In the meantime, the City of Cambridge had been making great preparations to give the entire regiment a reception; and the furloughed soldiers were everywhere questioned in the streets by the school-children as to their discharge.
The rolls were at last pronounced correct; and on the evening of the 12th, the paymaster announced his intention of coming to the island the next morning. A grand illumination of the barracks took place that night, while the rolls were being signed; and the officers on duty on the island found it difficult to enforce the order in regard to putting out the lights at taps. Early on the morning of the 13th, the companies formed in line, marched to the office of the paymaster, signed the rolls for eleven months’ pay, and received the honorable discharge so eagerly looked forward to. Then, taking passage on the ferry-boat the regiment landed on Commercial Wharf, where it was met by the Committee of Reception from Cambridge, who had provided teams to carry the knapsacks.
Headed by Gilmore’s band, the regiment marched through Boston to Craigie’s Bridge, where its arrival was announced by a salute, and by the ringing of bells. A long procession here awaited to escort it through East and Old Cambridge to the pavilion erected at Cambridgeport. The military companies appeared with full members; the Reserve Guard,—in whose ranks were noticed old friends who had visited the regiment in field and camp,—had left their business to welcome the returned volunteers; the firemen had decorated and polished their engines until they looked like elaborate pieces of ornamental work; a cavalcade of ladies, dressed with exquisite taste and with cheeks freshened by the spirited exercise, graced the occasion with their presence; while thousands of school-children, bubbling over with joy, lined the streets.
And in addition to all, there were old comrades-in-arms,—some who had been stricken down by the storm of lead that filled the air on that June Sunday at Port Hudson; others who, wounded and faint, had anxiously watched the ebb and flow of victory at the Opequan; still others who had experienced the horrors of Salisbury, after the surprise at Cedar Creek. Not until then did the men know how close were the ties that bound those together who for months or years had shared a common lot. But the regiment was now in the hands of its friends; and the account of its reception will be told in the words of the “Cambridge Chronicle” of the following Saturday, greatly condensed, however:—
Thursday last (the day of the reception of the gallant Thirty Eighth regiment, three full companies of which were recruited from this city) was the greatest day Cambridge has ever known. Every heart beat high with exultant joy and pride, for there was not a citizen, young or old, who did not have a special interest in the patriot soldiers whose return has made us all so happy in the repossession of our brave soldier sons, brothers, husbands, and friends.
The reception was a magnificent testimonial of the esteem in which the services of our soldiers are held by a grateful people. It was an ovation, wherein the whole people, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, united together to do honor to the citizen soldiers who went forth to secure the blessings of Liberty, Union, and Peace to a distracted country. Right nobly have they accomplished their holy work! After many weary marches, through many a battle and skirmish, their patient endurance has been rewarded by victory so complete, that it would seem to be the termination of rebellion in this country forever, and of the foul spirit that inaugurated and controlled it.
Never has our city worn a happier, a more brilliant, or a more social aspect. The streets were thronged with the people, who seemed anxious to express by their presence, their joy at the return of our volunteers. Their lively holiday attire added largely to the gay appearance, which the decorations that met the eye on every hand, gave to the streets through which the procession marched.
The reception was as honorable to the city as it was creditable to the feelings that prompted it, and must have been particularly gratifying to the regiment, from the fact that it has had no trumpeter to blazon forth its every act, and to continually reiterate the assertion that in the prosecution of the holy war it has excelled all other regiments. The universality of the demonstrations of “Welcome Home,”—the approving cheers, the cordial grasping of hands, the thanks beaming from every eye attested that its course had been anxiously marked and highly approved,—that, having enlisted for the war, they realized that their duty was plain:
“Theirs not to reason why,