Remained in camp until 8 o'clock a. m. and then marched up
Pennsylvania Avenue by the Treasury, White House and War Department, amidst a
continuous ovation for fully three miles. Great respect was shown our Division,
as it was known that it was its stubborn fighting at Monocacy that had saved
Washington, and the sidewalks, windows, balconies, housetops, etc., were
thronged with enthusiastic people. The business-like appearance of our
regiment, its proud bearing, fine cadence and marching, its weather-beaten,
tattered old battle flags all in strings from shot and shell, as well as the
men's clothes, its splendid band, together with the evergreen sprig proudly
worn by some of us, which always gains us recognition, captured the crowd, and
the heartiness of our deserved ovation over all other regiments in line was
very noticeable. It was a proud day for the plucky Tenth Vermont, never to be
forgotten — even prouder than when showered with flowers on our return home at
Burlington a year later — for we were the feature of the parade — real live
heroic Green Mountain Boys, as true and valiant as was ever Ethan Allen. We had
a right to be proud, for hadn't we proved to the world many times what Meade
said to us at Spottsylvania and Sedgwick at the Wilderness, when some wag said
to Meade at Spottsylvania when in rear of our regiment, as the lines were being
hastily formed for assault on the enemy a stone's throw away, that he was in a
dangerous place, and he replied, “I'm safe enough behind a Vermont regiment,
anywhere?” We marched via Georgetown and Tennallytown to within a few miles of
Offutt's crossroads and bivouacked. It is rumored that we are to join our corps
at Poolesville. Probably we shall have to chase the enemy down the Shenandoah
Valley again. As the Sixth Corps is the best marching, fighting and most
reliable one in the army, I reckon Grant and Meade knew what they were about
when they concluded to send it after Early. Now, if they will only send us
Sheridan, we will lick the whole rebel army if they will set it on to us in
detail, and finish up the war.*
_______________
*As General Sheridan was soon sent us, this prediction was
as good as proven, but many a poor fellow bit the dust first.
SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections
and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 122-3
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