Between the 7th and 19th of May, 1865, the 55th Ohio, along with its brigade, crossed the Appomatox and James Rivers, through the city of Richmond and, having come nearly full circle across the eastern United States, arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, and encamped. On the 23rd and 24th of May was the Grand Review in Washington. The 23rd was allocated for the Army of the Potomac while Sherman's army would parade up Pennsylvania Avenue on the 24th. The morning of the 24th, the 55th Ohio arose at an early hour, packed its knapsacks into the wagons and marched across the Long Bridge into Washington.At exactly 9:00 a.m., the long column marched onto Pennsylvania Avenue. Captain Hartwell Osborne (Company B) described the following, "Dense masses of spectators filled doorways, windows, balconies, and every available place of observation. They gazed with curious and admiring eyes at General Sherman as he rode at the head of his command, and after he passed, at his scarred and war-worn legions, remembering their record of heroic service, their march of 2,000 miles from the Mississippi to the Potomac, their bloody battles recorded on the tattered banners now flung proudly to the breeze. For six and a half hours the avenue, from the capitol to the President's house, heard the steady tramp of the regiments, brigades, divisions, and corps, til 70,000 veterans had passed by, rejoicing with the wildly enthusiastic crowds in their great and final triumph. Proudly the veterans of the Fifty-Fifth received the greetings of their Ohio friends as they displayed the blue banner of the State and the faded and torn colors of the Union, inscribed with the names of more than twenty great battles and marches, from Franklin and Bull run to Averasborough and Bentonville. Their uniforms were faded, but their arms were bright, and their free and vigorous swing and the uniformity of motion which distinguished the entire column, told a tale of discipline and drill hardly expected of 'Sherman's Bummers.' The rear of each division, too, afforded interest and amusement; for the army was not only marching in review, it was changing its camp, and as the pack animals appeared carrying their accustomed load of camp kettles and frying-pans, neatly stored, and bearing aloft a pet dog or a rooster, a 'possum or a negro boy, the mascot for the command, cheers and laughter followed the sight. In its turn each regiment of the brigade - the Fifty-Fifth Ohio, the Seventy-third Ohio, Thirty-third Massachusetts, Twenty-sixth Wisconsin, Twentieth Connecticut, and One Hundred and Thirty-sixth New York - dipped its colors before the President, General Grant, General Sherman, Generals Logan and Slocum, and a host of dignitaries, both home and foreign, who stood on the reviewing platform before the president's home."
The brigade marched through the city and encamped on a slight rise three miles from the Capitol on the western bank of the Anacostia (east branch of the Potomac) and awaited preparations for muster out.
Sources:
Trials And Triumphs: The Record Of The Fifty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry
by Captain Hartwell Osborne And Others, A.C. McClurg & Co., 1904All Brave And True: A History Of The Marches And Battles Of The 55th Ohio (Veteran) Volunteer Infantry Regiment by Dan Munson, March 1987, (2nd Edition)