The Grand Review

Monday, March 7, 2011

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, I would like to honor my great-great grandfather Michael McDonald in a series of blogs including his written accounts of his Civil War experiences. 

At the close of the war, a Grand Review of the Armies procession was held in Washington D.C. to honor the troops with the soldiers parading before dignitaries including President Andrew Johnson (Abraham Lincoln was assassinated the month before).  Here is Michael McDonald's personal account of that day, May 24, 1865.

The Grand Review (photo from Wikipedia site)

I have a distinction that I desire to lay claim to at this time.  I was the last man to pass the reviewing stand on the day of the historic Grand Review at Washington at the close of the war.  It happened this way.  Company E was the only company in its regiment to make the through trip with Sherman (William Tecumseh Sherman) on his memorable march, and it had been attached to the 1st Missouri Engineers in charge of the pontoon train.  At the Grand Review, the pontoon corps brought up the rear of Sherman's army--the engineers marching ahead and the wagons following.  The 1st Missouri Engineers was a good regiment but it had never been in battle, while Company E had memories of Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, Atlanta, and a score of lesser engagements, and so, in our soldier pride, we refused to march with our Missouri command, detaching ourselves from the regiment and falling behind the wagons.  There were only 30 or 40 of us but on that day we were the veteran 14th Wisconsin Infantry, and I was the last man in the company ranks.


                                                              Michael McDonald

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