Part 20 (1/2)

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE GRAND REVIEW.

The a.s.sembling of the armies at Was.h.i.+ngton was for the purpose of marching them in review through the nation's capital before mustering them out of service.

As Grant's and Sherman's troops numbered too many for a one day review, the former were given precedence and May 23 was fixed as the day.

We left our camps in Virginia at an early hour and crossed over the long bridge into that part of the city east of the capitol where the troops were ma.s.sed ready to move when the hour should arrive.

The signal gun was fired at 9 a. m., and the victorious hosts took up their line of march down the avenue, past the reviewing stand at the White House, thence to Georgetown and back to Virginia by the Aqueduct bridge.

The city was thronged with patriotic people from all over the country, many coming a thousand miles or more to see a father, brother, son or lover in the ranks of that mighty army that was so soon to vanish away.

The 2d corps did not pa.s.s the reviewing stand until afternoon and as we swung into Pennsylvania avenue a most grand and inspiring sight met our eyes. Every house top, balcony, window, tree and telegraph pole were black with people, and the street was a seething ma.s.s of humanity. Through the center, like a silvery stream coursing its way through a landscape, was a mile of glistening bayonets, waving flags and prancing steeds who had smelled the smoke of many battles. Everybody was thrilled with the sight, and as we marched down the avenue the music of the bands was drowned by the huzzahs of the throngs. Whenever a tattered battleflag appeared ladies rushed forward and strewed flowers before the standard bearers and loaded them and the color guards with wreaths and bouquets. Even the drummer boys came in for a share, and I felt then, as I do now, that it was a grand thing to have earned the right in whatever modest rank, to march with 100,000 veterans with the scars, smoke and dust of scores of battles upon them.

It took nearly all day for the Army of the Potomac to pa.s.s the reviewing stand which was filled with many of the prominent people of the country.

An incident of the review was the running away of Gen. Custer's horse, which became unmanageable in the parade and ran past the reviewing stand with the das.h.i.+ng general in the saddle and his red neck tie streaming out over his shoulders. After the steed was subdued the general rode back to the reviewing stand and saluted the dignitaries and was heartily cheered.

Every soldier who marched in that parade was impressed with the wording of a motto that was stretched across the front of the United States treasury.

It read, as near as I remember:

”The only debt we can never pay is the one we owe our brave soldiers and sailors.”

SHERMAN'S ARMY.

Sherman and his veterans were reviewed the following day and the enthusiasm of the preceding day was repeated. The writer was a spectator and noted a marked difference in the appearance of the two armies. The Army of the Potomac had been ”slicked up” a little for the occasion, and their marching was much better. Gen. Sherman expressed contempt for a paper collar on a soldier and the mult.i.tudes saw Sherman's army go through Was.h.i.+ngton just as they had marched to the sea.

”Sherman's b.u.mmers” were an amusing feature with their trophies gathered along the march through Georgia and the Carolinas, consisting of mules, donkeys, oxen, cows. .h.i.tched to plantation carts, and negro contrabands of all sizes and ages arrayed in costumes, quaint and ridiculous.

Immediately after the review the work of disbandment of the armies began and every day troops were sent north and the sword was laid aside for the plowshare.

SECOND REVIEW OF THE GRAND ARMY.

I read last night of a Grand Review In Was.h.i.+ngton's chiefest avenue-- Two hundred thousand men in blue, I think they said was the number-- Till I seemed to hear their tramping feet The bugle blast and the drum's quick beat, The clatter of hoofs in the stoney street, The cheers of the people who came to greet, And the thousand details that to repeat Would only my verse enc.u.mber,-- Till I fell in a revery, sad and sweet, And then to a fitful slumber.

When, lo! in a vision I seemed to stand In the lonely capitol. On each hand Far stretched the portico; dim and grand, Its columns ranged, like a martial band Of sheeted spectres whom some command Had called to a last reviewing.

And the streets of the city were white and bare, No footfall echoed across the square; But out of the misty midnight air I heard in the distance a trumpet blare, And the wandering night winds seemed to bear The sound of a far tattooing.

Then I held my breath with fear and dread; For into the square with a brazen tread, There rode a figure whose stately head O'erlooked the review that morning, That never bowed from its firm-set seat When the living column pa.s.sed its feet, Yet now rode steadily up the street To the phantom bugle's warning.

Till it reached the capitol square and wheeled And there in the moonlight stood revealed A well known form that in state and field Had led our patriot sires; Whose face was turned to the sleeping camp, Afar through the river's fog and damp, That showed no flicker, nor waning lamp, Nor wasted bivouac fires.

And I saw a phantom army come, With never a sound of fife or drum, But keeping time to a throbbing hum Of wailing and lamentation; The martyred heroes of Malvern Hill, Of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, The men whose wasted figures fill The patriot graves of the nation.

And there came the nameless dead--the men Who perished in fever-swamp and fen, The slowly-starved of the prison-pen; And marching beside the others, Came the dusky martyrs of Pillow's fight, With limbs enfranchised and bearing bright; I thought, perhaps 'twas the pale moonlight-- They looked as white as their brothers!