SERVICE WITH THE THIRD
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
but also as a fraternal greeting from the east to the west, which rising superior to local jealousies and factional strife, and remembering only the mingled dust of our dead on many battlefields, and the common country for which they sacrificed their all, proclaims us, in heart and in country, one and inseparable. In parting, we assure you that, highly as we prize this expression of sentiment toward us, and sacredly as we will preserve it as the highest honor yet received, it is not needed to secure remembrance. The ineffaceable pictures of the past deeply engraven in our hearts, and lit up by the eternal flame of friendship will ever keep the Second Massachusetts Veteran Volunteer Infantry prominent among our pleasing memories in the future. Wishing you all success and happiness and Heaven's best blessing, we bid you farewell. We are, brothers, yours fraternally,
