Our reception at Springfield was of a truly
jubilant character. Refreshments in great profusion, and of the most
appetizing kind were furnished and received a most cordial welcome
within our hungry ranks. The streets were illuminated, and cannon
thundered in every direction. Our stay was a short one; and we rattled
on and on until the morning revealed the fact that we were in
Connecticut and not far from New York.
It will require a more gifted pen than the one that traces these lines
to picture the march of the "Old Sixth" through the city of New York.
Never before had so _deep_ because so _peculiar_ an enthusiasm
pervaded the people of that vast metropolis. Patriotism, under its
normal and customary forms, had, on many previous occasions, been
wrought up to an intense height; but now it was not to celebrate their
national independence, but to secure their national existence, or
rather, to settle the question whether the American people were, or were
not a Nation.
At the St. Nicholas and other places, the wants of the regiment were
sumptuously provided for.
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