The First Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery United States Volunteers in the Spanish-American War of 1898

PREFACE

This book forms but a single chapter—the latest one—in the eventful and ever-honorable history of the First Massachusetts Regiment. It has been written in the hope that it may aid in maintaining the splendid esprit de corps which always has been characteristic of the command.

Nor does this corps-pride lack warrant. Since 1844, under one designation or another, the First Massachusetts, as a regimental organization, has been continuously in the service either of the Commonwealth or of the Nation; through long years of peace it faithfully has held itself in trained and disciplined readiness against the hour of need; in two wars it unhesitatingly has responded to the call of the Government, returning from each with an untarnished record of duty well done. Furthermore—in part, at least, if not as a xivwhole—it has been identified for over a century with the making of American history; for, like the sturdy oak, the regiment may trace its growth from still vigorous roots which reach far back into the historic past. "D" Battery (Roxbury Train of Artillery) was chartered in 1784, bearing upon its original muster-rolls the names of many veterans of the Revolution, and first seeing active service in the Shay Rebellion of 1787; "G" Battery (Boston Fusileers) dates its organization from 1786 and its record of active service from the War of 1812; "K" Battery (Boston Light Infantry) was first enrolled at the time of our brief naval war with France in 1798, and served with the coast-guard in 1812.

The story of the heroic work of the regiment in the Civil War already fills a volume by itself: Blackburn's Ford, First Bull Run, Yorktown, Williamsburg, White Oak Swamp, Fair Oaks, Savage's Station, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, Chantilly, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Locust Grove, Spottsylvania—tremendous names like these may hint at the regimental xvrecord which was written in blood from 1861 to 1864. With an honor-roll of one hundred and seventy-three dead, and with a grim list of six hundred and forty-three discharges for wounds and disease, the First Massachusetts honestly bought and dearly paid for its treasured place among the "Three Hundred Fighting Regiments" of the Union Army.

This latest chapter in the regimental history deals neither with battles nor with foreign service—and yet it ill could be spared from the records of the Old First. Nothing possibly could have been finer than the spirit in which the young men of the regiment sprang to their places under its colors at the call of 25th April, 1898, believing, as they most sincerely did, that the very first of the fighting was to be theirs; nothing could have been more honorable than the unvarying discipline maintained during the dull months of garrison duty, when, day by day, their hope for action waned.

Half forgotten by the very citizens for whose protection the regiment was assigned to its stations; wholly ignored by the press, which ever has failed to comprehend the xviexacting requirements of efficient coast-defence,—the men of the First Massachusetts, like their comrades of the regular artillery, quietly stood to their guns during the time of possible peril, and as quietly returned to the routine of peace when that peril had passed. Time alone can fix the relative value of many things, and while that final adjustment is taking place the regiment may rest content with its own consciousness of having carried out well and faithfully whatever orders came to it.

INTRODUCTORY

The Spanish-American War has passed into history. Regiment by regiment the troops of the United States have been transported to Cuba and Porto Rico, to take quiet possession of the stations relinquished by the departing remnants of the Spanish colonial army, and now our flag flies over even Havana itself. Of the six regiments—the First Heavy Artillery, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Infantry—sent out by Massachusetts in response to the calls of the President, all now are home again, while the officers and men of the gallant Naval Brigade have returned from their service afloat on cruiser and monitor to rejoin the command from which they volunteered. Gradually, but none the less surely, the stirring events of the spring and summer of 1898 are becoming but memories—memories to be recalled in years to come at the reunions of those who served together in the war so happily brought to a conclusion.

4Even today, after the lapse of but a year, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to realize the state of public feeling in Boston on that wet, raw day in April, 1898, when the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, then a militia regiment, marched solidly and grimly through the muddy streets on its way to Fort Warren. The sight of the long, blue column—officers on foot, men in heavy marching order—told more plainly than any telegraphic despatch that the long-expected war had come at last. Day by day the feeling of uneasiness in the cities and towns along the New England coast had been growing in intensity. Bombardment insurance was being written, securities and valuables were being removed from the safe-deposit vaults of shore cities to those of inland towns, while letters by the hundred, and delegations by the score were coming to the governors of coast States, praying for protection against naval raids. As in 1812, and as again in 1861, the authorities at Washington were overwhelmed with petitions for the naval protection of local interests, and—even as in former wars—they were compelled to reply that the few ships of war on the navy list could 5not be spared to do the work of shore batteries. The entire fleet of battleships, modern monitors, and cruisers barely sufficed for the composition of Dewey's squadron in the far East, of Sampson's and Schley's in the West Indies.

Nor was this wide-spread feeling of alarm entirely without foundation, or due to unreasoning fear. More than one foreign service journal had reckoned the opposing fleets as nearly of equal strength, and even our own Captain Mahan now writes: "The force of the Spanish navy on paper, as the expression goes, was so nearly equal to our own, that it was well within the limits of possibility that an unlucky incident, the loss, for example, of a battleship, might make the Spaniard superior in nominal, or even in actual, available force. Where so much is at stake as the result of a war, or even the unnecessary prolongation of war, with its sufferings and anxieties, the only safe rule is to regard the apparent as the actual, until its reality has been tested." We are looking backward now; then we were looking forward. We now know, through the supreme tests of May 1st and July 3d, that the paper strength and the fighting strength of the Spanish navy 6were two widely differing qualities; but late in April, 1898, all this yet remained to be determined, and the memorable rush of the Oregon from the far Pacific bears witness that the Navy Department recognized the preponderance that might be given by the addition of even a single fighting-ship to our force on the threatened Atlantic sea-board.

Of the result of a general fleet action the country had small doubt; it was the possibility of sudden and unexpected naval raids that caused concern. The words of the English naval critic, Steevens, applied with tenfold force to our own case: "It is tolerably obvious that no superiority in the world could guarantee our whole empire against raids by hostile cruisers. A fast cruiser could break the closest blockade possible in the days of torpedo boats, and though she would stand to meet and be engaged by a cruiser or cruisers of our own, yet she would also stand to elude them. She might then shell or lay under contribution unprotected coast towns, destroy shipping lying in their harbors, or making for or from them, besides landing small forces to do serious, if not vital damage." And this 7fact was recognized no better by any one than by Admiral Cervera himself, who, in a letter written in February, 1898, after deploring the lack of Spanish naval preparation, said: "Under such conditions, a campaign would be disastrous, if not an offensive one, and all that could be done in an offensive war would be to make some raids with a few fast vessels."

Reduced to its lowest terms, the situation confronting the authorities was this: the Spanish naval list showed—either in commission or building—nine 20-knot cruisers,^[1] heavily armed and armored, and theoretically able to run away easily from any armored ships in our establishment save the Brooklyn and New York, while (still theoretically) capable of whipping without effort these two latter cruisers, if brought to bay. Furthermore, the operations of the army and navy, in the West Indies and the Philippines, imperatively required the services of every modern fighting-ship at our disposal, and thus the long stretch of Atlantic coast, with its teeming harbors 8and populous cities, practically was left at the mercy of any chance squadron of swift cruisers, or even—at least in the earlier days of the war—of possible raids by privateers or wandering torpedo-gunboats. There was, it is true, the hastily improvised and costly coast-patrol fleet, of something over forty vessels—monitor relics of the '60's, armed yachts, ferry-boats, and tugs—distributed along the coast at stations from Eastport to New Orleans, but this heterogeneous outfit was brought into existence rather for scouting than for fighting. As a factor in actual resistance to determined naval attack it called for no serious consideration, and as a matter of record its organization was not complete until the 16th of June, when the dreaded Vizcaya, with her sister ships, finally had been marked down and safely penned in the harbor of Santiago.

It was evident that the coast States, in the impending emergency, must turn for comfort from the Navy to the War Department, and it soon became most painfully evident that the prospect of obtaining any immediate aid from this quarter was far from reassuring. This 9especially was true in the case of the New England States, and notably so in that of Massachusetts. To make a broad statement, modern defensive works, modern sea-coast guns, and trained artillerymen to man them, were lacking. In other words, the apathy of thirty years had borne its legitimate fruit: the Congressmen of New England—with honorable exceptions, like Senators Hawley and Lodge—while ever willing to exert themselves in favor of "Protection" of the commercial variety, had been sublimely indifferent to their duty in providing protection of another and very vital sort, and their constituents, in consequence, were enabled to enjoy the sensation of a war-scare which was far from being unwarranted. For it did not require a high order of intellect to comprehend that thirty days would not suffice for the accomplishment of the work of ten years—nor, indeed, could any one furnish a satisfactory guarantee of even thirty days' freedom from attack.

THE COAST-DEFENCE PROBLEM IN MASSACHUSETTS

Early in April, when war was imminent, Governor Wolcott, with two officers of his staff, sat down to the study of a war-map of the Massachusetts coast which had been prepared and carefully revised to meet existing conditions. It is no exaggeration to say that this map furnished material for the most serious thought. The map pitilessly showed that from the Merrimac River, on the northern boundary, to the Taunton River, on the southern, there were on navigable waters, open to some of the many forms of naval attack—whether by fleet bombardment, cruiser raid, or torpedo-boat dash—no less than forty-one cities and towns, none with less than one thousand of population, whose inhabitants aggregated one million seventy-seven thousand, or over forty-three per cent. of the population of the State. Furthermore, it appeared that, at a low estimate, the property interests exposed in these towns reached 14the enormous sum of $1,586,775,000—surely a tempting bait for any adventurous naval commander in the service of a desperate and bankrupt enemy.

But the map relentlessly showed more than this: it demonstrated the absolutely defenceless condition of this rich strip of coast. At Boston there were indications of a rudimentary defence; at New Bedford stood the obsolete granite walls of old Fort Rodman; Fall River was protected by the guns at Fort Adams and the batteries at Dutch Island; but elsewhere along the coast there was not to be found even the pretence of preparation for the surely coming war.

The obsolete defenses, however, were not alone in giving cause for grave concern. The question of manning them had to be considered. As a matter of record, there were scattered along the coast from Fort Preble, Me., to Fort Trumbull, Conn., eight batteries—one ("F") a light battery—of the Second Artillery, whose duty-strength on the 16th of April may have been approximately six hundred men. There were but three of these batteries on duty on the Massachusetts 15coast—"C" (Schenck's) and "M" (Richmond's) at Fort Warren; "G" (Niles') at the yet incomplete battery at Long Island Head, Boston Harbor. Where more trained gunners were to be had was problematical. The bill providing for the organization of the Sixth and Seventh Regiments of regular artillery had been passed by Congress as late as March 7th, and these new commands were only in process of evolution. It was not until the 16th of May that the first of the newly raised batteries took station in New England, and even then its standard of efficiency was low, owing to the heavy percentage of recruits in its ranks.

The condition of affairs in Boston Harbor was most interesting. Here was a city with an estimated population of five hundred and fifty thousand; with an assessed valuation of $1,012,750,000; with business interests to be reckoned by daily bank-clearings of $20,000,000; with annual exports and imports of $189,879,839—in short, the second seaport of the country in commercial rank. Naturally it would be expected that the general Government, which hardly could be ignorant of the enormous interests just shown, would have 16made some pretence at giving them adequate protection. But what were the grim facts in the case?

In 1886, the so-called Endicott Board on Fortifications—whose scheme of defence, with some minor modifications, still remains the standard project for the erection of our coast works—recommended an expenditure of $10,910,250 for the defenses of Boston Harbor. This sum covered the cost of guns, mounts, emplacements, submarine mines, and a flotilla of eighteen torpedo-boats for local service. Large as it may seem, it yet represents a levy of but one and seven-hundredths per cent. on the assessed valuation of the property exposed at this port, and furthermore it was intended that its expenditure should be distributed through a period of ten years. How faithfully this programme was carried out by the authorities at Washington may be shown by the following table, in which the first column of figures indicates the number of breech-loading rifles and mortars required by the complete scheme of defence, while the second exhibits those actually mounted for service during the late war:

In other words, of the projected scheme of defence—so far as concerned the main element, gun and mortar fire—there remained to be put into operation the trifling matter of eighty-six per cent.! In twelve years elapsing since the exhaustive report of the Endicott Board, the Congress of the United States had doled out appropriations barely sufficient to complete thirteen and seven-tenths per cent. of the required guns, mounts, and emplacements. The essential matter of the torpedo-boat flotilla had been put calmly aside without even the courtesy of consideration. Funds at the disposal of the Engineers had enabled them, as early as March 1st, to begin the work of submarine mining, but at no time during the war was the complete system of mines installed. And, last of all, when war 18actually had been declared, the garrisons of the three main defensive positions of the harbor—Fort Warren, Long Island Head, and the Mortar Battery at Winthrop—aggregated less than two hundred and fifty officers and men for duty.

MARCHING ORDERS

Well aware of this condition of affairs, Governor Wolcott thought it prudent—even before the actual declaration of war—to have his foot batteries assembled in the vicinity of the guns at which it seemed more than likely that their services soon might be required, and by his direction permission was asked from Washington to send the First Heavy Artillery to Fort Warren, under State orders. This request met with the prompt approval of the Secretary of War, and on Sunday, April 24th, there came to regimental headquarters orders from General Dalton directing the command to "hold itself in readiness for immediate service in the defenses of Boston Harbor."

It hardly need be said that this order caused little surprise to the officers of the regiment. From the day when the naval court of inquiry reported the destruction of the Maine as due to external explosion, until the day that 22marching orders actually came, the command at any time could have reported for duty with full ranks, and on three hours' notice. It is a matter of official record that this regiment, for years, has been held in constant readiness for field service; the "Vigilantia" on the regimental badge has long stood for something more than an empty boast. As a strict matter of fact, though the officers had been convinced that war could not long be averted, there had been but little extra effort made on that account, for but little remained to be done; here and there battery rolls were judiciously weeded, all alarm-lists received final and careful revision—and that substantially was all. On the recommendation of the Military Advisory Board, to be sure, enough recruits had been enrolled to bring the regimental strength up to twelve hundred, and these new men had been faithfully drilled; but, as events proved, this labor was to result in small benefit to the regiment itself, though other commands ultimately profited by it.

