At City Point the regiment embarked on a steamer for Annapolis, arriving there during the forenoon of the 17th, going into quarters at College Green Barracks, where clothing was issued to the men, and they got cleaned up and rested; and on the 21st, in pursuance of orders received to report at Camp Chase, we were loaded on a train of box cars, and started for Ohio by the way of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. We moved very slowly, not exceeding eight miles an hour, passing Martinsburg on the 22d, Grafton on the 23d, Bellaire and Zanesville on the 24th, reaching Columbus at 9 o’clock P. M. that night. We went into quarters at Tod Barracks, and the next day we marched to Camp Chase, where we remained some time, awaiting the order for “muster out.”
On the 29th President Lincoln’s funeral cortege reached Columbus, on its way to Springfield, Illinois. One hundred and fifty men of our regiment were detailed as guard at the State House, while his remains were lying there in state. All day long a constant procession was filing through the State House, to take a last view of our “departed Lincoln.”
The officers were now busy preparing Muster-Rolls, and on the 30th the regiment was mustered.
While in camp here, many of the officers and men visited their homes, all very anxious for the day of our Muster-out to arrive.
On the 31st of May, it having been decided that we could no longer be considered paroled prisoners, arms were again issued to the men. This they objected to strongly, fearing that it was only a prelude to an order for duty at some other point; and now, that the war was over, the regiment preferred going home to playing soldier at some post.
Finally, on the 2d of June, a telegram was received from the War Department, ordering the 123d to be Mustered-out as soon as the necessary Rolls could be prepared.
Oh the 12th, the rolls having been completed and examined by the mustering officer, discharges filled out and signed, Company’s A, B, C, E, and G were mustered out and paid, and before night nearly all of them were on their way home. The remainder of the regiment was mustered out on the following day, and left for home; Lieutenant H. Latimer Beck, 13th U. S. Infantry was the mustering officer. Thus, in a few moments, as it were, the ties that for three years had bound us together, were sundered. And while in each breast the heart throbs were beating to the music of “Home, Sweet Home;” thronging memories came trooping up from the past, of the manly forms who went with us to the field and fell by the wayside, of those who wasted in hospitals, or in Rebel Prison Pens. Alas! for them, the home circle must continue to mourn. And as gathered in groups about the camp to say the last good-bye; manly tears would come for those who were of our number once, but were now borne on the grand “muster-roll” in that other camping-ground.
During our three years of service, the regiment had marched two-thousand one hundred and eighty-four miles, had traveled by rail one thousand five hundred and thirty-one miles, and by boat one thousand and seventeen miles. Making a grand total of five thousand seven hundred and thirty-two miles.
The regiment, besides participating in many skirmishes in the valley of minor importance, were in the following general engagements:
Winchester, June 13th, 14th and 15th, ’63; New Market, May 15th, ’64; Piedmont, June 5th, ’64; Lynchburg, June 17th and 18th, ’64; Snicker’s Ford, July 19th, ’64; Winchester, July 24th, ’64; Berryville, September 3d, ’64; Opequan, September 19th, ’64; Fisher’s Hill, September 22d, ’64; Cedar Creek, October 19th, ’64; Petersburg and Hatcher’s Run, from March 30th to April 2d, ’65, and High Bride or Farmville, April 6th, ’65, a record of which any regiment may well be proud.