General Sherman reviewed the Army of the Tennessee today for
the last time, our division passing in review at 9 a. m. He made a short speech
— a farewell address — to all the troops. He told us that we had been good soldiers,
and now that the war is over and the country united once more, we should go
home, and as we had been true soldiers, we should become good citizens. This is
a rather dull Fourth. I stayed in camp the rest of the day after the review,
but in the evening I went down town to a theater — Wood's theater — for the
first time in my life. For a while today there was a lively time in camp when a
lot of the boys tried to break through the guard line. When they failed at
that, they next made a raid on the sutlers, who have been doing a big business
since our arrival at Louisville. Before the officer of the day could get guards
to the sutlers' tents, the boys had secured a considerable amount of booty.
Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B.,
Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 285-6
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