"Southward, ho! How the grand old war-cry
Thunders over the land to-day,
Rolling down from the eastern mountains,
Dying in the west away.
Southward, ho! Bear on the watchword,
Onward march as in other days,
Till over the traitors' fallen fortress
The stripes shall stream and the stars shall blaze,
And the darkness fly from their radiant van,
And a mightier empire rise in grandeur
For freedom, truth, and the rights of man.”
After mingling for a
while so pleasantly with the good people of Illinois, enjoying their
hospitality and receiving from them many words of cheer, we rendezvous at
Camp Butler, February 18th. While here we add to our rolls a large number of
recruits. Noble men they are who have been waiting patiently to arrive at the
necessary age for a soldier. That period having arrived, they now seem to feel
proud in their uniforms of blue. Colonel Rowett having been by special order,
(contrary to his wishes,) assigned to the command of Camp Butler, on the
twenty-second of February the regiment, under the command of Major Estabrook, takes
the cars for Dixie. Arriving at Louisville, Kentucky, we receive transportation
for Nashville. On arriving there, we are furnished lodgings in the Zollicoffer
House. The regiment will long remember the accommodations received there at the
hands of the government contractors. How the bristling bayonets clashed
together at the entrance, and how they practiced their expert chicanery to work
their egress therefrom.
Remaining here until
transportation is furnished, on the twenty-eighth we proceed on our way to
Pulaski, Tennessee. The trains running all the way through, we arrive in our
old camp at five P. M.; all seem glad to get back; the non-veterans are glad to
see us, and hear from their friends at home; and even the mules send forth
their welcome.
SOURCE: Daniel Leib
Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry,
p. 225-6