Matters now were moving swiftly enough to suit the most impatient, and there were many impatient ones among the officers and 23men of the Old First. On the 23rd of April, President McKinley had issued his call for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers; on the 24th, the regiment had been ordered to hold itself ready for instant response to marching orders; on the 25th, Congress resolved that a state of war then existed—and late in the afternoon of that day came the long-awaited summons to duty.

"Colonel Charles Pfaff, commanding First Regiment Heavy Artillery, First Brigade, M.V.M.," so ran the third paragraph of Special Orders, No. 42, from the office of the Adjutant-General, "will report with his command, fully armed and equipped, to the commanding officer at Fort Warren, for eight days' duty in the defenses of Boston Harbor." An eight days' tour? It was destined to be exactly two hundred and three days before the regiment should be released from the service on which it started under the order signed by General Dalton that afternoon.

Colonel Pfaff was awaiting developments at the State House when the decision was reached to call out the regiment, and the order was given to him direct. Hastening at once back 24to the South Armory, he handed the order to Adjutant Lake, who lost no time in putting in motion the mobilization machinery which for years had been in readiness to meet just such an emergency as this. Quietly and systematically the orders for assembly went out over the telegraph and telephone wires, until, in less than an hour, every officer of the command knew that the end of the long waiting had come. And then the non-commissioned officers passed the word to the men of their squads, while staff officers hurried by rail to the stations of each of the out-lying batteries, to make sure that nothing was omitted in the carrying out of the final orders. Long before midnight, through their reports, the commanding officer knew that his regiment would be ready to march out with full ranks on the following morning. There was little sleep for officers or men; many passed the night in their armories, while those who returned to their homes spent the hours before daylight in making hurried arrangements for an indefinite absence. It would be idle to say that there was no excitement, for each armory was a seething whirlpool of enthusiasm; but in spite of it all, 25matters moved on methodically, and morning found the twelve batteries ready in every respect for the mobilization.

With the early dawn, the batteries of the Third (Bristol-Plymouth) Battalion—years ago christened the "Cape" Battalion—formed at their armories for the march to the trains which were to transport them to Boston. Their departure was the signal for the wildest enthusiasm in their respective cities. In Fall River, Brockton, Taunton, and New Bedford the same scenes were enacted: cheering crowds lined the streets, and the Grand Army veterans, cadet corps of the schools, and civic organizations turned out to escort the departing troops. Very much the same sort of feeling prevailed in Cambridge and Chelsea; but in Boston—though excited crowds gathered about the great South Armory—there was no organized demonstration.

By nine o'clock, the batteries of the First and Second Battalions were assembled in the South Armory, where they were joined, a quarter of an hour later, by those of the Third Battalion, just off their troop-trains. Arms were stacked in the great drill-hall, knapsacks 26were unslung, and ranks were broken for a brief rest, while a travel ration, with hot coffee, was issued to the men, many of whom, in all probability, had been too excited to do full justice to breakfast at their homes.

It was at this time that a fact developed which—though overlooked in the rush of events at the time—must be placed on record now to the credit of the regiment. It must be recalled that definite orders for assembly were received late on the afternoon of the 25th, and that the men reported to their commands almost at daybreak on the 26th; recalling this, it certainly should give cause for just pride to the friends of the regiment, as well as to those who in the past have labored long and untiringly for the efficiency of the militia of Massachusetts, that in this emergency over ninety-nine per cent. of the regimental strength answered at morning roll-call, and reported for whatever service might be forthcoming. The commissioned and enlisted strength, under the State organization, aggregated seven hundred and ninety-three. The morning reports handed to the adjutant, during the short rest before the regiment took up its 27march towards the wharves, showed fifty officers and seven hundred and thirty-six enlisted men present, with only seven enlisted men absent—and of the latter, all were satisfactorily accounted for by reason of sickness or absence from the State. Much has been said during the past few months of the unreliability of militia in grave national emergencies, and it unfortunately is too true that in many States the records of the late war have tended to give force to such charges, but let it be remembered in Massachusetts, so long as there exists a First Regiment in its military establishment, that when a sudden call came, to meet what was felt to be a very real danger, the absentees when assembly was sounded numbered less than nine-tenths of one per cent. of the strength borne upon the regimental rolls.

Soon after ten o'clock, the regiment formed in line of masses. The regimental colors were brought from the colonel's quarters, and were received with three hearty cheers. Then the battalions stood at attention while Chaplain Horton earnestly addressed the men on the significance of the day's events. At the close 28of his remarks the regiment broke into column of detachments, the heavy doors of the armory swung wide, and the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery—literally the first militia regiment in the country to come to the assistance of the general Government—marched out for the war, with its band at the head of the column playing the time-honored "March of The First."

OFF FOR ACTIVE SERVICE

It was a raw, gloomy day. A drizzling rain fell at intervals, and the pavements were slippery with mud. The batteries paraded in heavy marching order—knapsack, haversack, canteen, and mess-kit—and wore great-coats and leggings. The line of march was: Irvington Street, Huntington Avenue, Copley Square, Boylston Street, Berkeley Street, Beacon Street, School Street, Washington Street, State Street, Broad Street, to Rowe's Wharf. In spite of the inclement weather, the streets were crowded, and it seemed that the whole population of Boston had turned out to give the regiment a fitting farewell. The women were particularly enthusiastic. At one place on the line of march an elderly woman leaned far out of a window, as the regimental colors were being borne past, and cried to the men in the throng on the sidewalk below, "Take off your hats; take off your hats! I'm ashamed of you!" The wide 32granite steps of the Institute of Technology were densely packed with students, who cheered lustily as the batteries, with not a few graduates and undergraduates of the school in their ranks, swung by before them.

At the State House there came another ovation. On the same spot where Governor Andrew, on the 25th of May, 1864, had welcomed back the regiment on its return from three glorious years of service with the Army of the Potomac, stood Governor Wolcott, with the officers of his staff, to speed the Old First on its way to yet another war. There was little ceremony; there was no oratory—but the moment, none the less, was impressive. On the one hand, as the long column took its way over the hill, was the grand bronze memorial to Shaw and his heroic men, mutely eloquent of duty done and history made; on the other, as mutely eloquent of duty yet to be performed and history yet to be written, was the Governor of the Commonwealth, erect and motionless, standing uncovered under the lowering sky as his troops, with his own son a private in the ranks, tramped steadily past in parting review.

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Copyrighted photograph by T. E. Marr, Boston.

RESPONDING TO THE CALL.

Governor Wolcott reviewing the Regiment, 26th April, 1898.

35On School Street, and again on State Street, the regiment was loyally welcomed. In spite of slippery and treacherous pavements, alignments and distances were well maintained, and the batteries marched with the long, swinging step for which the command always has been noted, though the unequal platoonfronts due to the detachment formation of foot artillery gave an odd effect to the column. All through the business district the applause and cheering were continuous, and it was almost with a sense of relief that the regiment finally boarded its transport, the steamer General Lincoln, and escaped from the patriotic uproar. But even here a parting cheer was heard, for the men of the Naval Brigade, on board the Minnesota, came swarming from below in their white uniforms, and strained their throats in fraternal desire to start the regiment fittingly on its way to the outer harbor-works.

With the regimental staff paraded Colonel Richard H. Morgan, A.I.G. (formerly major commanding the Third Battalion), who had been detailed to accompany the command as inspecting officer, and Lieutenant Erasmus 36M. Weaver, Second United States Artillery (later lieutenant-colonel, Fifth Massachusetts Infantry, U.S.V., and now captain in the regular artillery), who for the year previous had been attached to the regiment as instructor in coast artillery work, and to whose untiring efforts the regiment owed much for its efficiency. The field, staff, and line officers of the command on this date were as noted in the following roster—the sequence of battalions and batteries being that in which column was formed for parade:

1st Lieut. Charles H. Lake, Adjutant; 1st Lieut. John S. Keenan, Quartermaster; Major Howard S. Dearing, Surgeon; 1st Lieut. William A. Rolfe, Assistant Surgeon; 1st Lieut. Horace B. Parker, Paymaster; 1st Lieut. John B. Paine, Inspector Rifle Practice; 1st Lieut. Horatio Hathaway, Jr., Signal Officer; 1st Lieut. Joseph S. Francis, Range Officer; 1st Lieut. George S. Stockwell, Aide-de-Camp; Rev. Edward A. Horton, Chaplain.

The Non-Commissioned Staff and Headquarters' attachés were the following: Sergeant-Major William D. Huddleson; Quartermaster-Sergeant Edward E. Chapman; Hospital Steward George Y. Sawyer; Paymaster-Sergeant George R. Russell; Drum Major James F. Clark; Chief Bugler Frederick A. H. Bennett; Color-Sergeants Axel T. Tornrose and Horace N. Conn; Orderly Samuel Weiss; Bandmaster Frank L. Collins.

Almost exactly at noontide, and while the cheers of the artillerymen in response to those of their brethren of the Naval Brigade still were echoing across the water, the General Lincoln cast off her lines, and, amid ear-piercing salutes from every vessel provided with steam enough to start a whistle-valve, ran down the channel between Forts Winthrop and Independence, on her course for Fort 40Warren. In passing out of the upper harbor, the transport ran close to the great British cable-steamer Minia, whose crew swarmed at her rail and yelled their enthusiastic approval of the proceedings, while high on her bridge her officers lifted their caps in acknowledgment of the answering roar from the men in blue. And then, at a sharp order from the bridge, a petty officer ran aft on the Minia, and the red ensign of England was thrice dipped by way of wishing luck to the Yankee volunteers. It was a pleasant incident, as well as one not without significance, and the men of the regiment promptly appropriated it as a good omen.

Once more the Old First Regiment of Massachusetts was off for service. Thirty-seven years earlier, on May 27th, 1861, it had completed its muster into the volunteer army of the United States, leaving Boston on June 15th, and proceeding at once to Washington, where it had the high honor of being the first of the three-years' regiments to report, armed and equipped, for duty. Since that time the changes had been many; officers and men had come and gone; batteries had been transferred, 41disbanded, or reorganized, until there remained but six out of the twelve ("B," "D," "E," "G," "H," and "K") whose records showed service in the previous war, while of these only three ("D," "G," and "H") had campaigned with the old War First from '61 to '64. But through all the vicissitudes of over a third of a century the traditions and spirit of the early days had been reverently cherished and kept sacred, until now, when the latest call had come, the young men whose pride it was that they bore the veteran name and number were again first in ready response to the summons.

Sheltering themselves as best they could from the biting wind, for the cabins could accommodate but a portion of the regiment, the men prepared to make the best of their hour's trip down the harbor. They were in the highest of spirits, for the orders to move had come as a relief to the previous strain of waiting for the expected to happen. The singing men promptly got to work, while the rest either listened, or, true to the immemorial trait of the newly enrolled volunteer, started cheers for every passing craft. Meanwhile the colonel 42had assembled his battalion and battery commanders to receive their final instructions looking towards the comfort of the men when the fort should be reached.

The regiment had been hurriedly called out, and at an inclement season of the year, but its officers felt that it was fairly ready, so far as equipment went, for any service that might be expected in the immediate future. In the matter of small-arms there was little to be desired, since an issue of the latest model Springfield rifle—fresh from the national armory, and in perfect condition—had been made during the winter previous. Uniforms and great-coats, if lacking in smartness, were at least serviceable. Many batteries owned their blankets, and in addition to these there was on hand a full supply for the regiment, both woolen and rubber, which only awaited issue. The medical department had well-filled chests, with the necessary equipment and furniture for a small field hospital. Each battery had started from its station with full travel rations for forty-eight hours, which would tide over the interval required to set in operation a consolidated regimental mess. Several cases of 43heavy shoes had been ordered, to have at hand in case delay should be experienced in filling requisitions for foot-gear. There were on hand twelve thousand rounds of small-arm ammunition—not enough to go far in an infantry fight, but sufficient for supplying the belts of sentries and patrol-boat crews at a coast fort.

Considered as a whole, and more especially in contrast with the wretchedly found commands sent into the field by most other States, the regiment certainly was in efficient and serviceable condition; it had the material necessary for taking care of itself, and, better still, its officers and men were self-reliant and capable. The only cause for uneasiness lay in the matter of quarters. On the New England coast, and at this time of year, the use of canvas for sheltering volunteer troops, just called from their homes and yet unseasoned, seemed unadvisable; arrangements, therefore, had been made by General Dalton for the use of the portable houses owned by the City of Boston, and employed as polling-booths at the municipal elections, and it was understood that something over fifty of these had been erected on the 44parade at Fort Warren, in readiness for the coming of the regiment. In this expectation, however, the commanding officer was destined to meet disappointment.

THE REGIMENT AT FORT WARREN

Shortly after one o'clock, the transport drew alongside the pier at Fort Warren, and the batteries disembarked and formed in column, with the field music at the head. Then the regiment marched up from the pier, in through the main sallyport, and on to the parade, where line of masses was formed, arms were stacked and knapsacks unslung, preparatory to the work of getting the baggage up from the transport and settling down in quarters. And here the regiment was treated to an unwelcome surprise. The rain-proof wooden village which it had expected to find waiting for its occupancy had not yet come into existence; over by the main magazine stood two or three lonely booths, but the rest of the cantonment still remained piled in disjoined pieces on the lighters lying at the pier. To be sure, a delegation from the institution at Deer Island was engaged in giving a half-hearted imitation of a working detail, but it 48was obvious to the most obtuse that the coming of night would find the task of village-building hardly begun—and this led the seven hundred men standing at ease behind the line of stacks on the soggy parade ground, and lunching in the cold, drizzling rain, on hardtack and canned beef, to make philosophical comments on the horrors of war in general, and of this war in particular.

But the time allowed for this innocent pastime was brief. Battery by battery, details were told off for pack-train duty, and in a very short time an endless chain of men circulated between the pier and the parade, filing empty-handed through the little postern in the northwestern bastion, and returning by way of the main sallyport, heavy laden with roof and wall sections. Even the wearied men in brown from Deer Island—who promptly had been christened by the batterymen the "Third Corps of Cadets"—seemed to catch the spirit of the occasion, and showed more animation in putting one foot before the other. And it was here that the regiment added to its repertoire a new version of an old song, with the merry refrain:

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Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.

