The first troops arriving by way of the Potomac River were the
volunteers of the first call, ninety-day men; the steamship
_Daylight_--name of good omen! It was torrential rain, but the
President and Secretary Seward came out to welcome them on the wharf.
As he would give a reception then and there, four sailors held a
tarpaulin over his head like a canopy, and he shook hands all around,
including the firemen and stokers out of the coal-hole. Grasping their
smutty hands, he declared that they were as brave as any one! --(By
General Viele, present.)
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