History of the 85th Illinois Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by
Henry J. Aten


CHAPTER XXV
page 316-331

May & June, 1865

THE GRAND REVIEW

     It is said to have been at the suggestion of Secretary Stanton, that the armies of the east and west were assembled in the national capital to be reviewed by the commander-in-chief. Coming from distant fields, these armies had different histories, but the men were bound together by a common cause - the preservation of national integrity. Their love of country had the force of a religious passion, and during all the long period, when the fate of the Union was at stake, their efforts never relaxed, their vigilance never ceased, and there was no abatement of their purpose to capture or utterly destroy the enemies of the republic. They had vindicated national authority, they had set the bond man free, and now they brought home peace. These priceless trophies made it proper for the President, attended by the chief officers of the government, to welcome them in the name of the republic. They had earned the right to receive the laurel wreath from the steps of the capitol.
     General Grant had commanded the Western army in all its early victories and had been at all times the prime favorite of the men. He never made speeches to them and never solicited applause, but the most humble sol­dier could approach him, and he had a quiet way of over­coming difficulties that was as simple and as easily understood as it was effectual. If his means or supplies were imperfect, he found the best available substitute, and if he could not accomplish the full requirement, he performed as much as was possible. He had the faculty of imparting to his troops the determination to win with which he was himself inspired, and their feelings toward him soon came to be that of implicit trust. Constantly ready to fight, he lost no opportunity that prompt action could turn to advantage, and throughout an unbroken career of victory he never declined the offer of battle. Grant would drive his chariot through passes others would not venture to approach. He would hold the enemy in his relentless, vice-like grasp until he had accomplished his full purpose, and leave upon the mind of his observer the impression that he had a reserve of power, other resources not yet called into action.
     After leading the Western army to a series of splen­did victories, beginning at Belmont and ending in. the crushing defeat of Bragg at Chattanooga, his men were not surprised to see him called to a larger field of useful­ness. Grant's merit had won for him the command of all armies of the Union, and at once the vast military power of the north began to move in harmony, respon­sive to the clear purpose of his comprehensive mind. Proud of their old commander, the men watched the ter­rific straggle in the east with ever increasing admiration for his courage and his skill. Grant would win, they knew that, but the question was, Would the end come before the west could lend a helping hand to the east? So they marched on to Atlanta; to the sea, and were almost ready to join hands with their comrades of the east, when the final consummation came which insured union and liberty throughout the land. And now, the proposed review would afford an opportunity for the veterans of Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga to unite with the heroes of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg and Appomattox in paying a tribute of respect to the soldier hero of the struggle, before they should return to civil life.
     Promptly on Wednesday morning, May 23rd, the head of the column of the Army of the Potomac wheeled round the capitol and the grand review began. There is no more beautiful weather than that of Washington in the early summer, when the warmer air comes with the lengthening days, and on this memorable occasion the weather was all that could be desired. Pennsylvania avenue, with its great length and ample width, was ad­mirably adapted for a review of the grand armies. Tens of thousands of people from the northern states had come to witness the imposing spectacle, and to welcome the returning heroes. The most ample preparations had been made for the occasion. Seats had been erected in the parks bordering the broad avenue for the accom­modation of the vast crowd of visitors. The President and General Grant were seated on an elevated stand in front of the White House, surrounded by members of the cabinet, foreign ministers, and distinguished visitors. The whole city was in holiday attire, the noble avenue was lined, on both sides and from end to end, with admiring people, and every window was filled with eager spectators. It was the annual recurring season of foliage and flowers, and there were flowers on every hand in seemingly endless variety and profusion, while many of the visitors carried wreaths for their favorite regiments. The national flag was flying from the public buildings, and from almost every house and store, and to see the stars and stripes in other places than at head­quarters, or above the heads of the color-guard, was as novel as it was pleasing.
     Nearly all day for two successive days, from the capitol to the White House, could be seen a mass of veteran soldiers in columns of companies, marching with steady tread to the inspiring strains of martial music. To the multitude of spectators it was a revelation of the greatness and power of the republic; while to the actors in that royal pageant of joy and gladness it was the event of a lifetime. Indeed, more than one enthusiastic sol­dier was heard to declare that it was worth ten years of any man's life to be able to say, "I was there." Only a part of the vast forces of the Union marched through Washington on the grand review, but the number was large beyond any but the skilled mind to reckon. If we say that sixty-five thousand men passed in review each day, or one hundred and thirty thousand in the two days, it is still difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the display. Perhaps a better idea may be conveyed by stating that for six hours and a half each day of the re­view Pennsylvania avenue was filled with marching troops, whose columns if connected would be over thirty miles in length.
