John D. Billings, The history of the Tenth Massachusetts battery of light artillery in the war of the rebellion

[435] Richmond forward, that it seemed somewhat singular, at least, not to be as warmly received by those on whose regard our claims were strongest; and when it further became known that our immediate destination was Galloupe's Island, the recent rendezvous of so many of that class of men known as bounty-jumpers, the country's shame, and that there we would be guarded as vigilantly as if we, too, were of that ilk, our indignation was insuppressible. It could not reasonably be expected that men who had been absent from their families nearly three years, were ready to be thus insulated when within sight of the smoke of their own chimneys; so when the column started, Capt. Adams kept his face steadfastly to the front, knowing that his ranks were being decimated at every street-corner. He knew his men better than the government did, and took no anxious thought for the consequences. Out of one hundred and eighty men who returned to the state, but seventy-five answered to roll-call on reaching the island. Had the men been dismissed to their homes, with orders to reassemble in twenty-four or forty-eight hours, or a week, to be paid off and mustered out, not a man would have been missing. We mention this matter as illustrating one of the many ways how not to do it, so often met with in military matters.

Having got fairly settled on the island, it was found that the muster rolls, made out with so much care at the Cross Roads under orders from the War Department, were pronounced worthless by the officials at this end of the route, thereby necessitating the making out of a new set. These were completed in four days and sent up for the inspection of the paymaster, Friday, June 9th, to be returned Monday morning by him in person; but they were