THE NEW YORK SEVENTH. iment of the city was the first to move of the large force rapidly mustering everywhere in New York. This corps, composed of young men belonging more or less to the wealthier classes, and long admired for the precision of their drill and the elegance of their tenue, was the pet regiment of the city. When, therefore, it was announced that these youthful soldiers, who had been hitherto the mere ornaments of a gala parade, had determined to come forward to assume the serious work of fighting for their country, the population of the city applauded their spirited resolution, and, confident of their good conduct, anticipated its rewards by bestowing upon them the honors of an accomplished April heroism. On the day of their de19. parture for Washington the city was unusually excited. "Never before," said a daily paper, were the people moved to such a pitch of enthusiastic patriotism. There have been gala days, and funeral pageants, and military shows, and complimentary receptions, and triumphal processions that filled the streets with crowds of curious, wondering, sympathetic people, but never has there been developed such a universal, heartfelt, deep-rooted, genuine enthusiasm. The American colors were prominent everywhere on housetops, on flagstaffs, on horses attached to all kinds of vehicles, on ropes stretched across the streets, on the masts of shipping in the harbor, on breastpins, on the lappets of coats, on the fronts of men's hats; on all sides the glorious old red, white, and blue waved in the joyous 66 195 breeze and every eye was dazzled with bright colors. The awful solemnity of civil war came pressing home to our people who had sons, and brothers, and fathers just departing, perhaps never to return. The news of the difficulties in Baltimore, the struggle of the troops with the rabble, the reported death of many, the rumors of an attack on the capital, the tearing up of railroad tracks, and all the attendant horrors of internecine warfare, struck terror into many a stout heart, while the tears of kind-hearted women flowed copiously as a rain-storm." "It was many Fourths-of-July rolled into one," was the comprehensive climax arrived at by a writer who had in vain attempted an adequate description of the scene. The story of the journey of the Seventh to Philadelphia; its prudent dodging of the rioters at Baltimore, by passing down the Delaware and up the Chesapeake; its arrival and encampment at Annapolis, and its famous march to Washington were told again and again in daily newspapers, in pictorial weeklies, and in grave monthlies. The regiment did not want for historiographers, as in its gallant ranks there were those who were not unknown to fame for their skill in the literary art. Onet who recorded the eventful progress of the Seventh to Washington, gave an animating account, from which the following extracts are made: "Swift through New Jersey. New York Times, April 20. † Captain Fitz-James O'Brien, in the New York Times. All along the track shouting crowds, hoarse and valorous, sent to us, as we passed, their hopes and wishes. When we stopped at the different stations, rough hands came in through the windows, apparently unconnected with any one in particular until you shook them, and then the subtle magnetic thrill told that there were bold hearts beating at the end. This continued until night closed, and, indeed, until after midnight. "Within the cars the sight was strange. A thousand young men, the flower of the North, in whose welfare a million of friends and relatives were interested, were rushing along to conjectured hostilities with the same smiling faces that they would wear going to a 'German' party in Fifth Avenue. It was more like a festivity than a march. Those fine old songs, the chorusses of which were familiar to all, were sung with sweet voice. * ** "Our arrival at Philadelphia took place at four o'clock. We slept in the cars, awaiting orders from our Colonel, but, at daylight, hunger-and it may be thirst-becoming imperious, we sallied out and roamed about that cheerless neighborhood that surrounds the dépot. ** Finding that we were likely to remain for some time in the city-although under the impression that we were to go straight through to Baltimore-we wandered away from the desert of the dépot and descended on civilized quarters. The superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum was a man for the emergency. He provided a handsome breakfast for all such mem bers of the Seventh as chose to partake of it, and we commanded beefsteak on our fingers, and ordered tea by signmanual. Great numbers of our regiment, being luxurious dogs, went down to the Continental and Girard hotels, where they campaigned on marble floors, and bivouacked on velvet couches; they are such delicate fellows, the Seventh Regiment! * "We, of course, were entirely ignorant of our route, or how we were going. The general feeling of the regiment was in favor of pushing our way coute qui coute straight through Baltimore. Rumors came along that the city was in arms. The Massachusetts troops had to fight their way through, killing eighteen, and losing two men. This seemed only to stimulate our boys, and the universal word was Baltimore ! But, as it turned out afterward, we were under a wise direction, and the policy of our Colonel, to whom we perhaps are altogether indebted for bringing us safe here, was, I presume, to avoid all unnecessary collision, and bring his regiment intact into Washington. The rails were reported to have been torn up for forty miles about Baltimore, and as we were summoned for the defence of the capital, it follows, according to reason, that if we could get there without loss we would better fulfil our duty. As it happened afterward, we had to run through more peril than Baltimore could have offered. "There seemed but little enthusiasm in Philadelphia. * I understand that the people were out in large num DODGING BALTIMORE. bers to see us enter, but our delay disappointed them, and they went home. We came and went without a reception or demonstration. 197 we were going to steam up the Potomac-a course which was not much approved of, inasmuch that we were cooped up in a kind of river steamer that a shot from the fort at Alexandria might sink at any moment. * * * "The first evening, April 20, on board the Boston, passed delightfully. We were all in first-rate spirits, and the calm, sweet evenings that stole on us as we approached the South, diffused a soft and gentle influence over us. The scene on board the ship was exceedingly picturesque. Fellows fumbling in haversacks for rations, or extracting sandwiches from reluctant canteens; guards pacing up and down with drawn bayonets; knapsacks piled in corners; bristling heaps of muskets, with sharp, shining teeth, crowded into every available nook; picturesque groups of men lolling on deck, pipe or cigar in mouth, indulged in the dolce far niente, as if they were on the blue shores of Capri rather than on their way to battle; unbuttoned jackets, crossed legs, heads leaning on knapsacks, blue uniforms everywhere, with here and there a glint of officers' red enlivening the foreground "There was one peculiar difference that I noticed existing between the Massachusetts regiments that we met in Philadelphia and our men. The Massachusetts men-to whom all honor be given for the splendid manner in which they afterward acted in a most trying situation-presented a singular moral contrast to the members of the Seventh. They were earnest, grim, determined. Badly equipped, haggard, unshorn, they yet had a manhood in their look that hardships could not kill. They were evidently thinking all the time of the contest into which they were about to enter. Their grey, eager eyes seemed to be looking for the heights of Virginia. With us it was somewhat different. Our men were gay and careless, confident of being at any moment. capable of performing, and more than performing, their duty. They looked battle in the face with a smile, and were ready to hob-nob with an enemy and kill him afterward. The one was courage in the rough; the other was courage bur--all formed a scene that such painters nished. The steel was the same in as the English Warren would have revboth, but the last was a little more pol- elled in. ished. "On April 20, at 4.20 P.M., we left the Philadelphia dock, on board the steamer Boston. The regiment was in entire ignorance of its destination. Some said we were going back to New York, at which suggestion there was a howl of indignation. Others presumed that "I regret to say that all was not rosecolored. The steamer that the Colonel chartered had to get ready at three or four hours' notice, he having changed his plans, in consequence of the tearing up of the rails around Baltimore. The result was that she was imperfectly provisioned. As the appetites of the men began to develop, the resources of the cloudless day. We had steamed all night, and about ten o'clock were in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. At eleven o'clock A. M. we had service read by our chaplain, and at one P. M. we were seven miles from the coast. The day was calm and delicious. In spite of our troubles with regard to food-troubles, be it understood, entirely unavoidablewe drank in with delight the serenity of the scene. A hazy tent of blue hung over our heads. On one side the dim thread of shore hemmed in the sea. Flights of loons and ducks skimmed along the ocean, rising lazily, and spattering the waves with their wings as they flew against the wind, until they rose into air, and, wheeling, swept