     The first day of the review was given to General Meade's army, and this afforded an opportunity for many of the officers and men belonging to General Sher­man's army to attend and witness the parade of the Army of the Potomac. There was very naturally more or less generous rivalry between the soldiers from the east and west, and as comparison was made of their respec­tive qualities and characteristics, the memory was busy with the histories of the grand armies. From the first the rank and file of the Eastern army followed their lead­ers with courage that never wavered and with enterprise that never wearied. But they had been unfortunate in the generals appointed to command them, and the long list of sickening disasters which befel that devoted army in the first three years of the war should be charged to their commanders' gross incompetency. But under the direction of General Grant's unconquerable genius, the battles of the Army of the Potomac, from the Wilderness to the crowing victory at Appomattox, have no parallels on the continent of America.
     Operating in a field easy of access from the national capital, the Army of the East was frequently visited by distinguished persons in whose honor reviews were held. On such occasions the evil custom had grown up of recognizing the presence of the visitor, be he soldier or statesman, by a hearty greeting of applause. Now when troops marching by company front, cheer and swing their hats, the step is invariably lost, the alignment is broken, and it is impossible to maintain uniform intervals between the companies. On the first day's re­view, it was observed that a very large proportion of the regiments destroyed their military bearing in this way, as they passed the reviewing stand. The Army of the Potomac had a very much larger number of recruits, substitutes, and drafted men in its ranks, than appeared in the Western army. This was not surprising when it is remembered that Sherman's army while marching through the Confederacy, had been far beyond the reach of recruiting stations, and that few recruits and fewer conscripts found their way into its ranks. At all times, accustomed to receive full supplies directly from the north, through a secure base on the sea coast, the east­ern troops had never been compelled to wrest supplies from the enemy, nor to gather food and forage from a hostile country. Consequently the Army of the Poto­mac appeared well-dressed and handsomely equipped on the grand review.
     Punctually at nine o'clock on the next morning. May 24th, the signal gun was fired and the steel crowned ranks of Sherman's army wheeled into the broad avenue at the capital, its brilliant and successful leader riding proudly at its head. The army was uniformed and equipped as on the march, officers taking pride in pre­senting their respective commands as they had served in the field. Each division was preceded by its corps of pioneers, composed wholly of colored men, carrying axes, spades, and picks. These marched in double ranks, keeping perfect dress and step. Long practice in marching, which is in one sense a drill, and the almost entire absence of recruits, conscripts and substitutes, told greatly in favor of the western troops, and the sense of military propriety and exactness was not offended by demonstrations of applause.
     The cadence was perfect and the hearty robustness of the men was very striking, while the mounts of the officers were magnificent, owing to the frequent opportunities for capture. All day long Pennsylvania avenue resounded with the firm and steady tread of well-drilled, thoroughly disciplined soldiers, who with careful dress on the guides, uniform intervals between the companies, and all eyes to the front, marched toward the White House.
     Around the joints of glittering muskets carried in that compact column, the pungent smell of battle smoke still lingered, and above the troops were borne the bullet-riddled flags, many of whose ragged folds were stained with the life blood of him who carried it in the fore front of battle. In that majestic column, moving with the pre­cision and regularity of a pendulum, were regiments that had entered the service of their country in April, 1861, and that had served in every state that engaged in rebellion, except Florida, Louisiana, and Texas; that had followed Grant at Belmont, Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, and that had never left a battlefield in possession of the foe - brigades and divi­sions that had never learned to retreat, and had never experienced the sickening woe of defeat. An unbroken career of victory made the men conscious of their prowess, their step was elastic and buoyant, and the marching column was the poetry of motion. Not so well dressed as their comrades of the Eastern army, their campaigns had led them over broader fields, and their experience had been more varied and extended. The whole army had marched more than a thousand miles within the last six months, and the men had passed the entire winter without the shelter of either roof or tent. It had been their good fortune to be commanded throughout the war by officers who were enterprising, skillful and above all, thoroughly in earnest, there had been no occasion for issuing daily bulletins announcing that "All is quiet on the Mississippi or the Tennessee." No army in either ancient or modern times had traversed such a vast ex­tent of territory, and the prisoners it had captured largely outnumbered the men in the Western army, now celebrating the final victory of peace.
     From the nature of the conflict the Union soldiers were invaders, and from first to last they were the aggressors. They found the enemy behind defensible rivers and entrenched in mountain passes. The road to victory led them over mountains of difficulties and through valleys of tribulation; and as the sanguine tide ebbed and flowed in the stupendous struggle, how often Freedom's friends sat pale with fear at Freedom's peril! But at last the mighty balance settled on the side of those whose banners, torn with shot and shell, still bore the stars and stripes. In that supreme moment, while many wounds still stung and bled, the Union soldiers put aside the desire for vengeance that comes to man in battle and with victory; forgave their enemies on the battlefield, and sent them to their homes to enjoy in peace the protection of the government they had so un­justly and wickedly tried to destroy. And now, as the victorious Union armies celebrate the return of peace, "With malice towards none, with charity for all," they parade no captives, and display none of the spoil of bat­tlefield.
     Many who set out with us, indulging the same fond hopes of safe return, now filled soldiers' graves, and the applause so heartily given to the soldiers present was mingled with tears for the loved and the lost; those who came not back. Moreover, the great emancipator, the beloved of the people, had been most foully slain, and but few days had passed since countless multitudes of people had bowed with uncovered heads, reverent and silent, before his bier. The remembrance of these national bereavements could but tinge with sadness all the splendid and inspiring scenes of the grand review.
IN CAMP AT WASHINGTON

