582

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• May 22 and 23, 1865.

THE SOLDIERS AT HOME.

Virginia and North Carolina, the soldiers of the great armies that confronted Lee and Johnston, and achieved a victory over them, were marched to the vicinity of the National Capital, and there, during two memorable days," they moved through that city, with tens of thousands of moistened eyes gazing upon them, and passed in review before the Chief Magistrate of the nation and his Ministers. It was a spectacle such as human vision had never seen. Then began the work of disbanding the armies, by mustering out of service officers and men; and on the 2d of June, the General-in-Chief issued an address to them, saying:—

"Soldiers of the Armies of the United States: By your patriotic devotion to your country in the hour of danger and alarm, your magnificent fighting, bravery and endurance, you have maintained the supremacy of the Union, and the Constitution, overthrown all armed opposition to the enforcement of the laws and of the proclamation forever abolishing slavery-the cause and pretext of the Rebellion—and opened the way to the rightful authorities to restore order, and inaugurate peace on a permanent and enduring basis on every foot of American soil. Your marches, sieges, and battles, in distance, duration, resolution, and brilliancy of results, dims the luster of the world's past military achievements, and will be the patriot's precedent in defense of liberty and right, in all time to come. In obedience to your

nant of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment of New York Volunteers, at Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson River, his place of residence.

The One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment left Poughkeepsie in October, 1862, under Colonel John II. Ketcham, and returned, in a Government transport, from New York, late on a Saturday night, in June, 1865, under Colonel A. B. Smith, who went out as major. Ketcham had been wounded at Savannah, and promoted to brigadier-general. The regiment was expected; and as soon as the transport appeared, the street in the vicinity of the landing was made brilliant by blazing bonfires. Hundreds of citizens quickly assembled and escorted the soldiers to quarters, many of them walking hand in hand with loving wives, mothers, and sisters, who came out at almost midnight to embrace them. At their quarters the soldiers were paroled for the Sabbath, The public reception was on Monday, the 12th of June. A finer day for the occasion could not have been chosen. The people of Dutchess County and its neighborhood flocked in by thousands, for almost every family had a personal interest in the soldiers. It was estimated that forty thousand persons participated in the ceremonies of the day. A grand procession was formed near the river, in charge of a Marshal and Aids. It was composed of the returned regiment, the city authorities in carriages, the local military, the Fire Department, various civic associations, and a vast concourse of citizens, on horseback and on foot. As it moved from i.s rendezvous into Main Street, it was greeted by a multitude of the pupils of the public schools of the city, arrayed in order, on a grassy bank in front of the residence of the Mayor, George Innis. They sang a song of welcome, and then presented to each soldier a bouquet of flowers. These were placed in the muzzles of their guns and when they moved it seemed as if a garden in bloom was floating along the street. The buildings along the line of march were radiant with flags and banners. The streets were spanned with arches, covered with evergreens and flowers, and having patriotic and affectionate inscriptions; and songs of welcome were sung at two seminaries of learning for young women, as the procession passed. Colonel Smith and his horse were covered with bouquets, wreaths, and festoons of flowers, showered upon the gallant soldier, from the sidewalks, windows, and balconies. His lieutenant, Cogswell, and General Ketcham were recipients of like tokens of regard.

The regiment, bearing its tattered flags, was the center of attraction, and received a thousand tokens of gratitude, as it moved along the streets and into Mansion Square, where it was greeted by a multitude of the fairer sex. Among these were thirty-six young girls, representing the number of States, all dressed in colors of red, white and blue, excepting one, who personified Illinois, the home of the dead President. She was clad in deep Amourning. They all wore diadems that glittered with golden stars. They came in a wagon prepared for the occasion, from one of the towns of the county. From a platform in the Park, the regiment was welcomed in a speech, by Judge Emott, of the Circuit Court of New York, to which Colonel Smith replied. The soldiers then partook of a collation, when the war-worn flags which had first been rent by bullets at Gettysburg, had followed Sherman in his great march from Chattanooga to Atlanta, thence to the sea and through the Carolinas, and had been enveloped in the smoke of battle at Bentonsville, were returned to the ladies of Dutchess County (represented by a committee of their number present), from whom the regiment received them on the day before its departure.