15-INCH RODMANS, FORT WARREN.

Gun-laying Practice on Outward-bound Steamship.

51By night, there had been enough house-building accomplished for the sheltering of four batteries. The rest of the men stowed themselves in odd corners of the fort, large numbers bunking with their friends the regulars, and many picking out soft spots on the floor of the post recreation-room and gymnasium. As a matter of fact, it was four days before the entire command was settled in quarters—wet, windy days at that—lack of working tools for putting the houses together delaying the completion of the task. But when the village finally stood finished, it was a model village indeed—with a city hall, as exemplified by the office of the adjutant; a city hospital, in the shape of the surgeon's red cross shanty; eight straight, though narrow, streets, with six houses in each; and last, if far from least, a fire department, consisting of two hose-reels manned by detachments from "I" and "L" Batteries, with Captains Williamson and Whiting serving as the Board of Engineers. Later there was added a 52banquet hall, in the shape of a huge mess-tent, which loomed up grandly in fair weather, but tumbled ignominiously into the mud on the stormy days when it was most needed; but in the early days, officers and men took their rations as best they could, in the stuffy casemate of the gymnasium or amid the gloom of the "Dark Arch." And it may be said here that the messing problem was not a matter for easy solution, since the crowded condition of the fort made it impossible for the batteries to cook with their Buzzacot outfits, while the fixed kitchen appliances used by the regulars were inadequate for rationing a garrison of over nine hundred men. The question was finally settled, however, by employing a contractor to provide a general mess for the regiment, and this method was followed in the rationing of the command until it was broken up and sent to its various coast stations, late in May.

If the enlisted men were not luxuriously quartered in the early days at Fort Warren, the commissioned officers certainly were not much better off. The colonel, with his fourteen field and staff officers, went to housekeeping 53in three rooms in the second casemate to the eastward of the sallyport, while the first casemate to the westward found its eight rooms well populated with the thirty-five officers of the line. The room assigned to the lieutenant-colonel, the three majors, and the surgeon was a type of garrison luxury. It was lighted and aired by three narrow musketry loopholes, which afforded a somewhat monotonous view of the main ditch and sodded slope of the northern cover-face, while its contracted area was taken up in part by five cots, as many fieldchests, and a variable number of camp-stools. But it had an open grate, in which a coal fire was always glowing, and on the nights when the rain drove down upon the muddy parade, or the impenetrable fog swept over the ramparts, it was far from lacking in comfort. As a matter of fact, the enlisted men were extremely well provided for, since each house in the battery streets ultimately was equipped with a coal stove and with lamps in plenty, while volunteer ingenuity was not long in providing bunks, arm-racks, and cupboards. As a rule, there were about fifteen men, under 54the proper non-commissioned officers, quartered in each shack, an allowance which gave ample space.

When the command reported at the fort, it was in excellent condition so far as concerned its health, and its officers purposed to keep it so. It is worth noting that on the day after its arrival, in spite of the fatigue, exposure, and excitement attendant upon its departure from home, there was not a single response at morning surgeon's call, which was nothing less than remarkable when it is recalled that here were over seven hundred and fifty men, fresh from office, shop, and factory, who had slept in damp uniforms, and in most uncomfortable quarters. This good record in the matter of health was maintained to the end of the regiment's term of service, and that it was so maintained is due to more than mere chance. Rigid rules, rigidly enforced, were laid down for camp sanitary matters, and minute inspections were daily made by both battalion and battery commanders, while the medical officers were alert and untiring in looking to the welfare of the men. The trying and unseasonable weather of late April 55and early May, together with the heavy details brought under exposure on guard and patrol duty, resulted in some sickness, but at no time was the hospital list unduly large. In its service of over six months there was but one death in the regiment, and this casualty occurred in the case of a man who contracted scarlet fever, and died while on mustering-out furlough. All through the summer the regiment improved in health and physique, and when finally it returned from the field it was in the pink of condition for further service. In justice to the officers of the command, this point cannot be unduly emphasized: the general condemnation of volunteer officers, so common since the close of the war, admits of certain sharply defined qualifications. While no estimate yet can be made of the dimensions of the pension bill for 1898, which finally will confront the country, it may be stated as an assured fact that the taxpayers need worry little over the item in the account chargeable to the First Massachusetts.

A PERIOD OF SUSPENSE

While the work of settling the regiment at its new station was in progress, its officers found themselves confronted by a new and serious cause for apprehension. Up to the time of arriving at the fort, there had been a marked lack of definite information as to the future service of the command. Only two facts seemed assured: that the President had called for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers, and that the hurried ordering out of the First had been in partial answer to that call. Before the enthusiasm attending the prompt assembly of the regiment had died away, there came to Fort Warren a bit of news which literally dumbfounded its officers and men. Word was received from the State House that General Corbin, in assigning the quota of Massachusetts, had made requisition for four regiments of infantry, and but three batteries of heavy artillery!

The effect of this announcement may be 60better imagined than described. Here was a regiment which since 1882 had received desultory instruction in artillery work, and since 1892 had devoted itself seriously to the study of the duties of this arm; year by year it had improved in discipline and gained in efficiency until its officers and men, beyond any doubt or question, were fully capable of serving intelligently and well the secondary armament—even if not the most modern ordnance—in any works on the coast; it had annually, in its encampments, been brought into contact with regulars, and had become thoroughly familiar with the surroundings of permanent fortifications; moreover, it was the only regiment of militia heavy artillery in the entire country—and yet a single telegram from Washington threatened to overthrow the work of long years, and to destroy by a stroke of the pen an organization to whose up-building patriotic men unselfishly had given their time, their money, and their most earnest effort.

It hardly need be said that on the receipt of this intelligence the officers of the regiment, from the Chief to the last subaltern, passed through the successive stages of astonishment, 61humiliation, and bitter chagrin, to a final condition of supreme disgust. It seemed evident that the First Massachusetts, after its half-century of honorable service in peace and war, either had been forgotten, or else was destined to be entirely ignored. The action of the War Department seemed inexplicable under the circumstances. The country suddenly had become involved in a war in which attacks on its coast cities were possible, if not imminent; while wofully lacking in trained troops of all arms, it stood most distressingly in need of garrison artillery; Massachusetts, alone among the States, was ready and waiting to offer a regiment of fairly disciplined and fairly trained artillerymen—and was called upon for but three batteries! And this, it should be noted, in the face of an exigency which compelled the Commanding Officer of the Department of the East (General Orders, No. 21, 6th June, 1898) to issue such instructions as these: "In case the regular artillery troops at any post are not sufficient properly to man all the guns, the commanding officer will apply for such officers, companies, or details from the infantry supports, to be assigned to these duties, as may 62be necessary. At fortifications where no artillery troops are stationed, the post commander will select such companies or number of troops as shall be necessary, and assign them to that duty." It is a matter of record that such assignments had to be made, and that the raw troops used for the purpose not only were absolutely useless as artillerists, but even, in some instances, proved themselves incapable of properly caring for the expensive artillery material placed under their control.

63

Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.

FIELD AND MACHINE GUN BATTERY.

For Defence of Submarine Mines, Fort Warren.

65The War Department should not have been in ignorance of the existence of this regiment, or of its condition of comparative efficiency. Yearly, from 1892 to 1897, reports upon its progress had been compiled by Colonel Miller, of the Third United States Artillery, and by Colonel Kline, of the Twenty-first United States Infantry—both of whom, to the satisfaction of those in the Massachusetts service, since have become general officers—and these reports had shown uniform commendation of the conscientious work that was being done. In 1896 Colonel Kline reported: "With this year's work, Massachusetts has a corps (the First Regiment) for coast-defence. Should an emergency arise necessitating the immediate reënforcement of Fort Warren, the whole of this fine regiment could in twenty-four hours be sent to the post, and would now be of invaluable service." And in his report for 1897, submitted at a time when war was almost in sight, he repeated with added emphasis his comment of the preceding year: "The Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, recognizing the advisability of a coast-defence reserve, promptly legislated the transfer of one of the infantry regiments (First) for this duty. The wisdom of this legislation cannot be questioned. Under adverse conditions the regiment has labored; without the means of receiving proper instruction, save such as could be given by officers when released from their duties, given freely and unstintedly, yet they have succeeded in fitting the organization as a reserve force that could now be of invaluable service." In both these extracts the italics are those found in the original report, as printed by the Military Information Division at Washington.

Apparently the emergency requiring the immediate reënforcement of Fort Warren had 66arrived; in less than twenty hours from the time orders reached the men, the regiment had reported at the post, armed, uniformed, rationed, and equipped; officers and men stood ready to render the invaluable services for which an inspecting officer of the Government had declared them fit—and yet now, at a time when hastily raised and untrained infantry was to be thrown headlong into artillery posts, there came word from Washington that the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, as an organization, would receive no consideration as a part of the volunteer army of the United States.

It was small wonder that this verdict was received with something very like consternation. If it could not be reversed, the destruction of the regiment was certain. For years the men had been schooled in the belief that they were in fact, if not in name, essentially a part of the army of the United States; every enlistment had been made on the understanding that in time of peace faithful service was to be rendered to Massachusetts, in time of war, to the United States. The splendid esprit de corps of the command had been carefully 67built up upon this supposition, and the men had been taught to believe that the hard training to which they were subjected was intended to fit them for something more than mere parade and ceremony, for something beyond possible riot duty—in short, for something no less serious than the defence of their country in the hour of need.

All this was at once made known to Governor Wolcott, who instantly appreciated the disastrous effect of the proposed action, and set himself to the task of finding a remedy. By his direction, Colonel Sohier, A.D.C., of his staff, hurried on to Washington, where by personal effort he succeeded in securing a reversal of the decision first made by General Corbin, who not only accepted the regiment as then organized, but even further directed that its term of service should date from April 26th—thus officially recognizing the command as first in the field for the war. The regimental pay-rolls subsequently were made up from this date, and officers and men were paid accordingly.

But though Colonel Sohier was successful in his mission so far as concerned saving the 68regiment for the national service, it was found impossible to secure permission to recruit the command to war strength, for the absurd reason that to do so would exceed the quota of volunteers allotted to Massachusetts. From a purely technical point of view, this decision seems inexplicable. There was crying need, at the time, for garrison artillery, while it was not expected that any serious demands would be made upon the infantry of the army before autumn; why, then, the proportion was not maintained by recruiting the First, and accepting one of the regiments of Massachusetts infantry temporarily on its peace strength, must always remain beyond the comprehension of those unfortunate enough to have had a professional knowledge of the coast-defence conditions prevailing at the opening of the late war.

FROM "M.V.M." TO "U.S.V."

The regiment was saved. Furthermore, it was actually, if not legally, in the service of the United States. But there yet remained certain complex processes which had to be gone through with before the "U.S.V." should supplant the "M.V.M." By a pleasant legal fiction, it had to be assumed that the militia regiment which had set out for Fort Warren had been lost somewhere en route, and that it had become imperatively necessary to raise a new regiment to take its place in the volunteer service. All this, of course, was but the most utter rubbish—and rubbish which under easily supposable conditions might prove dangerous—yet the obsolete militia laws which Congress has left upon the statute books, unaltered for nearly a century, made its observance necessary. General Dalton therefore (Special Orders, No. 45, 29th April) gravely issued instructions for the formation of the new regiment, though oddly enough he neglected 72the matter of making inquiries as to what had become of the old one. These instructions were brief and to the point: "Colonel Charles Pfaff, having been designated to command a volunteer regiment of heavy artillery, under the call of the President of the United States, will cause the enrolment of such officers and men as may volunteer in such regiment, and will cause to be prepared the necessary papers for muster into service of such volunteers, by Major Carle A. Woodruff, commanding at Fort Warren."

This order meant two things for the officers of the First. It required a final and most careful revision of the battery rolls, and a last searching scrutiny by the medical officers of the physical condition of the rank and file. Of these two requirements, the first was by far the most important. Had the regiment been formed in line, and the order been given for volunteers to step to the front, there can be no question that the command would have responded to the last man. But it was exactly this sort of thing that the officers wished to avoid. The regiment was about to enter upon a two-years' term of service, 73and its officers felt it their duty to discourage the enlistment of all whose families or dependents would suffer undue hardship should that term prove necessary. It was felt that any public call for volunteers would place men in false positions—as such procedure actually did in many States—and it was decided quietly to inquire into the merits of each individual case, refusing such men as could not show that their entry into the service would not work material injury either to themselves or to others. By adhering to this rule, the regiment lost a small percentage of the strength with which it went out, but the drain was easily made good by draft from the eager recruits who had been left behind. Better still, the men rejected for these reasons were enabled to retain their self-respect, and they left for their homes with the sympathy and good-will of their late comrades.

The task of the two medical officers was a trying one. Day after day they labored at the monotonous physical examinations, until they practically became worn out. Including recruits drafted to fill the vacant places made by rejections for business and family reasons 74or physical deficiencies, they were obliged to pass upon the qualifications of nearly nine hundred officers and men. It should be recorded, to the credit of the battery commanders as recruiting officers, that rejections for physical causes were few and far between, the rigid examination finding but one officer and fifteen men—a surprisingly small number—unfit for duty. General sympathy was felt for those sent away by the surgeons, for without exception they were men whose desire to go out with the regiment was of the keenest.

But during all the uncertainty as to the final disposition of the regiment, as well as while the work of transferring it from the militia to the volunteer service was in progress, the garrison duty for which it had been so hastily summoned was not neglected for a moment. On the 27th of April, the day after the command reported at the fort, the batteries had been assigned to their fighting-stations, and steady drill at the guns had begun. The drill was no light matter; excluding the ceremonies of guard-mounting and evening parade, the regimental order called for four hours and a half daily of solid work at the heavy guns, and 75that work was performed with an energy never shown at the annual tours of instruction in time of peace. On the many days when weather conditions kept the men from the parapets, schools of instruction were held in quarters, for the study of guard duty, of army regulations, and other matters of the sort. By April 30th, the regimental signal corps, made up of twelve non-commissioned officers and thirty-six privates, under the signal officer with an assistant, had been fully organized, and was steadily employed in wig-wagging. On May 1st, the light regimental guard mounted during the first few days of the tour was replaced by a strong guard of two officers with fifty-seven non-commissioned officers and privates. From these, details were made for the patrol-boat crews, and reliefs were furnished for the chain of posts by which the island was surrounded.

