Chapter XXXIV

Departure for Home.—Orations at Geneva and Canandaigua.

Tuesday, May 12th, Colonel Taylor brought the welcome intelligence to the Regiment, that they were to go home on the coming Friday. The order for their departure was accompanied by the following addresses from the Corps, Division, and Brigade Generals.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTH ARMY CORPS, May 13, 1863.

_Special Order No. 120._

5. The term of service of the Thirty-third New York Volunteers
having expired, they will proceed at once to Elmira, New York,
the place of enrolment, where they will be mustered out of the
service. Upon their arrival there, their arms, equipments and
public property will be turned in to the proper officers. The
Quartermaster’s Department will furnish transportation from
Falmouth.

The General commanding the Corps congratulates the officers
and men of the Thirty-third New York Volunteers upon their
honorable return to civil life. They have enjoyed the respect
and confidence of their companions and commanders; they have
illustrated their term of service by gallant deeds, and have
won for themselves a reputation not surpassed in the Army
of the Potomac, and have nobly earned the gratitude of the
Republic.

By Command of

MAJOR GENERAL SEDGWICK.

(Signed,) M. T. MCMAHON,
_Assistant Adjutant General_.

* * * * *

HEADQUARTERS SECOND DIVISION, SIXTH CORPS, May 14th, 1863.

_General Orders No. 26._

By the rules of enlistment, the term of service of the
Thirty-third Regiment New York Volunteers expires to-day, and
they are entitled to an honorable discharge from the service
of the United States. Yet the General Commanding the Division
cannot let this Regiment depart without expressing his regret
at their leaving, and hopes that they will speedily re-organize
and join this command, to serve their country once more and to
the end of this war, with the same spirit as they have served
for the last two years. To say that this Regiment, in camp, on
the march, and in all the many hard battles in which they were
engaged, have done their duty and behaved gallantly, is but a
weak expression of the acknowledgment of their good services.
They have earned for themselves the approbation and confidence
of their Commanders, and fully deserve the gratitude of their
country. By order of

BRIGADIER-GENERAL HOWE.

CHARLES MUNDEE,
_Major and A. A. G._

* * * * *

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, SECOND DIVISION,
SIXTH ARMY CORPS, May 14th, 1863.

The Brigadier General Commanding the Third Brigade, cannot part
with the Thirty-third New York Volunteers, without expressing
to the officers and men of that gallant Regiment, who have
fought under his eye and command with so much honor and
distinction, his regret at our separation, his well wishes for
your future.

No words can express what you all must feel—the sense of
having fought nobly for our country, and suffered bravely for
the cause. The memory of those who have fallen is tenderly
cherished, and your Brigade Commander bids you “God Speed” in
anything you may undertake in the future.

Sincerely,

BRIG. GEN. THOMAS H. NEILL,
_Commanding Third Brigade_.

On the evening before departure, Colonel Taylor assembled the recruits, numbering one hundred and sixty-three, who having enlisted for three years, were to be left, and addressed them a few words of parting; expressing his regret that they were not to accompany the Regiment home; urging them to conduct themselves in the future, gallantly, as they had done in the past; and informing them that their officers and comrades, though absent in body, would be present with them in spirit. Lieutenant-Colonel Corning followed with a brief address. They were formed into one Company, and attached, under Captain Gifford, to the Forty-ninth New York.

Early Friday morning, the Regiment proceeded to Brooks’ Station. Just before leaving the camp, the Seventh Maine, which had been intimately associated with the Thirty-third during its entire campaign, appeared in a body, and presented their adieus.

Leaving Brook’s Station at 9 o’clock, they reached Acquia Landing, and embarking on board a small steamer, an hour later, arrived at Washington about 4 o’clock P. M. The men were quartered in barracks until the following day, when they left at noon on a special train for Elmira, reaching that city at 4 o’clock on Sunday afternoon.

The Regiment remained here until the following Saturday, when it departed for Geneva, to receive a magnificent welcome, tendered by the citizens of that village. As the little steamer conveying the men hove in sight, they were greeted with the thunder of artillery, mingled with the chimes of the various church bells, and, on disembarking at the wharf, were met by the village authorities, and a large deputation of citizens. After a few moments spent in congratulation, the Regiment formed in procession, and marched through the principal streets to the park, where the following address was listened to from Hon. CHARLES J. FOLGER:

_Colonel Taylor, and Officers and Men of the Thirty-third
Regiment_:

There has fallen to me the pleasant duty of tendering to you a
welcome home again. In behalf of the community from which you
went forth, I offer you a hearty and an overflowing welcome
back from your service as soldiers.