Such was the reception given at Poughkeepsie, to the returned defenders of the Republic. Such was the greeting given to them everywhere, by the loyal people of the land. In those receptions, they who, in the hour of their country's peril, refused a helping hand, and even cast obstacles in the way of its earnest defenders, had no part nor lot. That exclusion from a privilege so glorious for an American, left a sad picture in memory for them to contemplate, and an unpleasant record for their children to look upon.

THE NATIONAL ARMY IN 1865.

583 country's call, you left your homes and families, and volunteered in her defense. Victory has crowned your valor, and secured the purpose of your patriotic hearts; and, with the gratitude of your countrymen, and the highest honors a great and free nation can accord, you will soon be permitted to return to your homes and families, conscious of having discharged the highest duty of American citizens. To achieve these glorious triumphs, and secure to yourselves, your fellow-countrymen, and posterity, the blessings of free institutions, tens of thousands of your gallant comrades have fallen, and sealed the priceless legacy with their blood. The graves of these, a grateful nation bedews with tears, honors their memories, and will ever cherish and support their stricken families."

The

The records of the War Department show that on the first of March, 1865, the muster-rolls of the army exhibited an aggregate force of 965,591 men, of whom 602,593 were present for duty, and 132,538 were on detached service. The aggregate force was increased, by the first of May, by enlistments, to the number of 1,000,516, of all arms, officers and men. whole number of men called into the service during the war, was 2,656,553.2 Of these, about 1,490,000 were in actual service. Of this number, nearly 60,000 were killed on the field, and about 35,000 were mortally wounded. Disease in camps and hospitals slew 184,000. It is estimated that at least 300,000 Union soldiers perished during the war. Full that number of the Confederate soldiers lost their lives; and the aggregate number of men, including both armies, who were crippled, or permanently disabled by disease, was estimated at 400,000. The actual loss to the country, of able-bodied men, in consequence of the Slave-holders' Rebellion, was full 1,000,000. The disbanding of the army went steadily on from the first of June, and by the middle of the autumn nearly 786,000 officers and men were mustered out of the service. The wonderful spectacle was

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@ 1865.

1 It has been said that there was a great disparity in numbers between the forces of Grant and Lee, during the campaign from the passage of the Rapid Anna to the surrender at Appomattox Court-House. According to official records, this does not appear. Grant began the campaign with 98,019 effective men, and Lee with 72,278 effective men. The latter had such advantages of position, breastworks, and a friendly country, with shortening lines of supplies, that his real force was greater than Grant's. According to Lee's field-returns on the 28th of February, 1865, he had 73,349 men present, of whom 59,094 were "present for duty," exclusive of the local militia of Richmond. When Lee reached Petersburg, owing to recruits from the South and elsewhere, he had more men with him than at the beginning of the campaign.

2 The Provost-Marshal-General, James B. Fry, reported that the aggregate quotas charged against the several States, under all calls of the President for troops, from the 15th of April, 1861, up to the 14th of April, 1965, when a cessation of drafting and recruiting was ordered, were 2,759,049. The aggregate number of men credited on the several calls, and put into the service of the Republic (in the army, navy, and marine corps) during that period, was, as stated in the text, 2,656,553, leaving a deficiency of 102,496, when the war closed "which," says the Provost-Marshal-General, “ would have been obtained in full, in fact in excess, if recruiting and drafting had been continued."

We have observed that in enforcing the draft, those thus chosen for service were allowed to pay a commutation fee. The Provost-Marshal gives the following table of the amounts paid in this way, by the people of the several States:

This sn was collected by the Provost-Marshal's Bureau, at an expense of less than seven-tenths of one per cent., and without the loss of a dollar through neglect, accident, fraud, or otherwise. The whole number of negro troops recruited and enlisted during the war, was 186,017.

See Report of the Secretary of War, November 22, 1865.

584

SERVICES OF THE NAVY.

exhibited for the contemplation of the civilized world, of vast armies of men, surrounded by all the paraphernalia of war, transformed, in the space of one hundred and fifty days, into a vast army of citizens, engaged in the blessed pursuits of peace. No argument in favor of free institutions and a republican form of government, so conclusive and potential as this, was ever before presented to the feelings and judgment of the nations of the earth. The important political problem of the nineteenth century was solved by our Civil War. Our Republic no longer appeared as an experiment, but as a demonstration.

The services of the National Navy during the war, on account of their peculiarity, attracted less attention than those of the army, and were not appreciated by the people. They have an equal claim to the gratitude of the nation, so freely accorded to the other branch of the service. The Confederates having no navy, in a proper sense, and only flotillas here and there, with some powerful "rams" on rivers and in harbors, and not a ship on the ocean, excepting roving pirate-vessels-built, armed, furnished and manned chiefly by the British, and cruising alone-there were few occasions for purely naval battles. The whole force of the Navy Department was employed in the services of blockade, in assisting the attacks of the armies on fortifications along the rivers, and on the borders of the Gulf and the Ocean, or in chasing the pirates. In these fields of great usefulness, the National vessels performed labors of incalculable value, and officers and men exhibited skill, valor, and fortitude unsurpassed.

Never, in the history of the world, were there occasions for such exhausting labors, and highest courage in service afloat, as the American Navy was subjected to in its operations among the rivers and bayous of the southwestern regions of the Republic. This the records of these volumes attest; records which, after all, give but a delicate outline-a mere shadowy picture of the most wonderful exploits of brain and muscle. Many a victory over which the people have shouted themselves hoarse in giving plaudits to the gallant army, might never have been achieved but for the co-operation of the navy. To the common observer it, in many instances, seemed to be only an auxiliary, or wholly a secondary force, when, in truth, it was an equal, if not the chief power in gaining a victory. Without it, what might have been the result of military operations at Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh and all along the Mississippi River, especially at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and New Orleans; what at Mobile, Pensacola, Key West, along the Florida sea-board, the sea-coast Islands, Charleston, and the borders of North Carolina, and even in holding Fortress Monroe and Norfolk?

The energy displayed by the Navy Department, under the chief management of Gustavus Vasa Fox,' the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was most remarkable. The weakness and the position of the navy in the spring of 1861 have already been noticed. It was a navy reduced to smallest proportions during fifty years of peace, and kept in existence only by the necessity of protection for the continually expanding commercial interests of the nation. Its men numbered only 7,600 when the Civil War was kindled; and of its officers, 322 traitorously abandoned the service to which

1 See page 308, volume I.

* See page 299, volume I.

THE STRENGTH OF THE NAVY.

585

they had dedicated their lives, proved false to their flag which they had sworn to protect, and to the Government which had confided in their honor. and relied on their fidelity, to sustain it in conflict and peril. '

1

Notwithstanding this condition of the naval service, the decree went forth, in the spring of 1861, that all the ports of the States wherein rebellion existed, must be closed against commerce, by a strict blockade. Foreign nations protested and menaced, but the work was done. There were no dockyards or workmen adequate to construct the vessels needed for the service, yet, such was the energy of the Department, in the hands of Mr. Fox, that an unrelaxing blockade was maintained for four years, from the capes of the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, while a flotilla of gun-boats, protecting and aiding the army in its movements, penetrated and patroled our rivers, through an internal navigation almost continental, from the Potomac to the Mississippi. Ingenuity and mechanical skill developed amazing inventions. That marine monster, the Monitor, was created, and began a new era in naval warfare; and the world was suddenly enriched by new discoveries in naval service. Vessels of the merchant service were purchased and changed into strong warriors; and men from that service were invited to officer and man them. Schools were established for nautical instruction; dock-yards were enlarged and filled with workmen; and very soon a large number of vessels were afloat, watching the harbors under the ban. The places of the traitors were quickly filled by better men from the merchant marine, educated, and vastly more efficient, who promptly volunteered their services, in many instances at great pecuniary sacrifice, to fight the battles of the Union. About 7,500 of these gallant spirits, after examination, received appointments, and were employed in the navy; and the rank and file in the service, numbering 7,600, when the war broke out, numbered 51,500 when it closed. The aggregate of artisans and laborers in the navy-yards was 3,844 at the beginning; at the end the number was 16,880, exclusive of almost an equal number then employed in private ship-yards and establishments, under contracts. No less than 208 war vessels were constructed, and most of them fitted out during the four years; and 418 vessels were purchased and converted into war-ships. Of these, 313 were steamers, the whole costing nearly $19,000,000.

