The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-23
CAMP MOUNT DESERTED
LAST OF THE INDIANA VOLUNTEERS
LEFT YESTERDAY.
A Wedding and n Baptism Were Incl
dents of the Last Day in Camp
go to Virginia.

ment, now the Observation-Disclosures y-nlnth
Indiana Misunderstanding behind 1t Gen.
Mckee and the old brigade staff The hrst
section of the great train followed the bag
gage train about $3.50 o'clock and the other
three sections left about an hour apart.
Reveille awoke the boys of the One-hun-
dred-and-fifty- ninth yesterday morning TO
the knowledge that it was their last DAY
in Camp Mount, but there was no shedding
of tears over the subject; there was no time
for that even had there been the inclina-
ton. Breakfast was hurriedly downed and
the breaking of camp began without delay.
Pegs were jerked out of the ground and
tents fell like rows of blocks which one
after another are tumbIed down by the fall
of one of their number. The straw in the
bedticks was emptied out and its place
taken by the belongings of the soldiers. for
the regiment had no knapsacks. Before long
each man sat surrounded by his blanket
roll, his bedtick packed with personal bag
gage and his rifle, as if whole town had
been turned out of it's houses by landlords.
MARRIAGE IN CAMP.
The boys of Company B, from Terre
Haute, while busy packing up glanced from
their work curiously every minute, for they
knew that in Captain Biegler's tent
oSIStdHC benjamin winner ana MISS
Steinman were waiting to be called out by
Chaplain Weaver and married. The officers
went TO the captains tent and escorted Miss
Steinman and Sergeant Winner toward the
hollow square that had been formed by the
company and as they passed into it the
band struck up lively march. Then all
became still and the chaplain performed the
wedding ceremony. When the last words
had been pronounced the company broke
into a loud cheering, which faded away
when a sergeant stepped from the ranks and
presented Mrs Winner with $25 as we'd
ding present from the company. Almost be-
fore she could thank them another pressed
to her with two dozen roses. In few hours
the couple had separated, the husband go
ing to whatever may be in store for him
beyond Camp Dunn Loring. Virginia, and
the wife going back to her home, in Terre
Haute.
The attraction of the wedding was equaled
in another part of the camp by the baptism
of the seven-months- daughter of Major
and Mrs. T. j. Louden, of Bloomington, by
Chaplain Weaver. The band played several
hymns and the mother brought the baby to
the chaplain. Standing there amid the piled
up tents and baggage Of the camp and the
rubbish, surrounded by a crowd Of roughly
dressed soldiers, he sprinkled water on the
babys head and baptized her Mary Eliz-
abeth. the daughter of the regiment" All
bofsterousness was swept aside and the re-
ligious ceremony and the innocent face of
the baby, 1.-The daughter of the regiment"
sobered the boys as no other incident of the
camp has done.
Wagons piled high with tents rolled up to
the freight cars and baggage followed. The
chaplain changed from a spiritual dminis-
traitor to an earthly one and superintendent
the loading of the box cars on the Monon
track. After the noon mess the regiment
could have moved, its preparations were
done, but there was yet to come the re-
view of the regiment by Governor Mount.
The regiment formed at o'clock on the
drill ground surrounded by the race track,
where it has daily formed for more than
three weeks, but probably will not again.
and the Governor, in an open carriage with
his wife, Lieut.. Col. May. of the One
hundred and fifty-seventh Regiment, and
Mrs. May, drove up. A hollow square was
formed by the regiment on three sides and
the camp visitors on the other and the
Governor, with head barred, stood up to bid
goodbye to the last regiment of the old
brigade as he had to the others. In a short
dQuTeSS nc pau LTlDul6 W TIC iHoliiihSSo
and courage of the boys and said that they
would glorify their State and themselves as
did the Indiana boys of 1861. In ending he
gave them the blessing of Indiana and her
Governor AS he spoke of the cause of this
war with Spain and the cruelty of that ma
ton and her dastardly treachery in the
Maine disaster the regiment, led by it's Of
fcers, wildly cheered.
STARTING OFF TO WAR
Back to the camp the regiment marched
and the boys slung over their backs their
blankets and improvised bags and with
their rifles over their right shoulder took
up the march to the Pullman coaches on
the Monon track west of the fair grounds,
which afterward carried them over the Gin
cinnati, Hamilton & Dayton road to Cincin-
natl from there over the Baltimore & Ohio
to Washington and finally the Southern to
Camp Dunn Loring. The train of box cars
carrying the heavy baggage and the tents
had already gone and the first section OF
coaches was quickly filled. In this section
were the coaches of the regimental staff Of
ficers.
On the grass at the side of the track and
over the fence in carriages about thousand
visitors had gathered watching curiously
the soldiers as they climbed into the
coaches. No wild enthusiasm was displayed,
for there had been a similar occasion three
times within the last week and a half. The
scene was more like the departing of an ex-
cursion train than that of regiment of
men who might never come back. The ella
ton of the soldiers seemed almost out of
place it was so high at leaving the monot-
onously familiar camp for new scenes. A
man whose haiv was shaved close to his
head, with prominent cheek bones, three
front teeth out and cigarette in his mouth
leaned out of window and began the song
''Therel be hot time in the old town to-
night" and 1t was wildly taken up all down
the train section. The face of the man who
started the song was like a death mask
The chatterfng of the girls at the sides OF
the cars and the reckless song grated on
those who felt the seriousness of the time
An old man and his wife. arm in arm. with
tear-stained faces, turned away from the
track side as the section bearing their son
pulled out He was not singing with the
others, but sat soberly back in hfs seat
At s o'clock the last SECTION left the fair
grounds and the crowds had thinned out con-
siderably. A few minutes after the last
coaches had disappeared from sight the
crowd was filing through the gates to the
street cars and the carriages were turning
into the roads leading to the city.
Across the grounds the sight TO the place
where the One-hundred- -fifty-ninth had
been encamped was dismal enough. The
skeletons of scaffoldng which had held the
tarpaulin shelters to the mess tables stood
tered with the debris left by the regiment
and two or three men searched through it in
the forlorn hope that they might find some
thing valuable. The place where two weeks
before 4,OC0 men had lived now by contrast
seemed a desolate place to be Stunned by
mankind and one could easily imagine a
buZzard swirling through the air and flop
ping duly down on some piece of refuse.