A general review. Change in condition of the regiment. Barrett as
provost-marshal. Delicate question. Colonel Coan. Gradual disbandment
of the army. Discharge of the 48th. Some personal explanations.
Little remains to chronicle in the history of the 48th. On the 20th of
April, during the truce between the two armies, a general review was
held in Raleigh by General Sherman. The 10th corps presented no such
appearance as when it marched in review at Hilton Head. Few of the old
officers and soldiers were left, and the experiences of the past year
had been such as to preclude the possibility of keeping up that almost
perfect condition and discipline for which we were so long noted. Our
regiment had changed so much that it bore its share of the censure
contained in general orders issued a few nights after the review.
But sufficient allowance was not made for the peculiar hardships and
exposures of the recent campaign, nor for the addition of so many new
recruits, at a time when no opportunity was afforded for their proper
training and drill. The work of all the troops was done and well done,
and no censure should have mingled with the approval they so richly
deserved.
[Illustration: PLACE OF JOHNSTON'S SURRENDER TO SHERMAN.]
After the surrender of Johnston, our brigade, commanded by Colonel
Coan, remained in Raleigh, until sent home to be discharged from the
service. Captain Barrett, now commissioned major, but unable to be
mustered in, on account of the wound of Major Elfwing, which prevented
his advancement, was made provost-marshal. The duties of the position
were varied and peculiar, but, exercising that excellent good sense
and kindly disposition which always characterized him, he gave general
satisfaction. It must have been a little embarrassing when he was
called upon to settle the question between the negro and his two wives.
Having been separated from the object of his early affections, by
change of ownership, the negro had found another to solace and comfort
him, with whom he had been living some twenty years, and the sudden
appearance of wife number one with a request that he should resume his
former relations involved questions too deep for his understanding. The
decision of the provost-marshal, that possession for so long a time
established the right to hold, and that number one must continue to
regard the separation as final, as she had done for so long a period of
years, was satisfactory, at least to the negro and wife number two.
The order announcing that Johnston had surrendered, and that the
troops would soon be marching homewards, was published April 27; but
it was found no simple matter to disband so large an army, and, while
no further hostilities were feared, there were many questions to be
decided, arising out of the war, which required the presence of troops
in the South.
The weeks and months which followed brought to the regiment little
change from the regular round of guard and fatigue duty, inspections
and parades. Coan, who was a captain of the regiment at its
organization in 1861, was now its colonel. Almost the only one of
the original officers who remained with the regiment, he had served
constantly and faithfully through the intervening years, and was
finally mustered out with it. In every position which he occupied,
whether commanding a company, the regiment, or a brigade, he always did
his part well, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of every one. He
had no enemies, because he always exercised the authority entrusted
to him with good judgment and a due consideration for others. Sharing
hardships and dangers equally with others, he was wonderfully spared,
having never suffered seriously from sickness or wounds. His services
on earth are now ended, but his memory is fondly cherished by all who
knew him.
June 10, the remnant of the 117th New York State Volunteers was
consolidated with our regiment, which became nearly complete in
numbers, both of officers and privates. June 19, the 48th escorted
the 115th New York to the depot, on their way home to become citizens
again, and on the 23d, performed a similar duty for the 203d
Pennsylvania Volunteers, which had been brigaded with it for many
months.
On the 26th, the regiment was considerably reduced, by the
mustering-out of all those whose term of service would expire before
September. From this time onwards the story of the journals before us
is a dull and unvaried account of simple and uninteresting details,
which continues until August 31, when the regiment was mustered out of
the service of the United States. On Sunday, September 3, it started
in the cars for City Point, where it took steamer for Baltimore.
September 5, it arrived in New York city, and on the following day was
conveyed to Hart's Island, where it remained encamped until the 12th.
On that day, the pay roll was signed for the last time, the regiment
was discharged, and the men were transported to New York city, free and
independent citizens once more.
This completes the history of the struggles and triumphs of "the
Saints," so far as it could be gleaned from the materials at hand. The
assistance received from the several journals sent me I have already
acknowledged, but while drawing as largely as possible from these, I
have been compelled to rely to a great extent upon my own. This was
kept with constancy and regularity from day to day, during my whole
term of service, and has been useful not only in furnishing such facts
of our daily experience as it contained, but also in recalling by its
perusal much that was unrecorded which has come back to me from the
sleeping recesses of memory. If out of this great dependence upon a
personal narrative there appears more of the individual than is seemly
and proper, I beg, especially from those who participated in the scenes
depicted, a charitable construction of this natural if not necessary
tendency, and that I be absolved from any intention to give to my own
special services undue prominence.