Photograph by T. E. Marr, Boston.
GARRISON ENCAMPMENT, FORT PICKERING.
On June 1st, Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman and his command left for New Bedford, proceeding from Boston by rail; while, on the 3rd, Colonel Pfaff and the officers of his staff established regimental headquarters at Salem. On the 6th, Major Quinby and "A," "C," "D," and "H" Batteries left for their stations, followed on the 7th by "B" and "K" Batteries. All these latter commands were furnished with transportation by water, and it may be noted that the small steamers employed for the purpose were well loaded down by the troops and their baggage. It so happened that the departure of the detachments took place during a period of very heavy weather, and more than one anxious watcher stood on the parapet at Warren, to follow through field-glasses the course of the receding transports, as they rolled and pitched across the bay and towards the North Shore.
The widely scattered detachments of the First now settled themselves as best they might at their respective coast-guard stations, and prepared to make the most of the scanty materials for defence which they found at hand. Under the final assignments, the distribution of the regimental strength was as follows:
| Station. | Officers. | Men. | Total. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defenses of Newburyport | 3 | 59 | 62 |
| Stage Fort, Gloucester | 4 | 59 | 63 |
| Fort Sewall, Marblehead | 3 | 58 | 61 |
| Fort Pickering, Salem | 13 | 121 | 134 |
| Mining Casemate, Nahant | 3 | 58 | 61 |
| Fort Warren, Boston | 13 | 232 | 245 |
| Fort Rodman, New Bedford | 9 | 116 | 125 |
| -- | --- | --- | |
| Aggregate for duty | 48 | 703 | 751 |
Hardly had the regiment begun to adapt itself to the new conditions, when telegraphic orders from the War Department arrived directing that the batteries be at once recruited to full artillery strength, two hundred enlisted men each—or an aggregate of sixty officers and twenty-four hundred men for the entire command, since an additional second lieutenant would be appointed to each battery when on a war footing. It is needless to say that this order was hailed with delight by both officers and men: to the former it gave promise of more active service, while to the latter it meant unlimited promotion, since over two hundred and fifty additional sergeants and corporals would be required in the expanded batteries. No time was lost in preparing to comply with this order. Major Dyar was detailed as chief recruiting officer, with Captains Williamson and Nutter as assistants, and plans were made for opening recruiting offices in Boston, New Bedford, Brockton, and Salem. Battery commanders immediately attempted to get into communication with the men whom they had left behind, under former conditions, in the hope of finding that not all of them had yet enlisted in the regulars or in other volunteer regiments. Everything was ready for beginning the work of recruiting—when word came by telegraph from Washington that the whole matter was a mistake, and that the recruiting order had been meant to apply alone to the Massachusetts infantry regiments. It was a bitter disappointment. The regiment stood sadly in need of recruits, since its strength as organized barely sufficed for the performance of routine garrison duty, and when the President, on May 25th, issued his call for seventy-five thousand additional volunteers, the officers of the First felt that from the allotment of Massachusetts they should at least secure enough men to bring the regimental enrolment up to twelve hundred. But for a second time they were destined to see their command passed by without consideration. The pressure exerted to bring the Fifth Infantry into the volunteer service, or it may be some other cause yet remaining to be explained, left the faithful First still serving with skeleton ranks.
In spite of all disappointments, however, the command never slackened in the performance of its appointed work. There were many problems to be solved, and of these the most perplexing was how to evolve an efficient defence from ridiculously inadequate materials. In his command on the North Shore Colonel Pfaff found himself confronted by a grave situation of affairs. To him had been entrusted the defence of five important points, among them four towns aggregating over eighty-five thousand inhabitants, and with property interests to be reckoned by tens of millions; and, to state unpleasant facts with relentless exactness, every modern and effective appliance for defensive operations had been denied him. Newburyport, Gloucester, Marblehead, and Salem were all liable to bombardment from the open sea, and the fire of heavy guns alone could give even a promise of immunity from that form of attack; but there were no heavy guns mounted at any of these points. Eight 3-inch, muzzle-loading rifles (type of 1862) had been brought to the coast by two of the militia light batteries, and these had been turned over to the volunteers relieving them, while sixteen Driggs-Schroeder rapid-fire guns, ranging in calibre from one-to six-pounders, hastily purchased by the State from its war emergency appropriation, also had been placed in the hands of the batteries of the First. Beyond these there was nothing in the way of ordnance—not a gun, not a round of ammunition was supplied by the general Government for these five posts to which it had seen fit to order artillery garrisons!
After making a rapid study of the situation, it became apparent that serious resistance to anything like a resolute fleet attack could not be made, but it was confidently believed that, with the means at hand, at least three other forms of naval attack might be successfully parried. Dispositions accordingly were made to meet sudden descents by Spanish auxiliary cruisers, dashes into harbors by torpedo-boats, or any attempts at operations by landing parties; and it should be said here that nothing was left undone towards providing, with the material available, all possible protection to the points garrisoned by these volunteer batteries.
FORT PICKERING AND THE "NORTH
SHORE" DEFENSES
XI.
From this time until the assembly of the command at Framingham, preparatory to going on mustering-out furlough, the regimental history becomes that of the widely dispersed fractions, while the record of events is but a dull story of garrison duty, faithfully performed in the face of every discouragement. For administrative purposes the regiment now formed three distinct divisions—that under Colonel Pfaff, with headquarters at Salem, and sub-posts at the points on the North Shore already noted; the garrison at New Bedford, under Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman, reporting directly to the commanding officer at Fort Adams, R.I.; and the battalion commanded by Major Frye, at Fort Warren, under the immediate orders of the commanding officer of the defenses of Boston Harbor. The record of these divisions, in their order, may briefly be given: