324 ASSEMBLING OF THE RECRUITS. their Commanders, and fully deserve the gratitude of their country. By order of BRIGADIER-GENERAL HOWE. Major and A. A. G. HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, SECOND The Brigadier General Commanding the Third Brigade, cannot part with the Thirty-third New York Volunteers, without expressing to the officers and men of that gallant Regiment, who have fought under his eye and command with so much honor and distinction, his regret at our separation, his well wishes for your future. No words can express what you all must feelthe sense of having fought nobly for our country, and suffered bravely for the cause. The memory of those who have fallen is tenderly cherished, and your Brigade Commander bids you "God Speed" in anything you may undertake in the future. Sincerely, BRIG. GEN. THOMAS H. NEILL, Commanding Third Brigade. On the evening before departure, Colonel Taylor assembled the recruits, numbering one hundred and sixty-three, who having enlisted for three years, FAREWELL TO VIRGINIA. 325 were to be left, and addressed them a few words of parting; expressing his regret that they were not to accompany the Regiment home; urging them to conduct themselves in the future, gallantly, as they had done in the past; and informing them that their officers and comrades, though absent in body, would be present with them in spirit. Lieutenant-Colonel Corning followed with a brief address. They were formed into one Company, and attached, under Captain Gifford, to the Forty-ninth New York. Early Friday morning, the Regiment proceeded to Brooks' Station. Just before leaving the camp, the Seventh Maine, which had been intimately associated with the Thirty-third during its entire campaign, appeared in a body, and presented their adieus. Leaving Brook's Station at 9 o'clock, they reached Acquia Landing, and embarking on board a small steamer, an hour later, arrived at Washington about 4 o'clock P. M. The men were quartered in barracks until the following day, when they left at noon on a special train for Elmira, reaching that city at 4 o'clock on Sunday after noon. The Regiment remained here until the following Saturday, when it departed for Geneva, to receive a magnificent welcome, tendered by the citizens of that village. As the little steamer conveying the men hove in sight, they were greeted with the thunder of artillery, mingled with the chimes of the various church bells, and, on disembarking at the wharf, 326 RECEPTION AT GENEVA. were met by the village authorities, and a large deputation of citizens. After a few moments spent in congratulation, the Regiment formed in procession, and marched through the principal streets to the park, where the following address was listened to from Hon. CHARLES J. FOLGER: Colonel Taylor, and Officers and Men of the Thirty-third Regiment: There has fallen to me the pleasant duty of tendering to you a welcome home again. In behalf of the community from which you went forth, I offer you a hearty and an overflowing welcome back from your service as soldiers. But it does not seem to us that you are the same men from whom we parted. It is now two years since we saw you, some of you, leave this shore, young volunteers, familiar only with the ways of happy homes and a peaceful community, and now you return to us bronzed and scarred veterans, conversant with all the rude alarms of war, having looked death steadily in the face in many a wellcontested field of strife, and having won for yourselves an ample soldierly reputation. Two years ago, I said! It seems, as we look back, but a little space, yet how full that time has been crowded with stirring incidents and exciting events. And to none more than to you have come those events and those incidents. Of what we have only read or heard with but a dull ear, of that you have been a great part, and have looked THE MOTHER OF COUNTIES. 327 upon with courageous eyes. We can scarcely name a battle in the long catalogue which tells of the acts and achievements of the Army of the Potomac, in which the Thirty-third Regiment has not borne a part, and borne it valiantly and well. Raised, as you for the most part wêre, in that district of country which once fell within the limits of old Ontario County, you went forth with the name of the Ontario Regiment, and that fact has always endeared you to us in this immediate region. You were christened after our County. It is a proud old name, for Ontario is the mother of Counties not only, but the Mother of MEN as well. proud of you, for we were, and are, name: and we were jealous of it, too; jealous that it should take no tarnish in your hands. But as And we felt proud of the report after report came back to us of your good behavior; of your courage and steadiness; of your fiery valor; our jealousy was gone, lost, merged in a sense of swelling pride, that the noble old name of Ontario had been so well bestowed, and that not only it took no stain, but that it received an additional and higher lustre and great glory from the soldiers of the Thirty-third. And you may be sure that when the news came of battles fought, and the papers told us of our troops in action, there was a speedy search here for the name and exploits of the Thirty-third, and an eager community was interested in its sufferings and in its achievements, and never, never pained by its defaults, or by its individual disasters. 328 THE TWO THREES. And so as time went on, though you may not have noticed it, the Regiment which went out as the Ontario Regiment, came to be called the Thirtythird, or Ontario Regiment. And then, and not long after, naught else but the Thirty-third, and that was a sufficient and an individual designation, for you had made the "two threes" famous throughout the army and the country; and you needed no appellation of distinction, save your own name, the gallant Thirty-third-" Taylor's Fighting D-s." And all this has been due to, and resultant from, the good qualities and spirit of the men, encouraged and trained, and brought up by the labors and example of the officers. We owe you many thanks; we offer them to you, now that you have so well, so eminently, glorified this community, whose geographical name you have borne. I just said that we traced the papers after a battle, and looked for mention of the Thirty-third and its deeds; and then the days after, when came the long and sorrowful list of casualties, with what tremor and apprehension we looked again for the beloved number, 33. For well we knew, that where all were so brave in battle, some must have met Death and yielded to his power. And we cannot now look upon your thinned ranks and diminished numbers without missing from them some well-remembered faces, very dear to many among us. Nor without feeling that a great and awful sacrifice had been made for a great and righteous cause. And more especially was |