The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-26

IRE with whole heart, Great mum
bers Of them had gone into the army
boys and had been made men by dan
ger and suffering. Here they had fol
the first time faced big things-for the
first time felt great emotions. They
clung, as all men do, to that which has
awakened their natures. 1t was NOT
strange, then, that they at first should
have felt something like regret.
But this wave of regret was every
where brief. As soon rs the mems faces
were set for the North there was a
blaze of JOYOUS, emotion, They were
going home. Under the influence of this
new phase of feeling the armies
marched to their rendezvous in incred-
IDLY short periods. Thus. sherman g
army made the march Of l56 miles from
Raleigh to Richmond in ive and one
half days. "lt seems as if the men can.
not go fast enough, was the general
comment.
Marches Orderly.
Considering the exuberance of the
feeling, the marches were orderly.
Rigid orders had been given the men
concerning pillaging. Hitherto they had
confiscated as a right of war, but the
wsr was over now, and no soldier here.
after had a right to a chicken or loaf
of bread for which ne did not pay, This
restriction came particularly hard on
those troops who had been ''living off
the country II was. perhaps, requlr
ing too much of human nature to ex-
pect they should not now and then
break ranks and have riot of chicken
stealing and house breaking. Their
punishment, if caught, was always Sc
we're and humiliating They were Ia
beled "pillagers, and tied to a fence
by which the whole army marched,
jeering and deriding Happily there
were but rare outbreaks of this kind,
and none of them very grave. The oc-
casional disorders were more than COM
pensated for by the real sympathy the
men showed for the poverty and suffer
ing they found all along their march
They constantly met half-starved, half
clad Confederate soldiers, painfully
making their way 10 their homes
sometimes alone, often in groups of two
or three. Not infrequently they found
q worn-out man dying by the roadside.
With these men the Federal troops fra
ternized in the most kindly way, sharr
ing their rations with them. bespeaking
horses for them from tine quartermas-
ter, often taking their addresses, and
promising them help when they re-
turned north.
The first large bodies of troops to
Sherman s armies, both of which. by
May 20, were encsmped along the
Potomac, opposite Washington, most of
them within sight Of the dome of the
capitol. In all, the two armies mum.
bered 100000 men, brought from the
field since the surrender of Lee.
Muster-out and Payrolls.
The second step in the disbandment
he 81 CT N,,A 10,
payrolls. Just what this entailed only
those who have examined the rolls can
realize, On them every man s army
history had 10 be registered; his rank
and age. when and where and by whom
ne was enrolled, when and where and
by whom mustered in, when last paid
and 10 what time, how far be had trav-
eled, what subsistence and forage he
had furnished, what equipment and
clothing he had received, his absences,
special duties. promotions, wounds, i'll
nesses-an array of figures. dates, and
facts upon whose accuracy all the fu.
ture relations of that man with the
war department must be regulated. The
mere printing of the blanks of these
rolls and of the discharge papers for
the men was keeping the Government
printing presses busy night and day,
while filling them meant work for hun
thing was ready for this work when
Sherman and Meade reached their rem
devious. and headquarters were at once
established and the rolls started.
The delay necessary to making out
the rolls caused everywhere a percen-
tage of trouble. Why he could not be
at once many volunteer
could not understand. The war was
over and be wanted TO go home: Why
L.. y, s.1,
Washington? Why all this
fuss and feathers7'' The "freeborn
who, at the beginning of
the war, could not understand why one
should not say "hclloD to the colonel.
now refused to see the reason why
ranks should not be broken on the spot,
This spirit showed itself now and then
in small mutinies. Castle Thunder. IN
Richmond, and Old Capitol Prison, in
mer of 1865, Of men who had made up
their minds to do their own disband-
ing, but had been restrained at the
point Of the bayonet.
Regular Drills Had.
The men were kept in order by reg
uar drilling and By many reviews.
view ordered by Mr.. Stanton while
sherman Is and Meade's armies were
waiting around Washington. The secre-
tarv Of War wished the President. the
Cabinet, the Congress. the country. to
see what an army meant, and ordered
that Meade s army on May 23, and
sherman IS on the cath pass in review
before the members of the administra.
tion, The pageant was by far the mob
lest this land has ever seen II was
not the glitter Of the thousands of bay
onets and sabres and polished brass
canon which made IL SO, not the hum
drods of battle flags and banners in
line. not the splendid gathering of gen
erals who had distinguished them
selves in the war-Meade. Sherman.
Custer. Crooks. Hartranft, Miles, How
ard Logan. Blair. Buell.; ii was the men
;u ra nlcs who for six hours ON one day,