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| CHAPTER XII. A NOTABLE ESCORT DUTY. HOLIDAY PARADES.—ALMOST A SELF SUSTAINING REGIMENT.— COLONEL JENKINS' RESIGNATION. The regimental band was enlarged and improved in August, 1875. The number was increased to 32, and through the efforts of Captain F. M. Colston, chairman of the committee on music, Charles W. Wernig, who had been assistant leader of the band of the Seventh New York, was engaged as leader. This same year there were several parades— one on the Fourth of July and one on "Old Defenders" Day, September 12. On November 27 the regiment acted as escort, through Baltimore, to the remains of Vice-President Henry Wilson, who had died in Washington and whose body was carried back to his home in Massachusetts for interment. The military escort, which included the Fifth and the Sixth regiments, under the command of Brigadier-General James R. Herbert,awaited the funeral party at Union Station and escorted the remains to the City Hall, where they lay in state in the rotunda for about two hours, and were then escorted to Calvert Station to resume the journey to the North. Notwithstanding a cold and penetrating rain, the streets were thronged with people to see the funeral pageant. The remains of the Vice-President were accompanied to Boston by a committee of the Fifth, consisting of Major G. R. Gaither, Quartermaster Pontier, Commissary Johnson, Captains Brown, Zollinger, Post and Reeves, and Lieutenants Albers, Conrad, Territt and Wood. In Boston this escort was treated with marked courtesy. They were entertained at dinner at the Union Club by the officers of the Fifth Massachusetts, and by Wm. |