With the assignment to gun-stations, the organization of the garrison on a fighting-basis stood completed. The two regular batteries—"C" (Schenck's) and "M" (Richmond's)—were stationed at the 10-inch, breech-loading, disappearing rifles mounted in 76Bastion B and in the Ravelin Battery; with them, for purposes of instruction, and to furnish reliefs if required, were four batteries of the volunteers, "A" (Bordman's), "C" (Nutter's), "I" (Williamson's), and "L" (Whiting's). To the 8-inch converted rifles on the eastern face of the fort, commanding the main ship channel, were assigned four more batteries of the First, "B" (Lombard's), "F" (Danforth's), "K" (Howes'), and "M" (Braley's). The 15-inch Rodman guns, mounted in barbette on Bastion A, were manned by "G" (Chick's) and "H" (Pratt's) Batteries. "E" Battery (Gibbs') was told off for the 8-inch converted rifles in the casemate battery of Bastion A, while "D" Battery (Frothingham's) was assigned to the machine-gun section, made up of Hotchkiss and Gatling guns.

Variety in artillery work certainly was not lacking, for the men of the regiment found themselves called upon to handle every type of ordnance, from the ponderous modern rifle, on its complex mount, to the spiteful Gatling, destined to spit its fire at prowling torpedo-boats or chance landing parties. Nor was the 77drill in the manual of the piece all that was required: attention had to be given to magazine-work, mechanical manœuvres, and the use of cordage, while range and position finding were not neglected. "K" and "L" Batteries also obtained a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of the use of garrison-gin and sling-cart by moving from the fort to the pier certain spare 8-inch converted rifles, for shipment to other points on the coast—a task which they performed promptly and with credit to their earlier training in the handling of heavy weights. Infantry drill was not entirely neglected, and daily marching manœuvres and setting-up exercises were relied upon to keep the men in form, while steadiness under arms was taught at each evening parade.

Meanwhile progress in the preparations for the muster of the regiment into the service of the United States had not been delayed. Colonel H. E. Converse, A.Q.M.G., assisted by Colonel F. B. Stevens, A.D.C., had been on duty at the post, representing the State in the final settlement of property accountability on the part of the battery commanders, and as the result of their labors the title to the arms and 78equipments of the regiment was passed to the general Government. The physical examinations had been concluded, and recruits had been received for all vacancies. Muster-rolls and all other papers were ready on Saturday, May 7th, and on the evening of that day Colonel Pfaff reported his command as prepared for the mustering-in ceremony. It was first proposed to have this take place on Sunday, but on second thought it was considered better to defer it until the following day—which, as it proved, resulted in giving to "K" Company, of the Second Massachusetts Infantry, the honor of being the first command in the State to complete its actual muster.

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BVT. LIEUT.-COL. CARLE A. WOODRUFF, U.S.A.

(Major 2d Artillery.)

Mustering-in Officer for the Regiment.

81Contrary to the prevailing rule, Monday, the 9th of May, proved to be a sunny and pleasant day. Early in the morning, the regiment was formed in its battery streets, in readiness for its entry into the volunteer army. Promptly at eight o'clock, Major Carle A. Woodruff, Second United States Artillery, commanding the post, and with it the other defenses of Boston Harbor, took his station before regimental headquarters, in readiness for the ceremony. The regiment felt itself honored by his detail as its mustering-officer: a typical American soldier, he had received the brevets of captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious services at Gettysburg, at Trevillian Station, and during the Civil War as a whole, while he also had been decorated with the medal of honor for distinguished gallantry in action at Newby's Cross Roads. He had been closely identified with the regiment since its change from the infantry to the artillery arm, and its officers held him in the warmest esteem.

It had been arranged that the batteries should be mustered in the order of the seniority of their captains, and thus the first command to march across the parade was "M" under veteran Captain Braley, who was responding for the second time to the call of his country in time of war. His appearance before the mustering officer was the signal for a round of applause from the group of staff officers gathered at headquarters. In a very few minutes both he and his command had ceased to be militiamen, and had become United States Volunteers—to be followed rapidly by the other eleven batteries of the regiment. As a 82matter of record, it was exactly 9.34 A.M. when Colonel Woodruff finished administering the oath to the field, staff, and non-commissioned staff officers, thus completing the muster of the regiment. Everything had moved with the regularity of clock-work, and in but little over an hour and a half more than seven hundred and fifty officers and men had answered to their names as called from the muster-rolls, and had sworn to serve the United States faithfully and well for the two years to come.

In this connection the statement made in the newspaper history of the Second Massachusetts Infantry must be corrected. It is but a minor point, of course, yet soldiers are wont to be jealously tenacious on minor points affecting their own records. "This regiment," writes the historian of the Second, "was the first to be mustered into the service of the United States, the first to leave Massachusetts, the first to invade Cuba—the first of our regiments to enter the actualities of war." As a strict matter of record, the Second Infantry was mobilized at Framingham on May 3rd, where it completed its muster-in (though "K" Company had been mustered on May 8th) on 83May 10th. The First Artillery entered the United States service as militia on April 26th, dating its pay-rolls from that day, and had been mustered complete before 10 o'clock in the forenoon of May 9th. It was the first militia regiment in the service; it became the first volunteer regiment in the service. In contending for this recognition it certainly does not seek to rob the Second of its hard-won laurels, for the First and Second, brigaded together for long years, always have been firm friends, though strong rivals. Chained in its posts along shore, the First yet watched with interest and admiration the career of the men from western Massachusetts, and in their trials and triumphs in far-away Cuba their hearts would have warmed could they have heard the verdict of their brethren of the First—"Well done, Second Massachusetts!"

PERSONNEL OF THE REGIMENT

On the completion of the mustering-in there came an incident which was characteristic of the spirit of the First. Since all of the volunteer commissions due the regiment would bear the same date, it was evident that a decision must be made to settle questions of seniority. Army regulations prescribe that lots shall be drawn in cases similar to this, and, had this legalized lottery been held, there was a tempting chance that the officer of less than a year's commissioned service might find himself out-ranking another who had served faithfully in the militia for years in a like grade. To the everlasting credit of the regiment, its officers declined to avail themselves of this opportunity for unearned advancement, and by their wish the first general order issued from headquarters of the newly-made volunteer regiment published a roster of the command, determining the rank and precedence in the several grades, as established by previous service in the militia of Massachusetts.

88As mustered into the volunteer service, the regiment was officered as follows:

The non-commissioned staff, as finally mustered in, was made up of Sergt.-Maj. William D. Huddleson, Q.M.-Sergt. Edward E. Chapman, Hospital Stewards George Y. Sawyer, Ira B. Phillips, Thomas White, Principal Musicians James F. Clark and Frederick A. H. Bennett. Of the old non-commissioned staff, Paymaster-Sergt. George R. Russell and 90Color-Sergt. Axel T. Tornrose, whose militia grades were not recognized in the volunteer service, refused to be left behind, and proved their devotion to the regiment by enlisting as privates. The regimental band, as well as the corps of field musicians attached to headquarters under the militia organization, could not be mustered, and until the close of its term of service the regiment was obliged to rest satisfied with the music of its battery buglers, save for the short period at Framingham prior to going on furlough, when the thoughtfulness of the State authorities allowed the band to rejoin.

91

Photograph by T. E. Marr, Boston.

FIELD, STAFF, AND LINE OFFICERS.

93Under the terms on which the mustering of the regiment had been ordered by the War Department, it entered the service with forty-eight commissioned officers and seven hundred and three enlisted men, an aggregate for duty of seven hundred and fifty-one. In its personnel the command was exceptionally fortunate. Of its officers, twenty-five per cent. were college bred, while in its ranks were to be found representatives of nearly every college and technical school in New England. In machinists, electricians, and skilled mechanics—the sort of material without which an artillery command never can attain its full efficiency—the regiment was encouragingly strong. A newspaper sketch of the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, recently published, gives a roll of twenty-one Harvard men who served in that command, and accompanies it with this comment: "Harvard University contributed her quota to the army last summer, and the Sixth had as many of her sons in the ranks as any regiment in the service." It is perhaps worth noting, though it hardly need be a matter for controversy, that no less than thirty-four graduates and undergraduates of the Cambridge University went out with the First, of whom nine were commissioned officers, while the remainder served faithfully and with credit as enlisted men. It is a matter for regret that statistics relating to men from other colleges who served in the regiment are not available, but it may be of interest to record here the Harvard roll, which may be considered approximately complete:

Commissioned officers: James A. Frye (1886), major; John Bordman, Jr. (1894), captain; John B. Paine (1891), first lieutenant 94and range officer; E. Dwight Fullerton (1898), first lieutenant; William A. Rolfe (M.S., 1890), first lieutenant and assistant surgeon; William S. Bryant (1884), first lieutenant and assistant surgeon, later promoted major and brigade surgeon, and assigned to Seventh Corps; Albert A. Gleason (1886), second lieutenant; Sumner Paine (1890), second lieutenant; Joseph S. Francis (1897), second lieutenant.

Enlisted men: Louis H. Brittin (L.S.S., 1901), corporal, "A"; Arthur H. Howard (1898), corporal, "A"; Edward D. Powers (1898), corporal, "A"; Ralph W. Black (1886), private, "K"; Edward A. Bumpus (1898), private, "A," later appointed second lieutenant, Twenty-first United States Infantry; John Corbett (temporary student), private, "B"; Charles W. Cutler (1898), private, "A"; Eugene H. Douglass (1898), private, "A"; Howard B. Grose (1901), private, "K"; Frederick Heilig (1897), private, "A"; Edwin B. Holt (1896), private, "A"; Benjamin Kaufman (1900), private, "D"; Charles H. Keene (1898), private, "A"; James L. Knox (1898), private, "A"; John 95F. McGrath (1895), private, "A"; Moses I. Reuben (1889), private, "K"; George R. Russell (temporary student), private, "K"; Francis R. Stoddard, Jr. (1899), private, "A"; Harry C. Strong (1899), private, "K"; Edward A. Thurston (temporary student, L.S.), private, "M"; Calvin S. Tilden (1898), private, "A"; John A. White (1896), private, "B"; Charles H. Williams (L.S.S., 1900), private, "A"; Francis C. Wilson (1898), private, "A"; Roger Wolcott, Jr. (1898), private, "A."

THE SEASON OF RUMORS

These were stirring times for the regiment. It was the period of rumors—of rumors that at any time might develop into realities. In order to obtain an adequate idea of the atmosphere in which the command then lived, it would be necessary to turn to the files of the newspapers for the early spring of 1898, and make a classified list of the Spanish naval bugaboos daily appearing in their columns. One odd coincidence is well worth recalling, as showing that all the misapprehensions were not confined to our own cities. On the evening of April 26th, the day on which the regiment reported at Fort Warren, mass meetings were held at Portsmouth and New Bedford, to protest against the utter disregard shown by the Government for the defenses at those points—and on that very night there was given in Havana a public banquet to celebrate the bombardment of Boston, of which rumors had spread in that 100city! Spook fleets were common in those days, and the men of the First, happily forgetful of the fact that they were manning obsolete works, armed for the most part with obsolete ordnance, and, worst of all, wofully short of ammunition, daily hoped that the spook cruisers might materialize into ships of steel. What little time was left from their duties they employed in pitying their less fortunate comrades in inland camps, whom they considered hopelessly out of the game of coastwise attack and defence which was expected to begin at any time.

And all this speculation, as a matter of fact, was not so wild as it now may seem. It was known that the Spanish torpedo flotilla had rendezvoused at the Cape Verde Islands on March 24th, where it was joined on April 14th by the Infanta Maria Teresa and Cristobal Colon, and later, on the 20th, by the Vizcaya and Almirante Oquendo. On the 22d of April this formidable squadron was ordered to sea, and on the 29th it sailed—to a destination then unknown to any one on this side of the Atlantic. During the four anxious weeks that followed, this threatening 101fleet was lost to sight; and throughout this month of uncertainty, as Spears, the historian of the Navy in its latest war, rightly says, "Not only was it a mysterious squadron in its movements: to a large part of our along-shore population it was positively fearsome. And there was good reason, when the makeup of the squadron only is considered, for vigilance, if not for alarm, in our more weakly fortified harbors. Where it would make a landfall was a question, for the whole United States coast was, in a way, open to attack."

An added element of uncertainty was to be found in the announcement made by Sagasta, on April 24th: "The Spanish Government, reserving its right to grant letters of marque, will at present confine itself to organizing, with the vessels of the mercantile marine, a force of auxiliary cruisers, which will coöperate with the navy, according to the needs of the campaign, and will be under naval control." It was believed that Spain, in accordance with this policy, had taken and armed a number of able, sea-going steamers, and the legitimate inference was that they were to be employed in attacks on our commerce, or in sudden descents 102upon our open ports, rather than in fights with our own cruisers.

As a matter of fact, during the months of May and June, the people dwelling along the coast were much in the condition of the small boy who is troubled by "seein' things at night," and apparently the masters of incoming vessels were laboring under a like affliction. A very careful record of the Spanish apparitions by which the coast was haunted at this time was kept by an officer of the First, and to read it at this late day is to become convinced that the newspaper buyers of 1898 most certainly got their money's worth. It is a weird catalogue of rumors, from the tale of the mysterious cannonading heard at Eastport to the reported sighting of the "three long, low, rakish craft, sailing in column formation, and signalling by masthead lights as they steadily held their course in the darkness"—which might have fitted a Spanish squadron, but yet was equally applicable to the case of a tow of coal-barges on its way around the Cape to Boston.

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Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.

8-INCH RIFLE BATTERY, FORT WARREN.

Covering Main Ship Channel, Boston Harbor.

