After obtaining a supply of repacked beef, that tasted well enough when cooked and cold, but during the process of cooking made such a stench the men could not remain below, the Shetucket, on the fourth day of January, sailed for Ship Island, encountering a rough gale on the sixth, that made things lively on board, and blew them fifty miles from their course. Late in the afternoon on the seventh two steam vessels were seen, or rather, the smoke they made was sighted on the horizon. There was some commotion on board, and speculation was rife as to their identity. The Confederate war vessel Alabama was a nightmare that haunted the minds of all upon transports conveying troops to the Gulf Department. The following morning a vessel was in sight giving chase. Rapidly gaining upon the Shetucket, a blank shot, then two solid shots were fired, the last striking water about two hundred yards away from the transport, when she was hove to. The vessel in pursuit was the gunboat R. R. Cuyler, who had sighted the afternoon before, the transport and another steamer, giving chase first to the Shetucket, until finding her to be a slow sailer had gone in pursuit of the other vessel, overhauling her during the night, capturing a good prize in an English iron-built blockade runner, and then started for the transport again, confident she could be found at any time.
This was on the morning of the eighth, and in the evening, at nine o’clock, they arrived at Ship Island. Receiving orders to proceed to New Orleans, a start was made at noon the next day, entering the Mississippi River by Pass L’Outre early on the morning of the tenth, arriving at New Orleans in the afternoon of Sunday, January 11th, with only three men sick after such a trip.
The regiment was in camp at Carrollton, and Companies C and H proceeded next day to that place, disembarked, and joined Companies A, B, E, F and K, having been thirty-six days on the trip from Sandy Hook to New Orleans.
The transport Quinnebaug was in charge of Lieutenant Proctor, Company G. Corporal Hodsdon, Company D, was detailed to report to Colonel Beckwith, chief commissary, and by him assigned to the vessel. It was intended at one time to send some horses upon her, but the accommodations were such that none would have lived, and it was abandoned. This transport was like the Charles Osgood and Shetucket, fitted up with bunks to accommodate troops. After some changes of mind in regard to this vessel, she was loaded with stores, sufficient for twenty-four thousand army rations.
Lieutenant Proctor, while on the way to go aboard his steamer in the river, ready to proceed, was hailed on Broadway by Sergeants Nichols, Vialle and Atwell, who said they had been left, together with Private Greene, all of them members of Company G. Proctor told them to find Greene and go on board the Quinnebaug, which they did.
One of the ridiculous things done in loading this vessel was to put in a large refrigerator built next to the engine boilers, against remonstrances of men who knew this would not do, packing it with ice and fresh beef. As was to be expected, heat from the boilers melted the ice fast, and by the time they went into Tortugas the beef was spoilt. The Quincy was there at the same time, but her troops could not, or would not, eat the meat which Lieutenant Proctor sent on board to the extent of several tons. The balance he threw overboard after leaving Tortugas.
This vessel sailed December 6th, proceeding to Fortress Munroe for orders, as directed, remaining there two days; also touched at Hilton Head for one day, Tortugas for one day and a half and Ship Island for one day, arriving at New Orleans December 29th, having been twenty-three days on the trip from Sandy Hook.
When Captain Beckley, commanding vessel, heard the sailing orders read at sea, which directed them to Ship Island, he was mad, and said his boat was unseaworthy and in no condition to go over the Bahama Banks; he was also without charts for a voyage beyond Charleston, S. C., and was obliged to send to Baltimore for them, from Fortress Munroe, where they were obtained with difficulty. The Quinnebaug, in July, 1864, while conveying from Morehead City to Baltimore about two hundred and eighty discharged soldiers, was driven ashore when off Cape Lookout, the machinery refusing to work, and became a total wreck. Between eighty and ninety soldiers were lost.
Other detailed men from the regiment for detached duty were: Corporal Alfred Thayer, Company I, Wagoners John Willy, Company B, Joseph B. Ford, Company A, Chauncey K. Bullock, Company D, Nelson Wright, Company E, Porter Carter, Company K, in charge of horses upon the transport-ship Wizard King. This ship sailed from New York December 8th, and arrived at New Orleans December 31st. Besides a large amount of stores, about one hundred and sixty horses were on board, belonging to field officers of various regiments in the expedition. Each regiment detailed men to care for its own horses. Twenty-five horses were lost on the trip, among them Surgeon Hitchcock’s horse.
The experience of other Massachusetts troops on the voyage to New Orleans was varied, as the following condensed statement will show: