Reveille in Washington

by Margaret Leech

  One-armed General Oliver O. Howard, who rode with Sherman, had once commanded the Eleventh Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and Washington knew him now as commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Until recently he had commanded the Army of the Tennessee, and he had been succeeded by the former congressman, John A. Logan, whom Washington recognized and hailed, as it did Francis P. Blair, Junior, who led the Seventeenth Corps. General H. W. Slocum, commander of the Army of Georgia, had formerly headed the Twelfth Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The few familiar faces were exceptions in a procession of soldiers whose very badges were strange to the capital—the cartridge box of the Fifteenth Corps, the arrow of the Seventeenth, the five-pointed star of the Twentieth, the acorn of the Fourteenth.

  Taut with pride in his army, Sherman had feared that it might suffer unfavorable comparison with the Eastern troops. As he topped the rise before the Treasury, he had turned in his saddle for one backward glance, then had ridden on, well satisfied. On review as well as in the field, the soldiers of the West could challenge any army in the world. They wanted the neatness of dress and precision of movement which were McClellan’s legacies to the Army of the Potomac on parade. Most of them wore loose blouses instead of trim jackets, black slouch hats in place of tilted kepis. Some were in rags, some wanted shoes. They had a gaunt, rough look about them, like frontier soldiers, taller and bonier than Eastern men. There was something bold, aggressive and magnificent in their rolling, cadenced stride. It seemed to shrink the length of the Avenue to a step, reminding people of the hundreds of miles those long, strong legs had ranged, through swamps and over mountaintops. For a second day, Washington shouted applause, pelting the Westerners with blossoms. Their torn and dingy battle flags bore the legends of Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Savannah, the Carolinas—names that told the story of victory for the Union.

  There were cheers, too, for novel spectacles, more entertaining than any provided by the ranks of the Army of the Potomac. Mother Bickerdyke, devoted nurse of the Western troops, rode sidesaddle in a calico dress and sunbonnet. Pioneer corps of huge Negroes, with picks and spades and axes, marched ahead of each division. The Bummer Brigade, preceded by a darky on a tiny donkey, was composed of the foragers of Sherman’s army. They had a train of wagons loaded with pots and pans and kettles, and pack mules carrying turkeys, geese and chickens. There were cows, sheep, goats, dogs, raccoons, a poodle and a monkey, all flocking along the Avenue with a motley horde of contrabands, who at first tried to preserve their dignity, but were soon grinning with the hilarious spectators.

  “Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the jubilee!” In Georgia and the Carolinas, Sherman’s men were reviled as vandals and marauders. Most of the excesses of the march through the Confederacy had been committed by undisciplined stragglers. Yet among the foragers and the troopers, and among the striding infantrymen, too, were some who had danced in the blaze of the pillared mansions of the South. Now the orgy of war was over, and these few went bravely along the Avenue with the rest, as purged as lynchers whose hysteria has been spent. The bummers had become merry boys with innocent trophies of war. They did not brandish their silver spoons, or the rings they had torn from women’s fingers.

  The sun slanted in the west, as Sherman’s men dispersed, to get drunk and disturb the peace of Washington, to fight with Eastern soldiers in the saloons, and blast the name of Stanton. The grand review was ended. For two days, Washington had forgotten the demagogues; forgotten dissensions and military tyranny; ceased to remember the prisoners, sweltering in their hoods, while they waited to be condemned. Once more, the Cause shone bright, as the blue-clad legions swept up Pennsylvania Avenue. The hard young faces and the flags and the brassy, sentimental tunes had revived, like some tender reminiscence of youth, the faith and the courage that had kept the nation united. One hundred and fifty thousand veterans had marched, but even the unimaginative had seen a greater passing. The decimated regiments, the youthful appearance of the general officers, the scarcity of the field officers—all had been reminders of the shadowy army of the Union dead, nearly half a million strong. In unsubstantial ranks, they seemed to form behind the ragged flags: nameless boys who had drilled and caroused in Washington; white-haired Mansfield and Edwin Sumner; Kearny, with his empty coat sleeve; Wadsworth, fingering his grandfather’s sword. And on the reviewing stand, behind the concrete shapes of Andy Johnson and the beaming notables, another misty figure seemed to rise, and Lincoln’s face look kindly down on the pomp of the Union’s triumph.

  In that golden light of afternoon, a fanciful man might have seen other ghosts on Pennsylvania Avenue. There, in some grand review of memory, passed a parade of holiday soldiers, profiteers, foreign adventurers, bounty jumpers, prisoners in butternut, spies, detectives and harlots. Mr. Buchanan took his constitutional with his head drawn stiffly to one side. General Scott lumbered by, supported by two young aides. Anxious McDowell trudged obscurely on his errands. McClellan posted through the dust, with his staff hard-pressed to follow him. Blenker flaunted his red-lined cape, and Stone went looking for justice. John Pope posed in his saddle, the military idol of an hour. Among the madams in their carriages and the painted girls on horseback, went haughty Mrs. Greenhow, and gay Belle Boyd, and Mrs. Lincoln, with madness in her eyes. Living and dead, the wind of time had blown them all from Washington. In the streets were only tired people, wandering home through dust and manure and trampled garlands.

  Major French had rather regretted the decision to hold the grand review. Washington had had excitement enough, he thought; he would be glad when the city again subsided into “its old jog trot way of life.” But French was an aging man. The old jog trot would not come again in Washington. It had vanished forever with the pleasant provincial society, the grinning slaves and the broad-brimmed hats of the planter-politicians. Not in the bustle of Yankee efficiency had war left its supreme mark on Washington, not in the tumbling contraband huts, or the wreckage of men in the big white hospitals; but in the great centralization of Federal authority which had transformed a country town, reserved for the business of Government, into the axis of the Union. The capital of a reconstructed country would not yield an unblemished page for the history books. In days to come, a moral man would find more cause for sadness there than in the tragic streets of Richmond. But, North and South, there was strength in this conglomerate people, at once willful and steadfast. With the tenacity which had carried it through four years of internal war, the country would survive the bitterness of peace. Out of pain and chaos and corruption, Washington was securely established as the capital of a lusty nation; and no one, looking on the public buildings, spoke of the ruins of antiquity any longer.

  In the warmth of the late spring days of 1865, the city felt the rush of the receding tide of the armies. For a little time, it suffered racket and thronging men and the uproar of Sherman’s crazy fellows. Still, for a space, feet tramped and wagons rumbled, and the bivouacs glinted like fireflies on the darkening hills. War Department clerks were totting up muster and pay rolls. Day after day, the cheering troops departed. The countryside began to wear the aspect of a deserted fairground, and quiet descended on the city’s battered streets.

  All over the nation, in blue uniforms and gray, soldiers were going home: to take up the threads of small ambitions; to know their wives and kiss strange babies fathered on furlough; to ride their horses to the store and mill, and hitch them to the buggy and the plow. Experts whose skills were useless, they must forget the lessons they had mastered; think of guns as things to shoot at quail and squirrels, and of artillery as a salute for Independence Day; remember discipline and obedience as transitory virtues, foreign to the American way of individual enterprise.

  Across the Potomac, the guns had fallen silent. The guards were gone from the Washington bridges. Virginians were no longer enemies, but farmers who trundled their crops to the city markets. Rich with the wastage of armies, the perennial fields were green. On the Capitol dome, Armed Freed
om rested on her sheathed sword.

  *Detailed accounts paid by the Government are listed in the Appendix.

