MENT GOES TO THE WAR.

Organization of the Seventy-seventh N. Y. V.--Departure from
Saratoga--Greetings by the way--New emotions--The noble dead--On
board the Knickerbocker--At New York--Presentation of
flags--Beauties of monopoly--Hospitality of
Philadelphia--Incidents on the route--Arrival at Washington--In
camp.

Our regiment was organized at Saratoga Springs, the historic scene of
the battle of Bemis Heights and the surrender of Burgoyne--hence its
name, "The Bemis Heights Battalion." Hon. Jas. B. McKean, then member of
congress, a gentleman of well known patriotism, was made our Colonel. We
left our rendezvous on the 26th of November, 1861, Thanksgiving day,
having been mustered into the United States service three days before.

As the long train of cars bore us from the station at Saratoga Springs,
the thousands who had gathered to witness our departure united in cheer
after cheer until all the groves and vales of that charming resort rang
with the echoes of the tumultuous shouting.

The thousand brave fellows, who were about to try the stern realities of
war, were by no means backward in replying to these hearty expressions
of good wishes. Long after we had lost sight of the lovely village, the
shouts of the multitude could be heard and the hills rang again with the
responding cheers of those in the cars. At each station, as we passed,
crowds of people pressed to greet us, and loud and long were the cheers
that bade us "God speed."

We were now fairly off for the war. We who had followed the various
peaceful avocations of life, in the professions or in the workshops, in
trade or in husbandry, had now turned away from the office, the desk,
the shop and the plough, to join the Grand Army upon which the hopes of
the nation were staked, and which we confidently believed was soon to
sweep the rebellion to destruction.

Emotions hitherto unknown to us filled our hearts. We were soldiers,
wearing for the first time the army blue, and perhaps soon to be called
out to meet in deadly strife an enemy whose prestige for valor was
already too well established.

Were we to return to the friends from whom we had just parted, bearing
the chaplet of victory, or were we to find a last resting place on some
field of the south, never again to meet with wife or sister, father or
mother? Four years have passed and those doubts have been solved. Many
of those brave men have gone to their long rest.