Twelve Months with the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry in the Service of the United States

by Harry Endicott Webber

It was warm and stuffy where they were quartered in the hold, but their discomfort vanished with daylight, when they climbed on deck to loll in the shade and enjoy the steady northeast trade. The Michigan was formerly a freight vessel of the Warren Line, used as a cattle boat to carry live stock to England.

The enlisted men were assigned quarters between decks. There were no berths, but each man was furnished with a duck hammock, which at night was hung on hooks in wooden uprights. These hammocks were hung in tiers, one over the other. In the morning the hammocks were rolled and stored, and the quarters prepared for inspection, which took place twice daily, at 10 A. M., and just before retreat. These inspections were made by the Colonel, accompanied by the transport quartermaster, the police officer, medical officer, and master of the ship. After the morning inspection, daily exercise was required on deck.

Sometime during the day every man had a bath. They stripped on the forward deck, and were pumped upon with a stream of water from the ocean.

The officers quarters were as cramped as those of the men. There were only ten state rooms. The ships guard consisted of one company detailed for each day, the captain acting as officer of the day, and the lieutenants as officers of the guard. Each company commander provided his command with proper police utensils from the ships quartermaster, and looked after the policing of the company quarters. Cooking was done in the ship's galleys. During the trip, Stiles commenced work with the musicians on board, for the new regimental band. This nucleus had band practice every day.

During the second day the transport steamed along the Florida coast within sight of a continuous stretch of beach sand and palm groves. At Jupiter Inlet a salute was exchanged with some guns mounted near the summer hotels, and the ship went so near the shore that the winter visitors could be counted on the hotel piazzas.

Late in the afternoon of the 12th, the first glimpse was caught of Cuba. During the night the transport lay off shore waiting for a pilot. On the morning of the 13th, a pilot came on board and the vessel steamed into the Bay of Matanzas, and came to anchor about two miles from the city. A guard detail was immediately placed upon the small wharf near San Severino to guard the baggage as it was landed. Details were made to clear up the ship and assist in discharging baggage and live stock.

As soon as the sentries were posted on the wharf, the soldiers began to be lightered to the shore. A corral was established near the wharf, where the horses and mules were soon assembled. Before night the men on the Michigan were landed, and had joined their comrades of the First Battalion in a pup camp, between the Boulevard and the water, under the walls of San Severino.

For a week the soldiers of the Eighth were busy preparing their new camp. Large hospital tents were issued to the command. Each company was divided into squads of six men under a corporal, and assigned to a tent. These tents were large enough to accommodate ten men, and in them seven men had all the room they required. A large fly was issued with each tent. As it was impossible to drive tent pins, large joists were used in the framing of the tent floors, and portions of these joists were extended on either side, to which the guy ropes were attached. The tent floors were laid about a foot above the surface of the ground on posts. To every man there was issued a Gold Medal cot.

Each company, with the lumber brought from Americus, erected a frame mess house with substantial flooring, and constructed mess tables and seats. The roofs of these mess houses were covered with canvas, and in the rear of each a kitchen was built. The quarters of the battalion commanders were upon a terrace slightly raised above the level of the line officers street. Behind this terrace was another, the center of which was occupied by Regimental headquarters. On one side of this terrace, a Regimental hospital was established, and on the other end, a stable with a canvas roof for the horses and mules.

The greatest difficulty was experienced in constructing roads through this camp. The rocks cropped out in points, which had to be broken with sledge hammers, or blasted with powder. Major Graves performed the important duties of superintendent of streets, and soon had a beautiful macadamized road running the whole length of the camp in front of the line officers quarters.