Reunion of 114th Regiment - 1899

Reunion of the 114th

Recalls the Day the Regiment Returned Over 34 Years Ago

Utica Saturday Globe, October 1899

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  The 27th annual reunion of the survivors of the One Hundred  and Fourteenth Regiment, N.Y.S.V., was held at Earlville on Thursday. The day was ideal and the veterans were most hospitably entertained and the exercises were entered into and enjoyed with a zest fully equal to that of any similar occasion.

 

Among the events which the day recalled, none was more vivid in the minds of the veterans than the retune of the regiment from the war and the incidents that accompanied it up to the time of their disbandment in Norwich upon the same spot on which they had been mustered in nearly three years before.

 

On the 8th of June, 1865, the regiment was mustered out at Washington and on the 10th arrived in Elmira, where they were subjected to a tedious delay of several days before receiving their pay and their discharge papers. They do not entertain very pleasant recollections of this part of their experiences.  On Saturday they boarded a train for Binghamton.  As the train was leaving the Elmira depot George Agard, a member of Company B, while trying to get aboard after the train started, fell between the wheels and was instantly crushed to death. After escaping the perils of three years' service he was killed immediately after pocketing his discharge.

 

At 6 o'clock the train arrived at Binghamton.  Although taken by surprise, the citizens hurried about in force to greet and "grub" the returning soldiers.  The night was spent there and after an hour's ride by rail, Chenango Forks, then the nearest railroad point to Norwich, was reached early on Sunday morning. there a delegation from Greene met them and conveyed them in wagons and carriages to Greene, where they arrived about noon amid the booming of cannon and the glad shouts of the populace. They were most enthusiastically entertained until near night, when they embarked upon the waters of the "raging canal" bound for Oxford, where at 3 o'clock in the morning the thunder of cannon announced their arrival.  Oxford had been sleeping with one eye open and was fully prepared to give them a warm and generous welcome. They were fed upon their arrival and again at 9 o'clock in the morning, after which some formal exercises were indulged in. 

 

Vehicles had been provided to bring them to Norwich.  Every mile of the ride was a continual ovation and their entire journey through the valley was a grand triumphal procession. At noon cannon and bells denoted their approach.  Near the cemetery they left the vehicles and fell into line, excepting the wounded and disabled, who remained in the carriages.  Those on foot were supplied with muskets--their own having been turned over to the government at Elmira--by Col. L.A. Rhodes, from the armory of the One Hundred and Third regiment, N.G.S.N.Y., and marshaled by Capt. Robert Stanton and George H. Spry they were escorted by the Norwich Brass Band, Fire Department, teachers and students in the Academy and an immense concourse of citizens. Evergreen arches, appropriately inscribed, spanned the streets and flags and banners waved a welcome.  To the music of the band was added the louder tones of cannon and village bells and the welcoming shouts of thousands of men, women and children.

 

In Dr. Beecher's history of the regiment, from which these facts are gleaned, we find penned this paragraph:  "Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, were standing by the roadside, eagerly looking for the long absent soldier boys. There were many fond embraces, hearty hand shakings and familiar words of endearment as that joyous procession moved forward.  But alas! there were many tearful eyes gazing upon the thin and shattered ranks of the regiment.  Sorrowful faces were there which looked in vain for many loved forms that were lying in unmarked graves beneath the southern soil."

 

Arriving at the Public square--now Westside Park--they found it filled with a multitude of people.  The regiment moved forward at double quick to the front of the court House, where arms were grounded, and with uncovered heads the men gave devout attention while Rev. Samuel Scoville offered a prayer of thanksgiving.  Hon. Lewis Kingsley made an address of welcome and Col. Per Lee made a brief response.  During these formal exercises a photograph was taken by Photographer James B. Marquis....

 

The formalities over the regiment reformed and marched out West Main street to the fair grounds and to Floral Hall, where they "sat down to the most gorgeous dinner every spread in Chenango county."  All ceremony was discarded and the boys soon dispensed with the elaborate provisions.  Floral Hall stood near what is now [in 1899] the site of the residence of D.E. Comstock and Mrs. Benjamin Barber.  It had been planned to have a dress parade in the evening, but many of the Norwich men went home immediately after the reception, such was their eagerness to be with their friends. Those from other towns spent the night in Norwich and were breakfasted in Floral Hall before taking their departure.