USA > Indiana > History of the Seventy-fifth regiment of Indiana infantry voluteers. its organization, campaigns, and battles (1862-65.) > Part 31
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On the 12th, we resumed our march in the direction of Raleigh, bridging the Neuse River with pontoons, on which we crossed. During the day Lieut. - Colonel O'Brien read an order from General Sherman to the Regiment, announcing the surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox to General Grant on the 9th, notice of which he had received during the pre- vious night. There was, of course, great rejoicing among the soldiers on hearing this news. We all felt that the war was practically over. We went into camp about 2 p. in. on the railroad between Smithfield and Raleigh. Resuming our march on the 13th at daylight, we reached the city of Raleigh at noon, passing through the streets in the order of a review. On the 14th we marched due west, following the North Carolina Railroad, until we were eight miles from Raleigh, then turning to the left, went due south, and re- suming the march on the next day we encamped at Holly Springs. On the 16th we marched eight miles towards the
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Cape Fear River, going into camp at Collin's Cross-Roads. Here we remained until the 27th. It was here that we offi- cially received the sad and joyful news of the assassination of President Lincoln on the 14th, in Ford's theatre at Wash- ington, D. C., and of the surrender of Johnston at Bennett's house on the 26th, near Durham's Station, N. C.
While encamped at Collin's, B Company of our Regiment, under Captain Ellis, was detailed to operate Holliday's grist- mill, located about three miles from camp. The Company remained there for a week.
On Sunday, the 23d, we were called together to hear an excellent funeral sermon on the death of President Lincoln, by the Chaplain of one of the Regiments in the Brigade.
CHAPTER XVI.
HOMEWARD MARCH VIA RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON- GRAND. REVIEW-FROM WASHINGTON TO INDIAN- APOLIS-MUSTER OUT, ETC.
(FROM APRIL 28TH TO JUNE 16TH, 1865.)
SINCE the capitulation of Lee's army in Virginia, groups of Southern soldiers, unarmed and in gray uniforms, were seen by us almost every day on their way home.
General Schofield and his army were assigned to the duty of paroling Johnston's surrendered forces, and both wings of Sherman's army (except Kilpatrick's Cavalry, remaining with Schofield), consisting of the Fourteenth, Twentieth, Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, under their respective commanders, were ordered to Washington City, D. C., for inuster out of the service.
On the 29th of April General Sherman left for City Point, and thence for Richmond, Va., where he awaited us. In the mean time our Division moved to Page's Station, on the North Carolina Railroad, about six miles west of Raleigh, and encamped. Here the Company officers of our Regiment made out the muster rolls and monthly returns, preparatory to our discharge. On the previous night, we heard a most terrific explosion of gunpowder and shells, causing more or less aların among us, as to what it all meant. It was John- ston's army blowing up the ammunition after the surrender. From this point our Brigade started on foot for Washington via Richmond. The Nineteenth Indiana Battery of our Brigade did not march with us, but was sent to Newbern and thence by steamer to Washington. We received orders for an easy march to Richmond, moving on an average of fifteen
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miles per day. At this rate we would have reached Rich- mond in ten days; but instead of a daily march of fifteen miles, we made between twenty and thirty-five miles per day, arriving in Virginia's Capital in seven days. We actu- ally did about the hardest marching after the war was over, and when there was no necessity for it. The four Corps moving upon different roads, made a foolish foot-race out of this homeward inarch, the object of which was to ascertain which one of the Corps could first reach the old Confederate Capital. On account of it, several lives of the returning sol- diers were lost by exhaustion.
