war, have always been largely attended, and the sons of the dead and the living comrades have been admitted to membership, and participate in these seasons of festivity and cheer. At all these gatherings we recall the memories of those who went forth with us never to return.
"How they went forth to die!
Pale, earnest, from the dizzy mills,
And sunburnt, from the harvest hills,
Quick, eager, from the city's streets,
And storm-tried, from the fisher's fleets,—
How they went forth to die!"
ROSTER AND RECORD
OF THE
THIRTY-SIXTH REGIMENT OF INFANTRY,
MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEERS,
1862-65.
The roster of commissioned officers contains the names and, as far as can be ascertained, the full military record of all who were commissioned in the Thirty-sixth Regiment, and the officers transferred to it from the Twenty-first Regiment. The record of the enlisted men is based upon the original muster-in rolls of the regiment by companies, as appeared on the 27th of August, 1862, the day the regiment was mustered into the service of the United States. The names of recruits have been added to the companies into which they were mustered. The record accounts for those only who were enlisted for the Thirty-sixth Regiment. The names of the men of the Twenty-first and Twenty-ninth regiments appear in the histories of their respective regiments. The roster and record have been carefully compared with the rolls in the office of the Adjutant General, who has furnished every facility in obtaining as complete a record as it is now possible to make.