August 23d. Very little sleep on board the boat last night. Passing around New York the boat landed at Pier No. 2, North River, at about 6 A. M. The transport steamer Kill-von-Kull was at the pier waiting for us. Marched across the pier on board to the music of the band. When all were on board the Kill-von-Kull, the City of Boston sailed away and with it the band. The last tune we heard the band play was “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” and the strains in the distance coming across the water to us were ” Home, Sweet Home.”
The Kill-von-Kull soon got under way. Reported that we were going to Elizabethport, N. J. It proved to be a very pleasant trip. The weather fine. We were saluted by passing boats and the people along the shores. Late in the day we arrived in Elizabethport, safe and sound. We found a long train of cars waiting for us. All railroad lines leading to Washington were crowded with troops hurrying on in response to the President’s call for three hundred thousand more men.