After over three years of association in camp and field the ties of comradeship among the members of the battery were too strong to be ignored and the mustering out of the original members had hardly severed the official bond than preparations were begun for the formation of an organization to be known as Nims' Battery Association. On December 10, 1864, a meeting was called at the Webster House, at which time this association was organized and officers elected.
The preamble to the constitution as given in the first secretary's book is as follows:
"Associated as we have been together for the past three years both in camp and on the field of battle, bound together by more than brotherly ties, we should feel grateful for our safe return and proud to know that we once constituted a battery that knew no superior in style or action.
"Therefore we the undersigned do organize an association for our mutual benefit and do hereby adopt the following rules and regulations to secure good order and to determine our rights, duties and privileges as members of said association."
The officers chosen at this time were: President, Henry E. Brown; Vice-President, George E. Ham; Secretary, P. J. Mayer; Treasurer, William D. Butts.
As the vice-president and secretary declined to serve, these offices were filled at a subsequent meeting by the election of C. B. Maxwell, Vice-President; J. S. Knowlton, Secretary.
It was voted that regular meetings should be held monthly and the place of meeting was to be at Evans Hall, Tremont Row.
The early records of the association give only a hint of the life of the organization, but we will indicate a few incidents that may be of interest to the surviving members.
On March 27, 1865, we find that the battery attended as a body the grand mass meeting of the Veterans' Union held in Tremont Temple, while on June 1 at a grand procession in Boston it appeared on parade with badges and drum corps and bearing the colors carried by them during the war. A letter from Captain Nims, who was then in New Orleans, in reply to a request for the colors is incorporated in the records and may well be quoted here.
"Your note dated April 4 came to hand yesterday morning requesting the loan of the company colors on all important occasions, once the colors borne by the noble old 2d Massachusetts Battery which I am ever proud to call mine. In answer I will say that it gives me great pleasure through the representative of the association to tender the use of the colors on all important occasions. Knowing well the past conduct of the members of the association, I have no fear for the care and protection of the colors while under their charge. Wishing all prosperity and happiness I subscribe myself