  Appendix

  Bills for President Lincoln’s Funeral

  PAID BY THE COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS

  To Drs. Brown and Alexander

  To Embalming remains of

  Abraham Lincoln late

  President of the

  United States $ 100.00

  To 16 Days services for

  self and assistant at

  $10.00 per day 160.00

  $ 260.00

  To Sands & Harvey

  To coffin covered with fine

  Broadcloth lined with fine white

  Satin & silk trimmed with fine

  mountings heavy Bullion fringe &

  tassells, Lead inside lining fine

  silver plate & walnut outside Box

  for Abraham Lincoln, late

  President of U.S. $ 1,500.00

  700 yds white silk at 3.75 pr. yd 2,625.00

  257 yds. black silk at 3.50 899.50

  132 yds. white cambric at 1.00 132.00

  90 boxes fine crape at 7.50 per box 675.00

  24 yds white swiss at 1.50 yd 36.00

  158 pair blk kid gloves at 3.00 474.00

  126 pair white silk gloves at 1.00 126.00

  84 pair black silk gloves at 1.00 84.00

  170 boxes white thread at 3.25 per 552.50

  Removing remains of Willie 10.00

  23 days attendance 3 men

  at 5.00 per day each 345.00

  $ 7,459.00

  To John Alexander, Dr.,

  Penna. Avenue, between

  12th and 13th Sts.

  Putting front of Presidents

  [House] in Mourning $ 50.00

  Putting East Room in Mourning 30.00

  Upholstering Catafalque in

  East Room 75.00

  Upholstering funeral Car 50.00

  Upholstering Rail Road Car 85.00

  $ 290.00

  Bought of George R. Hall

  To making Hearse body [and]

  Burnishing $ 350.00

  To A. Jardin

  For flowers for the Funeral

  of the President

  April 18, 1865:

  Rose buds $ 9.00

  Other white flowers 1.00

  $ 10.00

  1865. To Phillip Ghegan Dr.

  April 18th For Flowers

  for decorations for funeral

  of the President of the United

  States $ 20.00

  Other Incidental Bills

  ALSO PAID BY COMMISSIONER FRENCH

  To James W. Callam

  1865 April 14th.

  Articles furnished on the

  occasion of the assassination

  of the late President viz.—

  3 Packages Taylors Pat. Lint. $ 3.00

  2 Pounds Ground Mustard 2.00

  6 Oz. Tinct. Camphor (ad) .90

  $ 5.90

  Bought of Harper

  & Mitchell [Mourning for

  Mrs. Lincoln]

  1 Mourning dress &

  trimmings $ 60.00

  1 Mourning Shawl 25.00

  1 Crape Veil 10.00

  5 yds. Blk. Crape

  4.00 per yd 20.00

  Gloves & Hdkfs 7.50

  5 pr. Hose 5.00

  1 Crape Bonnet 15.00

  $ 142.50

  To B. H. Stinemetz,

  Apr. 18

  2 Silk Hats for Coachmen

  at 8.00 each $ 16.00

  Mourning Bands for same 1.00

  1 Silk Hat for Capt Robt

  Lincoln 10.00

  Mourning Band for same .75

  Apr. 21

  1 Blk felt Hat for Tad Lincoln 4.50

  Mourning Band for same .50

  $ 32.75

  To Elizabeth Kickey

  [Keckley]

  To Services as first

  Class Nurse & attendant

  on Mrs. Lincoln from

  April 14th to

  May 26th, 1865. 6 weeks

  at $35.00 per week $ 210.00

  Traveling & incidental

  expenses in attending

  Mrs. Lincoln to her home

  in Chicago III & return

  trip to Washington 100.00

  Amount expended in requisite

  mourning apparel 50.00

  $ 360.00

  Chronology of the Main Events

  1861

  Apr. 13—Surrender of Fort Sumter

  Apr. 15—Presidential proclamation, calling out State militia, and summoning a special session of Congress

  Apr. 17—Ordinance of secession adopted by the Virginia convention

  Apr. 18—Harper’s Ferry abandoned by Federals

  Apr. 19—Lincoln proclaims blockade of the Confederate States from South Carolina to Texas

  —Sixth Massachusetts reaches Washington after fighting a mob in Baltimore

  Apr. 20—Railroad communications with the North severed by Marylanders, isolating Washington

  Apr. 25—Seventh New York reaches Washington, the vanguard of many militia regiments arriving via Annapolis, Maryland

  Apr. 27—Lincoln extends blockade to include Virginia and North Carolina

  —Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus along the military line from Washington to Philadelphia

  May 3—President’s proclamation calling for three years’ volunteers, and increasing the Army and Navy

  May 8—Richmond made the capital of the Confederate States

  May 10—Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus on portion of Florida coast

  May 13—Railroad service with the North resumed by way of Baltimore

  —Union troops occupy Baltimore

  May 23—Virginia votes to ratify secession

  May 24—Federals take possession of Alexandria and the Virginia heights and shore opposite Washington, and begin fortifications for the protection of the capital

  May 27—McDowell takes command in northeastern Virginia

  June 10—Harper’s Ferry abandoned by the Confederates

  —Engagement at Big Bethel, Virginia

  July 2—Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus from Philadelphia to New York

  July 4—First Session of 37th Congress assembles

  July 11 – 13—Federals under McClellan win victories in western Virginia

  July 16—Federals under McDowell begin advance on Confederate position at Manassas

  July 21—Federals routed at battle of First Bull Run or Manassas

  July 27—McClellan assumes command of Union forces in Washington and Virginia

  Aug. 6—Confiscation Act passed by Congress, seizing property of insurgents, including slaves —Congress adjourns

  Aug. 29—Forts Hatteras and Clark, North Carolina, surrender to the Federals

  Aug. 30—Martial law and emancipation of slaves proclaimed by Frémont in, Missouri

  Sept. 11—Lincoln revokes Frémont’s proclamation

  Oct. 21—Federal defeat at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia

  Nov. 1—Scott’s resignation accepted and McClellan made commander-in-chief

  Nov. 7—Port Royal, South Carolina, taken by the Federals

  Nov. 8—Mason and Slidell, Confederate envoys to Great Britain and France, seized on the British steamer Trent

  Dec. 2—Second session of 37th Congress assembles

  Dec. 9–10—Senate and House resolve on the appointment of a joint committee to inquire into the conduct of the war

  Dec. 28—Mason and Slidell surrendered by the Government

  1862

  Jan. 19—Federal victory at Mill Springs, Kentucky

  Feb. 6—Federals capture Fort Henry, Tennessee

  Feb. 7—Federals capture Roanoke Island, North Carolina

  Feb. 16—Fort Donelson, Tennessee, surrenders to Federals

  Feb. 25—Confederates evacuate Nashville, Tennessee

  Mar. 6-8—Federal victory at Pea Ridge, Arkan
sas

  Mar. 8-9—Confederate ironclad Merrimac (re-christened the Virginia) destroys Union ships in Hampton Roads, but is forced to retire by the ironclad Monitor

  Mar. 9—Confederate forces abandon Manassas, withdrawing south

  Mar. 11—McClellan removed from chief command

  Mar. 17—The Army of the Potomac begins to embark for Fort Monroe

  Mar. 23—Federals repulse Stonewall Jackson’s attack at Kernstown, Virginia

  Apr. 2—McClellan arrives at Fort Monroe to begin campaign of Virginia Peninsula

  Apr. 3—Recruiting for volunteers discontinued in every State by order of Secretary Stanton

  Apr. 4—McDowell’s corps detained for the protection of Washington

  Apr. 5—McClellan lays siege to Yorktown, Virginia

  Apr. 6–7—Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee

  Apr. 7—Federals take Island Number 10 in the Mississippi

  Apr. 16—Slavery abolished in the District of Columbia by act of Congress

  Apr. 25—New Orleans captured by a Federal naval expedition

  May 4—Yorktown evacuated by Confederates

  May 5—Battle of Williamsburg on the Peninsula

  May 8—Jackson wins victory in mountains west of the Shenandoah Valley

  May 9—Hunter proclaims the emancipation of slaves in the Department of the South

  —Confederates evacuate Norfolk, Virginia

  May 11—Confederates blow up the Merrimac (Virginia)

  May 18—McClellan receives word that McDowell’s corps has been ordered to march to his assistance

  May 23—Jackson takes Front Royal in the Valley