At the Astor House, the field and staff
officers were entertained in a manner that left nothing to be desired.
Once more on the march, the regiment passed through the crowded streets,
everywhere receiving welcome plaudits until they reached the ferry that
conducted them to Hoboken, and the places en route to Baltimore and
Washington. As we passed into the ferry boats to cross the river, a
voice was heard above the tumult of the place and hour, "Good luck to
you, boys, but some of you will never return by this route;" a
prediction speedily fulfilled. Within about twenty-four hours, three of
our number had been transferred to a higher department.
The passage through Delaware to Philadelphia was not marked by any
incidents worthy of notice. Their long and weary pilgrimage had begun to
change a brisk, wide-awake regiment into a common-place body of weary
pilgrims, glad to find a shelter, without much questioning as to what it
might be. Quarters were assigned us in the Gerard House which happened
at that time to be unoccupied.
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