The Georgia pines attracted much attention. Many of these trees were transplanted and grouped about the camp for landscape effect. Every line officer had one at his front door.
All the officers constructed wooden porches in front of their tents. The porch had two faces, in one of which was a door, and in the other a glass window. The interior space between the two faces was utilized for a Sibley stove, and the pipe was carried through the wooden roof of the porch. All these porches were whitewashed. A line of officers' tents looked like a row of diminutive cottages, and in the morning when every funnel was smoking, suggested the busy preparation of breakfast in many little homes.
The officers of the regiment, however, messed together in a commodious building, which was divided into a dining hall and kitchen. The dining hall was also used as a regimental school room, and as a place for social meeting in the evening.
On one occasion a birthday dinner was given in this hall at which a historic cake figured. A lady sent this cake with an appropriate number of candles to one of the officers, and by way of a joke, wrote a letter to the Secretary of War, pretending to be the officer's sister, and asked to have the regiment held at Americus until her brother got his cake. This letter was preserved by Secretary Alger as a bonafide communication, and was later commented upon in his history of the War with Spain as follows:—
"Of all the requests however received, perhaps the most unique was that which came from a young lady in Boston. Her note paper, hand writing, and rhetoric vouched at least for the culture of the writer. Her request was simple and plainly worded. With much unfeigned earnestness she stated her case. The press despatches had announced that the volunteer regiment of which her brother was a member, was to leave for Cuba at a fixed date, but the brother's birthday came two days before the date assigned for his embarkation. A birthday box of cake, jellies, pies, etc., she said, had been forwarded to him, and would not be received if the regiment left on the date announced. She naively asked that the regiment be detained until the sweetmeats arrived, as she was sure it would make no difference to the Government, whereas, it would be such a disappointment to her brother."
During the first few weeks at Americus, the camp was overrun with colored people. They came from far and near to see the soldiers. Many of them carried covered baskets, and it was not long before a well-founded suspicion grew, that many of these baskets came into camp empty, and went out filled with plunder. The Eighth soon had a little race problem of its own to solve. In each company a squad of strong men assumed the duty of elevating the colored race.
The process of elevation consisted in capturing every colored man with a covered basket, and tossing him on a blanket into the air, until the arms of the soldiers got tired, and they could keep it up no longer. The sight of a negro with a basket was the signal for a rush in his direction with a blanket, and he was soon traveling skyward, in spite of every objection on his part to such treatment. For a few days, every such colored visitor was received in the open arms of a regulation blanket.
As objectionable visitors became scarce, and covered baskets disappeared, this moral propaganda ceased, and as far as the Eighth was concerned, the race problem was solved.
Major Edward H. Eldredge was detailed by General Waites to select a rifle range for the entire brigade. He selected one about half a mile from the camp, where targets were installed under his direction at 200 and 500 yards. It was reported that the regiment was to be armed with the Krag-Jorgensen rifles before the command was sent to Cuba, and it was the intention to have the soldiers spend a portion of each day at the range.
On November 20th, General Sanger arrived to relieve General Waites of the command of the Second Brigade. Under General Sanger, active preparations were at once begun for Cuba. Medical inspections were instituted to weed out officers and men unfit for foreign service. The regiment received a consignment of Krag-Jorgensen rifles, and its supplies generally were overhauled and replenished. General Sanger made a thorough inspection of the regiment by battalions. This inspection lasted three days. Permission was obtained from the Adjutant-General of the Army to recruit the regiment to full strength, by transferring men from regiments in Massachusetts not yet mustered out. A number of men who served in Porto Rico with the Sixth Massachusetts, and were at home waiting muster out, were transferred to the Eighth under this permission, and joined the regiment in December and January.