A PHILADELPHIA WELCOME.–

11. June 2009 by admin.

A soldier of the Fourth New Hampshire regiment gives his experience in Philadelphia as follows:

“We arrived in the city at five o’clock on Sunday morning, Sept. 29, 1861, and the regiment was welcomed in a manner better appreciated than described. Within five or six rods of the ferry are three of four hundred wash-bowls, with pipes of warm and cold water to supply them. Here a scene followed, which reminded me that ‘cleanliness is next to godliness.’ Then we were marched to a building liberally filled with nice bread, hot coffee, cold meats, pickles, cheese, and sour krout, and invited to partake of a Quaker’s hospitality. After eating we were informed that stationery and every convenience for writing was at our disposal, and not a few accepted the kind privilege of writing home. No pay would be received for postage stamps, which were furnished as freely as water.

“As the good old matrons, with their three-cornered handkerchiefs and nicely ironed caps, glided among us, attending to our every want, inquiring after our health, wishing us God speed, &c., many an eye was moistened, and emotions awakened, which, perhaps, had been sleeping in many for years. And as the Quaker girls shook our hands, and even kissed some of the Yankee boys, I know our New Hampshire girls will not be jealous if we say, and truthfully too, that for the time being we forgot them at home. Although it is said that on one or two occasions ‘the Quakers didn’t come out,’ it is true they come out to meet every regiment that passes through their city in a manner that no other city can boast of.”

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