History of the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers; By Professor Robert Laird Stewart ... Pub. by Authority of the Regimental Association (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. SOUTHWARD FROM MARYLAND TO DIXIELAND. On! brothers on! for the Flag that is peerless! Striped from the rainbow and starred from the sky; On with a sturdy step! dauntless and fearless! On to unfurl it in triumph or die. THE Northern Central Railroad, which we had guarded with ceaseless vigilance, by day and night, for three months, furnished the Regiment with transportation to its terminus in Baltimore in rough freight cars of various types and patterns. We were favored in having a clear track, however, and the journey, which covered a stretch of twenty- nine miles, was shorter than we had anticipated. At the station we joined forces with the One Hundred and Forty-eighth and marched through the city, with bands playing and flags flying, to the station on the Washington side, a distance of nearly two miles. All along the line of this march, although at a late hour of the night, we were welcomed by crowds of enthusiastic residents who waved flags from windows, doors and balconies, or came out to the very curb of the pavements to wave handkerchiefs and call out "God Bless you boys," "The Union forever!" We entered this fair city with forty rounds of cartridges apiece, not knowing what might befall us there, but this enthusiastic welcome took us by surprise, and in response we made the long avenue on which we were marching ring with cheers and the soul stirring strains of our National anthems. At the end of this march we were directed to the Union Association Hall, where we sat down to a home-like table covered with clean, white linen and enjoyed an excellent midnight supper, which had been provided for us. We were comfortably quartered in the same building for the night anduntil the evening of the next day. This generous entertainment was given at the e...