Excerpt from "Reminiscenses of Finch Hollow"
by Arthur E. Crocker
Page 5 of 5
Next morning we landed at Annapolis and without waiting for the formality of transportation, our Finch Hollow boys jumped a freight train speeding for Washington where we arrived about noon. My old railroad pass carried us to Alexandria.
I left the boys at a hotel on Duke Street and went immediately to our office at the upper end of the railroad yard. J.J. Moore, then Superintendent, was at his desk smokng his after-dinner pipe. He looked at me in alarm as if I had been a ghost. Covered with dirty rags and weighing probably twenty pounds less than when he last saw me, it took him fully a minute to recognize me. When he realized the fact that this was indeed Crocker in the flesh, he arose with alacrity and gave me a hearty welcome. He immediately informed General McCallum in Washington by wire that "Crocker and his men arrived from Richmond all safe and happy." The General asked that I be sent to him at once. Moore went with me to a clothing store and a bathroom, where I was cleaned up and with my new clothes on - a complete new outfit from hat to shoes, I went over to General McCallum's office and had a long talk with him and the Secretary of War, Stanton, as to what I had ovserved of the conditions in the Confederacy. McCallum asked me when I drew my last pay, and what wages I was getting. He then ordered Paymaster Robinson to pay me in full to April, naming a substantial per diem advance, and to grant me a thirty day furlough, and till I could get my men exchanged. Robinson paid me near $600 in crisp new greenbacks, and next day my Finch Hollow boys were also paid to April and we went home.
This was the most money I had ever seen at one time, and I anticipated much pleasure in placing it. I went immediately to Mother in Finch Hollow and now recall with infinite satisfaction her happiness in seeing me again. I gave her $100 for new dresses for herself and my sisters. The next four weeks were the happiest of my life. Everybody did his best to entertain and feed me - I could eat twelve times a day and enjoy every meal. I was a hero and glad of it. My best girl was teaching school in Chenango County, thirty miles away. I went up there to call on her and she was glad to see me. She adjourned her school and procured a substitute for two weeks and came back home with me. A continuous round of parties and visits! Even the memory of my happiness then is cheering. All things mundane must have an ending. I got word from Washington that my exchange had been effected and to come on at once. I went back and continued in the service till 1866."
Home