Lake City Graphic
Lake City, Iowa
November 2, 1899

Expect to Start Home Thursday and Reach Council Bluffs Monday.

Volunteer Camp, San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 28. - Special; There is very little beyond the ordianry taking place in the camp of the Fifty-First Iowa these days. The boys are absolutely unrestricted in their privileges and do not spend much of their time within the camp lines. A great many of them have furnished rooms down in the city and only come out to the Presidio when they are required to do so. It is just a good rest for all of them and they are not at all slow in taking advantage of it.

The preliminary examinations by the regular army surgeons were completed to-day, and they report the men in good condition, considering all that has fallen to their lot.

Lieutenant Reed, adjutant of the First battalion, who has been on detached duty in the general hospital here during the time we have been absent, was returned to duty with the regiment to-day.

The arrangements are all made for the journey home. It is now intended to leave here Thursday evening over the Southern Pacific, going to Ogden and thence to Salt Lake City and over the Rio Grande to Denver. It is expected that Denver will be reached early Sunday morning, where a stop of three or four hours will be made to let the boys rest up for the end of the journey. The arrival at Council bluffs will be early on the morning of the 6th. And then Iowa can do the rest. Adjutant General Byers is to accompany the train, and he and the colonel will undertake the management of the members of the Fifty-first. No hard task for them, either, for the boys all have confidence in their colonel and former major.

Some of the officers of the regiment, who have not had the interests of us all at heart, who have always bullied and tyrannied the boys, stooped to all manner of petty actions to make the existence of the enlistment harder, are making preparations to go home between two days, as their reception at the hands of the boys would not be very cordial if they lingered around very long after the muster-out.