105But in spite of the utter absurdity of many of the reports, the officers of the First gave much careful consideration to the diagrams in Brassey's "Naval Annual," and Jane's "Fighting Ships," with a view to putting 8-inch shot in the spots where they would do the most good should occasion arise; and nobody was unduly surprised when, shortly after midnight of May 13th, the Tourist, the steamer employed by the Engineers in their harbor-mining work, came puffing down from the city, announcing her arrival at the fort by long blasts of her whistle, and bringing word that at last the long-expected fleet had been sighted off Nantucket, steering a course for Boston. Coming by way of the Navy Department, this bit of intelligence seemed worthy of consideration, and so in the early morning the officers of the regular garrison sent their families away from the island and out of danger, while the volunteers uncased the last of the small store of 8-inch projectiles for the guns in their charge, gave a final look to their equipments, and then sat themselves down on the parapets to await the first glimpse of Cervera's armada. Fieldglasses were at a premium that day, and the wide expanse of water towards Boston lightship became an object of much interest; but 106Cervera failed to appear, and to the disgust of regulars and volunteers alike it became evident, as the hours slipped away, that even official warnings via the Navy Yard must be received with proper and due allowances.

For some time now the port had been closed at night. Electric signal lanterns had been rigged upon the flagstaff of the fort, and every evening the officer of the guard was given the code signal for that especial date, by which ships of our navy were to be recognized. The orders of the post directed that any steamer failing to acknowledge signals from the fort, or replying by wrong combinations, should be fired on. But no steamers, either of the navy or of the merchant marine, attempted to make port after dark, and the only firing required was that done by patrol-boat crews, who were obliged at times to use their rifles on the fishermen and coasters which, under cover of darkness, ignorantly or wilfully persisted in blundering in among the mine-fields.

On the 3rd of May all troops of the Atlantic States had been placed under command of General Merritt, to be employed in coast-defence, and to him Colonel Pfaff reported his 107regiment. Soon after, Lieutenant Strother, (later major, U.S.V.), A.D.C. to General Merritt, was ordered to Boston for the purpose of inspecting the regiment, so far as concerned its equipment for service, and recommending stations for its assignment in the general scheme of defence. Having visited Fort Warren, where he made a careful inquiry into the condition of the command, Lieutenant Strother held a consultation with the State authorities, and returned to New York to report to his chief. On the 10th came telegraphic orders from Headquarters, Department of the East, detaching the Third Battalion ("E," "F," "I," and "M" Batteries, under Major Frye), to report to Colonel Woodruff for duty as part of the garrison at Fort Warren, and directing the remainder of the regiment to hold itself in readiness for assignment under orders later to be issued.

Changes which ultimately concerned the First had meanwhile been in progress among the regular batteries stationed on the New England coast. "K" Battery (Curtis'), of the Second Artillery, had been ordered on April 28th from Fort Schuyler, N.Y., to the ungarrisoned 108defenses at Portsmouth, N.H. On May 6th Colonel Woodruff, in addition to his duties as commanding officer at Fort Warren, was assigned to the general command of the defenses of Boston Harbor; Major Charles Morris, Seventh Artillery, was placed in command of the Mortar Battery at Winthrop (up to this time in charge of Lieutenant Ketcham, Second Artillery, with a small detachment of about thirty men taken from the batteries at Warren) with a garrison made up of "M" Battery (Richmond's), Second Artillery, and "F" Battery (Anderson's), Seventh Artillery, from Schuyler; the gap left in the garrison at Warren by the withdrawal of Richmond was filled by the transfer of "G" Battery (Brown's), Seventh Artillery, from Schuyler; and finally, Lieutenant Lyon, with a detachment of thirty men from the batteries of the Second Artillery at Fort Adams, Newport, R.I., was ordered to the fort at Clark's Point, New Bedford, later to be named Fort Rodman. The shifting of regular batteries at Warren occurred on May 16th, and the officers of the First parted with regret from Captain Richmond, who had made many friends among them.

109Most unexpectedly, on May 18th, a message was received at the fort announcing the coming of Governor Wolcott, to present to the officers their volunteer commissions. On his arrival the regiment formed for review, and after the march-past stood closed in mass by battalions, with the officers grouped at the centre, while the Governor spoke a few words of farewell, saying, among other things:

"It is your high privilege to have been summoned into the service of the United States at a time when the clouds of war with a foreign Power threatened the Republic. I know of no higher service that a citizen can be called upon to render than to offer his life, if need be, in the cause of his country. You enter this service not as raw recruits, but with obedience and discipline acquired in the militia service of the Commonwealth. Whether you are assigned the honorable duty of guarding the sea-coast of the Commonwealth of your birth, or are summoned to some distant point in other lands or within the confines of your own country, see to it that no act of yours shall bring aught but added glory to the colors you bear. Be of high courage and good 110cheer; the great heart of the Commonwealth will follow you with pride and affection, whatever the duty you may be called upon to perform."

Receiving the commissions from the hands of Colonel Bradley of his staff, who had served through the Civil War in the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery of 1861, the Governor then presented them to the officers of the regiment in the order of their rank, finally turning to Colonel Pfaff to say, "I congratulate you, Colonel, upon the regiment you have the honor to command, and upon the service you now enter."

On the conclusion of this very simple yet impressive ceremony, the regiment was dismissed. The Governor then made an informal inspection of battery quarters, and afterwards was conducted over the works in order that he might see for himself whatever of progress was being made towards installing modern armament in the main fortification of his capital city. Later, with the members of his staff, he was the guest of the officers' mess at luncheon; and early in the afternoon he took final leave of the regiment, which always had 111considered it an honor to serve under him as commander-in-chief, but now—though not without a touch of regret—had passed for a time beyond his authority.

ASSIGNMENT TO STATIONS

The day now had come when, after the custom of the artillery service, the regiment must be broken up and scattered in its isolated posts along shore. General Merritt was relieved of the command of the Department of the East on May 20th, to go to the far East as commanding officer of the Philippine expedition. His successor was General Frank, U.S.V., promoted from the colonelcy of the First United States Artillery, who lost no time in issuing orders (S.O., 112, H.Q., D.E., 23rd May) for the final distribution of the regiment to its stations. The text of this order read:

"The following assignment to stations of the First Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, now at Fort Warren—Colonel Pfaff, commanding—is hereby ordered: Colonel Pfaff, with headquarters and two batteries, to Salem, and to command the various fortifications and points on the North Shore of Massachusetts where batteries of his regiment are 116placed. The Lieutenant-Colonel, and two batteries, to Clark's Point, Mass. Major Frye, with 'E,' 'F,' 'I,' and 'M' Batteries, will remain on duty at Fort Warren, as heretofore designated by telegraphic orders. The four remaining batteries, one each to Gloucester, Marblehead, Nahant, and Plum Island, Mass. Colonel Pfaff will designate the unassigned field officers and batteries for stations to the points other than Fort Warren, as he shall deem advisable, notifying these headquarters of the letters of batteries, and the officers so assigned, to the respective stations. The troops will take tents, camp equipage, and ten days' rations."

This order ended for the time being all speculation as to the destination of the regiment in the immediate future, and though it certainly failed to please everybody, it yet was received with little comment by those whom it concerned. It was recognized that artillery posts must vary from good to indifferent, or even from indifferent to bad, and the officers spent their leisure moments in pleasant conjectures as to undesirability of the assignments which were destined to fall to their lot.

117On May 30th Colonel Pfaff issued the orders for the distribution of the First and Second Battalions. "G" (Chick's) and "L" (Whiting's) Batteries, with Lieutenant Paine, range officer, and Lieutenant Bryant, assistant surgeon, were ordered to report to Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman, to take station at New Bedford. For the garrison at Salem, "C" (Nutter's) and "D" (Frothingham's) Batteries were designated, under Major Dyar as commanding officer of the post, to whom was to report Lieutenant Rolfe, assistant surgeon, so soon as relieved from his detail as post surgeon at Fort Warren. Major Quinby, with "K" (Howes') Battery, and Hospital Steward White, were assigned to the defenses at Gloucester. Captain Lombard, with "B" Battery, and Hospital Steward Phillips, were ordered to Newburyport, to establish a post at the entrance of the harbor. Captain Pratt, with "H" Battery, was assigned to the works at Marblehead. Captain Bordman, with "A" Battery, was directed to take station at Nahant, for the protection of the mining casemate at that point.

Preparation for these movements began 118promptly, but stormy weather and delay in securing transportation made it over a week before the last of the departing batteries was able to leave Fort Warren. Meanwhile the posts for which these detachments from the regiment were destined had been garrisoned temporarily by the militia—commanded at first by General Mathews, and later by General Bancroft. Influenced by the prevailing uneasiness, Governor Wolcott, on May 7th, had prudently ordered his remaining State troops into the field for the protection of the coast until such time as the general Government should assume the responsibility, and the Fifth Infantry, the First and Second Battalions of Cadets, with the three light batteries, had been rendering valuable service at exposed points, from Hull to the mouth of the Merrimac. Unable to enter the volunteer service, under the limits imposed by the call of the President, these commands eagerly had responded to the call of the Commonwealth, and they most certainly are entitled to recognition for the faithful work performed, under most trying conditions as to weather, during the thirty days of their tour.

119

Photograph by T. E. Marr, Boston.

GARRISON ENCAMPMENT, FORT PICKERING.

121On June 1st, Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman and his command left for New Bedford, proceeding from Boston by rail; while, on the 3rd, Colonel Pfaff and the officers of his staff established regimental headquarters at Salem. On the 6th, Major Quinby and "A," "C," "D," and "H" Batteries left for their stations, followed on the 7th by "B" and "K" Batteries. All these latter commands were furnished with transportation by water, and it may be noted that the small steamers employed for the purpose were well loaded down by the troops and their baggage. It so happened that the departure of the detachments took place during a period of very heavy weather, and more than one anxious watcher stood on the parapet at Warren, to follow through field-glasses the course of the receding transports, as they rolled and pitched across the bay and towards the North Shore.

The widely scattered detachments of the First now settled themselves as best they might at their respective coast-guard stations, and prepared to make the most of the scanty materials for defence which they found at hand. Under the final assignments, the distribution 122of the regimental strength was as follows:

Hardly had the regiment begun to adapt itself to the new conditions, when telegraphic orders from the War Department arrived directing that the batteries be at once recruited to full artillery strength, two hundred enlisted men each—or an aggregate of sixty officers and twenty-four hundred men for the entire command, since an additional second lieutenant would be appointed to each battery when on a war footing. It is needless to say that this order was hailed with delight by both officers and men: to the former it gave promise of more active service, while to the latter it meant unlimited promotion, since over two hundred and fifty additional sergeants and 123corporals would be required in the expanded batteries. No time was lost in preparing to comply with this order. Major Dyar was detailed as chief recruiting officer, with Captains Williamson and Nutter as assistants, and plans were made for opening recruiting offices in Boston, New Bedford, Brockton, and Salem. Battery commanders immediately attempted to get into communication with the men whom they had left behind, under former conditions, in the hope of finding that not all of them had yet enlisted in the regulars or in other volunteer regiments. Everything was ready for beginning the work of recruiting—when word came by telegraph from Washington that the whole matter was a mistake, and that the recruiting order had been meant to apply alone to the Massachusetts infantry regiments. It was a bitter disappointment. The regiment stood sadly in need of recruits, since its strength as organized barely sufficed for the performance of routine garrison duty, and when the President, on May 25th, issued his call for seventy-five thousand additional volunteers, the officers of the First felt that from the allotment of Massachusetts they should at least 124secure enough men to bring the regimental enrolment up to twelve hundred. But for a second time they were destined to see their command passed by without consideration. The pressure exerted to bring the Fifth Infantry into the volunteer service, or it may be some other cause yet remaining to be explained, left the faithful First still serving with skeleton ranks.

In spite of all disappointments, however, the command never slackened in the performance of its appointed work. There were many problems to be solved, and of these the most perplexing was how to evolve an efficient defence from ridiculously inadequate materials. In his command on the North Shore Colonel Pfaff found himself confronted by a grave situation of affairs. To him had been entrusted the defence of five important points, among them four towns aggregating over eighty-five thousand inhabitants, and with property interests to be reckoned by tens of millions; and, to state unpleasant facts with relentless exactness, every modern and effective appliance for defensive operations had been denied him. Newburyport, Gloucester, Marblehead, and 125Salem were all liable to bombardment from the open sea, and the fire of heavy guns alone could give even a promise of immunity from that form of attack; but there were no heavy guns mounted at any of these points. Eight 3-inch, muzzle-loading rifles (type of 1862) had been brought to the coast by two of the militia light batteries, and these had been turned over to the volunteers relieving them, while sixteen Driggs-Schroeder rapid-fire guns, ranging in calibre from one-to six-pounders, hastily purchased by the State from its war emergency appropriation, also had been placed in the hands of the batteries of the First. Beyond these there was nothing in the way of ordnance—not a gun, not a round of ammunition was supplied by the general Government for these five posts to which it had seen fit to order artillery garrisons!

After making a rapid study of the situation, it became apparent that serious resistance to anything like a resolute fleet attack could not be made, but it was confidently believed that, with the means at hand, at least three other forms of naval attack might be successfully parried. Dispositions accordingly were made 126to meet sudden descents by Spanish auxiliary cruisers, dashes into harbors by torpedo-boats, or any attempts at operations by landing parties; and it should be said here that nothing was left undone towards providing, with the material available, all possible protection to the points garrisoned by these volunteer batteries.

FORT PICKERING AND THE "NORTH SHORE" DEFENSES

From this time until the assembly of the command at Framingham, preparatory to going on mustering-out furlough, the regimental history becomes that of the widely dispersed fractions, while the record of events is but a dull story of garrison duty, faithfully performed in the face of every discouragement. For administrative purposes the regiment now formed three distinct divisions—that under Colonel Pfaff, with headquarters at Salem, and sub-posts at the points on the North Shore already noted; the garrison at New Bedford, under Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman, reporting directly to the commanding officer at Fort Adams, R.I.; and the battalion commanded by Major Frye, at Fort Warren, under the immediate orders of the commanding officer of the defenses of Boston Harbor. The record of these divisions, in their order, may briefly be given:

Colonel Pfaff, with his staff and attachés, 130reached Salem on June 3d. Headquarters at once were established at Fort Pickering, situated on Winter Island, at the entrance of the inner harbor. On the 6th, "C" and "D" Batteries arrived at the post, reporting to Major Dyar, who had been detailed as post commander. The batteries at once pitched camp on the glacis outside the wet ditch surrounding the old fort, while the headquarters tents were located inside the parapet of an outwork covering the landward approach. The fort itself was but a ruin. Since the earliest colonial days the site had been occupied by defensive works, and the present Fort Pickering had been rebuilt and garrisoned in 1861; but from that time on it had been allowed, through the storms of a third of a century, to crumble into decay. There were no quarters for troops, there was no armament of heavy guns; and, worst of all, the location of the work was such that bombardment under modern long-range conditions could not be prevented.

