On the evening of the 19th of April, a reception levee was given to the members of the Bay State Guards, in the City Hall of Charlestown. The hall was elaborately decorated for the occasion, and fine music enlivened the guests. His Excellency Governor Andrew, and His Honor Mayor Stone, were present, and both made speeches to the veterans, welcoming them to their homes and the festivities of the evening. The levee ended with dancing and a collation.
Company C of East Bridgewater was also accorded a public reception soon after its return. The good people of Plymouth and Sandwich paid similar honors to their returning soldiers; but there was mingled with all these receptions and kind greetings, much that tended to repress joy and gladness. The war-cloud still hovered over the land, darkening every hearth and every home. Even while the furloughed soldiers were listening to the strains of welcoming music, the booming of Grant’s cannon in the Wilderness was heard, and the knowledge that their own comrades, so unjustly separated from them, were fighting there, tinged all their enjoyment with sorrow, and filled them with troublesome apprehensions.
CHAPTER XXV.
The Transferred Men in the Thirty-sixth Regiment—They March Over the Cumberland Mountains—Go With the Ninth Corps to Annapolis, Md.—The Corps Ordered to the Front—March Through Washington—Battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania—A List of the Killed—The Transferred Men Sent Home—They Meet Their Brothers of the Twenty-ninth Regiment in Washington—The Regiment Again in the Field—Assigned to the Fifth Corps—Battle of Bethesda Church—A Surprise and Narrow Escape—Re-assigned to the Ninth Corps—Battle of Shady Grove Church—To the James—A Long March—Battle of June Seventeenth—Tragic Death of the Three Color-bearers—The Flag Rescued—The Dead and Wounded.
The Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Regiment had been in the service since September 2, 1862, and had earned for itself a proud record. It was at the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, but lost only two men, wounded. It was attached to the Ninth Corps, and in February, 1863, accompanied the Twenty-ninth Regiment and the other troops of the corps to Newport News, and after spending about six weeks here in drill, went into the department of Ohio; did duty in Kentucky and Tennessee, and in June went to Vicksburg, taking part in the siege of that city, and later, in July, in the siege and battles about Jackson, losing several men killed and wounded. The regiment returned with the corps to Tennessee, in August, where it was engaged in the battles of Blue Springs and Campbell’s Station, and the siege of Knoxville. It was likewise at Blaine’s Cross-Roads, in December, 1863, and January, 1864, and suffered all the privations there endured by our army.
On the 21st of March, 1864, it commenced the march over the Cumberland Mountains to Nicholasville, Ky., a distance of about two hundred miles, where it arrived on the first day of April.
The regiment, containing the transferred men of the Twenty-ninth, reached Annapolis, Md., April 6, and went into camp. The corps had been ordered to this place to recruit, and during the seventeen days that it remained here, its numbers were considerably increased. The old regiments were filled up, to some extent, by re-enlistments and new levies; five cavalry and twelve infantry regiments, and five batteries of artillery, beside an entire division (Fourth) of colored troops, were added to the corps, making its strength about twenty-five thousand men. General Burnside was again assigned to the command of the corps, while General Ferrero was placed in command of the division of colored troops.
At an early hour in the morning of the 23d of April, the removal of the corps from Annapolis began. The Thirty-sixth broke camp before sunrise, and taking the track of the Elk Ridge and Annapolis Railroad, marched some thirteen miles, halting in some fields near the track for the night. Another very early start was made on the morning of the 24th, and in the course of six hours the regiment struck the Washington and Baltimore Turnpike. A brief halt was made for dinner, after which the march was resumed, the camp being formed at sunset about ten miles from Washington. Reveille sounded at four o’clock the next morning, but in consequence of the severe rain, the regiment did not break camp till four hours later, passing through Bladensburg on the march, and arriving in Washington at about mid-day, in advance of the other troops of the corps.
The report had reached Washington that the Ninth Corps was to pass through the city, and that among the troops was a division composed wholly of colored soldiers, and a large body of people gathered in the streets to witness this grand, and at that time novel, military parade. President Lincoln and his party, including General Burnside, had taken a position in the balcony of Willard’s Hotel. The streets were free from dust, and “a cool wind breathed through the soft air of the early spring”; the sky was cloudless, the bright rays of the sun lending beauty to the scene. A loud shout went up from the assembly when the head of the long column made its appearance. The veteran soldiers had exchanged the ragged garments that they wore home from Tennessee for bright new uniforms; but they carried the same old tattered flags, which told a story of toil and suffering, that brought flowing tears to the eyes of many spectators. The appearance in the column of the colored division of General Ferrero produced the most intense excitement, and gave birth to rounds of cheers; for although these black men had been but a few weeks in the service, they manifested considerable excellence in marching. When this division reached Willard’s Hotel, and the eyes of the men fell upon “Massa Lincoln,” “a spirit of wild enthusiasm ran through their ranks; they shouted, they cheered, they swung their caps, in the exuberance of their joy.” Towards sundown, the Thirty-sixth crossed Long Bridge, and went into camp near Alexandria with the rest of the corps.