MILITARY: One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Second Regiment, Bucktail Brigade, Chapter 7 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB & JP Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm An html version of the book with graphics, may be found at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/military/cw/150-bucktails/150-bucktails.htm ________________________________________________ HISTORY OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH REGIMENT PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS, SECOND REGIMENT, BUCKTAIL BRIGADE. BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL THOMAS CHAMBERLIN, HISTORIAN OF THE SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION. REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, WITH COMPLETE ROSTER. PHILADELPHIA: F. McMANUS, JR. & CO., PRINTERS, 1905. 54 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH CHAPTER VII. WASHINGTON IN THE WINTER OF 1862-1863. THE expression "monotony of winter quarters in Washington", as used at the end of the preceding chapter, is meant to convey an idea of the disappointment and restiveness of both officers and men at being detained, midway on their march to active usefulness and possible glory, to do the work of "parade soldiers", and their unmistakable preference for the toils and dangers of "the front", rather than to describe the impression made upon them by the routine service to which they were assigned, and by their surroundings in the little, great city. Life was anything but monotonous there. As the capital of the republic, the seat of its legislature and of the national treasurehouse - the point to which a majority of the mighty host of volunteers who rose to sustain the government converged, and to which supplies of immeasurable quantity and almost incalculable value were brought to be distributed among the various armed bodies in the field; the centre where plans of campaign were projected, discussed, rejected, or adopted; from which orders were issued to armies and military departments, and to which reports of all offensive and defensive operations were promptly sent, - Washington, the "City of Magnificent Distances", with its comparatively small fixed population had, long before the end of the second year of hostilities, become the scene of more movement, and occupied greater prominence in the eyes of the people, than any other place in the land. In addition to the distinguished men who were an immediate part of the government, or upheld it in Congress and in the Supreme Court, the governors of great States were frequently PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 55 seen in its streets, coming on friendly summons, or of their own motion, to strengthen the hands of the President and offer unstinted aid to the cause of the Union. Prominent citizens of every occupation and profession, from every loyal commonwealth, visited the capital to confer with the heads of departments or with their representatives in Congress, and offer prudent counsel in times of general uneasiness. Distinguished foreigners, and many who were not distinguished, were drawn thither to look at the war from a safe distance and calculate the chances of the success or failure of the side which held their sympathies. Adventurers, foreign and domestic, by scores and hundreds, found it an attractive field for their peculiar gifts, and haunted its hotels and public places in the hope of "striking luck" in some shape or manner, they cared not what or how. Thousands and tens of thousands of patriotic people, whose sons, or brothers, or other relations were with the active forces in Virginia, gravitated to Washington at one time or another, moved by the desire to see their "heroes", if possible, or get a little nearer to them, and witness something of the "pomp and circumstance" of actual war. Many were there to comfort their own flesh and blood or minister to their wants, as these lay wounded or sick in the numerous hospitals. Tens of thousands of others, equally patriotic, - who knows? - drifted to the capital, as they would have drifted to some famous summer resort, out of mere curiosity and to see or hear something new. At all times the streets of the city presented a pleasing succession of kaleidoscopic effects. Now a regiment or two of new troops on their way to the front, with full ranks in bright, fresh uniforms, marched through some of the principal streets with drums beating and colors flying, preceded, followed, and almost surrounded by an admiring and noisy crowd of idle negroes recently from Dixie, - already known as "contrabands", and persuaded that they counted for some- 56 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH thing in this great national upheaval. Now a long train of government wagons with canvas tops, drawn by a mixed force of horses and mules, and laden with every kind of army supply, moved in creaking procession along Pennsylvania Avenue, laboring through ruts that were as frequent and almost as dangerous as the crevasses of a Swiss glacier. Now a battery of artillery or a squadron of cavalry, led by cheery bugle notes, swept over the same broad but hopelessly swampy thoroughfare, arresting the attention of the thousand saunterers on its sidewalks and calling the not too busy tradespeople to their windows and doors. Sometimes, but not often, a brigade or division of veterans from the front, with bronzed faces and clothing that told plainly of long marches, night-watches, bivouacs, and mud, as their tattered flags told of hard-fought battles, marched proudly through the city to the music of their bands, gladdened by the plaudits which met them at every turn on their way to new fields of activity in the South or West. At all hours, by day and night, mounted officers and orderlies, with clanking sabres, dashed hither and thither, bearing verbal or written messages to or from the War Department, the headquarters of the military governor, or the numerous fortified posts in and around the capital. On the streets, and particularly on Pennsylvania Avenue, the national uniform was nearly as frequent as the costume of the civilian, and a simultaneous raid throughout its length, at any reasonable hour, would doubtless have resulted in the bagging of a score of brigadier-generals, an entire company of colonels, and