131

MAJOR PERLIE A. DYAR, U.S.V.

Commanding First Battalion.

133But Salem, with its heavy property interests, its large coastwise trade, and its enormous coal-pockets—so tempting to a coal-hungry enemy—had to be protected as best might be; and, as soon as the camp had been settled, Captains Frothingham and Nutter, under the supervision of Major Dyar, set their men at work, with shovel, pick, and barrow, on the feeble defenses. Time was lacking for the remodelling of the entire work, even if the numerical strength of the working details had permitted, and work was confined to strengthening the weak channel face of the fort. Here, from plane drawn by Lieutenant Francis, a civil engineer by profession, an earthen parapet of strong profile, with stone revetment, was constructed. The working tools and derricks required in the undertaking were supplied by the city authorities of Salem, who in this, as in many other ways, showed a desire to be of every assistance to the garrison. Guns of at least medium calibre were urgently needed, and Colonel Pfaff endeavored, through the department commander, to obtain a battery of six 8-inch converted rifles. In this attempt he was unsuccessful, though a number of guns of this type lay idle at Fort Warren, where they had been dismounted and removed from the casemates. While the carriages of these guns were not properly adapted for use in a 134barbette battery, they yet might have served the purpose after a fashion; especially since this war, it always must be borne in mind, was from first to last a war of makeshifts. As the event proved, however, the garrison at Fort Pickering was forced to remain content with the armament of small-calibre, rapid-fire guns supplied through the enterprise of the State of Massachusetts. It so happened that both Captains Frothingham and Nutter, prior to the war, had been conspicuous for their devotion to the study of modern artillery work; their men were well grounded in the principles of sea-coast gunnery, and their being thus stationed at a post absolutely destitute of modern heavy ordnance seemed no light hardship.

135

MAJOR HOWARD S. DEARING, U.S.V.

Regimental Surgeon.

137When such engineering work as was imperatively required had been brought to completion, both officers and men settled down to the monotony of garrison routine. Lieutenant Stockwell was appointed post adjutant, while Lieutenant Keenan served in the triple capacity of post quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance officer. Though the health of the command was uniformly good, the medical officers yet found their time amply occupied, since in addition to their duties at Pickering they were required to visit the sub-posts at Gloucester, Marblehead, and Nahant. On June 24th, Lieutenant Rolfe, assistant surgeon, was relieved from duty at Fort Warren, reporting immediately at regimental headquarters; but in July, failing to recover from a severe illness contracted during the earlier service of the regiment, he found himself compelled to resign, thus depriving the command of the services of an efficient and popular officer. Later in the same month, Assistant Surgeon Bryant received promotion which took him from the First, and from this time until the close of its volunteer service the regiment had but one medical officer, Major Dearing, senior surgeon, whose unflagging devotion to the welfare of the command won for him the gratitude and esteem of every officer and man. On July 26th, Captain Frothingham, with Lieutenants Nostrom, McCullough, and Francis, proceeded to Fort Preble, Me., for duty on a general court martial, making several visits thereafter to that post before the final adjournment of the court.

138For lack of opportunity at artillery drill, attention was turned to infantry work, and the garrison was hardened into condition for field service by a succession of practice marches and field manœuvres over the country in the vicinity of the post. The garrison evening parade, held outside the main work, was a never-failing source of interest to the people of Salem, and on every pleasant afternoon crowds came out from the city to attend the ceremony. On July 25th, "A" Battery changed station from Nahant to Pickering, marching in over the road with its field guns and wagon train. Late in August, "B" Battery was ordered to rejoin at Salem from its station at Portsmouth, N.H., thus bringing the garrison strength up to a battalion of four batteries. Such officers as could be spared from this post, with many from the other posts garrisoned by the regiment, were present, on August 12th, at the funeral of the lamented Colonel Bogan, of the Ninth Massachusetts Infantry, who long had been a friend of the First, and had been detailed as its inspecting officer while serving on the staff of Governor Russell; and again, on August 30th, 139the battalion at Pickering performed a sad duty by parading as escort, under command of Major Dyar, at the funeral of Major O'Connor, of the Ninth. No further event of especial moment appears on the records of the post until its abandonment on September 19th.

Major Quinby, with "K" Battery, under command of Captain Howes, reached his station at Stage Fort, Gloucester, on the 7th of June. This post, though admirable as a camping site, hardly could be considered desirable from an artillery point of view. The old fort itself, an earthen battery commanding the inner harbor and its approaches, had lain abandoned since the close of the Civil War, and this long period of neglect had brought the inevitable results. Under the action of wind and weather its parapets gradually had worn away, and its magazine was in a ruinous condition. For armament there were rapid-fire guns, supplemented by 3-inch, muzzle-loading field guns turned over by the departing militia garrison. Fortunately for the peace of mind of the people of Gloucester, the fort was not the sole defence of the harbor; 140for the historic old monitor Catskill, manned by volunteer seamen recruited from the ranks of the Massachusetts Naval Brigade, lay there at anchor during the greater part of the summer. With the two 15-inch Dahlgren guns in its battered turret, this relic of 1862 might still have been a factor in any dispute with privateers or unarmored cruisers of the enemy. It was the intention of Colonel Pfaff to secure for this post two 8-inch converted rifles, but his request for the guns was not complied with.

There were no barracks at Stage Fort, and the garrison went into camp under canvas. After settling the matter of quarters, work was begun without delay, and the ravages of time on the old fort were repaired as thoroughly as possible. When everything had been put into condition for action, the command quietly took up the customary post routine. Lieutenant Packard was detailed as post adjutant, performing the duties of the position until July 18th, when he was ordered to Fort Columbus, New York Harbor, where he remained on detached service until relieved on September 12th. After his departure from the post, the adjutant's duties fell to Lieutenant Gleason, who already had been acting as post quartermaster and commissary. On September 15th, at the request of the city whose name she bore, the famous little auxiliary cruiser Gloucester, with laurels fresh from her victorious fight with the Spanish torpedo-gunboats Pluton and Furor, made a visit to the harbor. As she came to her anchorage, the garrison at Stage Fort fired a salute in her honor; and on the following day, at the reception given by the city, the battery paraded as escort to Captain Wainwright and the men of his crew.

141

MAJOR GEORGE F. QUINBY, U.S.V.

Commanding Second Battalion.

143Captain Lombard, with "B" Battery, had drawn what was perhaps the least desirable of all the posts falling to the regiment, that at Plum Island, covering Newburyport and the entrance to the Merrimac. After a rough passage around Cape Ann, he arrived with his command at this station on June 7th. The island is a low, sandy formation, ten miles in length, commanding at its northern extremity the channel leading into the harbor of Newburyport. At this point, lying but three miles and a half from the railway bridge marking 144the centre of the city, the command pitched its camp, and threw up an earthwork of slight profile for the reception of its field guns. Shallow waters and a treacherous bar deter vessels of any considerable draft from attempting to enter this harbor; but the city offers a tempting and easy mark for torpedo-boat raids, and it was to discourage any enterprise of this sort that "B" Battery was condemned to a month of dreary duty among the sand dunes. The order of July 2nd, directing the command to change station to Fort McClary, Maine, was received at the post with delight, and little time was lost in preparing to leave behind the brackish water, mosquitoes, and monotony of Plum Island.

Before this order could be executed, it was amended. These were the days when ugly rumors were coming from before Santiago, and the Government was making hurried efforts to meet a possible disaster on land. Captain Curtis, with his battery ("K") of the Second Artillery, was garrisoning the defenses at Portsmouth, of which McClary was a subpost, and to him on July 6th came rush orders to hasten with his battery to Tampa, to join 145the siege train there organizing, while Captain Lombard was directed to relieve him in the command of the Portsmouth defenses. On the 8th, "B" Battery reached its new station, taking post at Fort Constitution, and placing detachments at Fort McClary, on the Maine shore opposite, and at Jerry's Point, in the outer line of defenses. The command now occupied a most responsible position, with more than enough work for its small enlisted strength, for here there was much modern artillery material to be cared for, while the guard duty of the scattered posts made heavy drafts on the endurance of the men. These important defenses, covering not only the city of Portsmouth, but also the Kittery Navy Yard, were now added to the other posts under command of Colonel Pfaff, who on the last day of July visited the station, and inspected the works and the garrison. After becoming settled in quarters, details were made for post administration, Lieutenant Day being appointed post adjutant and Lieutenant Underwood post quartermaster and commissary. On August 19th, the Santiago campaign having turned out luckily after all, Captain 146Curtis was ordered with his battery back from Tampa, arriving a few days later to relieve Captain Lombard. At this time Major Crozier, A.I.G., reached the post on his tour of inspection, and by his direction "B" Battery demonstrated its ability to handle modern ordnance by conducting the test-firing of the newly mounted 8-inch breech-loading rifles, on their disappearing carriages. Shortly afterwards, Captain Lombard and his command changed station to Pickering, reporting to Colonel Pfaff on August 27th.

The garrison for Marblehead, "H" Battery, under command of Captain Pratt, arrived on June 6th at its station at Fort Sewall. This old fortification, which properly should be classed as a mere field work, not only commands the entrance to the harbor of Marblehead, but also plays an important part in the outer line of defence for Salem. Having been ungarrisoned for more than thirty years, it naturally was in a dilapidated condition, and on the arrival of "H" Battery it was without armament. As in the case of Stage Fort, the request of Colonel Pfaff for two 8-inch converted rifles was ignored, and reliance had to be placed upon 147the rapid-fire guns brought to the post by the incoming troops. After pitching its camp and making the required repairs on the works, the garrison settled itself for what proved to be an uneventful tour of occupation. At this post Lieutenant Renfrew acted as adjutant, with Lieutenant Grant as quartermaster and commissary. The only break in the monotony of the summer came when a battalion from Pickering, after a forced march from Salem, feigned an attack on the post by a landing party, which was met and repulsed in a workmanlike manner by Captain Pratt and his command.

The mining-casemate at Nahant, from which the mine-fields in Broad Sound, Boston Harbor, were to have been controlled, was placed in charge of Captain Bordman, who arrived with his command ("A" Battery) at this station on June 6th, and at once laid out his camp near the work to be guarded. Rapid-fire field guns were issued to this post, but infantry guard duty was practically all that was required of its garrison. Lieutenant Fullerton served as post adjutant until ordered to Fort Columbus, New York Harbor, on July 18th, where he remained 148on detached service until the muster-out of the regiment. The quartermaster and commissary duties were performed by Lieutenant Sumner Paine. Lacking the material for artillery work, Captain Bordman turned to infantry drill, and by constant road marches and field exercises brought his command into prime physical condition. The tour of the battery at this station was not destined to be a long one. In the rush of emergency harbor-work during the early days of the war, the Engineers first gave their attention to the mining of the main ship channel and Nantasket Roads, leaving Broad Sound—the water area for bombardment of Boston, Lynn, and Chelsea—for later consideration; but with the destruction of Cervera's fleet, all active mining operations came abruptly to a close, and the Broad Sound system remained uninstalled. The post at Nahant, therefore, was ordered to be abandoned on July 25th, its garrison reporting at Fort Pickering on that date.

FORT RODMAN AND ITS GARRISON

The second of the three general divisions into which the regiment had been separated—Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman's command, "G" (Chick's) and "L" (Whiting's) Batteries—arrived at its destination at New Bedford on June 1st, reporting to Lieutenant-Colonel Haskin, Second United States Artillery, commanding officer at Fort Adams, R.I. The post to be garrisoned was then borne on the army register as the "Fort at Clark's Point," the designation by which it had been known since 1857, when ground first was broken for its construction. The fort is an excellent type of the clever military engineering for which this country was noted at the middle of the century. It is an enclosed work of granite, with two tiers of casemate guns and provisions for a third tier in barbette, though the guns of the latter battery never have been mounted. In June last its armament was made up of 8- and 10-inch Rodmans, 100-pounder 152(6.4-inch) Parrott rifles, and 24-pounder (5.8-inch) flank-casemate howitzers. All through the summer and fall months the Engineers were steadily at work on exterior emplacements for 8-inch breech-loading rifles, on disappearing mounts, while mortar and rapid-fire batteries also were projected for the post; but during its occupation by its volunteer garrison the only available ordnance was that of the types of the Civil War.

The site of the works is at the extremity of Clark's Point, three miles and a half from the centre of New Bedford, at a point commanding not only the channel entering the harbor, but also all water areas for bombardment to the southward of the city. Prior to the war with Spain, a solitary ordnance sergeant formed the garrison at the post, but on May 6th a detachment of thirty men from the Second Artillery, under command of Lieutenant Lyon (later relieved, on May 27th, by Lieutenant Connor), had been ordered over from Fort Adams for guard duty. The casemates on the landward face of the fort, originally intended for use as quarters, never had been placed in condition for occupancy, and the detachment of regulars therefore was quartered in an old building standing on the reservation, while the battalion of volunteers pitched camp in an open field to the northwest of the fort. It would have been difficult to find a more desirable site for the encampment. Lying on dry and level ground, between two arms of the sea, it not only afforded a pleasant outlook, but also was constantly swept by cool breezes from off the water. Under such circumstances, camp sanitation afforded an easy problem, and during its tour at this post the health of the command remained excellent.

153

LIEUT.-COL. CHARLES B. WOODMAN, U.S.V.

Second-in-Command.