But it does not seem to us that you are the same men from whom
we parted. It is now two years since we saw you, some of you,
leave this shore, young volunteers, familiar only with the ways
of happy homes and a peaceful community, and now you return to
us bronzed and scarred veterans, conversant with all the rude
alarms of war, having looked death steadily in the face in many
a well-contested field of strife, and having won for yourselves
an ample soldierly reputation.

Two years ago, I said! It seems, as we look back, but a little
space, yet how full that time has been crowded with stirring
incidents and exciting events. And to none more than to you
have come those events and those incidents. Of what we have
only read or heard with but a dull ear, of that you have been
a great part, and have looked upon with courageous eyes. We
can scarcely name a battle in the long catalogue which tells of
the acts and achievements of the Army of the Potomac, in which
the Thirty-third Regiment has not borne a part, and borne it
valiantly and well.

Raised, as you for the most part were, in that district of
country which once fell within the limits of old Ontario
County, you went forth with the name of the Ontario Regiment,
and that fact has always endeared you to us in this immediate
region. You were christened after our County. It is a proud old
name, for Ontario is the mother of Counties not only, but the
Mother of MEN as well. And we felt proud of you, for we were,
and are, proud of the name: and we were jealous of it, too;
jealous that it should take no tarnish in your hands. But as
report after report came back to us of your good behavior; of
your courage and steadiness; of your fiery valor; our jealousy
was gone, lost, merged in a sense of swelling pride, that the
noble old name of Ontario had been so well bestowed, and that
not only it took no stain, but that it received an additional
and higher lustre and great glory from the soldiers of the
Thirty-third.

And you may be sure that when the news came of battles
fought, and the papers told us of our troops in action, there
was a speedy search here for the name and exploits of the
Thirty-third, and an eager community was interested in its
sufferings and in its achievements, and never, never pained by
its defaults, or by its individual disasters.

And so as time went on, though you may not have noticed it, the
Regiment which went out as the Ontario Regiment, came to be
called the Thirty-third, or Ontario Regiment. And then, and not
long after, naught else but the Thirty-third, and that was a
sufficient and an individual designation, for you had made the
“_two threes_” famous throughout the army and the country; and
you needed no appellation of distinction, save your own name,
the gallant Thirty-third—“_Taylor’s Fighting D——s_.” And all
this has been due to, and resultant from, the good qualities
and spirit of the men, encouraged and trained, and brought up
by the labors and example of the officers.

We owe you many thanks; we offer them to you, now that you
have so well, so eminently, glorified this community, whose
geographical name you have borne.

I just said that we traced the papers after a battle, and
looked for mention of the Thirty-third and its deeds; and
then the days after, when came the long and sorrowful list
of casualties, with what tremor and apprehension we looked
again for the beloved number, 33. For well we knew, that where
all were so brave in battle, some must have met Death and
yielded to his power. And we cannot now look upon your thinned
ranks and diminished numbers without missing from them some
well-remembered faces, very dear to many among us. Nor without
feeling that a great and awful sacrifice had been made for
a great and righteous cause. And more especially was this
the case, when the report came of the last conflict upon the
Rappahannock, so glorious and yet so fatal to your Regiment.
When here at home all was buoyant expectation of your soon
return, even then announced, it was sad and sorrowful indeed,
to read and know that there was no return for, alas! too many.

Yet it is a consolation that the sacrifice so costly has been
made for a cause, precious above price, for the defence of
constitutional and legitimate Government, against the assaults
of a hateful and hated rebellion in arms. And there is the
further consolation, that no one who has been taken from your
ranks has died the death of a traitor or of a deserter, or
as a coward running from the fate which overtook him; but
that loyally, manfully, gallantly, all have stood with their
comrades, and have met their destiny as a true soldier loves to
meet it, with his face toward the foe.

And you have brought back with you your colors, the last thing
which a brave Regiment surrenders. These colors have never been
surrendered, have never been repulsed, have never been driven
back, have never retreated save at the order of the General
Commanding, and when a whole army or the whole force fell back
with them. The Thirty-third has never, as a Regiment, fallen
back upon compulsion, but has often stopped the current of the
enemy’s advance, and has turned the tide of many an unpromising
conflict, and saved from the chronicle the record of a loyal
defeat. Torn by shot and shell, dim with the stain of the
elements, spotted with the blood of its brave defenders, and
faded from the bright hues which were first unfurled to the
sunlight, these colors yet bear upon them one word, which is a
sunbeam of itself—

“WILLIAMSBURG,”

inscribed there for gallant conduct and persistent, obdurate
bravery in that field, by an order delivered to you from the
mouth of your Commander-in-Chief, George B. McClellan.

That one word written there is a lustre and a glory which
no warp and woof of the artificer, though shot with silk of
richest dye, and with thread of purest gold, can equal or
imitate.

It is worn and tattered. But the perils it has shared with
you, the hardships you have borne under it, make it beautiful
and sacred to us, men of inaction, who now look upon it, the
mute yet eloquent witnesses of all your noble deeds. It will
soon take its place in the treasured archives of this noble
State, among its kindred flags, second to none, equal to any in
interest.

But I weary your patience with a theme which grows upon my
mind, and I must come to a close.

I hope we all, whose spokesman I now am, hope and pray that,
escaped from the hardships of your service, you may live long
to enjoy the blessings of a Government and a Union, as we
trust, saved and restored, in no small part, by your devotion.
And it will add no canker to your enjoyment to reflect,
that you turned your back upon home and its comforts and
endearments, and perilled all for the preservation of this
Nationality, and all there is so priceless, bound up in its
perpetuity.

And let me say, in conclusion, that I know in this generation
of American men, no one who has a right to bear himself with a
prouder, loftier self-respect, than he who two years ago, when
the country of his birth, or of his adoption, was in the dark
hour of its extremest danger, and seemed ready for extinction,
stepped forth from the mass of community as a volunteer soldier
for its defence; and who, through two years of varying fortune,
has kept right on in the path of duty, and ready at every
call; has braved danger, has endured hardships, has met deadly
peril face to face, and never flinched; and who, now his term
of service is over, returns to the society he has protected,
to pursue the ordinary avocations of life, the pursuit of
which would have been ended and lost in political chaos but
for his sacrifices and his daring. I am not able to express
the emotions which swell my soul when I look upon the men who
have done all this. Let him who can survey them unmoved, go
ally himself to the iceberg, or confess himself the spawn of
that Devil, who, all self and selfish emotion, is the only
legitimate progenitor of such a cold and heartless wretch.

Again and again, Colonel and Officers and Men of our own
gallant Thirty-third, I return you the public thanks, and give
you the public hearty welcome home.

Col. Taylor responded as follows:

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:—It gives me unbounded pleasure to
meet with you again in Geneva, and I feel grateful to you for
the warm hospitality and kind reception you have given to my
Regiment. Words can but poorly express the gratitude of our
soldier hearts for this unexpected welcome from your hands; and
rest assured we shall long cherish the remembrance of this hour
as among the happiest of our lives.

Friends, I did not come here to address you at length, and you
doubtless are all aware that I am not a man of many words,
but rather a man of actions, and quite unaccustomed to public
speaking. Therefore, you will pardon my brevity, while I assure
you that we feel more than we speak. When we left you two years
ago, we resolved to do our duty in the field, and can freely
say that there’s not a man in the Thirty-third Regiment but has
done his _whole_ duty on all occasions. What our career has
been during this eventful period you need not be told. You are
familiar with every engagement, and if our conduct on these
occasions but merits your approval, we are content.

Again I thank you all kindly in behalf of my Regiment, for the
welcome you have extended to us, and should unlooked-for events
transpire that would demand their services, my Regiment would
be among the first to respond to the call, and I believe every
man would be found again in the ranks.

Three cheers were now given for the citizens of Geneva, and three more for the Union, after which the soldiers repaired to Camp Swift, to partake of a bounteous repast prepared by the ladies of the village. The tables groaned under the profusion of choice delicacies, which were dispensed by fair hands to the war-worn veterans.

The remainder of the day was spent in visiting with friends and recounting incidents connected with the two year’s campaign. During the morning, a number of the Regiment, who had been taken prisoners at Salem Heights, arrived from Annapolis, and participated in the generous hospitalities. Twenty-five of the wounded, who returned with the command, were likewise most of them present.