     After the review the Eighty-fifth returned to camp on the south bank of the Potomac, but on the next day the entire brigade marched through the city and went into camp near the Soldiers' Home, two and one-half miles north of the capitol. Our camp, which was pleasantly situated, overlooked .the city, and there came a delightful sense of perfect rest after a long and toilsome task had been accomplished; a relief from the tension of nerve and brain, no language can adequately express. The men were permitted to roam at will over the city, and every opportunity was given them, by the officers and employes in the various departments, to visit the public buildings and to observe the methods employed in the transaction of the business of the government. The treasury, patent office, and navy yards, all were thrown open to the soldiers, and so far as the writer has learned, there was no abuse of the courtesy extended. But while they treated the civil officers of the govern­ment with marked consideration, at least one of the city officials fell a victim to their mischievous pranks. They seized the horse and buggy used by the captain of police, and drove until tired of sight-seeing, when they returned the outfit to that worthy with profuse thanks for the pleasure the drive had afforded them.
     Men belonging to the Fifteenth corps "captured," as they facetiously termed it, the Fourteenth street railroad, and ran it for their own convenience. They allowed a citizen to ride, but were careful to exact the full fare or more. If the usual five cent fare was tendered, it was accepted. If a passenger handed up a quarter or more, the soldier acting as conductor took it, but re­turned no change, nor did he turn any fares in to the company. The line was far from being popular with the citizens, as the soldiers ran it regardless of any time table, and while all were taken on, it was uncertain where or when the car would stop to let them off.
     At Fort Slemmer, near the camp of the Eighty-fifth, a soldier was seen one morning walking up and down in front of an officer's tent, carrying a log on his shoulder. The soldier looked lonely and weary, and the case was promptly investigated by a man sent over for that pur­pose, whose report showed that the soidier at the fort was undergoing punishment for some trivial breach of discipline. Then a number of unarmed men went over to the fort; dismissed the man to his quarters; warned the officer in command that they did not approve of that method of punishment, and brought the log back with them. These are examples of their daily mischief; pranks that were more ludicrous than evil, and all per­formed in the most jovial, good-natured manner.
     Colonel Dilworth was promoted to be brigadier gen­eral on March 13th, and Captain James R. Griffith, of Company B, who had been commanding the Eighty-fifth since the resignation of Major Robert G. Rider was accepted at Savannah, Georgia, was promoted to be lieutenant colonel. On the nineteenth day of May, Captain Pleasant S. Scott, of Company E, was commissioned major {Major}, vice Major Rider, who had resigned on account of wounds; First Lieutenant Hugh A. Trent was dismissed from the service, and First Sergeant Charles Borchert, of Company E, was commissioned first lieutenant; First Lieutenant Andrew J. Mason, of Company F, was commissioned captain, and Sergeant Francis M. McColgan, of same company, was commissioned first lieutenant. But on account of the regiment and companies being below the minimum, Lieutenant Colonel Griffith was the only one that could be mustered.
     On Saturday, June 3rd, our old and loved commander, George H. Thomas, arrived from the west, and that evening reviewed the Fourteenth corps. The troops in the Department of the Cumberland had been designated the "Fourteenth corps" very early in the war, and it became the nucleus of the army which he led with such consummate skill in later years. He had com­manded the corps until his merit won for him the com­mand of the Army of the Cumberland, and the men had become greatly attached to him. They believed then, and they still think, that George H. Thomas, "pure as crystal and firm as rock," was the greatest soldier Vir­ginia, the mother of presidents, gave to either side in the Civil War.
THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY

