They marched in good time, and wheeled with a readiness which showed that they had a clear idea of what was required, and only needed a little more practice to equal the best regiments that left the State.
The regiment marched down State Street at a quarter past twelve o’clock to the tune of “John Brown,” and was vociferously cheered by the vast crowds that covered the sidewalks and filled the windows. Nowhere was the reception of the regiment more hearty.
All attempts to express the feeling of the crowd or the soldiers seem to read stale and flat. Yet, as Goldsmith said that the weakest jokes were received as wit by the circle of the happy vicar, so these attempts were treated as successes by the happy crowd. One man said it was a verification of Shakspeare:—
“Know you not Pompey?
You have climbed up to the walls and battlements
To see Great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.”
One fact should be chronicled. Their regimental banner, of superb white silk had on one side the coat-of-anns of Massachusetts, and on the other a golden cross on a golden star, with In hoc Signo Vinces beneath. This is the first Christian banner that has gone into our war. By a strange, and yet not strange, providence, God has made this despised race the bearers of his standard. They are thus the real leaders of the nation.
On reaching the wharf at a quarter before one, every thing had been placed on board through the efforts of Capt. McKim; the guns were placed in boxes, the horses put aboard, and the men began to embark. At four o’clock, the vessel steamed down the harbor, bound for Port Royal, S.C.
THE COMPLETE ROSTER OF THE REGIMENT.
Colonel.—Robert G. Shaw.