Supernumerary non-commissioned officers to be mustered out under the supervision of the division mustering officer.
By command of Lieut.-Col. L. D. Bumpus.
Attest: R. I. Campbell, Lieut. and Actg. Adjt.
Lorenzo D. Bumpus
Under the same order from the War Department the 84th Pennsylvania volunteers, which consisted of ten small companies, was consolidated into four, and these were then joined to our regiment, making a new organization to be designated the "57th Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers." In order to avoid having two companies of the same letter, it became necessary to change the letter of three of the companies of the old 57th, viz: Company H was changed to Company A, I to D, and K to E. With but few exceptions, the companies whose letters were changed retained the same officers and non-commissioned officers, and their organizations remained the same. Companies B, C, and F retained their old letters. The four companies of the old 84th formed the left of the regiment and were lettered G, H, I and K.
The order for consolidation was received with considerable dissatisfaction by both officers and men. The 84th, like the 57th, was an old regiment, and had served faithfully and gallantly since the spring of 1862, and each had an honorable record. The 84th had seen its first fighting at Winchester, Va., on March 23, 1862, and then in Bank's campaign in the Shenandoah valley, Pope's campaign, and had joined the 3d corps of the Army of the Potomac in September, 1862. It was assigned to Birney's division of the 2d corps in May and remained in the division until the close of the war. It was a great injustice to break up a regiment with such an honorable record and deprive it of its number.
In the fall of 1864 the State of Pennsylvania sent to the front a dozen or more new regiments to serve for one year. These men should have been sent to the old regiments already in the field, who had upheld their country's honor in many a bloody battle, and who were proud of their official distinction.
One of the evil results of all this consolidation, changing of regimental numbers, and company letters, can be seen in a work published by the State of Pennsylvania, after the war, entitled "Bates' History of Pennsylvania Volunteers." The names of many worthy soldiers, some of whom died for their country, are omitted on the rolls as published in the work above mentioned. It was not the fault, however, of Dr. S. P. Bates and his assistants, for the rolls at Harrisburg, from which they procured their information, were very incomplete. This is particularly so as regards the 57th Pennsylvania. When the muster-out rolls of the regiment were prepared in June, 1865, the company commanders were required to make out two rolls, each to contain the name of every man, living or dead, who had ever belonged to the company, and the manner in which he left the service to be stated. These rolls never reached Harrisburg, but remained at Washington, D. C. The writer is informed that Dr. Bates tried to have access to these rolls for preparing his history, but was refused the privilege of using them by the authorities at Washington.
While fortune had thrown together the 57th and 84th Pennsylvania, they served side by side in perfect concord and amity, no quarrelling between them ever manifesting itself.