he big prow of the "Hancock" loomed up darkly on the night of the 29th
in San Francisco harbor and rested at anchor. The long sea journey was
over. Until very late that night, long after taps had sounded sharply
over the waters of the harbor, the soldiers clustered around the deck of
the ship, heard the megaphone dialogues between the newspaper tugs and
the transport, and looked with longing eyes and hearts that beat with
joy at the gleaming lights of San Francisco.

Many friends from Utah arrived on tugs during the next day, when the
transport was still in quarantine, and there was a generous greeting
when the transport moved up to the dock on the morning of the 30th. The
whole of this day was spent by the soldiers in exchanging greeting with
friends and in preparing their property for transportation to the
Presidio.

It was on the morning of the 31st that the soldiers were permitted for
the first time to descend from the transport and walk again, after
sixteen months of absence in the Orient, upon the shores of the United
States.

The battalions marched up the streets of San Francisco behind the
veterans of the Nebraska regiment, the center of a tremendous
demonstration. At the Presidio they were given quarters on the slopes to
the left of the Presidio road. The patriotic sentiments and generous
feelings of the citizens had been further shown, as the slopes of the
hills were lined with large Sibley tents, each equipped with a stove as
protection from the chilly mists that creep up by night from the bay.
There were also frame buildings for use as offices and a large kitchen
and mess room, commodiously and thoroughly equipped for comfort and
convenience.

The citizens of Utah in the meantime had been active in preparations for
receiving the native warriors. On August 8th, Adjutant-General Charles
S. Burton and Colonel Bruback, members of the Governor's staff, and
representing the citizens' committee, arrived at the Presidio and used
every effort in providing for the further comfort of the men and
arranging for their early departure to their homes in Utah. It was
learned that a special train had been chartered by the citizens to
convey the volunteers to Utah, and to the fund necessary for this
purpose Collis P. Huntington of the Southern Pacific had contributed
$2500.

The date for the muster out of the Utah troops was fixed by the
headquarters of the Department of California as August 16th, and
notwithstanding th