The Stokers as Brave as Any
The first troops arriving by way of the Potomac River were the volunteers of the first call, ninety-day men; the steamship Daylight—name of good omen! It was torrential rain, but the President and Secretary Seward came out to welcome them on the wharf. As he would give a reception then and there, four sailors held a tarpaulin over his head like a canopy, and he shook hands all around, including the firemen and stokers out of the coal-hole. Grasping their smutty hands, he declared that they were as brave as any one! —(By General Viele, present.)