We began our last march on Sunday, April 30th, and made seventeen miles by 3 p. m., and on May Ist crossing the Neuse River, with the Seventy-fifth Indiana in the ad- vance, we traversed twenty-seven miles of ground by 4 p. mn., passing through Wilton about noon, where a Union demon- stration was made, and where we saw for the first time in the South during the war, the Stars and Stripes raised on a pole by the citizens. We halted here for an hour, and, while the fine band of the Eighty-seventh Indiana Regiment began playing "Coming through the Rye"-Colonel Gleason's favorite-the surrendered Confederate soldiers, who were present, joined hands with some of our men, and began to "circle to the left" in a stag-dance. Probably this was the first fraternal union of the blue and the gray after the close of hostilities. On resuming our march in the afternoon, we crossed the Tar River and went into camp within three miles of Oxford, the county-seat of Granville county, N. C. On the 2d we marched twenty-two iniles, passing through Ox- ford and Williamsboro, and encamping at sunset within five iniles of the Virginia state-line. On the 3d we marched twenty miles, crossing the line into Mecklenburg county, Va., about 8 a. m. and the Roanoke River about 3 p. m., being delayed five hours by laying pontoons. We passed through Boydton in the evening and went into camp at dark. On the 4th we crossed the Meherrin River, covering twenty-
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five miles of ground. Resuming our march on the following day, we passed through Lewiston and Nottoway C. H. The weather was extremely warm, and the troops were very sore and much fatigued, having marched during the day as many as thirty-four miles. On the 6th and 7th, with sore feet and tired limbs, we covered fifty miles of ground. Crossing the Appomattox River in Amelia county, and reaching the James near Manchester, we encamped for three days in the woods within two miles of Richmond.
General Halleck, who was in command of the troops guarding Richmond, issued peremptory orders, which forbade any of Sherman's soldiers to enter the city without a pass from the Corps commanders, but many of us went into the city without the pass. The guards stationed at the bridge, spanning the James River, were powerless in their endeavors to arrest and imprison the squads of Sherman's soldiers on a "still hunt" for something to eat and for the purpose of sight seeing. In more than one instance these guards were knocked down and their guns taken from them.
While partaking of a meal at a house in Richmond, the writer witnessed an episode that will bear mentioning here. The house was guarded, and the sentinel at the door had strict orders to allow no soldier from Sherman's army with- out a pass from his Corps commander to enter. Without complying with this "red tape " regulation, several of Sher- man's soldiers were there. The proprietor was a rank se- cessionist, but he gave us a good meal for a dollar. While some of us were busily engaged in eating, a typical Sherman " bummer" with a huge haversack carelessly thrown across his shoulder, entered the dining room, and, on taking a seat at the table, placed his haversack on a chair beside him, while he ate. Having finished and asked the price of his meal, he was charged two dollars instead of one-one for himself and the other for his haversack, which, the pro- prietor remarked, had occupied a seat at the table like the rest and must pay for the privilege. "But," reasoned the
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bummer, "it didn't eat anything, and as there was plenty of other seats for all who wished a meal, didn't inconvenience anybody." "Can't help that," said the Southerner, who felt a little independent with a guard at his door for pro- tection, " seats at this table are a dollar apiece, and if your haversack occupies one, it must pay." Seemingly convinced with this process of reasoning in Virginia, which was very different from that in Georgia and the Carolinas, and not wishing to raise a row when the war was over, the bummer "shelled out" the extra dollar. Then he walked up to his haversack and addressed it thus: "My old companion, you have been mighty patient while I have been eating, and too busy to attend to you, but now you shall have all you want." Suiting his action to his words, the bummer opened his haversack, which displayed a yawning emptiness, and be- gan leaping into it all that the table contained; the rest of us "catching on," joined in to assist him, until his haversack had enjoyed such a "good square meal" that it was borne away by its owner, who feasted upon its contents for the rest of his march to Washington to his great comfort and satis- faction.
Richmond occupied a most picturesque situation, with streets intersecting each other at right angles. The Capitol, which was a large and imposing edifice, stood in an eight acre park on Shockoe hill; in its central hall stood a fine statue of George Washington, and near by a bust of Lafay- ette made of marble. In the Capitol grounds stood a monu- ment erected to Washington, consisting of a base in the shape of a six-pointed star, and a pedestal forty feet high, with winding stairs on the inside, upon which stood an equestrian statue of "the father of his country," twenty-five feet high, made of bronze. On the base stood smaller statues of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, with places for four more eminent Virginians. We saw Libby's old tobacco house, with the sign still over the door, which became the celebrated {"Libby Prison" of the war. We saw "Belle
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Isle " and "Castle Thunder " prisons, where so many Na- tional soldiers perished. Much of the city was blackened and ruined by fire at the time of Lee's evacuation.
