Upon its arrival in New York, it became the guest of the New England Association, as also did the Fifty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment, which left Washington at the same time. The Association asked the regiments to parade in the city. The request was granted, and Brevet Brigadier-General McLaughlin (Colonel of the Fifty-seventh) assuming command, marched the troops through Broadway, from the Battery to Union Square, and from the Square again to the Battery. The veterans were greeted with cheers everywhere on the line of their march, and at the close were met by General Burnside, who addressed them in a cordial manner.
At the conclusion of the parade, the Association invited the soldiers to partake of a dinner, at which were present, Major-General Joseph Hooker, the patriotic Colonel Howe, President of the Association, and the Rev. M. H. Smith (Burleigh). It has been said that this was the last parade of Union troops in New York City.
Taking the cars on the Connecticut Shore road, the regiment reached Massachusetts the next morning; but not having been paid or discharged the service, still further delay became necessary, and it was for this purpose ordered into camp at Readville.
It was wholly natural for soldiers who had been so long in the service as had the members of the Twenty-ninth, and were now, at the close of their protracted term, almost within sight and sound of their homes, to feel a disagreeable sense of restraint at being thus detained. They found some fault with this state of things, which they characterized as “the last crop of red tape”; but their soldierly instincts and self-respect kept them from the commission of any act which they or their friends will ever have occasion to regret. Their conduct was so exemplary under these perplexing circumstances, and this event in their career in every sense so historical, that their commanding officer was moved to address them upon the subject. This address was termed, “General Orders. No. 12,” and was the last order issued to the regiment from any source, or by any officer. As it is a well-written paper, alike touching and soldierly in its tone, and altogether a pleasing feature of the record of the regiment, we here give space for it:—
“General Orders, No. 12.
“Headquarters Twenty-ninth Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers, } “Readville, Mass., August 3, 1865. }
“You hold the musket for the last time. From May, 1861, to August, 1865, we are a part of the history of the Republic. The very number of the regiment was prophetic; for twenty-nine battles will be inscribed on the flag which we carry.
“To be soldiers who have never lost a color, have never left the field without orders, have always cheerfully performed the requirements of the service, is indeed a cause for pride. But of one thing we should be prouder yet! Few regiments have had so few desertions, so few dishonorable discharges, so little punishment, of all who have served the Republic in the last four years.
“During the past three days, your conduct has been deserving of all praise. In receiving their welcome home, no men could have proved themselves more worthy of the honors paid them. Trying as the delay has been, anxious as you all were to return to the Commonwealth, no single thing was done unbecoming the good soldier.
“Around you cluster the memories of the two great armies of the Republic: that which fought four long years for Richmond, and that which opened the Mississippi to the commerce of the Northwest.
“You hold in your hands the last muskets of the army of the Potomac,—the last muskets of the army of Sherman. Remember, then, the brilliant record which is yours; and remember hereafter not to tarnish it.”[58]
In concluding this narrative, which the writer fears has already been extended beyond the point which, in the estimation of a purely disinterested person, might be regarded as its proper limit, it seems essential to allude briefly, in review, to certain prominent and remarkable features of the record given in the foregoing pages. The seven companies of Captains Clarke, Wilson, Leach, Chipman, Doten, Chamberlain, and Barnes, were among the first in the country to enter the service for three years; while the regiment was among the last of all the volunteer forces to disband: serving, including the term of these original companies, a period of four years, two months, and twenty days, which is rather more than the whole period of the active hostilities of the war. During this time it served under thirty-one general officers, of more or less distinction, in three army corps, namely, the Second, Fifth, and Ninth; did duty in the States of Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and in the District of Columbia: while it carried its flags into fifteen States of the Union, travelling, in the course of fourteen months, a distance of four thousand two hundred and seventy-seven miles. Two of the companies participated in the first pitched battle of the Rebellion; and the regiment was engaged in one of the last battles of the war, which took place just seven days before the surrender of General Lee and his army. The regiment was, therefore, practically, present at the birth—it was also present at the death and funeral—of the Rebellion. It took part in the four great sieges of the war, namely, Richmond, 1862; Vicksburg, 1863; Knoxville, 1863; and Petersburg, 1864-5; was engaged in twenty-nine pitched battles, beside a large number of skirmishes, picket fights, and artillery duels. It is chiefly in connection with the battle record of the Twenty-ninth, that its surviving members have the greatest cause for feelings of profound gratitude; the comparatively small losses sustained by it in all these numerous encounters with the enemy forming, perhaps, the most remarkable feature of its entire career as a regiment. And what seems most singular, is the fact that this good fortune attended the regiment, with two or three exceptions, from the beginning to the close of its term. The time of its arrival at Gaines’ Mill, though it did not operate to prevent it from performing valuable service,—a service that aided in rescuing from destruction Porter’s troops,—alone saved it from the slaughter that covered that sanguinary field with several thousand wounded and dead.
At Antietam it chanced to be placed in a favorable position, while two other regiments of the same brigade, on its right and left, were nearly annihilated; at Fredericksburg it secured exemption from dreadful loss by a timely transfer to another corps of the army, made in the ordinary course of military changes, without the efforts of its officers, or the knowledge on the part of any one as to what results would follow.
Even a cursory glance at the records of some of our Massachusetts regiments which lost heavily in the war, will show that their losses were mainly the fruits of unfortunate positions, and, in some instances, that the major part of all their losses were sustained in a single battle, as was the case of several at Ball’s Bluffs, Antietam, and Gettysburg. While we have shown that this exemption of the regiment from heavy battle casualties was in the main the result of accident, yet, from the nature of things, it cannot be wholly so.
The death-lists of many new regiments were often largely increased by the mere inexperience of the troops, and the insane idea sometimes possessed by their officers, that recklessness and wanton exposure were evidence of valor.
The Twenty-ninth was long in the field; its soldiers, for the last three years of their term, were in every sense veterans, having learned, by actual experience, the many little arts and devices always employed by old soldiers to protect themselves while in perilous positions,—a knowledge that the Confederate officers imparted to their soldiers early in the war, and resulted in the saving of life, and the winning of more than one important victory over our armies. The romantic notion which for awhile possessed the soldiers, that it was unmilitary and unsoldierly to make any effort to be comfortable, or to shield themselves from the death-dealing minie, or the howling cannon-ball, soon gave place to more sensible ideas; and long before the close of the war, a rock, a fence, a log, a tree, or even a stump or bush, were often used with great effect for defensive purposes, and saved more than one soldier his life; while his cover, slight as it was, enabled him to fire with greater precision and coolness.