155At this station the post administrative staff was made up of Lieutenant J. B. Paine, adjutant; Lieutenant Gowing, quartermaster and commissary; and Lieutenant Bryant, surgeon. In addition to his duties as battery commander, Captain Whiting also performed those of ordnance officer, an assignment for which he was eminently well fitted by previous study and training. There was much work to be done in the early days at the post, for its armament, after long years of neglect, was in horrible condition. Both batteries turned to 156with a will, however, and in a creditably short time the fort itself was cleaned and swept until it would have satisfied the most exacting inspector, while guns and carriages were freed from rust, scraped, painted, and put into condition for immediate action. It is due to the command to say that when it marched out, on September 19th, it left behind it a post which, in point of absolute neatness and readiness for action, might well have served as a model for any artillery garrison, regular or volunteer.

There was little to be recorded beyond the ordinary garrison routine. One incident, which occurred during the work of preparing the fort for emergencies, is worth relating. There were found one or two guns in which, at some forgotten period, priming wires had been broken off in the vents, eventually becoming firmly fixed there by rust. With this fact as a foundation, an enterprising New Bedford reporter built up a lurid story of spiked guns and Spanish spies, which went the rounds of the newspapers, causing infinite disgust to the garrison and endless amusement to the rest of the regiment. The choked vents were drilled out as soon as discovered, and the 157guns at once made available; but to this day the mention of spiked guns will provoke an explosion if made in the presence of any Fort Rodman artilleryman.

On June 15th, Lieutenant Connor and his detachment of regulars were relieved and ordered back to Fort Adams, which meanwhile had been reinforced by the Forty-seventh New York Infantry, a fact mentioned to show the straits in which the Government found itself in obtaining garrisons for its artillery posts. On the 9th of June, Lieutenants Wilson and Cheney served as members of a general court martial at Adams. Having been promoted major and brigade-surgeon, Lieutenant Bryant left the post on July 8th, to report for duty with Lee's Seventh Corps, then at Jacksonville, and from this date the affairs of the medical department were placed in charge of a contract surgeon from New Bedford. At one time during the summer certain turbulent spirits among the engineer employees at the post required attention from the garrison, but firm and prompt action by the artillerymen put an instant end to the trouble, and effectually discouraged any further outbreaks of a like sort. 158By general order from army headquarters, dated July 23rd, the post officially was named "Fort Rodman," in honor of the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel William Logan Rodman, Thirty-eighth Massachusetts Infantry, who fell at the head of his regiment in the assault on Port Hudson in 1863. Thus, after waiting forty-one years for a name, the old fort at last received that of a Massachusetts soldier, while a garrison of Massachusetts volunteers was on duty to assist at its christening.

THE THIRD BATTALION AT FORT WARREN

The last of the three regimental subdivisions—the Third Battalion, under Major Frye—meanwhile quietly had been going on with its artillery work at Fort Warren. Other than the ordering of Major Morris, Seventh Artillery, from Winthrop to Fort Schuyler, N.Y., on May 27th, leaving Captain Richmond the ranking officer at the mortar battery, there had been no changes in the garrisons of the sub-posts about the harbor. The departure of Colonel Pfaff and Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman, with their commands, had rendered necessary a reassignment of battery duties at Fort Warren, and Colonel Woodruff issued orders accordingly on June 13th. Of the regular batteries, "C" (Schenck's), Second Artillery, took charge of the 10-inch rifle and 4-inch rapid-fire guns—at that time in process of being mounted—in Bastion B, while "G" (Brown's), Seventh Artillery, had its station at the 10-inch rifles 162of the ravelin battery. Surplus men from these two batteries, as the daily recruiting swelled their ranks, were told off for manning various groups of the older type guns in the fort. Of the volunteer batteries, "M" (Braley's) was assigned to the field and machine gun sections for the protection of the channel mine-lines, Nantasket Roads mine-field, and the cable chute through which the entire system was controlled; "I" (Williamson's) went to the 15-inch Rodman guns in Bastion A; "F" (Danforth's) drew the battery of 10-inch Rodmans on the channel face of the fort; while to "E" (Gibbs') fell the barbette and casemate batteries of 8-inch rifles at the southeastern angle. These assignments were made for a very definite purpose, and they remained in effect until after the destruction of the Spanish fleet at Santiago, when, to break the monotony of gun-drill on one type of gun, the volunteer batteries interchanged at their stations.

163

MAJOR JAMES A. FRYE, U.S.V.

Commanding Third Battalion.

165Since this battalion was a complete tactical unit, under command of its own field officer, it did not lose its identity on becoming a part of the garrison at the fort. Both its officers and men, sharing tours with the regulars, were carried on the rosters of the post for guard and fatigue duty; but for purposes of discipline and administration the battalion organization remained intact. The acting battalion staff was composed of Lieutenant D. Fuller, adjutant; Lieutenant Phillips, quartermaster; Lieutenant Horton, signal officer; Lieutenant Wing, commissary; and, until relieved on June 23rd, Lieutenant Rolfe, assistant surgeon. The officers of the volunteers also were called upon for the performance of many duties under post details: Major Frye served as president of the post council of administration, as presiding officer at garrison courts martial, and later as trial officer of the summary court; Lieutenant D. Fuller was appointed post treasurer and librarian; Lieutenant Totten was detailed as post adjutant and recruiting officer, as well as mustering officer for the regiment at large, the latter detail requiring many visits to the scattered stations of the command; for much of the time the signal system of the works was under the supervision of Lieutenant Horton, owing to the absence on detached service of Lieutenant 166Catlin, the regular signal officer; Captains Braley and Williamson, with Lieutenants D. Fuller, Phillips, Wing, Harrison, Nilsson, and Totten also served as members of general courts martial.

As at the other posts of the regiment, the earlier days of the detached tour at this station found much work requiring immediate attention: range charts for each gun-group were plotted; guns, carriages, and equipments were overhauled and made ready for action; ammunition was prepared and stored at hand in the service magazines. Department orders called for three hours' gun-drill daily, and in addition to this—in order that the command might be ready for any kind of service required by later developments—an hour more was devoted to battalion drill as infantry. Evening parade was held daily by the volunteers, though the regular batteries at the post omitted this ceremony. Aside from its record of steady and faithful work there were but few events during the summer which concerned this portion of the regiment. On August 16th it was presented a battalion color by its friends in Boston, which it carried so 167long as on its detached service. Beginning on August 20th, there was test firing of all the recently mounted guns—12-inch mortars, 10-inch rifles, and 4.7- and 4-inch rapid-fire guns—under the supervision of Major Crozier, A.I.G., who visited all the posts in the harbor on this duty. It may here be noted, as a curious matter of record, that poverty in ammunition had forbidden the expenditure of even a single round from these modern guns until after the suspension of hostilities. On September 2nd, the men of the garrison lined the parapets and cheered lustily when the squadron of nine warships, led by the grim Massachusetts, steamed into the harbor for the naval parade. On the following day the Third Battalion paraded in Boston as escort to Captain Higginson, and the officers, seamen, and marines of the vessels under his command—the Massachusetts, Machias, Detroit, Castine, Wilmington, Helena, Marietta, Topeka, and Bancroft. Orders for change of station now arrived. On the 17th of September the battalion tendered a final review to Colonel Woodruff, and on the 19th marched out from the fort, taking transport on the City 168of Philadelphia for Boston, and thence proceeding by rail to rejoin the regiment in camp at Framingham. Officers and men alike left the post with feelings of sincere regret, since their relations with the regulars of the garrison had been most pleasant. On relieving the battalion from duty under his orders, Colonel Woodruff took occasion officially to compliment it on its uniform state of efficiency and discipline.

FINAL DAYS IN THE SERVICE

So through the long and weary summer months the scattered batteries of the regiment served faithfully at their posts along the coast, patiently enduring the dull monotony of garrison life, and hoping against hope that the fortunes of war yet might bring them their own chance for training their guns upon an enemy. For a time rumor still busied itself with the movements of the Spanish fleet, while spook cruisers still held the seas—as the men on Shafter's crowded troopships could have testified to their sorrow—but, as the final event proved, Spain either was too blind or too feeble to improve her one possible opportunity of inflicting injury on her adversary by striking a sharp and sudden blow at some point on our long and weakly defended coast line. The national salute fired on the Fourth of July at all the posts along-shore answered a double purpose, since, while complying with army regulations 172for the observance of the holiday, it also served to celebrate the victorious fighting on land and sea at Santiago. But the men of the coast artillery, regulars and volunteers alike, listened with heavy hearts to the booming of their unshotted guns; rejoicing with their brethren of the Navy over the signal victory that had been won, they yet felt that the destruction of Cervera's squadron had deprived them of the one chance to which they had trusted for obtaining distinction. Like all thinking men, they had to face the fact that the events at Santiago marked the beginning of the end.

On July 11th, Governor Wolcott informed the authorities at Washington that the people of Massachusetts no longer were in uneasiness regarding the safety of the cities and towns on the coast, and requested that the First might be relieved from its present stations and assigned to more active duty. Colonel Pfaff also urged that his command be retained in service for any work that yet might remain to be done, while General Lee, who had heard of the efficient condition of the regiment through Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis Guild of 173his staff, made strong efforts to secure its transfer to his Seventh Corps, then completing its organization for the occupation of Havana.

But the time had not yet arrived when conditions would permit any further depletion of our already weak artillery garrisons. It is true that Spain, after the utter annihilation of her sea power, had been humbled into asking terms on July 26th, and that, with the signing of the peace protocol on August 12th, hostilities had been suspended; but there yet remained possible complications with Germany over the long and ugly succession of unfriendly acts of which the vessels of her fleet in Philippine waters had been guilty. Within a very recent period Berlin has seen fit officially to disavow any intention of interfering at that time with our naval representatives at Manila, but in spite of this disavowal it still remains a fact that such interference occurred, and it was not until early in the fall that our military and naval authorities could feel assured that the immediate future might not find this country called upon to face a fresh and really powerful adversary. Under these circumstances, all our available artillery 174troops, both regulars and volunteers, wisely were held at their stations until, on the final passing of the German war-cloud, there remained no further hope for active service against Spain.

On September 4th, telegraphic orders from the War Department were received at all the posts garrisoned by fractions of the regiment, directing preparations to be made for the assembly of the command for furlough and ultimate muster-out; and on the 17th, Colonel Pfaff issued his orders for the concentration of his widely scattered batteries at Framingham. On the 19th, the regiment was again reunited at the State camp ground, the batteries from the posts on the North Shore, under command of Colonel Pfaff, being first to arrive, followed at short intervals by the battalion from Fort Warren, under Major Frye, and the garrison from Fort Rodman, under Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman. It was found that camp already had been pitched by Captain Landy and his men, under direction of Colonel Converse, and all that remained to be done by the command was to settle in quarters and start in operation the battery messes.

175After over three months of detached service at isolated points along the coast the twelve batteries again were welded together in the regimental organization. For the time being, all artillery drill and formations were dropped, and the command easily and quickly settled into the routine of an infantry encampment. Regimental and battalion drills daily were held on the broad field which, prior to 1896, had been familiar territory to the command, and in a surprisingly short time the regiment again developed the snap and precision in infantry work for which it had been distinguished before its transfer to the artillery arm of the service. Here, through the thoughtfulness and generosity of the State authorities, the regiment was rejoined by its band. None save those who have learned by actual experience in service how much may be done by music towards alleviating the wearing monotony of camp and garrison life can appreciate the welcome given by the men of the regiment to Bandmaster Collins and his musicians, on their return after their long absence.

Meanwhile preparations for leaving the service were pushed forward. The work was 176done under supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel Weaver, U.S.V. (captain First United States Artillery), detailed as mustering officer for Massachusetts, to whom had been assigned as assistants Lieutenants C. C. Hearn, Third United States Artillery, and O. Edwards, Eleventh United States Infantry. Slowly but steadily the absurdly cumbersome and complex tangle of "paper-work" was unravelled, final muster and pay rolls were completed, and the thousand-and-one accounts with ordnance, quartermaster, medical, commissary, and signal departments were closed. On October 5th this work substantially was finished, and shortly after noon on that day, in a drizzling rain, the batteries for the last time formed line as a regiment of United States Volunteers. Marching across the soaked parade, the regiment stood at attention while the garrison flag slowly was lowered, in token of the abandonment of the post, and then swung out through the main gate of the reservation for the muddy march to the waiting troop-train.

177

LIEUT.-COL. ERASMUS M. WEAVER, U.S.V.

(Captain 1st U.S. Artillery.)

Mustering-out Officer for Regiment.

179Reaching Boston at two o'clock, the command formed in column for its final parade. By this time the drizzle of the forenoon had become a drenching downpour, but the men now were thoroughly wet through, and no attention was paid to the muddy streets. The regiment had gone out under like conditions, and was disposed to accept them as part of the established order of things. Without waiting for the rear-most batteries to emerge from the station, the command for marching was given, the band struck up the stirring strains of the "Stars and Stripes," and the regiment started over its route to the State House. Here Governor Wolcott, with the officers of his staff, reviewed the returning artillerymen. On reaching the foot of Beacon Hill, the Third Battalion halted, while the leading battalions marched on and formed line on Charles Street. Then the Bristol-Plymouth batteries, with arms at port, tramped past their Boston comrades, forming line on their right and presenting arms as they, in their turn, marched by—and with this brief ceremony the twelve batteries, as volunteers of 1898, separated forever. Colonel Pfaff, with his staff, the band, and "A," "C," "D," "G," "K," and "L" Batteries, proceeded to the South Armory, where, after cheering their 180commanding officer, the men broke ranks and scattered to their homes. Major Frye, with the Third Battalion, marched to the Park Square station, where "I" Battery was detached to entrain at Kneeland Street, and "E," "F," and "M" Batteries took their special train for their home stations. "B" and "H" Batteries proceeded by the most direct routes to their armories at Cambridge and Chelsea. The thirty days' furlough had begun, and all active service for the regiment now was at an end.

