The record-union., 1893-09-23
AN ARMY VACATION.
How Some of McCIeIlan's Soldiers
Secured 1t in 1863.

A Long Ride In Box Cars-A Winters
Guard Duty at the Johnson Island
Prison-How the Boys Enjoyed
Their Outing and the Way They
Were Entertained.
Following is an extract from a paper
read by Captain S. A. Mcdonald of Cleve-
land at a recent banquet of the Loyal
| Legion of Ohio:
! Thirty years ago we were engaged in a
! conflict which during four years at
! tracted the attention of the whole civil
! lied world-a struggle that was to test the
! stability of our system of government,
and which was destined to demonstrate
that this was a nation; that this union
was lasting and could not be disrupted by
the Vaccinations of traitors, nor the di-
rect assaults of open enemies.
Twenty-seven years ago the last shot OF
! battle had been fired, but the echoes from
the battlefelds OF the WAR of the Re-
! belliOn' still reverberate over hill and
dale. For over quarter of century the
individual acts of heroism and deeds of
personal daring, the movements of
armies with the clash of battle, the stir
ring incidents of that four years. contest,
have inspired both poet and historian,
and have been the theme Of song and
story.
We who participated in the important
events of these historic times have most
of us reached an age when we take pleas
ure in reviewing the past. We delight
to recall our own experience, and listen
with interest to the recital of the part
played by others during those four years
OF active warfare. TO US the oft-told
story is always new and entertaining.
The old soldier who served in the war
of the rebellion delights in telling of his
experience upon the battlefield. He fights
/ his battles over again at every favorable
opportunity, and it does not matter to
strictly in line with the records of his
tory; he helped TO make history, and if
| the records are not in accordance with his
ideas of the eternal fitness of things, then
he considers it horse on the historian.
When wet" meets ''vet' then comes
! the talk Of war; and some one has said
that the pilgrimages made by the veter-
ans to the annual encampment of the q.
A. r. are wholly and solely for the pur-
pose of swapping lies"
The recital of these wondrous and
! highly-colored tales is not confined to the
/ bronzed hero who stood in the battle
front. The mendacious coffee cooler"
who ''snutfed the battle from afar'' very
! far indeed, in the rear, is a very success
| full romancer when he has an appreciative
and not too critical or well posted audi
ence; the tiercer he can make the contest
and the bloodier tn e strife, the better is
he pleased with his effort.
! propose to abandon the beaten path
which SO many delight to travel, and in
! stead. of endeavorlng to depict scenes of
/ carnage or describe the horrors of war,
J iran re fnllS o.
sode in the history of my regiment which
all who took part i'll it recall With feelings
| of pleasure and satisfaction, and which
! though it occurred in war time, is minus
the blood-curdling features of the old SOL
diers' tales OF wartared.
The regiment in which I had the honor
of serving for three years during the
! ''late unpleasantnesso was recruited in
the summer of 1862, when the outlook for
| the ultimate success of the cause of the
! Union was gloomy and diScouraging, but
! the nations urgent need decided the
question as to the extent of the duty owed
to the country by each individual citizen,
/ and the call for troops was responded to
with alacrity. The day OF the big Govern
ment bounty had not yet arrived: con-
scription was still thing of the futures
| the substitute and bounty jumper"
racket had not been established as one of
our Infant industries" Canada, the
paradise of the boodler of the present
/ day, had not yet attained notoriety as
being the haven of refuge for the ''ske-
daddIer."
Recruiting went on rapidly and soon
! the ranks were filled, and after some
time spent in camp at its rendezvous, the
regiment was mustered into the United
| States service August 2Sth, and three
days later, on bright Sabbath morning,
took the cars, bound for Washington and
the seat of war, gaily singing as The train
left the depot, We are coming, Father
Abraham, three hundred thousand
more"
The youth who was doomed to fall a
victim to the deadly rebel bullet, and he
who should prove false to his oath and
desert his colors; the unfortunate one who
was fated to languish in rebel prison pen,
and still more unfortunate who was to
Writhe in agony upon the battlefield and
in after years drag his crippled limbs
1 around; all were bright and hopeful and
unconcerned as to what the fortunes of
war might have in store for them. 1t is
well that the happenings of the future
are wisely hidden from US. Well was it
for this gallant band of 900 light
/ young men that they did not know that
owing to the casualties of war a skeleton
! of a regiment numbering less than three
! hundred would be ali that would return
TO be mustered out Of service at the close
/ of the war. Upon our arrival at Wash
! ington we were assigned to the Army of
! the Potomac and campaigned under COM
mand of Mcclellan, Burnside, Hooker
and Meade. our brigade being COM
manded by Brigadier- General Alexander
! Smaller.
on November 26, 1868, we celebrated
Thanksgiving Day by starting on the
| Mine Run campaign. This was a CAM
| paign barren of result; the Army of the
| Potomac simply INDUCED in another of its
characteristic grand military quadriles,
| in which the principal changes were
| Gross overt Forward and back ~
'All promenade" After the Nine Run
| fiasco we returned to our old camps
near Brandy Station, and it was the gen.
orally received opinion that we would re-
main there in winter quarters, but on the
! 9Th of January, '64, the brigade received
| orders to be in readiness to move by rail.
at a moments notice. This was q new
| departure, a complete surprise party, and
many were the conjectures as to our desti-
| nation. At midnight orders were received
| to move at 1:30 \. NJ, and promptly at
| the appointed hour the whole brigade
moved off and boarded the cars which
were in readiness, and the trains were
| headed towards Washington, which city
we reached just before night, and after a
tiresone delay were transferred TO train
| on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway.
! At Washington it leaked out that San
| dusky, o., was our destination. and that
we were to be engaged i'll guarding rebels
instead of fighting them.
| Box cars were furnished as the means
of transportation; these cars were with
out seats or stoves. About fifty men
were packed in each car. The company
officers rode with their comrades and
I ). =