MAJOR GEORGE F. QUINBY, U.S.V.
Commanding Second Battalion.
Captain Lombard, with "B" Battery, had drawn what was perhaps the least desirable of all the posts falling to the regiment, that at Plum Island, covering Newburyport and the entrance to the Merrimac. After a rough passage around Cape Ann, he arrived with his command at this station on June 7th. The island is a low, sandy formation, ten miles in length, commanding at its northern extremity the channel leading into the harbor of Newburyport. At this point, lying but three miles and a half from the railway bridge marking the centre of the city, the command pitched its camp, and threw up an earthwork of slight profile for the reception of its field guns. Shallow waters and a treacherous bar deter vessels of any considerable draft from attempting to enter this harbor; but the city offers a tempting and easy mark for torpedo-boat raids, and it was to discourage any enterprise of this sort that "B" Battery was condemned to a month of dreary duty among the sand dunes. The order of July 2nd, directing the command to change station to Fort McClary, Maine, was received at the post with delight, and little time was lost in preparing to leave behind the brackish water, mosquitoes, and monotony of Plum Island.
Before this order could be executed, it was amended. These were the days when ugly rumors were coming from before Santiago, and the Government was making hurried efforts to meet a possible disaster on land. Captain Curtis, with his battery ("K") of the Second Artillery, was garrisoning the defenses at Portsmouth, of which McClary was a subpost, and to him on July 6th came rush orders to hasten with his battery to Tampa, to join the siege train there organizing, while Captain Lombard was directed to relieve him in the command of the Portsmouth defenses. On the 8th, "B" Battery reached its new station, taking post at Fort Constitution, and placing detachments at Fort McClary, on the Maine shore opposite, and at Jerry's Point, in the outer line of defenses. The command now occupied a most responsible position, with more than enough work for its small enlisted strength, for here there was much modern artillery material to be cared for, while the guard duty of the scattered posts made heavy drafts on the endurance of the men. These important defenses, covering not only the city of Portsmouth, but also the Kittery Navy Yard, were now added to the other posts under command of Colonel Pfaff, who on the last day of July visited the station, and inspected the works and the garrison. After becoming settled in quarters, details were made for post administration, Lieutenant Day being appointed post adjutant and Lieutenant Underwood post quartermaster and commissary. On August 19th, the Santiago campaign having turned out luckily after all, Captain Curtis was ordered with his battery back from Tampa, arriving a few days later to relieve Captain Lombard. At this time Major Crozier, A.I.G., reached the post on his tour of inspection, and by his direction "B" Battery demonstrated its ability to handle modern ordnance by conducting the test-firing of the newly mounted 8-inch breech-loading rifles, on their disappearing carriages. Shortly afterwards, Captain Lombard and his command changed station to Pickering, reporting to Colonel Pfaff on August 27th.
The garrison for Marblehead, "H" Battery, under command of Captain Pratt, arrived on June 6th at its station at Fort Sewall. This old fortification, which properly should be classed as a mere field work, not only commands the entrance to the harbor of Marblehead, but also plays an important part in the outer line of defence for Salem. Having been ungarrisoned for more than thirty years, it naturally was in a dilapidated condition, and on the arrival of "H" Battery it was without armament. As in the case of Stage Fort, the request of Colonel Pfaff for two 8-inch converted rifles was ignored, and reliance had to be placed upon the rapid-fire guns brought to the post by the incoming troops. After pitching its camp and making the required repairs on the works, the garrison settled itself for what proved to be an uneventful tour of occupation. At this post Lieutenant Renfrew acted as adjutant, with Lieutenant Grant as quartermaster and commissary. The only break in the monotony of the summer came when a battalion from Pickering, after a forced march from Salem, feigned an attack on the post by a landing party, which was met and repulsed in a workmanlike manner by Captain Pratt and his command.
The mining-casemate at Nahant, from which the mine-fields in Broad Sound, Boston Harbor, were to have been controlled, was placed in charge of Captain Bordman, who arrived with his command ("A" Battery) at this station on June 6th, and at once laid out his camp near the work to be guarded. Rapid-fire field guns were issued to this post, but infantry guard duty was practically all that was required of its garrison. Lieutenant Fullerton served as post adjutant until ordered to Fort Columbus, New York Harbor, on July 18th, where he remained on detached service until the muster-out of the regiment. The quartermaster and commissary duties were performed by Lieutenant Sumner Paine. Lacking the material for artillery work, Captain Bordman turned to infantry drill, and by constant road marches and field exercises brought his command into prime physical condition. The tour of the battery at this station was not destined to be a long one. In the rush of emergency harbor-work during the early days of the war, the Engineers first gave their attention to the mining of the main ship channel and Nantasket Roads, leaving Broad Sound—the water area for bombardment of Boston, Lynn, and Chelsea—for later consideration; but with the destruction of Cervera's fleet, all active mining operations came abruptly to a close, and the Broad Sound system remained uninstalled. The post at Nahant, therefore, was ordered to be abandoned on July 25th, its garrison reporting at Fort Pickering on that date.
FORT RODMAN AND ITS GARRISON
XII.
The second of the three general divisions into which the regiment had been separated—Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman's command, "G" (Chick's) and "L" (Whiting's) Batteries—arrived at its destination at New Bedford on June 1st, reporting to Lieutenant-Colonel Haskin, Second United States Artillery, commanding officer at Fort Adams, R.I. The post to be garrisoned was then borne on the army register as the "Fort at Clark's Point," the designation by which it had been known since 1857, when ground first was broken for its construction. The fort is an excellent type of the clever military engineering for which this country was noted at the middle of the century. It is an enclosed work of granite, with two tiers of casemate guns and provisions for a third tier in barbette, though the guns of the latter battery never have been mounted. In June last its armament was made up of 8- and 10-inch Rodmans, 100-pounder (6.4-inch) Parrott rifles, and 24-pounder (5.8-inch) flank-casemate howitzers. All through the summer and fall months the Engineers were steadily at work on exterior emplacements for 8-inch breech-loading rifles, on disappearing mounts, while mortar and rapid-fire batteries also were projected for the post; but during its occupation by its volunteer garrison the only available ordnance was that of the types of the Civil War.
The site of the works is at the extremity of Clark's Point, three miles and a half from the centre of New Bedford, at a point commanding not only the channel entering the harbor, but also all water areas for bombardment to the southward of the city. Prior to the war with Spain, a solitary ordnance sergeant formed the garrison at the post, but on May 6th a detachment of thirty men from the Second Artillery, under command of Lieutenant Lyon (later relieved, on May 27th, by Lieutenant Connor), had been ordered over from Fort Adams for guard duty. The casemates on the landward face of the fort, originally intended for use as quarters, never had been placed in condition for occupancy, and the detachment of regulars therefore was quartered in an old building standing on the reservation, while the battalion of volunteers pitched camp in an open field to the northwest of the fort. It would have been difficult to find a more desirable site for the encampment. Lying on dry and level ground, between two arms of the sea, it not only afforded a pleasant outlook, but also was constantly swept by cool breezes from off the water. Under such circumstances, camp sanitation afforded an easy problem, and during its tour at this post the health of the command remained excellent.