On November 4th, the officers and men of the twelve batteries reported back from leave and furlough at the armories at their home stations, and the final formality of physical examination for discharge was begun. In the First and Second Battalions this work was carried on under direction of Captain Newgarden, assistant surgeon, United States Army, assisted by Lieutenants Gates and Hitchcock, of the medical department, Second Massachusetts Infantry, while in the Third Battalion the examining surgeons were Major Magurn and Lieutenant Shea, Ninth Massachusetts Infantry. Owing to the small enlisted strength 181of the command, as well as to its magnificent physical condition, the examinations were concluded in a comparatively short time, and the regiment was given a clean bill of health by the board of surgeons through whose hands it had just passed.

The last detail now had been attended to, and on November 14th the First was ready for the final step towards leaving the volunteer service. Early in the forenoon of that day Majors Dyar and Quinby assembled their batteries at the South Armory, where, with the field, staff, and non-commissioned staff, they formally were mustered out of the service of the United States by Lieutenant-Colonel Weaver. At the same time Major Frye had accompanied Lieutenant J. P. Hains, Third United States Artillery, to the stations of the "Cape" batteries on a like mission. Lieutenant Hains enjoyed the distinction of having received almost the last wound in the Porto Rican campaign, having intercepted a Mauser bullet in the action at Aibonito, almost at the time when the peace protocol was being signed. He had become very popular among the officers of the First, and his selection as mustering out 182officer was much to the satisfaction of the Third Battalion.

Of the seven hundred and fifty-seven officers and men whose names had been borne on the rolls of the regiment during its term of service, there were mustered out at this time seven hundred and eleven. The regiment had lost two commissioned officers—Major Bryant by promotion, and Lieutenant Rolfe by resignation—and forty-three enlisted men, of whom Private Henry A. Williams, "F" Battery, had died while on furlough, one had received promotion, six had been discharged for physical disability contracted in the line of duty, and the remainder had been transferred to the regular service, the greater number of these enlisting in the Second United States Artillery. Major Dearing was not mustered out with the other officers of the staff, remaining in the service until Jan. 28th, 1899, for duty as examining surgeon with other returning Massachusetts regiments.

At this time what had threatened to be a serious complication was averted through the thoughtfulness of the regimental commander. Though the final muster and pay rolls of the 183command had been prepared in ample time, the pay department, through inadequate clerical equipment at this station, found itself unable to make the final settlements with the men at the time of their muster-out. In addition to money for clothing allowances and commutation of furlough rations, there was due to the batteries over six weeks' pay, a very considerable sum in the aggregate. As in all other volunteer regiments, not a few of the men had returned from service only to find their patriotism rewarded by the loss of their situations in civil life, and cases were not infrequent in which delay in final payment meant serious hardship. Fully understanding these conditions, Colonel Pfaff relieved the stress of the situation by unhesitatingly drawing his personal check for $10,000, thus making it possible on the day of mustering out to advance to each enlisted man $15 with which to tide over the interval before the final appearance of the paymaster. This thoughtful act met with the appreciation which it merited, and it hardly need be added that the trust shown in the integrity of the men proved not to have been misplaced. On November 18th 184the batteries of the Third Battalion were paid off, and on the following day the remainder of the regiment received its money—the last dollar advanced by Colonel Pfaff being repaid at the time the Government fulfilled its obligations. This, from every point of view, was a pleasant incident and one that reflected equal credit on the commanding officer and his men.

AN HONORABLE REGIMENTAL RECORD

After bringing to its conclusion another eventful chapter in its already long and honorable history, the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery again has left the service of the United States to reënter that of the Commonwealth. In addition to the jealously cherished "White Diamond" badge, eloquent of its campaigning from 1861 to 1864 with the old Second Division, Third Corps, Army of the Potomac, it now has won the right to bear the device emblematic of service in the Artillery Corps of the War of 1898—the crossed conical projectiles, surmounted by the spherical shot. The record of the regiment in this, its latest war, is in every way worthy of its proud traditions. During its term of service there were no desertions from its ranks, no dishonorable discharges blemish its rolls, and the records show that its men, in conduct and discipline, steadily maintained the high standard for which the command long has been noted. The work 188allotted to the regiment was intelligently and well performed, and it is a most significant fact that of the seven hundred and eleven discharge papers issued to its officers and men on Nov. 14th, 1898, there was not one which failed to bear the endorsement coveted by every true soldier: "Service honorable and faithful."

It is much to be regretted that certain enlisted men of the regiment, and even a few among its officers, since their return from the service, have felt constrained to apologize for the nature of the duty which it fell to their lot to perform. It equally is a matter for regret that some of their civilian friends, unquestionably through honest ignorance, have made the absurd mistake of commiserating the command on its failure to reach what they are pleased to term "the front." While it seems almost a waste of energy, it yet may be worth while to note here a few facts concerning the functions of the coast artillery in the late war, as well as to emphasize the point that any probable foreign war of the future will demand precisely the same sort of service from troops of this arm.

189

Photograph by T. E. Marr, Boston

THE LAST EVENING PARADE.

Framingham, 3 October, 1898.

191In the first place—and so long as the term "front," in its accepted military sense, shall continue to mean the point of expected or probable contact with an enemy's forces—it requires no argument to prove that the First Heavy Artillery was at its post, at the front, on the 26th day of April, 1898. This, to be exact, was fifty-seven days before the Second Infantry disembarked at Baiquiri, sixty-six days before the Ninth Infantry landed at Siboney, and ninety days before the Sixth Infantry left its transport at Guanica, at which points respectively these three Massachusetts commands for the first time found it possible to gain tactical touch with the Spaniards. In other words, in a war with a maritime power, every strategic point on navigable waters accessible to an enemy's ships of war is of necessity at "the front," so long as the hostile fleet remains undestroyed, and the First therefore justly may claim actual service at the front from the day following that on which Congress declared war to exist, until the 3rd of July, when the annihilation of Cervera's squadron finally and definitely relieved the coast from the threat of Spanish attack. While the five Massachusetts regiments 192of infantry were passing their earlier weeks of service at inland camps of instruction, absolutely beyond the reach of any possible fighting, the First Artillery—from the very day on which it left its home stations—was continuously on duty at vital points open to attack at any hour of day or night. This claim, it should be well understood, is made only in simple justice to the regiment and in the interests of historical accuracy, for not an officer or a man in the First would detract from the hard-won honors of the Second, the Sixth, or the Ninth—honors in which, as Massachusetts soldiers, they ever will feel an honest pride.

The earlier portion of this narrative may have served to show roughly the condition of our harbor defenses at the outbreak of the last war, as well as the imperative need of heavy artillery troops with which to garrison them. The time has not yet arrived when the whole truth may be told safely, or even with propriety, but since the actual artillery strength on duty during the war is a matter of easily accessible record, it may here receive momentary attention. Briefly summarized, there 193were in service for the protection of our four thousand miles of sea-coast but ninety-three heavy batteries, of which seventy were in the regular establishment and twenty-three were in the volunteers. Over one-half of the latter were contributed by Massachusetts alone, in her First Heavy Artillery, and it seems fitting again to refer to the fact that her twelve trained and disciplined batteries were the only ones obtainable from the militia of the entire country at the outbreak of hostilities. Of the remaining volunteer heavy batteries, four each were hastily recruited in California and Maine, two in Connecticut, and one in South Carolina. The event proved that but six of the entire ninety-three batteries were destined to take part in any actual fighting. These were four from the Third United States Artillery and two from the California volunteers, which—when the destruction of Montojo's fleet had allayed all fears for the safety of the Pacific coast—were relieved from duty in the fortifications and ordered to report to General Merritt, under whom they saw service as infantry in the land operations around Manila.

194After what already has been said, it would seem that no elaborate explanation should be required to show why the heavy artillery arm failed to obtain more brilliant service in the last war. It must be borne in mind that its first and most important function is the defence of coast fortifications; its second, operations with the siege train in the reduction of fortified places; its third—and this only in rarely occurring emergencies—service as infantry. In the late war with Spain, as in any future European war, it was a matter of vital necessity to man our coast defenses, and to keep them manned until the threatening fleet had been swept from the seas; that once accomplished, and the artillerymen might reasonably have hoped for further service in the expected final operations at Havana. But with the naval victory off Santiago came the collapse of the war—and the ending of hope for the artillery.

By the legislation which transferred the First from the infantry to the artillery arm, the regiment was deprived of its opportunity of foreign service. Entrusted with the defence of the coast, it quietly accepted the responsibilities devolving upon it, and met them in a 195way that entitles it to the gratitude of the Commonwealth. First in the field, it had the mortification of finding itself soonest forgotten, for no correspondents followed it in its faithful service, and no newspaper filled its columns with the daily gossip of its camps. Accepting the situation, it faithfully went on with its duties until the end came, and then returned quietly to its place in the militia, content to apply to its own case the words of its commander-in-chief, President McKinley, "The highest tribute that can be paid to the soldier is to say that he performed his full duty. The field of duty is determined by his Government, and wherever that chances to be, there is the place of honor. All have helped in the great cause, whether in camp or in battle, and when peace comes, all alike will be entitled to the Nation's gratitude."

ROSTER OF COMMISSIONED OFFICERS — Regimental Roster. — MUSTER-ROLL OF "A" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "B" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "C" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "D" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "E" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "F" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "G" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "H" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "I" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "K" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "L" BATTERY — MUSTER-ROLL OF "M" BATTERY

CHRONOLOGY OF THE WAR

It will be observed that in the following table all regimental and battery notes refer to the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery:

15th.—U.S.S. Maine destroyed in harbor of Havana.

9th.—Congress appropriates $50,000,000 for national defence.

12th.—U.S.S. Oregon starts from San Francisco on the memorable voyage to the Atlantic coast.

24th.—Spanish torpedo-gunboat flotilla assembles at Cape Verde Islands.

28th.—Congress receives report of naval board of inquiry declaring Maine to have been destroyed by exterior explosion.

9th.—General Lee leaves Havana.

14th.—Flotilla at Cape Verde Islands joined by Infanta Maria Teresa and Cristobal Colon.

15th.—Legislature of Massachusetts appropriates $500,000 for local defence and equipment of troops.

25420th.—Cape Verde squadron augmented by Almirante Oquendo and Vizcaya.

21st.—Spanish Government sends passports to Minister Woodford.

22d.—Admiral Sampson sails from Key West to establish Cuban blockade.

23d.—President McKinley calls for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers.

24th.—Spanish Government announces its intention of organizing a fleet of auxiliary cruisers.

Regiment receives orders to hold itself in readiness for service in defenses of Boston Harbor.

25th.—Congress declares war to have existed since 21 April.

Admiral Dewey sails from Hong Kong for Manila.

Orders issued directing regiment to report at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, on following day.

26th.—Regiment assembles in Boston—ninety-nine per cent. present for duty—passes in review before Governor Wolcott, and at noon reaches its station.

29th.—Spanish fleet, under Admiral Cervera, sails from Cape Verde Islands—destination unknown.

1st.—Destruction of Admiral Montojo's fleet in Manila Bay.

9th.—Regiment mustered into volunteer service of United States by Brevet Lieut.-Col. C. A. 255Woodruff, Second United States Artillery; muster-in completed at 9.34 A.M.

10th.—Orders received detaching Third Battalion, to report to Colonel Woodruff.

13th.—Reported sighting of Spanish fleet off Nantucket; night alarm at Fort Warren.

18th.—Governor Wolcott visits post, inspects regiment, and presents volunteer commissions to officers.

20th.—General Merritt, commanding Department of the East, relieved by General Frank.

23d.—Orders received assigning Headquarters, First and Second Battalions to stations.

24th.—U.S.S. Oregon reaches coast of Florida.

25th.—President McKinley calls for seventy-five thousand additional volunteers.

First military expedition starts from San Francisco for Manila.

30th.—Admiral Cervera's fleet definitely located and blockaded in harbor of Santiago.

1st.—"G" and "L" Batteries take station at Fort Rodman, New Bedford Harbor.

3d.—U.S.S. Merrimac sunk in harbor of Santiago.

Regimental Headquarters established at Fort Pickering, Salem Harbor.

6th.—Changes of station: "A" Battery to Mining Casemate, Nahant; "C" and "D" Batteries to Fort Pickering; "H" Battery to Fort Sewall, Marblehead Harbor.

2567th.—"B" Battery takes station in defenses of Newburyport Harbor; "K" Battery at Stage Fort, Gloucester Harbor.

11th.—Landing of United States Marines at Guantanamo.

12th.—Embarkation of General Shafter's corps at Tampa.

15th.—Admiral Camara's squadron sails from Cadiz.

20th.—General Shafter's expedition lands at Baiquiri.

24th.—Action at Las Guasimas.

28th.—General Merritt's expedition sails for Philippines.

30th.—General Frank, commanding Department of the East, relieved by General Gillespie.

1st-2d.—Actions at El Caney and San Juan Hill.

3d.—Annihilation of Admiral Cervera's fleet off Santiago.

8th.—Admiral Camara's fleet turns back to Cadiz.

"B" Battery changes station from defenses of Newburyport to Port Constitution, Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire.

11th.—General Miles arrives at Santiago.

Governor Wolcott requests foreign service for regiment, informing War Department that apprehension no longer is felt for coast-towns of Massachusetts.

17th.—Surrender of Santiago.

25th.—General Miles lands with his expedition in Porto Rico.

257"A" Battery changes station from Nahant to Fort Pickering.

26th.—Spain asks terms of peace.

29th.—General Merritt's expedition reaches Manila.

31st.—United States forces at Manila repulse Spanish attack.

12th.—Peace protocol signed; hostilities suspended.

27th.—"B" Battery changes station from Fort Constitution to Fort Pickering.

19th.—Regiment withdrawn from coast-works and assembled in camp at South Framingham.

4th.—General Gillespie, commanding Department of the East, relieved by General Shafter.

5th.—Regiment breaks camp at Framingham, takes transportation for Boston, marches in review before Governor Wolcott, and is furloughed for thirty days.

4th.—Batteries report at home stations from furlough.

14th.—Regiment mustered out of service of United States by Lieut.-Col. E. M. Weaver, U.S.V., and Lieut. J. P. Hains, U.S.A.

10th.—Treaty of peace signed by Commissioners at Paris.

11th.—Proclamation by President McKinley of ratification of treaty officially terminates the war.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES