May 24th—Private Samuel A. Knight, ——, at Baton Rouge Hospital.
May 28th—Private Elias H. Cutler, fever, at Brashear City Hospital.
July 4th—Private George H. Allen, dysentery, at New Orleans Hospital.
July 5th—Private William Stone, typhoid fever, in camp at Port Hudson.
CHAPTER XVI.
August—At Algiers—Bound North—On Board “Continental”—Arrival Home.
Major-General Banks having decided to send the regiment home in a few days, July 29th was devoted to cleaning guns and equipments, and turning over material to the regimental quartermaster. Orders came on the thirtieth to embark August 1st on the steamer Continental for New York, thence proceed to Readville, Massachusetts, and report to the United States mustering officer in Boston. The thirtieth and thirty-first July were busy days for the quartermaster, who turned over to proper Department officers arms, ammunition, equipments, camp and garrison equipage, unissued clothing, transportation and quartermaster stores, surplus medical and hospital stores. Twenty-five muskets and five hundred rounds of ammunition for the guard was retained.
All detached service men and convalescent sick men able to travel were ordered, by Department orders, July 25th, to join the regiment. Surgeon Hitchcock and Lieutenant Proctor reported back to the regiment. Major Stiles and Lieutenant Duncan, Company F, were relieved from court-martial duty July 30th. The detachments from Companies A and F reported July 25th from picket duty at Bayou St. John and Lakeport, relieved by Company H, Twenty-Sixth Massachusetts Volunteers. The sick in regimental hospital not able to travel were removed to New Orleans and distributed among the general hospitals.
The reveille was sounded at three A.M. August 1st, and every man was busy putting his personal effects in shape until the time arrived to eat his last breakfast in Louisiana. At eight o’clock the embarkation commenced. The Continental lay alongside the levee, near the warehouse, so no difficulty was experienced in placing aboard what little baggage was to be transported and the sick men supposed to be able to undergo the voyage. After all had got aboard, the Continental steamed up to New Orleans for Brigadier-General Cuvier Grover and his staff officers, Brigadier-General Paine, and a number of officers going North on leave of absence.
An attempt was made by General Grover to have his horses and those of his staff sent North upon the steamer. The only place where they could be accommodated was below the upper deck, where all available space was already taken up by the men, crowded well together, while space in immediate vicinity of the main hatch had been fitted up to accommodate the sick, as it was handy to have communication with the cabin; yet General Grover insisted that his horses should be taken on board. No amount of expostulation would change his determination. Captain Cogswell, Company F, swore that if they did come on board not one would be alive after one day at sea. His men below deck, packed like sheep in a railroad car, would have made short work with the animals before they would suffer the nuisance to remain. By a united remonstrance to General Banks, from surgeons and officers of the regiment, a Board of Survey was ordered and soon decided the matter. The horses did not get on board. General Grover’s conduct in this affair was not humane.
While tied up at the levee until a decision was reached on this horse business, Sergeant Vialle, who was ashore on some errand, saw a drunken cavalry-man fall from his horse, and in a kind manner assisted him. The fellow was on a troublesome drunk, and turned on Vialle, accusing him of stealing his property. This was all that was wanted to set the devil at work in a patrol-guard from the Ninth Connecticut, who had a guard-station near the spot. They arrested Vialle and conducted him to this station, with an intention to hold him until after his regiment left. Word reached the boys that one of the regiment had been seized by the Ninth Connecticut, and on shore a drove of them rushed and went direct to the guard-station and demanded his release. This was refused, with a threat to fire into the crowd if they did not go away; but the boys held their ground, coming in contact several times for a scuffle with men on the patrol, who used their bayonets once or twice. While in the act of tearing up paving stones from the street to hurl at the guard, for the Forty-Second men were now thoroughly aroused, Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman, in a carriage, drove between the two bodies of men and put a stop to it. The patrol-guard set Vialle free by a back-door entrance of their quarters, when they saw what threatened them.