USA > Maryland > Fifth regiment, I., M.N.G. : a history of the regiment from its first organization to the present time > Part 5
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spirited citizens to pay for the trip. Several other committees also went to work for the same purpose. Their success was immediate and gratifying. A large sum of money was collected in a day or two. The Marine Band, which had been placed at the service of Boston for the celebration, was, at the instance of the city authorities of Boston, detailed by the Secretary of the Navy for duty with the Fifth Maryland, and accompanied the command from Baltimore.
OFFICERS' ROOM.
There was a feather ready in Boston for the regiment's cap, which in itself was a distinction of a flattering kind. Colonel Jenkins was informed, early in June, by Comrade Thos. M. Kenney, of Post No. 7, of the Grand Army of the Republic, that the Fifth would be presented with a stand of colors during the celebration, the gift coming from the veterans of the Grand Army, through Post No. 7, of Boston. On the morning of June 14 the regiment left Baltimore. The command assembled at the armory at 6.30 A. M. The men · were in full marching order, with knapsacks and blankets, but did not wear their shakos, these being considered out of place in summer. The Marine Band, of forty-two pieces, arrived at Camden Station the
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evening before. After the regiment had been formed, and handed over to Colonel Jenkins, he addressed the men. He said that his furlough of sixty days had expired, and but for the fact that he desired to accompany the regiment he would have asked that his furlough be extended. He announced that the regiment would embark at New York on a steamer making one of her regular trips, and desired all of the men to act discreetly while on board.
A special train took the Fifth from Baltimore to New York, and strict orders prevailed concerning conduct. Captain Post was the officer of the day, and Lieutenant Albers the officer of the guard. The entire command numbered 420 men and 329 muskets. At Wil- mington and Philadelphia, large crowds greeted the regiment. Boston was reached the following day, and the Fifth Massachusetts Regi- ment received the visitors. A committee of the latter regiment went down to Newport, where, at I A. M. on June 15, they boarded the steamer Bristol, which had the Fifth Maryland as passengers. At Fall River the men took the Old Colony Railroad for Boston, and the trip had been such a pleasant one that every man, when the regiment arrived there, looked as fresh as when he left the armory at Baltimore. The Maryland regiment was the first to arrive, and the celebration may be said to have commenced with its appearance. The importance attached by the Boston people to the Fifth's visit particularly was sufficient to make the men feel elated. At the depot an immense crowd pressed close around them. The Fifth Massachu- setts Regiment's band was playing when the train arrived, and the first sounds which caught the ears of visitors were the strains of " Maryland, My Maryland."
The march commenced, and led through the labyrinth of streets which constitute the business section of Boston. It was an inspiring march for the Maryland soldiers. The windows of nearly every house were filled with ladies. Handkerchiefs fluttered in their hands, while the sidewalks and doorways were packed with the business men of the city and other spectators, all lavishly bestowing their applause. It was a fine sight, and the regiment earned the commendations it won, marching with perfect precision in columns of companies in a locality where frequent wheeling was necessary. When the regiment turned into High Street, in the district which had been rebuilt since the great fire, a large business house, standing on the site of the former home of Daniel Webster, was discovered to be profusely decorated, and displayed in large ornamental letters the expression-
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" Welcome to the Fifth Maryland." On every street in the mer- cantile section through which the regiment passed the applause frequently drowned the music. On State Street the ovation con- tinued. The regiment showed to good advantage from the balcony and windows of the old State House, which were crowded, and on School Street Mayor Cobb received a marching salute.
Ladies filled the grounds and portico of the new State House, where Governor Gaston received the soldiers of Maryland. Arriving at the Institute of Technology, the guard was posted and regular duties were assumed. The day was spent in camp. Higher com- mendation could scarcely have been expressed than that uttered by one of the principal Boston dailies, which remarked concerning the Maryland regiment:
"Never since the days when the favorite regiments of our own State were returning from long and eventful absence has the drum-beat rallied to door and curbstone more eager and enthusiastic welcomers. Never were the faces of lookers-on more radiant with joy and pride, or cheers and hand-clappings more hearty and contagious. An electric stream of sympathy ran through the crowd, pressing almost lovingly and caressingly on the ranks of the Southerners, and the guests seemed worthy of it all. A finer-looking body of citizen-soldiers never paraded our streets. Gentlemen, too, they appeared to be in the better sense of that word, so much over-used both North and South. Soldiers they clearly are, with their steady, straightforward, soldierly bearing, their trim ranks and their elastic step. As men and gentlemen they are again our brothers ; as soldiers they are under the old flag of the whole country, and we are by so much the richer in our kin and the stronger in our national strength. The great celebration to which Boston gives herself up this week will not have been in vain to bring this to realization."
