Just four days after the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, the iath Massachusetts marched through the streets of Boston on their way to the Worcester and Western Railroad Station. Every one of them was a volunteer, and proud of it, and everything that was youth and eagerness and adventure was in the air that April day as they passed in review lor the crowds to see and cheer. This was the great crusade, and the boys in new blue uniforms, with their glistening guns and bright bayonets, were on the march to make things right.

As this segment of the army of America’s youth stepped off on what it confidently considered the road to glory, all the ingredients of romance and chivalry went with it. Their cause was just; they had a shining new silk flag to follow, and a band as good as any regiment coidd boast. To cap it all, they had a song—a truly great marching song that every outfit in the Union Army would be singing before long.

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