e efforts of General Burton and Major Grant to have
this time extended, General Shafter was unable to give an extension of
time. This left but a short period for the immense labor of closing the
affairs of the battery and the intricate details of the muster out. The
Captains of the batteries and a large clerical force were kept working
almost continuously from the day of the arrival at the Presidio, and
late on the night of the 15th they had the gratification, after toilsome
days and sleepless nights, of putting the final touch to the muster out
rolls. The next morning the rolls went to the paymaster. The labors of
the Utah volunteers in the army of the Republic were over.

Some time before this, on August 5th, the men passed the final physical
examination, and the general condition of the command was found to be
extraordinarily good. Then the men were ready for the last function of
muster out.

The next day the paymaster's wagon rattled up the Presidio slope. Then
the soldiers performed the last act of their soldier career. One by one
they marched into the small official frame building where the paymaster
fingered his gold. As the veterans came out, each hand laden with gold,
there was upon each face an iridescent smile, not only because of the
augmented wealth, but for the reason that each one knew that for him the
last bugle call had sounded, that his breast would no longer swell under
the blue of the United States uniform. In two hours the soldiers had all
left the Presidio, officers were shaking hands with the men over the
bridged chasm of official dignity, and up on the slope of the Presidio
the Sibley tents were ransacked and deserted.

That night the men of Utah slept in the hotels of San Francisco and
dreamed of the morrow.

On the night of the 16th the transport "Warren" arrived, bearing among
its passengers Major Richard W. Young, late chieftain of the batteries,
who had come, much to the satisfaction of the men, in time to join his
old war comrades in the homegoing.

The ferry which was to carry the soldiers to Oakland was ready before
noon on the 17th, and early in the afternoon the engine of the special
train gave a few premonitory puffs and the train full of returning
warriors was moving towards Utah. The cars consisted of tourist sleepers
for the men and a buffet Pullman for the officers and their friends.
Across the center car a streamer stretched, bearing the words, "The Utah
Batteries."

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