The first dress-parade was held on the evening of the first day. Among the other Southern organizations at the celebration were De Molay Commandery, Knights Templar, from Richmond, and the Charleston Light Infantry. This last battalion brought with it a crimson flag, embroidered, and surmounted by an eagle, with the Roman legend, "S. P. Q. R." on its folds. The flag once belonged to Colonel William Washington, of Revolutionary fame, and the Maryland men regretted heartily that they had not brought Pulaski's banner with them.
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CHAPTER XII. A GREAT TIME IN BOSTON.
MARYLAND'S TRIBUTE TO MASSACHUSETTS .- THE VISIT TO BUNKER HILL .- ELOQUENT SPEECHES .- PATRIOTIC AND FRATERNAL GREETINGS .- A REUNION OF SOLDIERS .- PRESENTED WITH A STAND OF COLORS .- THE GREAT PROCESSION .- AN IMMENSE CLAM-BAKE IN HONOR OF THE FIFTH .- LAYING THE CORNER- STONE OF A PIGGERY .- ROYAL HOSPITALITY.
On the following day the regiment, as a body of Maryland troops, paid their tribute to the heroic dead of Bunker Hill. They went to Charlestown, bearing a superb floral offering to be laid on the soldiers' monument. "Maryland's tribute to Massachusetts " were the words on the mound of flowers. General Fitzhugh Lee arrived in Boston on June 16, with the Norfolk Blues, and rode in an open carriage with Commander Taylor, of Norfolk. Governor Lee's presence was greeted with shouts of welcome. At 2.30 o'clock in the afternoon, on June 16, the regiment turned out for the day, and marched over the Charlestown Bridge to the monument erected for the soldiers of the war between the States, and inclosed in a public square a short distance from Bunker Hill Monument. Here the Fifth formed three sides of a square, and while the band played a dirge, the men laid the shield of flowers, five feet long by four wide, at the foot of the group of emblematic figures at the base of the monument. The Fifth then returned to Boston. At Haymarket Square the regiment was met by the veteran organizations of the Union army, Post No. 7, G. A. R., in addition to the soldiers of General Banks' old division, and about forty officers from the different army posts, the Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts regiments, and the representatives of the Fourth Pennsylvania and the Third Wisconsin and the Second Massachusetts regiments, in three divi- sions aggregating 1200 men, all under command of Colonel Thomas M. Kenney. The colors to be presented were carried furled in an oil-skin case. Governor Gaston and staff, Major-General N. P. Banks, Vice-President Wilson, the Executive Council of Massachu-
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setts, Mayor Cobb and a large delegation of aldermen and the business men of Boston, walked in the ranks of the veterans, forming a notable feature of the display.
It was in fact "Maryland Day " at the celebration. The flag was presented on Boston Common. Five or six acres of lawn had been roped off, and in the enclosure the Fifth was massed in column by division. Colonel Kenney introduced General Banks, who addressed Colonel Jenkins and the Fifth as follows :
"Mr. Cominander and Gentlemen of the Fifth Maryland Regiment: The people of the ancient world, it is said, engraved upon the rocky promontories called the ' Pillars of Hercules,' where Europe is separated from Africa by the Straits of Gibraltar, these words-'Ibi deficit orbis '-' Here terminates the globe.' This incident well represents the exaggerated and selfish patriotism of other times, when men were blinded to the merits and even the existence of every- thing not their own. It is a prejudice not yet extinct. There are traces of it, it is said, even in this enlightened quarter of the world. The regiment you command, sir, has given the country a loftier example. You have passed in your march hither the boundaries of the State and the distinct geographical section to which you belong. It is not often that so large a body of men, from personal and patriotic motives alone, has traversed so extensive a portion of the country. It is an example which must have an enduring and beneficial influence. It will give us, if more generally adopted, an opportunity at least to know each other, which the unpropitious destiny of the times so long denied us. It will shut out from our hearts more or less of that narrow provincial spirit which has misled men from the beginning of the world. It will help us to reject that barbarous maxim, so potent in other times and so potent now- 'hospes hostis,' 'every stranger is an enemy,' and to substitute therefor the more exalted idea of duty taught by the sages of antiquity and in the precepts of Christianity, to which the genius of Fenelon gave immortality when he said, ' I prefer my friend to myself, my relatives to my friends, my country to my relatives, and humanity to my country.' It is this spirit, I doubt not, which has fortified and prospered your progress hither. Neither your people nor ours may fully appreciate its importance or character, but the generations that succeed us will rightly estimate its value, and accord to it the veneration of that spirit which is the essential condition of equality, liberty, national pros- perity and power. For this we welcome you, one and all, with our whole hearts, in behalf of all our people, to the soil of Massachusetts.