The blockading service was performed with great vigor and efficiency under the triple stimulus of patriotism, duty, and personal emolument. The British Government professed to be neutral, but British merchants and adventurers were allowed to send swarms of swift-winged steamers, laden with arms, ammunition, clothing, and every thing needed by the insurgents, to run the blockade. The profits of such operations were enormous, but the risks were equally so; and it is believed that a true balance-sheet would show no profits left, in the aggregate, with the foreign violators of law. The number of such vessels captured or destroyed during the Rebellion, by the National Navy, was 1,504. The gross proceeds of property captured and condemned as lawful prize before the first of November following the close of

1 Report of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, December 4, 1865.

At the close of the war, the monitors and iron-clads were laid up in ordinary, at League Island, near Philadelphia, and, within six months after hostilities had ceased, 340 of these vessels had been sold, for the aggregate sum of nearly $6,000,000.

586

VISIT TO THE ARMY OF THE JAMES.

of the war, amounted to nearly $22,000,000, which sum was subsequently enlarged by new decisions. The value of the vessels captured and destroyed, (1,149 captured and 355 destroyed), was not less than $7,000,000, making a total loss, chiefly to British owners, of at least $30,000,000.

. 1864.

The writer, accompanied by his friends already mentioned in these pages, (Messrs. Dreer and Greble), visited the theater of some of the events recorded in this chapter, immediately after the evacuation of Richmond. We had been to the front of the Army of the Potomac, and the Army of the James, a few months before, after the return to Hampton Roads of the first expedition against Fort Fisher on the evening of the 28th of December. On the following day we went up the James River, with General Butler, on his elegant little dispatch steamer, Ocean Queen, to City Point, where, after a brief interview with General Grant, we proceeded to Aiken's Landing, the neutral ground for the exchange of prisoners. It was dark when we arrived there. We made our way in an ambulance, over a most wretched road, to Butler's head-quarters,' within seven miles of Richmond, where we passed the night. On the following day we rode through the camp of the Army of the James, on horses kindly furnished us by the general, first visiting the head-quarters of General Weitzel's Twenty-fifth

(colored) corps, whose huts were decorated with evergreens, it being the Christmas holidays. We rode to the head-quarters of General Ord, on New Market Heights, where we were joined by Major Seward, of his staff, who accompanied us along the lines for several miles, to the Dutch Gap Canal. On the way we visited a chapel of the United States Christian Commission; also, Battery Harrison, captured by the colored troops not long before, and Fort Brady.

INTERIOR OF A CHAPEL OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION.2

Near the Dutch Gap Canal, just then completed, we dismounted, and took a pathway like a shelf along the steep bank of the James, where the excavators had made their subterranean huts,' when we found ourselves in much peril. The battery at Howlett's, which, as we have observed, cast a shell among the workmen about once an hour, now hurled one at the end of every five minutes, compelling us to seek shelter in the caves. We succeeded in peeping into the canal, and then made our way back, finding warm fragments of a shell in the path. We found the orderly in in charge of the horses much disturbed by the explosion of one of them

1 See picture on page 362.

"This was substantially built of logs, with a double row of benches of timber, leaving a broad aisle between. It was lighted with a few candles; and two tables composed its entire furniture.

3 See page 357.

• See page 358.

See page 358.