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

by James A. Frye

But though Colonel Sohier was successful in his mission so far as concerned saving the regiment for the national service, it was found impossible to secure permission to recruit the command to war strength, for the absurd reason that to do so would exceed the quota of volunteers allotted to Massachusetts. From a purely technical point of view, this decision seems inexplicable. There was crying need, at the time, for garrison artillery, while it was not expected that any serious demands would be made upon the infantry of the army before autumn; why, then, the proportion was not maintained by recruiting the First, and accepting one of the regiments of Massachusetts infantry temporarily on its peace strength, must always remain beyond the comprehension of those unfortunate enough to have had a professional knowledge of the coast-defence conditions prevailing at the opening of the late war.

FROM "M.V.M." TO "U.S.V."

VII.

The regiment was saved. Furthermore, it was actually, if not legally, in the service of the United States. But there yet remained certain complex processes which had to be gone through with before the "U.S.V." should supplant the "M.V.M." By a pleasant legal fiction, it had to be assumed that the militia regiment which had set out for Fort Warren had been lost somewhere en route, and that it had become imperatively necessary to raise a new regiment to take its place in the volunteer service. All this, of course, was but the most utter rubbish—and rubbish which under easily supposable conditions might prove dangerous—yet the obsolete militia laws which Congress has left upon the statute books, unaltered for nearly a century, made its observance necessary. General Dalton therefore (Special Orders, No. 45, 29th April) gravely issued instructions for the formation of the new regiment, though oddly enough he neglected the matter of making inquiries as to what had become of the old one. These instructions were brief and to the point: "Colonel Charles Pfaff, having been designated to command a volunteer regiment of heavy artillery, under the call of the President of the United States, will cause the enrolment of such officers and men as may volunteer in such regiment, and will cause to be prepared the necessary papers for muster into service of such volunteers, by Major Carle A. Woodruff, commanding at Fort Warren."

This order meant two things for the officers of the First. It required a final and most careful revision of the battery rolls, and a last searching scrutiny by the medical officers of the physical condition of the rank and file. Of these two requirements, the first was by far the most important. Had the regiment been formed in line, and the order been given for volunteers to step to the front, there can be no question that the command would have responded to the last man. But it was exactly this sort of thing that the officers wished to avoid. The regiment was about to enter upon a two-years' term of service, and its officers felt it their duty to discourage the enlistment of all whose families or dependents would suffer undue hardship should that term prove necessary. It was felt that any public call for volunteers would place men in false positions—as such procedure actually did in many States—and it was decided quietly to inquire into the merits of each individual case, refusing such men as could not show that their entry into the service would not work material injury either to themselves or to others. By adhering to this rule, the regiment lost a small percentage of the strength with which it went out, but the drain was easily made good by draft from the eager recruits who had been left behind. Better still, the men rejected for these reasons were enabled to retain their self-respect, and they left for their homes with the sympathy and good-will of their late comrades.

The task of the two medical officers was a trying one. Day after day they labored at the monotonous physical examinations, until they practically became worn out. Including recruits drafted to fill the vacant places made by rejections for business and family reasons or physical deficiencies, they were obliged to pass upon the qualifications of nearly nine hundred officers and men. It should be recorded, to the credit of the battery commanders as recruiting officers, that rejections for physical causes were few and far between, the rigid examination finding but one officer and fifteen men—a surprisingly small number—unfit for duty. General sympathy was felt for those sent away by the surgeons, for without exception they were men whose desire to go out with the regiment was of the keenest.

But during all the uncertainty as to the final disposition of the regiment, as well as while the work of transferring it from the militia to the volunteer service was in progress, the garrison duty for which it had been so hastily summoned was not neglected for a moment. On the 27th of April, the day after the command reported at the fort, the batteries had been assigned to their fighting-stations, and steady drill at the guns had begun. The drill was no light matter; excluding the ceremonies of guard-mounting and evening parade, the regimental order called for four hours and a half daily of solid work at the heavy guns, and that work was performed with an energy never shown at the annual tours of instruction in time of peace. On the many days when weather conditions kept the men from the parapets, schools of instruction were held in quarters, for the study of guard duty, of army regulations, and other matters of the sort. By April 30th, the regimental signal corps, made up of twelve non-commissioned officers and thirty-six privates, under the signal officer with an assistant, had been fully organized, and was steadily employed in wig-wagging. On May 1st, the light regimental guard mounted during the first few days of the tour was replaced by a strong guard of two officers with fifty-seven non-commissioned officers and privates. From these, details were made for the patrol-boat crews, and reliefs were furnished for the chain of posts by which the island was surrounded.

With the assignment to gun-stations, the organization of the garrison on a fighting-basis stood completed. The two regular batteries—"C" (Schenck's) and "M" (Richmond's)—were stationed at the 10-inch, breech-loading, disappearing rifles mounted in Bastion B and in the Ravelin Battery; with them, for purposes of instruction, and to furnish reliefs if required, were four batteries of the volunteers, "A" (Bordman's), "C" (Nutter's), "I" (Williamson's), and "L" (Whiting's). To the 8-inch converted rifles on the eastern face of the fort, commanding the main ship channel, were assigned four more batteries of the First, "B" (Lombard's), "F" (Danforth's), "K" (Howes'), and "M" (Braley's). The 15-inch Rodman guns, mounted in barbette on Bastion A, were manned by "G" (Chick's) and "H" (Pratt's) Batteries. "E" Battery (Gibbs') was told off for the 8-inch converted rifles in the casemate battery of Bastion A, while "D" Battery (Frothingham's) was assigned to the machine-gun section, made up of Hotchkiss and Gatling guns.

Variety in artillery work certainly was not lacking, for the men of the regiment found themselves called upon to handle every type of ordnance, from the ponderous modern rifle, on its complex mount, to the spiteful Gatling, destined to spit its fire at prowling torpedo-boats or chance landing parties. Nor was the drill in the manual of the piece all that was required: attention had to be given to magazine-work, mechanical manœuvres, and the use of cordage, while range and position finding were not neglected. "K" and "L" Batteries also obtained a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of the use of garrison-gin and sling-cart by moving from the fort to the pier certain spare 8-inch converted rifles, for shipment to other points on the coast—a task which they performed promptly and with credit to their earlier training in the handling of heavy weights. Infantry drill was not entirely neglected, and daily marching manœuvres and setting-up exercises were relied upon to keep the men in form, while steadiness under arms was taught at each evening parade.

Meanwhile progress in the preparations for the muster of the regiment into the service of the United States had not been delayed. Colonel H. E. Converse, A.Q.M.G., assisted by Colonel F. B. Stevens, A.D.C., had been on duty at the post, representing the State in the final settlement of property accountability on the part of the battery commanders, and as the result of their labors the title to the arms and equipments of the regiment was passed to the general Government. The physical examinations had been concluded, and recruits had been received for all vacancies. Muster-rolls and all other papers were ready on Saturday, May 7th, and on the evening of that day Colonel Pfaff reported his command as prepared for the mustering-in ceremony. It was first proposed to have this take place on Sunday, but on second thought it was considered better to defer it until the following day—which, as it proved, resulted in giving to "K" Company, of the Second Massachusetts Infantry, the honor of being the first command in the State to complete its actual muster.