" It is an auspicious moment, and a patriotic as well as a fraternal duty, that leads you hither. To-morrow closes the century that has passed since the battle of Bunker Hill. The sixty days that elapsed after the surprise of the Americans at Lexington and Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775, and the greater surprise of the British on the evening of that day, had awakened the people from their halcyon dreams of peace to the stern realities of war. They had ceased to be colonists, and were Americans. From all quarters they hurried to the new theatre of action, with noble aspirations and purposes. The beleaguered British troops well knew they must extend their line of defense beyond the limits of Boston, or evacuate the town. They determined, there- fore, to occupy the heights of Charlestown. But the colonists, in this brief period, had become a nation, and with sublime audacity they assumed the responsibility of sovereign power. They divined the plans of the enemy. Impromptu armies recognized impromptu leaders, and they seized the strategic points of the situation. A hundred years ago, this very night, they silently moved to Bunker Hill and fortified its heights. A hundred years ago to-morrow
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the British troops hurried across the channel to dislodge them. The ultimate sovereignty of the continent was the stake at issue. Hence came the battle of Bunker Hill. We don't care to remember whether it was a victory or a defeat. Official reports of the officers of the Crown and the sworn affidavits of the people disavowed all responsibility for the sanguinary results at Lexing- ton and Concord, but at Bunker Hill the flag of the new country was unfurled, with ' Independence, Union and Liberty' emblazoned on its folds ; and from that day dates American civilization. It gave Washington and Warren, Adams and Jefferson, Hancock and Henry. It gave us the greater centenary of the approaching year. It was a battle fought not for ourselves, but for tlie country ; and to give it vitality here and everywhere it must be accepted and ·honored by the country.
"This is the recognition which you, with other organizations from distant sections of the republic, bring to our patriotic pageant. For this we thank you ; for this the countless thousands that will throng our streets to-morrow will honor the name and flag you bear. And if men there were none, there are yet, as Milton tells us, millions of spiritual creatures that walk the earth unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep, to encourage and strengthen yon. It is a providential duty which occupies our time. We celebrate the events that first greeted the now closing century, but the commemoration itself opens another greater than that which is past. It may, perhaps, witness the adoption of our institutions by more extended and populous portions of the globe. To assist in that work, we must be able to recover from our own calamities, and heal our own dissensions from whatever cause or hand they come. Reconciliation and peace are indispensable to the completion of our destiny. Without the advantages of liberty, the sacrifices of war, the marvels of invention and the triumphs of industry, the treasures of earth and sea are unavailing. Peace is not the offspring of force. It must exist in the hearts of the people, in the protection of the rights of others and the undisturbed enjoy - ment of our own. This we desire, and for it we labor to the end.
" It is with these sentiments, Colonel Jenkins, and an earnest desire to con- tribute something not unworthy of preservation to the memories of the day, that my associates request me to present to you and your command a regi- mental stand of colors, as an evidence of their respect and a memorial of your visit to Massachusetts. It is an unostentatious gift of earnest and patriotic men, officers and soldiers of past military organizations of the State, chiefly representing Post No. 7 of the Grand Army of the Republic, and a division which I had the honor to command ; but if it were laden with the treasures of the State it could not better represent their good wishes for the happiness and prosperity of your command. In their names I ask you to accept it as a memorial of their kind consideration and regard for your command and its interests. Colonel, we respect the State of Maryland as one of the sister States of the republic ; we honor her for the example of religious tolerance which she first gave the continent ; we appreciate the excellence of her military organi- zations which you so well represent; we rejoice in the prosperity of her people ; we hope that Massachusetts may remain in concord and amity with her forever, and that whatever glories or sorrows that they may have shared in the past, or may yet share in the future, may be directed for their mutual advantage, the honor of the country and the welfare of the human race."
General Banks then had the flag presented. Colonel Jenkins, in receiving it, said :
"General Banks : To yourself and the members of Post No. 7 of the Grand Army of the Republic, on behalf of the Fifth Regiment M. N. G., I beg to return my most sincere thanks. With a keen conception of the inadequacy of the language at my command properly to convey to you our profound sense of
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the honor conferred upon us, I can yet assure you that the sentiments so eloquently expressed sink deep into the hearts of my men and meet there a warm and hearty response. Coming to add our humble tribute to the memory of the men of the Revolution, by joining in the grand national ceremonial of to-morrow, we have been made to feel that the descendants of Smallwood and Howard are no strangers among the sons of Prescott and Warren. This elegant symbol of our nationality we receive, not only as a gift of friendship and esteem, but we accept it as a sacred trust confided to our keeping. We will cherish it as mature manhood cherishes the recollections of a fond mother's early love ; we will care for it faithfully, and protect it, if need be, with our lives. This standard will be received with enthusiasm by our people as the tangible evidence of your brotherly love, and henceforth, under its protecting folds, as in the days of the Revolution, Massachusetts and Maryland will be' found shoulder to shoulder."
So the speeches ended amid glowing enthusiasm and the best of good feeling. The flag was of the regulation army size, suitably inscribed with the date and the occasion of the presentation. One of the G. A. R. men handed it to Color-Sergeant McGraw, of the Fifth, who had been present at the closing scenes of the war between the States at Appomattox. Then, in the presence of about fifty thousand people, the Fifth held a dress-parade. The men were in the mood which made them exert themselves to the utmost to go through a dress-parade in as perfect a manner as such a performance could be made; they were on their mettle. They elicited tumultuous and delighted applause.
General Banks' address, in presenting the flag, was the type of the speeches made by all of the other orators of the celebration-liberal, cordial, and characterized by a spirit of elevated patriotism which warmed the visiting soldiers' hearts. On the evening of the same day, Mayor Cobb and the Council of Boston gave a reception to strangers and invited guests at the Music Hall. It was a memor- able reception, some of the most famous men of the country being present. The house was beautifully ornamented, and on the stage were Vice-President Wilson, General Fitzhugh Lee, General William T. Sherman, General A. E. Burnside, and others from South Caro- lina, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Patriotic and eloquent speeches were made, which all the country read the next day in newspaper reports.
Mayor Cobb, in his address of welcome, reviewed the events immediately preceding and following the battle of Bunker Hill. " Remembering these things, we of the East do more than willingly accord to the people of the West and South an equal share in the proud and grateful memories that belong to our centennial celebration, and we on our side shall claim an equal share in theirs as they recur
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from time to time from '75 to '82. Here, in Boston, I do not know a single voice at variance with the sentiment of restored amity ; and that it is shared by yourselves, gentlemen of the South, is evidenced by your presence here to-night. You may have desired the issue of the war to have been other than it was, and may have felt for a long time that all was lost, save honor. I respect your convictions, but I believe you are wise enough and magnanimous enough to acquiesce loyally now and in the end cheerfully in the arbitrament of the God of battles, assured, as you must be, that the overruling Providence is wiser than our wishes, and knows how to bestow richer benefits than those it withholds ; assured, too, that whatever was good and right in the lost cause is not finally lost, and that whatever was false or wrong in the winning cause cannot permanently triumph. The Almighty reigns, and shapes results more beneficially and more righteously than man can."
At the close of this speech, the Eutaw flag of the Charleston (South Carolina) Infantry was carried, amid cheers, to the platform. The other speakers were Colonel A. O. Andrews, of Charleston, General Lee, General William T. Sherman, and General Kilpatrick.
The next day (June 17) was the great day of the celebration, being the anniversary of the battle. There was a procession seven miles long, and thirty thousand men were in line. The first events were a review of the Massachusetts militia and a procession of the Charles- town "Antiques and Horribles," the latter suggesting a mardi gras pageant. The procession was reviewed by Governor Gaston. Major- General B. F. Butler commanded the division. There were ten thousand soldiers in the parade, and seven thousand of them were Massachusetts men. The soldiers from New York, Maryland, Penn- sylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were highly complimented. The streets on which the procession moved were closed by ropes to vehicles. The men in the parade began their long march at I P. M., the Fifth Maryland having the left of the line, and General Butler remarked, "Always the best reserved for the last." Two companies of the Fifth United States Artillery acted as an escort to the division, which comprised the city and State officials, with their guests, the Mayors of Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., Galveston, Wilmington, N. C., Alderman Mackey, of Charleston, S. C., Vice-President Wilson, the diplomatic corps, Senators Boutwell and Dawes, the Governors of all the other New England States, and New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Michigan, besides other dignitaries. In the proces-
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sion were also a number of cadet organizations, G. A. R. posts, lodges of the American Mechanics, the Knights of Pythias, Knights Tem- plar, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Roman Catholic societies. The parade also included a trades' display. At the Bunker Hill Monument, where the procession ended, the people gathered in a mammoth tent. It was six o'clock when the exercises began, and they were necessarily curtailed. George Washington Warren pre- sided, and General Charles Devens, Jr., made the oration, which was confined to a graphic description of the battle and an eloquent. appeal for the burial of all sectional animosity. Speeches were also made by General Sherman, Governor Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, and Governor Beadle, of New Jersey.
