ater, at one of our reunions, Mr. Conklin, now superintendent of
a railroad, was present. I asked him if he remembered calling his
company roll from memory.

"Yes," said he, "and I can do it now, and recall every face and voice,"
and he began and rattled off the names of his roll. He said sometimes in
the old days the boys would try to fool him by getting a comrade to
answer for them, but they could never do it, he would detect the
different voice instantly.

Now, as I close this narrative, shall I speak of the gala day of our
home-coming? I can, of course, only speak of the one I participated in,
the coming home to Scranton of Companies I and K and the members of the
field and staff who lived here. This, however, will be a fair
description of the reception each of the other companies received at
their respective homes. Home-coming from the war! Can we who know of it
only as we read appreciate such a home-coming? That was forty-one years
ago the 25th of last May. Union Hall, on Lackawanna Avenue, midway
between Wyoming and Penn, had been festooned with flags, and in it a
sumptuous dinner awaited us. A committee of prominent citizens, our old
friends, not one of whom is now living, met us some distance down the
road. A large delegation of Scranton's ladies were at the hall to
welcome and serve us, and of these, the last one, one of the mothers and
matrons, has just passed into the great beyond. Many of those of our own
age, the special attraction of the returning "boys," have also gone, but
a goodly number still remain. They will recall this picture with not a
little interest, I am sure. If perchance cheeks should be wet and
spectacles moistened as they read, it will be but a reproduction of the
emotions of that beautiful day more than forty years ago. No soldier
boys ever received a more joyous or hearty welcome. The bountiful repast
was hurriedly eaten, for anxious mothers, wives, sisters, and
sweethearts were there, whose claim upon their returning "boy in blue"
for holier and tenderer relationship was paramount.

Amidst all these joyous reunions, were there no shadows? Ah, yes. In the
brief period of nine months our regiment had lost forty per cent. of its
membership. Company I had gone to the front with one hundred and one
stalwart officers and men, and but sixty-eight came back with the
company. Of the missing names, Daniel S. Gardner, Moses H. Ames, George
H. Cator, Daniel Reed, Richard A. Smith, and John B. Wes