On the morning of the 11th, at 7 o'clock, we broke camp near Manchester C. H., and took up our line of march for Washington. The right wing (Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps) took the direct road via Fredericksburg. The left wing moved through Hanover C. H., thence deflected to the left and advanced through Chilesburg; the Twentieth Corps by Spotsylvania C. H., and Chancellorsville; and the Four- teenth Corps by New Market, Culpepper and Manassas. General Sherman accompanied the army from Richmond to Washington, shifting from one wing to the other along the route. Crossing the. James River on a pontoon bridge at Richmond, we marched through the principal streets of that city, proceeding as far as Hanover C. H., where we en- camped. In Hanover county Henry Clay and Patrick Henry were born. On the 12th, we crossed the Pamunkey River, and on the 13th, we crossed the Richmond and Potomac Rail- road at Chesterfield, reaching Chilesburg by noon. On the 14th and 15th, we made thirty-five miles, fording the Rapidan River at Raccoon Ford; and, on the 16th and 17th, we waded the Rappahannock River at Kelley's Ford, and struck the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which we followed for several miles and encamped. On the 18th, we followed this railroad to Manassas Junction, thence passed over the Bull Run battlefield and to Centreville, where we took the pike for Alexandria. Passing through Fairfax C. H., we en- camped five miles beyond. On the 19th, we proceeded five miles in the direction of Alexandria, when we turned off the pike and moved towards Washington, encamping about five miles from Alexandria and seven miles from Washington.
Upon our arrival near the Nation's Capital, orders were issued in which it was announced that on the 23d and 24th Grant's and Sherman's armies would pass up Pennsylvania Avenue in grand review in the presence of President Andrew
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Johnson, his Cabinet, members of Congress and generals of the army. The Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Twentieth Corps marched over the Long Bridge, on the night of the 23d, into Washington, bivouacking around the Capitol, and our Corps (Fourteenth) moved into the city on the morning of the 24th, and took our place for the review. Grant's army was re- viewed on the 23d and Sherman's on the 24th. The city was filled with visitors, who came from far and near to wit- ness this grand sight. Sherman's veterans were six long hours in passing the grand stand. There was no gaudy dress nor holiday appearance about these heroes, who had tramped thousands of miles through Georgia and the Caro- linas, such as is generally seen at military reviews; but, while the sun was shining with a scorching heat, their marching was perfect. Their ranks, reaching from one side of the pavement to the other, swept the Avenue. Their bands, in front of the Brigades, playing their soul-stirring airs, worked up the enthusiasm of the thousands of people, who thronged both sides of the marching columns, to the highest pitch. In commenting on this review twenty-five years afterwards, the National Tribune editorially says:
"A quarter of a million of veterans, heroes of hundreds of sanguinary battles, winnowed, tempered, and tested by four years of desperate fighting, and flushed by a victory which left every hostile arm grounded, marched through the Capital of their Nation in pride and power. It was the mighti- est army that then stood upon the planet which we call earth. But it was not a horde mustered for conquest and oppression, or to maintain the power of kings. It was a pageant of the might and majesty of a free people roused to war, and who had sent their sons forth to battle for the eternal right. Every musket was borne by a freeman and a patriot, who bore the musket solely because of his patriotism. The hand on every sabre hilt was a hand that would only be raised to strike for the right; they who trained the can- non would only turn their dread powers on enemies of freedom and law." (Oct. 8th, 1891.)
When we returned to our camps, we were quite tired, hav- ing marched, in the course of the day, some twenty miles.1 On the day following the grand review, we left our camps
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near Alexandria, and moved to more congenial grounds about three miles north of Washington. Opportunity was now afforded us to visit the Capital of our Nation. It was the first sight of the city many of us ever had, and we gladly availed ourselves of this privilege. Though the sight of the massive public buildings, among other things, greatly im- pressed us; the tall pillars of the Capitol and White House, wreathed in black bunting from top to bottom in honor and memory of our martyred President, made a far deeper im- pression upon us. Throughout the city the statues and monuments of distinguished statesmen and soldiers of the past were almost hidden by the great folds of black; and heavy festoons hung mournfully froni the roofs of the build- ings to the pavements below.