a regiment of officers of inferior rank. The showy trappings, borrowed from European armies, with which a General Blenker or a Colonel d'Utassy paralyzed the beholder in the earlier period of the war, were no longer to be seen anywhere, having given place to the more modest dress prescribed by the "Regulations", then an inexorable foe to the pleasing element of variety. PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 57 Washington was not then the grandiose city that it is to-day. With the exception of the Capitol, the Treasury, and a few other important structures, there were no buildings which presented any particular architectural merits, and most of them bore contemptible proportions to the generous plan of the city, giving an impression, to the visitor, of a place which had utterly failed to grow up to its opportunities. Even the Washington Monument, now the most striking memorial shaft in the world, helped to deepen this unpleasant impression, having ceased to rise at a height of between one and two hundred feet, and looking more like a ruin than a triumph of the builder's art. Yet the town was full of life, full of business and social enterprise, with a feverish desire on the part of its permanent and transient population to be amused. In spite of the "horrors of war", and in the face of depressing reverses to our arms, people ate, drank, and were merry. Gautier's and other prominent restaurants coined money, and Harvey's steamed-oyster establishment with difficulty supplied its clamorous customers. Hotel bars and drinking-saloons flourished as they had never flourished before. The theatres, such as they were, drew good houses, irrespective of the merits of the plays presented by their managers. Not that there were not, from time to time, good plays and good companies, for the finest stars, both theatrical and operatic, visited Washington, as they visited all cities which held out the allurement of gain; but mediocrity was the rule, startling talent the exception. At times there was an embarrassment in the choice of amusements. Forrest, no longer of the athletic frame and thunderous voice which in earlier years had so well fitted him for the "pet" characters in his repertoire, might be heard heaving his unfathomable sigh as Othello, at the "National", while at the "Old Washington" one might roar with continuous laughter at the brilliant puns of "Pocahontas", spoken by its author. John Brougham, and 58 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH such inimitable associates as Joe Jefferson, Chanfrau, and John Sleeper Clarke. But the resort par excellence of the soldier and transient visitor was the "Variety Theatre", managed by one Sinn, whose name, perhaps, would not have been less appropriate with the final "n" omitted. This theatre had the virtue of cheapness, and a license in the dress and speech of its "artistes", which especially commended it to the pockets and tastes of the men who carried the musket. They wanted diversion of a pungent flavor; songs which reminded them of home and their own youthful escapades and courtships; jokes of a broadly suggestive kind, touching (and sometimes passing) the border line of propriety; and sharp hits at the sometimes too obvious mismanagement of our armies. All this they had here, to say nothing of the graceful gambols of Julia Mortimer and the Pennoyer sisters, in costumes of such scantiness as brought into bold relief their shapely limbs and alluring busts. The closing song and tableau, in which the "whole strength of the company" appeared, were invariably of a patriotic character, and emphasized with such a profuse display of the national colors, and such vigorous waving of the stars and stripes, that nightly the audience broke up in a tempest of enthusiasm. Many gambling-houses existed in Washington at that time, and to those acquainted with the sport of "fighting the tiger", their entrances were easily recognizable after night. Some of these dens were luxurious in their appointments, with the added attraction of a free lunch of the best that the markets afforded, and those who frequented them night after night were counted by scores. The sums which changed hands in a few hours were often large, and many a poor devil of an officer who had come to the city on a two days' leave of absence, with ample provision of money for his expected needs, found himself under the necessity of borrowing from his friends or resorting to his "uncle" to meet his hotel bill and legitimate PENNSYLVANIA VOLUNTEERS 59 expenses, in consequence of an ill-advised visit to one of these seductive "midnight banks". In spite of the depressed state of public feeling which followed the abortive attack on Fredericksburg and the memorable "mud march", social gayety was the rule in Washington; and while expensive balls were not frequent, many an improvised dance took place at Willard's and other large hostelries, graced by the presence of some of the fairest and most distinguished women in the city, with whom the dashing young officers on duty in the District were glad of an opportunity of whirling in the waltz, or charging over the luxuriously carpeted floors to the spirited music of the Lancers. Society regretted the gloomy military outlook, but ate and danced and slept as if the national sky were all rose color. Society had faith in the resources of the government and in the final success of our arms. While society reposed serenely after its pleasant fatigues, the government never slept. At the White House night was often turned into day, and the vigilant eye of the nation's chief was upon every movement of the great military game upon whose issue the life of the republic depended. In the bureaus of the Secretary of War the telegraph never ceased its tick. At the Treasury the sturdy form of the old "watch-dog", General Spinner, might be seen at his desk at midnight and in the small hours before the dawn. Thus, while throughout the city the sounds of merry-making went on by night as well as by day, there was also to be found, in the proper quarters, that "eternal vigilance" which is the "price of liberty". But what has this to do with the history of the 150th? Only that the 150th saw or knew much of what has been thus rudely shadowed, and the memory thereof will be a pleasing one to the latest survivor of the regiment to his dying day.