On the 23d of April the following order was issued:

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
ALBANY, April 23d, 1861.

General Orders, No. -Major-General John Taylor Cooper, 3d Division New York State Militia, is hereby directed to detail the 20th Regiment, Colonel George W. Pratt, for immediate service, to report forthwith to the President of the United States, at Washington, until relieved by proper authority.

By order of the Commander-in-Chief,

J. MERIDITH READ, JR.,
Adjutant-General.

On the same day General Cooper issued an order, in pursuance of the above, to Colonel Pratt. On the 24th, General Samson, commanding the 8th Brigade, issued an order detailing Surgeon Abram Crispell of his staff to report to Colonel Pratt for duty with the 20th.

Regimental orders were at once issued for the command to prepare to march. The money advanced by the banks was expended in partially uniforming recruits, and supplying the most pressing wants of the regiment. The outfit of the regiment was not as good or as complete as the officers thought it ought to be, when going into the field. The uniforms of a large proportion of the men were old and worn, and the arms and accoutrements were of ancient pattern. It was believed these arms and equipments could be exchanged for more modern styles, and that new uniforms could be furnished at New York, or forwarded to us in the field at an early day, and requisitions therefor were forwarded to the Adjutant-General at Albany, just before the regiment departed from Kingston. These requisitions came very near bringing the career of the Twentieth to an untimely

end.

CHAPTER V.

THE DEPARTURE FROM KINGSTON-SCENES AND INCIDENTS-VOYAGE TO
NEW YORK—RECEPTION IN THE CITY-QUARTERED IN THE CENTRE
MARKET
TO PARK BARRACKS-MISUNDER-

ARMORY-TRANSFERRED

STANDINGS BETWEEN GOV. MORGAN AND COL. PRATT-FORMER DECLINES TO APPROVE REQUISITION-MAJOR GOES TO ALBANY AND GETS NECESSARY

ORDERS-ANOTHER

HITCH-ORDERED

TO RETURN TO KINGSTON-OFFICERS AND MEN FURIOUS-INSIDE HISTORY OF THE TROUBLE-TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF SUSPENSE-ORDERED TO PROCEED TO WASHINGTON-READY IN TWO HOURS-FRIENDS TO SEE US OFFJOURNEY TO ANNAPOLIS-WHAT WE FOUND THERE-GEN. B. F. BUTLER IN COMMAND-THE SIXTH AND THIRTEENTH N. Y. 8. M.-ANNAPOLIS, AND WHAT WE DID THERE.

ON Sunday, the 28th day of April, the regiment paraded in Academy Green, where, surrounded by thousands of people, religious ceremonies were conducted by the Kingston clergy, and the formal leave takings were then concluded. When these were over, the regiment marched to Rondout, and embarked on board the steamer Manhattan and a barge, which were to convey the command to New York. The streets through which the regiment marched to reach the boat -a distance of two miles-were thronged with people, whose voices filled the Sabbath air with cheers, while flags were waving on every hand.

As the boats swung out into the stream, the regiment gave its friends on shore three rousing cheers, and then sought the repose which the activity and wakefulness of the last three days made most welcome.

The regiment arrived in New York in the evening of the same day, and marched to Centre Market Armory. It was vociferously cheered as it went through the

1861.]

MISUNDERSTANDING WITH GOVERNOR MORGAN.

79

streets of the city, and its welcome in the Metropolis seemed as cordial as were the good wishes which followed it from its friends at home.

It was found that no provision had been made for sending the regiment forward from New York, and it soon became apparent at regimental headquarters that trouble was brewing for it at the Adjutant-General's office in Albany.

On Tuesday, the 30th of April, and while the regiment was still at Centre Market Armory, the Major was dispatched to Albany to interview Governor Morgan, and dissuade him, if possible, from sending the regiment back to Kingston, which was believed to be his design.

The following entry in my diary, of Wednesday, May 1st, gives Governor Morgan's side of the case, as I understood it at that time. The matter caused a good deal of talk and newspaper comment, and produced some ill feeling :

"I found on reaching Albany that such a contingency (sending the regiment home) had been contemplated, owing to the fact that, when the Governor ordered the regiment to march, he supposed, upon information received from Colonel Pratt, that it was all ready to take the field, and he was not disabused of this idea until after we had left Kingston, when a requisition arrived for nearly everything a regiment could require, to fit it, ab initio, for the field. The Governor was astounded. The articles were not to be had at the moment, and the circumstance placed the Governor in a false and embarrassing position, as he understood it. The general view of the matter would be, that he had ordered a regiment to march, and gotten it a hundred miles from home, and in the way of other regiments going to the front, when it was almost totally unprepared to take the field; and, moreover, that it would cost nearly as much to equip the regiment for three months as it would to equip one of the new two-years regiments;

1

that New York's quota of three-months regiments was already quite or nearly full, and that no regiment had made any such demand upon the State for an outfit as that received from the Colonel of the Twentieth. Nevertheless, the Governor directed that the requisitions should be filled, and I returned to New York with orders to that effect in my pocket."

But the Governor reconsidered his resolution, and on the third of May caused an order to be issued, in which it is said: "The prompt obedience of orders by the organized regiments of the State militia, and the alacrity of the volunteers, fully meeting the wants of the National Executive, having superseded the necessity for any additional regiments of the organized militia, no more regiments of such organizations can be received into service at this time. Accordingly, the Twentieth Regiment, commanded by Colonel Pratt, now in New York City en route to Washington, is hereby relieved from that duty, and it will be ordered to repair to Kingston, in Ulster County, whence the several companies will return to their respective districts. Special Orders No. 113, directing the Commissary-General to issue certain arms and equipments to that regiment, are also countermanded. Major-General Sandford is charged with the execution of this order."

It will be seen that the Governor delicately evaded the real ground upon which this action was taken, and assigned reasons which were true in themselves, and with the then existing views of the emergency were quite sufficient to justify the order. He, no doubt, felt that a revelation of the "bottom facts" would be unpleasant to the officers of the regiment, and a disagreeable surprise to their friends. He seems to have been willing to bear a good deal of animadversion, on account of this order, rather than to attempt to justify it by giving publicity to the facts. So much is due to Governor Morgan.

1861.]

ORDERED TO WASHINGTON.

81

Colonel Pratt had forwarded the requisitions, which caused all the trouble, with the very best of motives, and without intending to have it understood that the regiment could not take the field without the things called for; and this is proved by the fact that the regiment marched without these supplies. But Colonel Pratt and his officers felt that the regiment would be much better prepared for service, if it could be furnished with new uniforms and arms. Those it had were worn and old fashioned, and while they did very well for home duty, were not just the outfit for a regiment to go abroad with. Having sent in the requisitions and feeling that the regiment was entitled to the articles called for, it then became a matter of etiquette to stand by the action already taken. But when the order to proceed came, it was made manifest that the regiment could take the field in the condition in which it marched from Kingston.

Several influential citizens, from different parts of the State, united with the officers of the regiment, in an earnest appeal to Governor Morgan to allow the regiment to proceed. The corps had made many friends during its sojourn in New York, and its drill and discipline induced the belief that it would do good service in the field. It was urged upon the Governor, that to send it home would tend to discourage other organizations preparing for the field, and that the effect would be bad, in every point of view. The result was, that the Governor revoked so much of the above order as directed the regiment to return to Kingston, and instead, ordered it to proceed to Washington. This latter order was telegraphed from Albany, and reached head-quarters about six o'clock on the evening of Monday, May sixth. It was at once promulgated to the regiment, and the scene that ensued is thus described by the New York Commercial Advertiser: "When this news was imparted to the troops, a scene of genuine enthusiasm