On June 3d, the Fourteenth Corps was called into line to bid farewell to our old commander, General George H. Thomas. The scene was peculiarly affecting to both the Corps and the General. We, who were accustomed to wit- ness all sorts of heart-rending scenes with a stoical indiffer- ence, as we now gave good-bye to the grandest of all our grand commanders, wept like children. It was the last time many of us were permitted to look into the General's stern, but kind face. He was among the first of the great leaders to pass from earth after the war. He died March 28th, 1870.
The breaking up of the old Second Brigade, and the final separation of the respective Regiments composing it, now occurred. On the 3d, the One-hundred and fifth Ohio was mustered out at Washington and took the cars for Cleveland, Ohio; and on the same day, the Nineteenth Indiana Battery left for Indianapolis, Indiana, where, on the 10th, it was mustered out. On the 10th, the Eighty-seventh Indiana was mustered out at Washington and transported by cars to In- dianapolis, Indiana, and on the 14th the One-hundred and first Indiana and the Second Minnesota Regiments, having previously been assigned to another Brigade, with Brevet Brig .- Gen. J. W. Bishop, of the latter, in command, were
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sent to Louisville, Ky, where they were mustered out, (the former on June 24th and the latter on July 10th) and re- turned to their respective States.
The Seventy-fifth Indiana Regiment was formally mus- tered out of the United States service at Washington, D. C., on June 8th, 1865. The recruits of the Regiment were on the same day transferred to the Forty-second Indiana Regi- ment, and, with that organization, were sent to Louisville, Ky., where, on July 21st, they were mustered out.
Proceeding homeward, our Regiment, on the evening of the 8th, was placed on board of a train made up of empty stock- cars, and left Washington about 7 o'clock, via B. and O. Railroad, for Parkersburg, W. Va., passing through the his- toric towns of Harper's Ferry, Martinsburg, Cumberland, Piedmont and Grafton, and arriving in Parkersburg at I o'clock p. m. on the 11th. Expressions of good will were shown us by the citizens all along the route; but at Grafton we were bountifully entertained. On the 12th, at 10 o'clock in the morning, we embarked on the steamer T. C. Dumont, at Parkersburg, and steamed down the Ohio River to Law- renceburg, Indiana. This trip on water of a distance of sev- eral hundred miles along the southern border of the State of Ohio, was most delightful. It was in striking contrast with our march in rain and mud through the Carolinas. During the day we were afforded some of the loveliest river scenery that we had ever witnessed. The view, as it lay spread out before our eyes, seemed as if nature had lavished upon it a combination of all that was beautiful. Little towns and vil- lages were dotted here and there on either side of the river, which were relieved at intervals by abrupt and broken hills and rich and fertile farms of the Ohio Valley. During the night we saw the picturesque and friendly light-houses. One was almost always in view. From the benevolence of their design they were objects of interest to us. Like pillars of fire by 'night, they greeted us as we journeyed. About mid- night we ran upon a sand-bar, whichi detained us for a while;
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but we arrived at Lawrenceburg in the evening of the 13th, where we were given a sumptuous repast by the citizens of our State. At II o'clock on that night we took the cars at Lawrenceburg for Indianapolis, and passing through Greens- burg and Shelbyville, we arrived in the Union depot at 7 o'clock in the morning of the 14th. From thence we pro- ceeded to the Soldiers' Home, and after partaking of a good breakfast there, we marched to the Arsenal and turned over our guns and equipments. In the afternoon of the same day the Regiment was given a public reception by the Governor and other State officials in the grounds of the Capitol. We were now quartered in Camp Morton, with the privilege of doing generally as we pleased, until the 16th, when we were paid off and our discharges handed to us, dated June 8th, 1865. The Seventy-fifth Regiment of Indiana Infantry Vol- unteers now passed out of an organic existence, and its indi- vidual members returned to the various duties of civil life.
The two "Orders," which were the last received from the commander of our Corps and the commander-in chief of our army, are herewith inserted:
GENERAL ORDERS, NO. 17.]
HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Washington, D. C., June 15th, 1865. Soldiers of the Fourteenth Army Corps :
Since he assumed command of the Corps, your General has seen many oc- casions when he was proud of your endurance, your courage, and your achievements. If he did not praise you then, it was because your labors and triumphs were incomplete. Whilst the enemies of your country still defied you, whilst hardships and dangers were to be encountered and overcome, it seemed to him premature to indulge in unnecessary praise of deeds being enacted, or to rest upon laurels already won. But now, when the battle and the march are ended and the victory yours, when many of you are about to return to your homes, where the sound of the liostile cannon-now silenced, let us trust forever, in our land-will soon be forgotten amidst the welcom- ing plaudits of friends, when the heavy armor of the soldier is being ex- changed for the civic wreaths of peace, he deemed it a happy occasion to congratulate you upon the part which you have borne, in common with your comrades of the armies of the Union, in the mighty struggle for the
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maintenance of the unity and integrity of your country. You will join heartily in the general rejoicing over the grand result and the termination of the Nation's perils. While the country is welcoming her defenders honie, and their noble deeds are being commemorated, you will ever remember with proud satisfaction that at Chickamauga yours were the invincible bat- talions with which the unyielding Thomas hurled back the overwhelming foe and saved the day ; that at Mission Ridge you helped, with your brothers of the Armies of the Cumberland and of the Tennessee, to plant the banners of your country once more on the cloud-clad heights of Chattanooga; that at Jonesboro your resistless charge decreed the final fate of proud Atlanta ; that at Bentonville you for hours defied the frenzied and determined efforts of the rebel hosts to crush seriatim the columns of the victorious Sherman. Years hence, in the happy enjoyment of the peace and prosperity of your country, whose preservation your valor on many hard-fought fields secured, it will be among your proudest boasts that you fought with Thomas and marched with Sherman from the mountains to the sea ; that you toiled and skirmished in midwinter through the swamps of Georgia and the Carolinas ; that after years of bloody contest you witnessed the surrender of one of the enemy's proudest armies, no longer able to withstand your irresistible pur- suit. Now, the danger past and the victory won, many of you return home- ward. Let the same generous spirit, the same pure patriotism that prompted your entry into your country's service, be cherished by you, never forgetting that the true soldier is always a good citizen and Christian.
Some remain yet for a time as soldiers. The same country that first called you needs your further services and retains you. Let your future record be a continuation of the glorious past, and such that as long as a soldier remains. of the Fourteenth Corps it shall continue bright and untarnished.
Many of the noblest, bravest, and best, who came out with us will not return. We left them on the hills and by the streams of the South, where no voice of mother, sister, or wife will ever wake them, where no kind hand will strew flowers upon their graves. But soldiers, by us they will never be forgotten. Their heroic deeds and last resting places will often be brought to mind in fond remembrance. Though dead, they will live in the affections of their countrymen and their country's history. Whilst passing events are fast changing our past associations and requiring us to form new ones, let us seek to extend a warm greeting and the hearty hand of congratulation to all who rejoice in our country's preservation and return to peace.
By command of Brevet Major-General Jeff. C. Davis.
A. C. MCCLURG,
Brevet Colonel, A. A. G., and Chief of Staff.
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[SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS, NO. 76.]
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Washington, D. C., May 30th, 1865.
The General commanding announces to the Armies of the Tennessee and Georgia that the time lias come for us to part. Our work is done, and armed enemies no longer defy us. Some of you will go to your homes, and others will be retained in military service until further orders.
And now that we are all about to separate, to mingle with the civil world, it becomes a pleasing duty to call to mind the situation of national affairs, when but little more than a year ago we were gathered about the cliffs of Lookout Mountain, and all the future was wrapped in doubt and uncertainty.
Three armies had come together from distant fields, witlı separate his- tories, yet bound by one common cause, the union of our country and the perpetuation of the government of our inheritance. There is no need to re- call to your memories Tunnel Hill, with Rocky Face Mountain and Buzzard Roost Gap, and the ugly forts of Dalton behind.
We were in earnest, and paused not for danger and difficulty, but dashed through Snake Creek Gap and fell on Resaca; then on to the Etowah, to Dallas, Kenesaw, and the heats of summer found us on the banks of the Chattahoochee, far from home, and dependent on a single road for supplies.
Again we were not to be held back by any obstacle, and crossed and fought four hard battles for the possession of the citadel of Atlanta. That was the crisis of our history. A doubt still clouded our future ; but we solved the problem, destroyed Atlanta, struck boldly across the State of Georgia, severed all the main arteries of life to our enemy, and Christinas found us at Savannah.
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