Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09
OLD TIMES DISCUSSED.
"reminiscences of the Fall of
Richmond.
FIRST TROOPS TO ENTER
MEETING OF SURVIVORS OF A
MASSACHUSETTS COMMAND.
Recent Reunion at Boston of Company
@ of Chelsea-Time Generally Deal
ing Kindly With the Veterans.
FIRST TROOPS TO ENTER

Deen many CHdilSeS since my Doyuoou
days passed here, it is still ahead
of every other city in some respects.
Boston has always been city of issues. 1t
las been in the advance of every reform,
moral, religious or political, and it always
will be. It's a splendid city to be born in.
TO be educated in and to emgrate from.
The boy who is born here imbibes the spirit
of patriotism that was strong and re-
sourceful in the days of the revolution,
when Hancock and Warren and Adams and
those sterling patriots rebelled against the
injustice of Englands stamp tax. A little
way out, at Lexington, was shed the hrSt
blood of the revolution and then came the
later battle of Bunker Hill. In the harbor
was the celebrated tea party in which men
disguised Indians boarded vessel loaded
with tea from England and pitched the
whole cargo into the water. AT Salem, few
miles away. they hung people for being
witches and practcing witchcraft. 1t was
here that know othingism had its strong
hold. when there began crusade against
the Catholic Church, and II was here that
abolitionism had some of its most ardent
supporters in Wendell Phillips and VIM
Lloyd Garrison.
1t was a Massachusetts, regiment-the 9Th
that received the first baptism of blood in
the war of the rebellion when it was fired
on in Baltimore as II was hurrying to the
defense of the national capital In April.
1861. and the number of troops furnished by
the old Bay state during that long and
bloody struggle proved that the spirit of &c
still lived in the descendants of the revo-
lutionary period. So il is a good thing for
boy to be born and educated in Boston.
for he grows up with a vigorous constitu-
tipn and he acquires his book knowledge I'M
der the best system of education in the
world.
But If the boy stays here he becomes a
hopeless Bostonian. all right, when he is
with those of his kind, but at a disadvan-
tase when he is brought into, contact with
those have those
sections of the country and whose minds
have been broadened by rubbing against the
opinions of those of catholic education and
thought
Company G Reunion.
! came on to attend the fortieth anniver-
sary of the entrance of my old company
Company G, 10th Massachusetts Infantry
into Richmond. We had reunion in
Grand Army Hall in Chelsea, where the
company recruited and where most
OF its members at that time lived. There
were eighteen present out of about twenty
eight now living. OF those absent two
suffering from sickness. one was in
Europe with his family, one lives in Min
neapolis. one in Chicago and letters were
received giving good and sufficient excuse
for most of them. Some of the men |
had not seen since I left the regiment at
Folly Island and though l could not cad
lily recall all their names they all knew
me and We're mighty glad to me. /
was one of the kids of the company. for
1 was only seventeen when 1 enlisted, and
l am to those who are left still KID
Lieutenant Bacon. who was the president
last year of the organization, introduced
to me his son, strapping big fellow, az
his baby" l asked him how old he was.
and when he said thirty l told him that
/ knew his father long before he did.
II was pleasant to look into the faces of
the veterans and 10 find that time had
generally dealt kindly with them. Most of
them are in good condition physically and
civ nr,oiSa of MAJ of f1l nos
yet Two have had strokes of paralysis and
of them uses clutches. One has had
trouble with his eyes, and can only see a
little bit. but all are cheerful and self-re-
liant and good citizens. One Is the state
insurance commissioner, and G. Company
has contributed several to the state legis-
latuTe. The officers for the ensuing year
are: President, Frank Brown vice presi-
dent, DIR. Frank T. Howe; secretary. Chas.
T. Ring, and treasurer, Geo. II. Buck.
Interesting "reminiscences.
After the banquet there was an address
by Maj. G.. A. Bruce, who was on the staff
OF Gen. Devens forty years ago, and who
one of the first men 10 enter Richmond,
April g. 1865. giving some interesting
"reminiscences of that memorable event He
spoke of the Virginia state flag, which had
fioated from the state house. of It's being
hauled down by Maj Arthur Stevens and
being replaced by the stars and stripes and
after he had finished his address that same
Virginia state flag which had been taken
down on April ,, 1865, was brought to the
platform and unrOlled to view 1t was
about thirty feet long with the Virginia
coat-of-arms and its motto. sic Semper
Tyrannis.' in the corner. 1t was brought to
the hall by Maj. Stevenson in whose nos
session it now is.
First to Enter Richmond.
There has been good deal of dispute
as to what regiment of the Union army
HrSt {,l...,
the DAY of its occupation by the Union
forces. My own regiment. the 10th Massa-
chuSetis Infantry, entered the city on that
day and so did many others, but General
Devens, In an address delivered at the
Revere House in this city, April s. 1887
before the 18th New Hampshire RegimentaI
Association, gave that regiment the honor
OF being first He had written the governor
or New Hampshire June -, 1865, that
The 18th New Hampshire Regiment was
the hrst regiment of the army whose colors
were brought into the city of Richmond
on the morning OF April ,, 1865"
In his address in 1887 General Devens re-
iterdted that statement, saying:
ordinarily, can trust myself to speak a
Few words to old comrades without any
fear of giving way too much to feeling and
emotion. | am not sure today that / can
preserve the requisite calmness in presence
OF the friends who have SO cordially re-
ceived me- and In memory of all the recol-
lectioTs that are evoked in looking back
10 ii 10y SuCH DIS was april S, 1850, day
which ended the long and terrific struggle
OF our civil strife: day which by the cap
tuIe of the city which had been the seat
OF its power foreboded the rapid destruction
of the Confederacy.
THE words which have first been read
and which | wrote twenty-five years ago to
his eXCellency the governor of New Hamp-
shire. have no occasion to alter qualify,
far less to take back. They were true then,
they are true now, and will always be his
torlCally true. The 18th New Hampshire
was the first regiment to bring the coors
Of the Union into Richmond. This does not
rest on my authority. In the most explicit
terms Gen. WetZel, who was the COM
mandcr of the 18th Army Corps, to which
the third division of the oath Army Corps
was temporarily attached. and Gen. Shep-
ley, who was his chief of staff have as
serted that 1t was from me, as the COM
manding officer of the third division that
they learned that the skrmishers OF the
division, with whom was Capt. @. A Bruce
then on my staff. were in possession of all
the fortihcations which so long had frown-
ed in front OF us; and that Ii was but JUS
tice to this third division of the Gath Corps
10 say that 1t was the first to occupy Rich
mOnd.