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and, the next day, the
Governor wrote the following letter to
Mayor Lincoln:—
I should neglect a most agreeable duty, if I should omit to acknowledge in the most cordial manner the hearty and generous reception which the city government, under your Honor's direction, extended yesterday to the returning veterans, and proposes to continue towards the other veteran corps, as from time to time they pass through Boston, on their furlough, after re-enlistment.
The highest compliment I can pay to its fervor and liberality is to say that it is consistent with the entire history of the municipality of Boston under your Honor's administration.
The regiment here spoken of was the Thirty-second, of which
Colonel F. J. Parker was the original colonel.
As an acknowledgment of his past services, and in honor of the regiment, the
Governor appointed him to act on the occasion as one of his staff.
On the 20th of January, the
Governor addressed him this note:—
I beg to express my thanks for your service as an officer of my staff for the special occasion of the reception of the Thirty-second Regiment, last Sunday, and also my regret that I did not find opportunity personally to express to you at Faneuil Hall my sense of your co-operation.
On the 21st of January, the
Governor telegraphed to
Secretary Stanton,—
Will you authorize me to arrange with General Burnside to assign to his command an expedition of Massachusetts veteran organizations now being raised here?
It will greatly promote their completion, and the General will come here personally to assist.
The authority asked for was not given; but these regiments, as soon as completed, were forwarded to the Army of the Potomac, and afterwards went with
Grant and
Meade in their advance through the
Wilderness.
Major-General W. S. Hancock, commanding the Second Army Corps, then on recruiting service at
Harrisburg, Pa., to fill up his corps, wrote to the
Governor, requesting him to use every means in his power to recruit the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-eighth Regiments, and the
