BVT. LIEUT.-COL. CARLE A. WOODRUFF, U.S.A.
(Major 2d Artillery.)
Mustering-in Officer for the Regiment.
Contrary to the prevailing rule, Monday, the 9th of May, proved to be a sunny and pleasant day. Early in the morning, the regiment was formed in its battery streets, in readiness for its entry into the volunteer army. Promptly at eight o'clock, Major Carle A. Woodruff, Second United States Artillery, commanding the post, and with it the other defenses of Boston Harbor, took his station before regimental headquarters, in readiness for the ceremony. The regiment felt itself honored by his detail as its mustering-officer: a typical American soldier, he had received the brevets of captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious services at Gettysburg, at Trevillian Station, and during the Civil War as a whole, while he also had been decorated with the medal of honor for distinguished gallantry in action at Newby's Cross Roads. He had been closely identified with the regiment since its change from the infantry to the artillery arm, and its officers held him in the warmest esteem.
It had been arranged that the batteries should be mustered in the order of the seniority of their captains, and thus the first command to march across the parade was "M" under veteran Captain Braley, who was responding for the second time to the call of his country in time of war. His appearance before the mustering officer was the signal for a round of applause from the group of staff officers gathered at headquarters. In a very few minutes both he and his command had ceased to be militiamen, and had become United States Volunteers—to be followed rapidly by the other eleven batteries of the regiment. As a matter of record, it was exactly 9.34 A.M. when Colonel Woodruff finished administering the oath to the field, staff, and non-commissioned staff officers, thus completing the muster of the regiment. Everything had moved with the regularity of clock-work, and in but little over an hour and a half more than seven hundred and fifty officers and men had answered to their names as called from the muster-rolls, and had sworn to serve the United States faithfully and well for the two years to come.
In this connection the statement made in the newspaper history of the Second Massachusetts Infantry must be corrected. It is but a minor point, of course, yet soldiers are wont to be jealously tenacious on minor points affecting their own records. "This regiment," writes the historian of the Second, "was the first to be mustered into the service of the United States, the first to leave Massachusetts, the first to invade Cuba—the first of our regiments to enter the actualities of war." As a strict matter of record, the Second Infantry was mobilized at Framingham on May 3rd, where it completed its muster-in (though "K" Company had been mustered on May 8th) on May 10th. The First Artillery entered the United States service as militia on April 26th, dating its pay-rolls from that day, and had been mustered complete before 10 o'clock in the forenoon of May 9th. It was the first militia regiment in the service; it became the first volunteer regiment in the service. In contending for this recognition it certainly does not seek to rob the Second of its hard-won laurels, for the First and Second, brigaded together for long years, always have been firm friends, though strong rivals. Chained in its posts along shore, the First yet watched with interest and admiration the career of the men from western Massachusetts, and in their trials and triumphs in far-away Cuba their hearts would have warmed could they have heard the verdict of their brethren of the First—"Well done, Second Massachusetts!"
PERSONNEL OF THE REGIMENT
VIII.
On the completion of the mustering-in there came an incident which was characteristic of the spirit of the First. Since all of the volunteer commissions due the regiment would bear the same date, it was evident that a decision must be made to settle questions of seniority. Army regulations prescribe that lots shall be drawn in cases similar to this, and, had this legalized lottery been held, there was a tempting chance that the officer of less than a year's commissioned service might find himself out-ranking another who had served faithfully in the militia for years in a like grade. To the everlasting credit of the regiment, its officers declined to avail themselves of this opportunity for unearned advancement, and by their wish the first general order issued from headquarters of the newly-made volunteer regiment published a roster of the command, determining the rank and precedence in the several grades, as established by previous service in the militia of Massachusetts.
As mustered into the volunteer service, the regiment was officered as follows:
| 1. | Col. Charles Pfaff. | |
| 2. | Lt.-Col. Charles B. Woodman. | |
| 3. | Maj. Perlie A. Dyar. | |
| 4. | Maj. George F. Quinby. | |
| 5. | Maj. Howard S. Dearing | Surgeon. |
| 6. | Maj. James A. Frye. | |
| 7. | Capt. Sierra L. Braley | "M" Battery. |
| 8. | Capt. Joseph H. Frothingham | "D" Battery. |
| 9. | Capt. Charles Williamson | "I" Battery. |
| 10. | Capt. Norris O. Danforth | "F" Battery. |
| 11. | Capt. Albert B. Chick | "G" Battery. |
| 12. | Capt. Frederick M. Whiting | "L" Battery. |
| 13. | Capt. Walter E. Lombard | "B" Battery. |
| 14. | Capt. Charles P. Nutter | "C" Battery. |
| 15. | Capt. Walter L. Pratt | "H" Battery. |
| 16. | Capt. John Bordman, Jr. | "A" Battery. |
| 17. | Capt. Frederic S. Howes | "K" Battery. |
| 18. | Capt. Joseph L. Gibbs | "E" Battery. |
| 19. | 1st Lt. Horace B. Parker | Adjutant. |
| 20. | 1st Lt. Charles F. Nostrom | "C" Battery. |
| 21. | 1st Lt. John S. Keenan | Quartermaster. |
| 22. | 1st Lt. John E. Day | "B" Battery. |
| 23. | 1st Lt. David Fuller | "M" Battery. |
| 24. | 1st Lt. Ferdinand H. Phillips | "F" Battery. |
| 25. | 1st Lt. John B. Paine | Range Officer. |
| 26. | 1st Lt. William L. Swan | "L" Battery. |
| 27. | 1st Lt. William Renfrew | "H" Battery. |
| 28. | 1st Lt. Frank S. Wilson | "G" Battery. |
| 29. | 1st Lt. E. Dwight Fullerton | "A" Battery. |
| 30. | 1st Lt. P. Frank Packard | "K" Battery. |
| 31. | 1st Lt. William A. Rolfe | Assistant Surgeon. |
| 32. | 1st Lt. Norman P. Cormack | "D" Battery. |
| 33. | 1st Lt. Harold C. Wing | "E" Battery. |
| 34. | 1st Lt. George E. Horton | "I" Battery. |
| 35. | 1st Lt. George S. Stockwell | Signal Officer. |
| 36. | 1st Lt. William S. Bryant | Assistant Surgeon. |
| 37. | 2d Lt. Marshall Underwood | "B" Battery. |
| 38. | 2d Lt. Frederick A. Cheney | "L" Battery. |
| 39. | 2d Lt. Bertie E. Grant | "H" Battery. |
| 40. | 2d Lt. James H. Gowing | "G" Battery. |
| 41. | 2d Lt. Albert A. Gleason | "K" Battery. |
| 42. | 2d Lt. Frederick W. Harrison | "M" Battery. |
| 43. | 2d Lt. Wellington H. Nilsson | "I" Battery. |
| 44. | 2d Lt. William J. McCullough | "D" Battery. |
| 45. | 2d Lt. Sumner Paine | "A" Battery. |
| 46. | 2d Lt. Joseph S. Francis | "C" Battery. |
| 47. | 2d Lt. James E. Totten | "F" Battery. |
| 48. | 2d Lt. Charles H. Fuller | "E" Battery. |