On the next day began the march to Washington. We entered Richmond on May 11, and on the 15th camped near the old battle-field of Chancellorsville. On the 24th we marched into Washington, where the Union army passed in review before all the dignitaries of our Nation, the representatives of foreign lands, and the immense throngs of people who had gathered from far and near to see Sherman's veterans. For this review, we selected from our Regiment, eight companies of thirty-two men each—the best drilled soldiers that we had. It was my place to ride in the rear of the Regiment as it marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and no command made a better show than ours. From the Capitol to the reviewing stand, the marching and wheeling were simply perfect.

We now went into camp near Bladensburg, where all of the men whose terms of service expired before October 1 were mustered out and sent home. On June 6, General Hawley issued his farewell order to the old Brigade. When it was broken up on the next day, the officers of the Second Massachusetts sent to the officers of our regiment the formal expression of the feeling with which they parted from us. We replied in a similar letter. Even now, after a lapse of twenty-six years, it stirs the blood to read these two messages.[3]

The Western veteran regiments still had work before them, and were not mustered out. They were organized as a provisional Brigade under Hawley's command, and ordered to Louisville, Kentucky. Our Regiment left the east on June 11, travelling by way of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to Parkersburg, and then down the Ohio River to Louisville. Here the Regiment was filled up with men from other Wisconsin commands, that were mustered out of service, until we had about 1,500 on our muster rolls. It was rumored, and in fact intended, that we should go to Mexico to drive out the French. The programme was entirely changed, however, when news came of the voluntary withdrawal of the French soldiers, and orders were issued to muster out our Regiment.

A considerable number of our old veterans did not want to go home. A company was made up of those who wished to enter the services of the Juarez government in Mexico—at least they wished to go, if I would go in command. I was not quite ready, however, to become a soldier of fortune. When our duty to the Federal Government had been accomplished, I was as anxious as any to be mustered out of the army of war, and return to the army of peace.