friends, the enemy, were now quick to
tantalize our pickets with the defeat at Chancellorsville. Such remarks
as these were volleyed at us:

"We 'uns give you 'uns a right smart lickin' up in them woods."

"How d'ye like Virginny woods, Yank?"

And then they sang to us:

"Ain't ye mighty glad to get out the wilderness?"

A song just then much in vogue. Another volunteered the remark, as if to
equalize the honors in some measure, "If we did wallop you 'uns, you
'uns killed our best general." "We feel mighty bad about Stonewall's
death," and so their tongues would run on, whether our men replied or
not.

CHAPTER XVII

THE MUSTER OUT AND HOME AGAIN

On the 14th of May we received orders to proceed to Harrisburg for
muster out. There was, of course, great rejoicing at the early prospect
of home scenes once more. We walked on air, and lived for the next few
days in fond anticipation. We were the recipients of any amount of
attention from our multitude of friends in the division. Many were the
forms of leave-taking that took place. It was a great satisfaction to
realize that in our comparatively brief period of service we had
succeeded in winning our way so thoroughly into the big hearts of those
veterans. The night before our departure was one of the gladdest and
saddest of all our experience. The Fourteenth Connecticut band, that
same band which had so heroically played out between the lines when the
Eleventh Corps broke on that fateful Saturday night at Chancellorsville,
came over and gave us a farewell serenade. They played most of the
patriotic airs, with "Home, Sweet Home," which I think never sounded
quite so sadly sweet, and suggestively wound up with "When Johnny Comes
Marching Home." Most of the officers and men of the brigade were there
to give us a soldier's good-by, and Major-General Couch, commanding our
corps (the Second), also paid us the compliment of a visit and made a
pleasant little speech to the men who were informally grouped around
head-quarters, commending our behavior in three of the greatest battles
of the war.

It had been our high honor, he said, to have had a part in those great
battles, and though new and untried we had acquitted ourselves with
great credit and had held our ground like veterans. He expressed the
fervent hope that our patriotism would still further respond to the
country's needs, and that we would all soon again be in the field. Our
honors were not yet comp