into calmer feeding grounds. Now and then the calm of the hour was broken with the heavy tramp of men and the metallic voice of the corporal of the guard relieving his comrades. At five o'clock P. M. we passed a light-ship and hailed her, our object being to discover whether any United States vessels were in the neighborhood waiting to convoy us up the Potomac River. We had heard that the forts at Alexandria were ready to open upon us if we attempted to pass up, and our steamer was of such a build that, had a shell or shot struck it, we would have been burned or drowned. It therefore behooved us to be cautious. The answers we got from the light-ship and other vessels that we hailed in this spot were unsatisfactory, and although the feelings of the men were unanimous in wishing to force the Potomac, wiser "April 21st was Sunday. A glorious, counsels, as it proved, were behind us, "Notwithstanding that we found very soon that the commissariat was in a bad way, the men were as jolly as sandboys. I never saw a more good-humored set of men in my life. Fellows who would at Delmonico's have sent back a turban de volaille aux truffes because the truffles were tough, here cheerfully took their places in file between decks, tin plates and tin cups in hand, in order to get an insufficient piece of beef and a vision of coffee. But it was all merrily done. The scant fare was seasoned with hilarity; and here I say to those people in New York who have sneered at the Seventh Regiment as being dandies, and guilty of the unpardonable crimes of cleanliness and kid gloves, that they would cease to scoff and remain to bless had they beheld the square, honest, genial way in which these military Brummells roughed it. Farther on you will see what they did in the way of endurance and activity. ARRIVAL AT ANNAPOLIS. 199 and Co. and the ordinary waiter being, that the former were civil. "After this I had the pleasing duty of performing three hours of guard duty on the dock with a view to protect the baggage and stores. It was monotonous and we kept on. All this time we were entirely ignorant of where we were going. The officers kept all secret, and our conjectures drifted like a drifting boat. On the morning of the 22d we were in sight of Annapolis, off which the Constitution was lying, and-being my first guard-but not unthere found the Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts volunteers, on board the Maryland. They were aground, owing, it is supposed, to the treachery of the captain, whom they put in irons, and wanted to hang. I regret to say that they did not do it. During the greater portion of that forenoon we were occupied in trying to get the Maryland off the sand-bar on which she was grounded. From our decks we could see the men in file trying to rock her, so as to facilitate our tugging. These men were without water and without food, were well conducted and uncomplaining, and behaved, in all respects, like heroes. They were under the command of Colonel Butler. "On the afternoon of the 22d we landed at the Annapolis dock, after having spent hours in trying to relieve the Maryland. For the first time in his life your correspondent was put to work to roll flour barrels. He was intrusted with the honorable and onerous duty of transporting stores from the steamer to the dock. Later still he descended to the position of mess servant, when, in company with gentlemen well-known in Broadway for immaculate kids, he had the honor of attending on his company with buckets of cooked meat and crackers, the only difference between him pleasant. The moon rose calm and white. A long dock next to the one on which I was stationed stretched away into the bay, resting on its numerous piles, until it looked in the clear moonlight like a centipede. All was still and calm, until at certain periods the guard challenged persons attempting to pass. There was a holy influence in the hour, and somehow the hot fever of anxiety that had been over us for days, seemed to pass away under the touch of the magnetic fingers of the night. "We were quartered in the buildings belonging to the Naval School at Annapolis. I had a bunking-place in what is there called a fort, which is a rickety structure that a lucifer match would set on fire, but furnished with imposing guns. I suppose it was merely built to practice the cadets, because as a defence it is worthless. The same evening, boats were sent off from the yard, and toward nightfall the Massachusetts men landed, fagged, hungry, thirsty, but indomitable. At an early hour there was a universal snore through the Naval School of Annapolis. "The two days that we remained at Annapolis were welcome. We had been without a fair night's sleep since we left New York, and even the hard quarters we had there were luxury compared to |