The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-17
THEIR LAST DAY AT CAMP.
More Affecting Scenes of Parting
Paying OF the Men.

The fair grounds were desolate last night
except for a small village of tents on the
north side, beyond the race track, which
sheltered the Observation-Disclosures yninth
Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, the only
one left of a camp of four regiments and
two batteries. The few visitors picked their
way disconsolately through heaps of burned
straw from the ticks of the regiments
which had gone and rubbish cast from the
tents when they were pulled down at the
order to prepare for the journey to Camp
George H. Thomas, at Chickamauga Park.
When the reveille sounded yesterday
morning it started to work the vast ma
chinery of the One-hundred- d-fifty eighth
and e-hundred-and-siXtieth Regiments
preparing for their evacuation of the camp.
Before many hours had passed the tents
of the Observation-Disclosures were down
and rolled up, the soldiers travelling equip
ment was packed In knapsacks or rolled on
top of them, except the canteens and tin
cups, which hung at their sides, the latter
the present of Governor Mount. The One
-fifty-eighth had no tents to
pull down, but the walls of the buildings in
which the regiment had been quartered
bounded intense activity. Quartermaster
Hopkins. with a small army of men at his
command, loaded wagons with commissary
supplies and the chests. trunks and other
furniture of the officers, and they were
hauled to freight cars on the Lake Erie &
Western tracks, east of the camp and
packed away in readiness for their journey
south.
VIII T. Durbin, a member of the Gov
ernor's staff, and a guard in wagon drew
up to a building on the main driveway,
ABOUT 10 o'clock in the morning, with an
long task of paying off the men of the two
regiments which left the camp in the after
noon began and lasted until o'clock 1t
was the paying off of the men and the de-
lay in providing them with two days ra-
tons which held back the parade of the
One hundred and fifty eighth Regiment
through the streets Of the city: the men
themselves were ready and eager to go be-
fore noon.
At last all was ready and the band struck
up lively march, which set to dancing
the horses of the officers and excited the
boys to cheering at the top of their voices.
The other regiments had come over to see
the boys of the One-hundred- and-fift
eighth off and to show them, by the most
sincere demonstration, that they were heart
and soul with them, and that they longed
for nothing more than to fight by their side.
With the composure of soldiers of the reg
ular army the boys swept down the main
band and out into the road which led them
into the city.
All the morning the quarters of the One
hundred-and- t1fty-eighth were filed with the
fathers, mothers, sisters. sweethearts and
young brothers and friends of the three In
OIdndpOHS companies. 1t seemed that every
visitor brought basket or box filled with
the best that could be procured in the homes
or at the stores in the way of eatables and
if any soldier left the camp without being
full of fancy grub it was only because
he could not eat, for every basket was
open to any one with heartiest welcome
But with the sweet came the bitter, and at
every step one could see a woman crying
bitterly or a man his lips trembling with
pent-up. emotion Notwithstanding these
distressing scenes, the boys were happy and
eager to get away, though much of the
cheerfulness was put on to counteract the
grief of those they had to leave behind. The
boys from. outside of Indianapolis, except
in few instances where their relatives
made flying visit to the camp to bid them
goodbye, were: spared the parting grief of
the Indianapolis boys, and they showed it
in their boisterous manner. While waiting
to be paid off or for the command to march
they amused themselves by all manner of
horseplay, and great crowd of laughing,
yelling soldiers was grateful for the enjoy
ment furnished by a comrade whose coat
caught fire from matches set off in his
pocket, and who worked with the fierceness
of a wild man TO get it off and trample out
the fire under his feet.