The National tribune., 1903-02-26

all taken, the companies 0verhowed lhta
the corners and into the Hobbies. The staff
took committee rooms. The Colonel reign
ed in the Speakers parlor.
| "Once in, firstly we washed. -
After the wash we showed ourselves to
| the eyes Of Washington, marching by COM
panies each to different hotel to dinner.
This became one of the ceremonies of our
barrack life. We liked it. The WASH
ingtOnians were amused and encouraged
by it. 80 But the best of the enter
| tainment was within the Capitol. Some
1900 or more Of us were now quartered
there. The Massachusetts, Sth were I'M
| der the dome. No fear of want of air for
| them. The Massachusetts, 9th were eiO-
| quent for their State in the Senate Cham
| Der. In the recesses, caves, and crypts
OF the Capitol. what other legions were
bestowed 1 do not know. The
men were sworn into the service of the
United States the afternoon of April 26.
We We're drawn up by companies
in the Capitol Square for mastering in.
When we had been 10 days in our
snowy barracks, We began to quarrel with
luxury. = = The May sunshine, the
birds. and the breezes of May invited us
to camp-the genuine thing under can
vas. Besides, Uncles Sam and Abe wanted
our room for other company. Washing
ton was filling up fast with uniforms.
the Engineers, the 10th. were detailed to
follow Capt. Viele and lay out a camp
on Meridian Hill. As we had the first
choice, we got, on the whole. the best site
for camp. We occupy the villa and
farm of DIR. Stone, two miles due north of
Wizards Hotel. - The house
stands upon the pretty terrace command
ing the plain of Washington. From the
upper windows we can see the Potomac
opening southwark like lake and be-
tween us and the water ambitious Wash
ington stretching itself along and along
like the shackly files of an army of re-
crultS. Oaks love the soil of this terrace.
There are some noble ones on the undnla-
tons before the house. Let the iyy-cov-
cred stem of the Big Oak of Camp Cam
eron take its place in literature. $50
The old villa serves US for headquarters.
1t is respectable place, not without its
pretensions. Four granite pillars. as true
grit as if the two Presidents Adams had
lugged them on their shoulders from
quincy, Mass, make carriage porch.
Here is the Colonel in the big west par
ior, the Quartecmaster and Commissary
in the rooms with sliding doors in the east,
the Hospital upstairs, and so on. Other
rooms numerous.as the cells in. a monas.
terry serve as quarters for the Engineer
company. These dens are not monastic in
the day it is in order to get pass to go
TO Washington OR to visit some of the
camps which now, in the middle of May,
begin to form n Gordon around the city. |
Our Capital seems arranged by nature to
be protected by fortified ca1rps OH the cir
cult of its hills. 1t may be made almost
a Verona if need be. Our brother regi-
ments have posts nearly as charming as !
our own in these fair groves and on these |
fair slopes on either side of u.s.
The writer gives an account of the or
der of May 3d. for an advance at mid |
night into Virginia. the beginning of Fed |
eral occupation of that State. After leay-
ing camp lie says:
80 we pegged along to Washington |
and across Washington, which Mt that |
point consists of Wizards Hotel, few
other buildings being in sight sss
opposite that bald block the Washington !
Monument and opposite what was of more |
to us-a drove of beeves putting
beef on their bones in the seedy grounds
OF the Smithsonian Institution, we were
halted while the New Jersey Brigade
some 1900 of them, trudged by.
The Long Bridge thus far has been merely
shabby causeway with waterways and |
draws"
:. The writer then describes the construc-
tion OF the earthworks on the ridge along
the road to Alexandria at the place where
that road bends from west to south and
the return on May &c of the regiment to |
camp Cameron, when, as the 30 days
iiad expired, it was mustered out of the
service. ,'A
ITO no continued |