Ladies were frequently the guests of the regiment, and especially on review days. Two large reviews were held in which all the troops participated, one in honor of General Russell A. Alger, Secretary of War, and the other in honor of Governor Bradley of Kentucky. On September 20th, General Russell A. Alger arrived by rail, and was met at the station by the Second Brigade, and escorted to General Breckenridge's headquarters. Later on, a review was tendered by the Division. The Eighth paraded over eight hundred men, and from this time its numbers were continually increasing by the return of convalescents to duty, and the expiration of furloughs.
After the review, the Secretary of War inspected the Division Hospital and the various camps. He spent some time in the camp of the Eighth, chatting with the officers, and took occasion to compliment the regiment upon its intelligent struggle against typhoid at Chickamauga.
Early in August, the Secretary of War had sent Colonel Hopkins, Assistant Inspector General of the United States Army, to examine and report upon the condition of the troops at Chickamauga. Colonel Hopkins' report to the Secretary of War was subsequently published, but was unknown to the regiment at this time. In it he said that the Eighth Massachusetts was the only regiment in the Park he was sure had complied with sanitary regulations, and that its low sick rate, as compared with that of other regiments, showed an intelligent appreciation of the situation by the officers, and an earnest effort to stop the spread of preventable disease, by the application of hygienic measures.
Later in the day, the Generals and Colonels of the Division met the Secretary at General Breckenridge's headquarters, and were invited to express their opinion on the sanitary conditions. Some of the officers bitterly denounced the inefficiency of the Quartermaster's Department and the Medical Department at Chickamauga; the Chief Surgeon of the corps was characterized as a horse doctor, and his professional qualifications were criticised.
Several changes of officers were made in October. On the 20th, General Breckenridge turned over the command of the Corps to General James H. Wilson, under whom the Eighth served until mustered out.