The Fifth Maryland was entertained in the evening by the Somer- set Club. All parts of the city blazed with fire-works and a general illumination. On the day following, the Fifth went to Nantasket Beach, about twelve miles from Boston, and enjoyed a clam-bake, arranged on a colossal scale. The men wore their overcoats, as a heavy rain, accompanied by a cold east wind, was falling. Neither the officers nor the men carried arms, and the band was left behind. Lieutenant-Colonel Loney had command. The Fifth's special hosts were the Charlestown Cadets and two companies of the Fifth Massa- chusetts Regiment. Among others of the party were the Washing- ton Light Infantry, the Governor's Foot Guard, of Hartford, Con- necticut, as guests to General Chas. Devens, Jr., Richard Frothing- ham, Colonel Kenney, of Post No. 7, and the field and staff of the Fifth Massachusetts, who were also the hosts of the Maryland men. The party boarded the steamer Governor Andrews, and passed out of the harbor, by Fort Warren, to Nantasket Beach. "Between the drops," the party marched up the long pier and over the beach to the Seaside Hotel. There the clams were baking. The guests were escorted to a great dining-room, opened for the first time. They watched the process of cooking the clams with a great deal of interest. A deep pit had been dug near the beach, within sight of the waves. A fire had been kindled several days before, and covered with a great pile of stones, which were almost red-hot. After the visitors arrived, the stones were covered with piles of wet seaweed, and on top of the huge mass forty-five bushels of clams were placed. Over the clams was a layer of fish-twelve bushels of them. Over this a canvass covering was thrown, and the whole was covered with more seaweed. When the clams and fish were done to a turn, the
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work of serving clam-chowder began. The preparations had given every one, for once at least, a keen appetite for chowder. Speeches were made, and the visitors had a glorious experience, in spite of the rain.
The Fifth had a novel experience on the next and last day (Saturday). The regiment went to the beautiful country home of Mr. Wm. Emerson Baker, one of the millionaires of Massachusetts, and there witnessed the ceremonies, solemnly conducted, of laying the corner-stone of a pig-sty. Mr. Baker's home was near Wellesley, on the Boston and Albany Railroad. This "piggery " was to endure through many generations both of pigs and men. The corner-stone laying was a brilliant success as a pageant. The Fifth left Boston on a special train, escorted by a detachment of the Fifth Massachusetts Regiment. accompanied by the Marine Band and about four hun- dred other invited guests. Another train brought such distinguished guests as Governor Gaston, General Banks, General Andrew" Denison, then the Postmaster of Baltimore, Ex-Governor Howard, of Rhode Island, Hon. Ginery Twichell, Colonel A. O. Andrews, and others. The great crowd suggested nothing so strongly as a sort of military picnic in a beautiful park. Governor Gaston was received by the Fifth Maryland men, drawn up on a spacious lawn. Escorted by Colonel Jenkins, Mr. Baker, the genial host, came down to a position before the colors, the regiment standing at "present arms," and told the guests that they were expected to have as good a time as could be made possible by him, that they were all cordially welcome, and that there were accommodations for them until the Fourth of July, if they would stay that long. The affair had been arranged by him two months before, and all of the great number of invitations issued bore pictures of pigs. When the guests first drew near the house of Mr. Baker, strange sights had been witnessed along the road. The carriage once owned by Governor Curtis, in which Lafayette rode when he visited America for the last time, with dozens of other curious vehicles, such as a ship and a hogshead on wheels drawn by a blind horse, masked with a pig's head, awaited the visitors. The " Babes in the Wood " were seen, but they appeared to be large enough to take care of themselves. " Time," with his scythe and hour-glass, also appeared, but without making any dispiriting remarks. Three black bears in a log stockade were found in a grove near the house, and not far from either was a half- hogshead filled with New England rum. This place bore the formi-
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