The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-26
DISBANDING THE UNION ARMY
BY IDA M
A GREAT. STIRRING AND TRUE MEMORIAL nAY sTNRY
TRUE MEMORIAL DAY. STORY
ID A M. TARBELL.


in "cadence STEP through the wide
Washington avenues. The great throng
which had gathered in Washington TO
witness the review sat as if spellbound
watching hour after hour these great
blue masses passing as steadily and
rhythmlcally as an ocean tide. Now
and then men turned wondering dazed
eyes to each other and asked, HWhere
did they all come from? Have we sent
so many men to the front2 Is it true
that this is but one-ffth of the army?'
with this surprise at the numbers, came
deeper surprise-that an army looked
like this. For four years they had been
seeing soldiers daily-bouyant lads,
marching with shining eyes TO the
front, or crippled men crawling home
to debut soldiers like these they did
not know. These men We're bronzed
and stern and Indifferent The spec
tators felt almost terror in watching
the ranks, so irresistible seemed their
power. so mighty their will. This, then,
was what Lincoln meant when he
talked to them of "veterans. This
was the kind of men war made of their
brightfaced boys.
March to Station.
In the interval after the order for dis
bandment came, and while tho troops
were marching to their rendezvous,
transportation by river and rail had
been preparing to take the men to their
State camps. All the steamers, cars,
engines of the North were at the serv.
ice Of the government for this task.
Indeed from now on the transportation
service of the North existed first for
the soldier. Everything was ready then,
when, on May %, the first body Of
Sherman's and Meade soldiers was
marched to the station at Washington
to lead in the northward flow of the
armies. So perfect were the plans, so
complete the preparation, that IN the
next forty days the one little railway
which then led from Washington TO the
city, carried away 233,200 men, l2,s3S
horses, and 4,300,s50 pounds of bag
gage.
AS soon as the soldiers were north of
the Potomac and Ohio they began to re.
ioice over the change from the want
and desolation of the South to the or.
der, thrift, and plenty of the North.
They hung from the car windows and
crowded the decks of the boats. admir-
ing and exulting. The farmers were at
work in the fields, gardens were green,
apple-trees in blossom. The ways of
doing things, the style of house and
barn, the white meeting house, the
country school-all the familiar things
they had grown up with-were before
them. 1t was God s country they
said and they would never leave it
again. At every station they swarmed
forth to shake hands with the crowds,
which seemed all the summer and fall to
be always on hand to cheer them, to
fill their pockets with fruit and cakes.
offer them hot coffee or cool drinks, to
l,,, al In
tions.. there were delays, they fell to
playing ball, chuck -a-luck, or )eap-frog,
with the abandon of boys
There was great care taken that the
delays at stations where changes were
made should not be long; nevertheless,
at great terminals like New York,
Cleveland. or Chicago, it was inevitable
there should be frequent congestions of
soldiers. In New York, permanent bar
racks were erected on Howard street
and at the battery. to which the regi-
came 70 town. Their coming was so
continuous that a standing head in the
city papers came to he "Jhe Returning
Soldiers It was the merest euumera-
tion Of the regiments arriving-the
names of their officers, and the list of
the battles in which they had fought,
and sometimes the numbers Of men they
had lost SO common a sight did the
soldiers become in New York and other
great centers that after few weeks
they passed almost UNDECIDED in the
streets.
Many Camps Existed
II was intended that each company,
in reaching its State, be sent immedi
ately to the camp where it had been
mustered in, if possible. Several camps
syiSto1 in coob State Thne thnsa IL, |
New York State were at Poughkeepsie,
Newburg, Albany, Plattsburg, Ogdens.
burg, Sackett IS Harbor, Auburn, SYra-
cuse, Rochester. Buffalo, Elmra, Biug- |
hampton, and Norwich. IT. was here in |
these encampments that many Of the !
most touching reunions after the war !
took place. Each returning company |
found, already in camp companies from |
the same district which had been doing |
service in fields far distant from its |
own. Men from sherman S army here |
found comrades who had been serving |
with Thomas, with Candy, with Meade. |
For months, perhaps years, the men had
known nothing Of each other They |
had enlisted together-one was sent
East. another West; scores of their
fellows had been killed, they knew. 'I5
Bill still aive?' the man asked him
self, sometimes at night, when alone on
picket no thought Of home The silence
was ominous. Probably Bill was dead.
And now here, tho first man to greet
him as he entered WAS his boyhood
friend 1t was these reunions, with the
exchange of experiences, tho stories of
battle. and the endless discussions OF
the merits Of their fayorite generals
Of Grant, Sherman, "'Old Pap Thomas, -
or "Little Phil that made the few
last days of army life and discipline,
here at the very threshold of their
homes, tolerable to the men. They
could not, and probably would not. have
endured it long, Nor were they obliged
to- Ahead of them in camp were the
officers with their discharge papers and
their pay, and as rapidly as it could be
done each man was dismissed.
1t was the characteristic Of the fore.