     The last muster rolls were made out, and on Monday, the 5th, the regiment was mustered out of the ser­vice of the United States by Lieutenant George Scroggs, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois, acting commissary of musters, and the next morning the Eighty-fifth was ordered to Springfield, Ill., for final payment and discharge. The four regiments and battery that formed Dan McCook's brigade at Louisville, Ky., in the early days of September, 1862, had come to the parting of the ways. Brought together by a com­mon peril and for a common purpose, they had marched and camped and fought side by side for almost three years. Their long, hard service inspired perfect confi­dence and trust in each other, and while the organization ended here, the comradeship formed in camp and field will last as long as life remains.*
*The number mustered in and the number present at the muster out of the four original regiments did not greatly differ, as appears by the following: 52nd Ohio mustered first and last, 1,089, of whom 331 were present at muster out; 85th Illinois mus­tered first and last, 944, of whom 349 were present at muster out; 86th Illinois mustered first and last, 993, of whom 468 were pres­ent at muster out; 125th Illinois mustered first and last, 933, of whom 424 were present at muster out.
     About noon the regiment marched to the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, where a delay occurred in securing transportation, and the freight cars provided for our accommodation did not arrive until the afternoon of the 7th. At Piedmont that night the men seized enough lumber from a convenient lumberyard to comfortably seat the dirty freight cars, and with the use of their hatchets they not only secured ventilation, but made openings through which they could admire the picturesque scenery afforded by the Allegheny mountains. At Parkersburgh, W. Va., the regiment was transferred to a stern-wheel steamer, which landed it at Lawrenceburgh, Ind., on the forenoon of the 10th.
     Between Cincinnati and Lawrenceburgh an accident happened which lent a tinge of sorrow to the home­coming of the regiment. Hugh Gehagan, of Company F, while standing on the lower deck of the steamer engaged in conversation with a group of comrades thoughtlessly leaned against a fender, fastened at the upper end, but hanging loose at the lower guard, and he fell into the river. At the cry of "A man overboard" the boat was quickly stopped and every effort possible was made to rescue the drowning man. But he sunk to rise no more with the life-boat almost within his reach.  It seemed hard that this faithful soldier who had dared and suffered so much should meet such a tragic death when almost within sight of home, while his comrades could only stand idly by and watch a life go out that thev were powerless to save.
     After breaking bread with the loyal and hospitable people of Lawrenceburg, who had generously provided a substantial dinner for the soldiers, the homeward jour­ney was resumed on board a train of freight cars. Such trains ran slowly in those days, but on Sunday, June nth, 1865, the regiment reached Springfield and disem­barked at Camp Butler, where the men were to receive final payment and be discharged.
     A safe trip has brought the soldiers almost home, and as they enter the camp in which their service is to end, strange memories come trooping past. Eventful years have passed since they proudly marched from Peoria for the front. Then the long line with faces mainly young and fair, numbered almost one thousand men; now some are missing from every file; all are bronzed, and many are prematurely old, while the total mustered for discharge is less than four hundred. With sadness they recall the forms and faces of the slain; mostly young, unmarried men, whose native virtues fill no liv­ing veins, and will not shine again on any field. The contrast between the going and returning braves is no more striking than the changed conditions they must prepare to meet. Many of them were school boys when they enlisted, but they are now too old to begin again at the turned-down page of the books they left unfinished. Others had positions three years ago, now filled by per­sons too prudent to serve their country. But unselfish devotion to duty has broadened their manhood: the hardships endured and the difficulties overcome have gdven the soldiers confidence in themselves, and they are determined to cultivate the arts of peace with a soldier's fortitude and patriotism - a citizen's industry and integrity.
     The next few days found the officers busy with their reports, turning in ordnance stores and camp equipage, and making settlement with the government. All arti­cles not otherwise accounted for were reported under the head of "Lost in action." This account was alike the refuge of the "just and the unjust," and furnished a safe retreat for many a quartermaster, ordnance officer and company commander, whose accounts had got tangled. When the reports were completed the pay­master announced his readiness to pay off the men, and on Monday, the 19th, the first sergeants called the roll for the last time; each soldier received his arrears of pay and an honorable discharge, and the Eighty-fifth regi­ment, Illinois volunteer infantry, passed into history.
     Of the 944 officers and men that entered the service in the Eighty-fifth, 95 were killed or died of wounds, 148 were wounded whose wounds did not prove fatal, 137 died of disease, 208 were discharged for disease or wounds, 46 were transferred to other organizations, and 349 were mustered out - to await the hero's final detail:
An aged soldier, with his hair
snow white,
Sat looking at the night.

A busy, shining angel came
with things
Like chevrons on his wings.

He said, "The evening detail has
been made -
Report to your brigade."

The soldier heard the message that
was sent,
Then rose and died and went.

EUGENE F. WARE,
Private, Company E, First Iowa Vol. Infantry.

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