CHAPTER LXII. CLOSING SCENES-LAST PAY RECEIVED-ANNA-LEAVE TAKING OF OLD AND TRIED COMRADES-GOOD BYE TO THE SUIT OF BLUE AND GOOD BYE TO MY READERS- MICHIGAN TROOPS. A week elapses from the time of our arrival. Notice is sent for all to be in camp on the 17th, when the paymaster would be there to give us our last pay. As the day arrived each man left his home and came to Detroit where Major Whiting, the paymaster, was waiting for us. To those that never were in the army and shared untold hardships so long with those they have learned to love, it is hard for them to appreciate the emotions of the soldiers when they take leave of their comrades. But all who have shared the sorrows and triumphs of the late war together, know the heart pang at parting. Each one lingers around to bid the others good-bye, which is uttered in broken sobs by his comrades. Noble Anna is with us to the last, and her brave womanly spirit brakes down, and scalding tears trickle down her beautiful bronze face as each of the boys and comrades bid her good-bye. Good-bye noble, heroic and self-sacrificing Anna. May your path through life be the reverse of your four years' hardships, strewn with flowers the most delicious, and when your campaigns and battles with this struggling world shall end, may you meet in Heaven with those whose burdens you have sought to lighten in the hard life of the soldiers' experiences. Goodbye is heard on every side and the tears roll down the bronze cheeks of the heroes of many a hard-fought battle. We go to our tailors, get our citizen clothes, and bid a fond adieu to our good old suit of blue. We are free once more to go our way, and may God guide our footsteps and cheer the soldiers in their after life. And now, that we have passed through hardships yet untold for the past four years, and ended the question of secession forever, we shall always look back with pride and pleasure to our four years' campaigning in the Army of the Potomac. And now, good-bye, reader. I know of no more fitting way to close my memoirs of four years under the flag than by adding the beautiful welcoming address of Governor Crapo, to the soldiers of Michigan. MICHIGAN SOLDIERS-OFFICERS AND MEN : In the hour of National danger and peril, when the safety-when safety when the very existence of your country was imperiled, you left your firesides, your homes and your families, to defend the Government and the Union. But the danger is now averted, the struggle is ended, and victoryabsolute and complete victory-has perched upon your banners. You have conquered a glorious peace, and are thereby permitted to return to your homes and to the pursuits of tranquil industry, to which I now welcome you! And, not only for myself, but for the people of the State, do I tender you a most cordial greeting. Citizen Soldiers! Recognized by the institutions of the land as freemen-as American citizens, that proudest of all political distinctions and possessing, in common with every citizen, the elective franchise, which confers the right to an exercise of a sovereign power, you had become so identified and engrossed with the National enterprise and prosperity derived from the untrammeled privileges of republican freedom, that the enemies of those institutions, in their ignorance of the principles upon which they are founded, madly and foolishly believed that you were destitute of manhood. They supposed you had become so debased by continued toil as to be devoid of every noble impulse. They imagined that you were cowards and cravens, and that by the threatenings, alone, of a despotic and tyranical oligarchy, you could not only be subdued, but robbed of your inheritance of freedom, of your birthright of liberty-those glorious and priceless legacies from your patriotic sires. Through the vilest treachery and the foulest robbery, these wicked and perjured men-whom their country had not only greatly benefited and favored, but highly honored-believed that, by despoiling your country of its reputation, of its treasures, of its means of protection and defense, they had ensured your degradation and defeat. Fatal mistake! and terrible its consequences to those wicked and foresworn men, as well as to their deluded and blinded votaries ! Soldiers! You have taught a lesson, not only to the enemies of your country, but to the world, which will never be forgotten. With your brave comrades from every loyal State in this great and redeemed Union, you have met these vaunting and perjured traitors and rebels, face to face, upon the field of battle, in the front of strongly fortified intrenchments, and before almost impregnable ramparts; and by your skill and valor, your persistent efforts and untiring devotion to the sacred cause of freedom, of civilization and mankind; you have proved to those arch criminals and their sympathizers, that it is not necessary for men to be serfs and slaves in order to be soldiers, but that in the hands of free and enlightened citizens, enjoying the advantages and blessings conferred by free institutions, the temple of liberty will ever be safe, and its escutcheon forever unsullied. Fellow citizens of Michigan-patriotic citizen-soldiers! Although you return to us bearing honorable marks of years of toil, of hardship, of privation, and of suffering— many of you with bodies mutilated, maimed and scarredmourning the loss of brave comrades ruthlessly slain on the field of battle, tortured to death by inches, or foully murdered in cold blood; not with the weapon of a soldier, but by the lingering pangs of starvation and exposure; yet you will in the future enjoy the proud satisfaction of having aided in achieving for your country her second independence-in vindicating the national honor and dignity-in overthrowing the despotic and unholy power which has dared to raise its hideous head on this continent for the purpose of trampling upon and destroying that inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-which is the birthright of all-and finally, in placing the Union -established by the blood of our fathers-upon an imperishable foundation. You will also possess the rich inheritance of meriting the continued plaudits, and enjoying the constant gratitude of a free people, whose greatness you have preserved in its hour of most imminent peril. In the name of the people of Michigan, I thank you for the honor you have done us by your valor, your soldierly bearing, your invincible courage everywhere displayed, whether upon the field of battle, in the perilous assault, or in the deadly breach; for your patience under the fatigues and privations and sufferings incident to war, and for your discipline and ready obedience to the orders of your superiors. We are proud in believing that when the history of this rebellion shall have been written, where all have done well, none will stand higher on the roll of fame than the officers and soldiers sent to the field from the loyal and patriotic State of Michigan." THE END. |