The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-06-20

How the Union Soldiers Were CHARTERED
at the Capitol.


The first troops which arrived at
Washington in April, 1861, were quar-
tered in the Capitol. The Pennsylva-
mans were billeted in the committee
rooms and offices of the House, the
Representative hall being reserved for
the 9TH regiment. Armed men and the
rude implements of carnage massed in
the marble corridors and gorgeous
rooms awakened me to deep sense of
the power and the abandon of military
rule. On the luxurious damask and
brocatel covered sofas lay stretched the
men who probably never before repos-
ed in such magnifcence. Over the
tapestrial carpet of the floor were
strewn in profusion and disorder the
suddenly accumulated stores of the COM
missary department-here a slab of
bacon, there quarter of beef, or a
saddle of mutton, or Virginia ham,
sea biscuit, tin drinking cups, papers of
pepper, bags of salt and cans of vinegar
filling up the interstices and rounding
up the pyramid. Upon the rich and
costly bronze ornaments, upon the gas
chandeliers, and upon the gilt brackets
that held back the silk and lace cur
tains, were festooned knapsacks and
belts, cartridge and bayonet-scabbard,
the smaller implements and surround
ings of soldier.
In the halls and corridors, the men
were being drilled and taught the ex-
pertness of carnage. In broad contrast
to the dark and polished Tennessee
marble wainscoting, were the blue uni
forms and rough bearing of the men.
Upon the rich encaustic things fell,
with dull, heavy sound, the iron-shod
butts of musket and rifle. The arched
and festooned ceiling echoed and re-
echoed the ringing clatter of the ram
rod, as the recruits perfected themselves
in the manual of loading their pieces.
In the Senate Chamber was quartered
the Sixth Massachusetts, regiment. Up
on the cushioned sofas of the galleries
of the Senate Chamber, the men found
excellent couches. When they had
concluded breakfast in the morning,
and the guard for the day being detail
ed, the remainder of the command were
at their ease. In the Vice Presidents
chair sat Col. Jones, the commander
of the force, frank, ee-hearted, SOL
dierly looking man. The Clerks desk
was occupied by the Adjutant and his
assistants, engaged in making up the
muster-roll, returns and acquisitions in
cident to active service. The privates
were at the Senator's desks writing
letters.
All the statuary in the halls of the
Capitol, and in the old rotunda, had
been boxed, to preserve it from injury
through carelessness. The pictures in
the panels had also been faced over
with heavy planking, which secured
them from harm. The porticos of the
Capitol building were barricaded to the
height of about eight feet. The iron
plates for the new dome we're used for
the breastworks between the marble
columns. Behind these were placed
barrels of cement, piles Of stone and
timber, forming an impenetra5le bar
rier, in the rear of which the troops
could take shelter in case of an attack.
1t seemed strange contradiction to
see the workmen engaged in the con-
struction of the portico, going on with
their labor of laying the foundation
amid thousands of armed men; the
click of the chisel, the stroke of the
hammer, and the ring of the trowel
blended with the word of command,
the challenge of the guard, and the
battalions drillings in the corridors.
So reluctant was civilization to recede
before the advancing desolation ofwar,
that the artisan fingered to enrich with
his skill the parapet and dome that the
morrow may see leveled to their foun-
dations. Within musket range of the
outposts of the troops, even a score of
men chiseling in marble the flowers
and clusters of grapes and ivy wreaths,
with which the finished portions of the
Capitol were profusely decorated.