The First regiment Massachusetts heavy artillery, United States volunteers, in the Spanish-American war of 1898

by James A. Frye

FORT RODMAN AND ITS GARRISON

XII.

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 (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.

LIEUT.-COL. CHARLES B. WOODMAN, U.S.V.
Second-in-Command.

At 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 with 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 guns 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. By 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

XIII.

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 of 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.

MAJOR JAMES A. FRYE, U.S.V.
Commanding Third Battalion.

Since 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 Catlin, 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 long 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 of 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.