Our regiment has
received two months pay to-day, and to-night all are boisterously happy. We had
been notified to have our muster-rolls ready, and we should be paid off on the
first day of this month. The rolls were ready but the pay was not. We had
received no pay since we entered Uncle Sam's service. We had had to use all our
little private means to buy uniforms and outfit for the war, and there was not
money enough in the whole regiment to pay for washing one shirt. We were all in
debt, and momentarily expecting orders to march into the deserted parts of
Virginia. What were we to do? We could not think of leaving so. Day before
yesterday we had intimations from our commanding officers that we should remain
a day or two longer where we are, and our troops who heretofore had been
constantly impatient to advance, were now overjoyed at the delay, not doubting
but that it was to receive our pay, and oh how many dreams of little presents
to be sent home before we should be plunged into the wilderness. Perhaps some
thought of photographs for sweethearts and wives. But scarcely had the joyous
echoes from the rocky hills around us died away, when we were officially
informed that there was no money in the treasury. It was a damper. I at once
made business to the city; saw the paymaster; through him and my friends, got
audience of the Secretary of the Treasury; told a story of our penury (and such
a story). I got the money which the paymaster had failed to procure. To-day we
have been paid off, and to-night I ride a high horse in the affections of the
regiment. If they do not dismount me before their money is all expended, their
constancy will be greater than my knowledge of human nature generally warrants
me in expecting. We are all joyous to-night.
SOURCE: Alfred L.
Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of
Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B.
McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day
January, 1863, p. 26-7
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