Since this battalion was a complete tactical unit, under command of its own field officer, it did not lose its identity on becoming a part of the garrison at the fort. Both its officers and men, sharing tours with the regulars, were carried on the rosters of the post for guard and fatigue duty; but for purposes of discipline and administration the battalion organization remained intact. The acting battalion staff was composed of Lieutenant D. Fuller, adjutant; Lieutenant Phillips, quartermaster; Lieutenant Horton, signal officer; Lieutenant Wing, commissary; and, until relieved on June 23rd, Lieutenant Rolfe, assistant surgeon. The officers of the volunteers also were called upon for the performance of many duties under post details: Major Frye served as president of the post council of administration, as presiding officer at garrison courts martial, and later as trial officer of the summary court; Lieutenant D. Fuller was appointed post treasurer and librarian; Lieutenant Totten was detailed as post adjutant and recruiting officer, as well as mustering officer for the regiment at large, the latter detail requiring many visits to the scattered stations of the command; for much of the time the signal system of the works was under the supervision of Lieutenant Horton, owing to the absence on detached service of Lieutenant Catlin, the regular signal officer; Captains Braley and Williamson, with Lieutenants D. Fuller, Phillips, Wing, Harrison, Nilsson, and Totten also served as members of general courts martial.
As at the other posts of the regiment, the earlier days of the detached tour at this station found much work requiring immediate attention: range charts for each gun-group were plotted; guns, carriages, and equipments were overhauled and made ready for action; ammunition was prepared and stored at hand in the service magazines. Department orders called for three hours' gun-drill daily, and in addition to this—in order that the command might be ready for any kind of service required by later developments—an hour more was devoted to battalion drill as infantry. Evening parade was held daily by the volunteers, though the regular batteries at the post omitted this ceremony. Aside from its record of steady and faithful work there were but few events during the summer which concerned this portion of the regiment. On August 16th it was presented a battalion color by its friends in Boston, which it carried so long as on its detached service. Beginning on August 20th, there was test firing of all the recently mounted guns—12-inch mortars, 10-inch rifles, and 4.7- and 4-inch rapid-fire guns—under the supervision of Major Crozier, A.I.G., who visited all the posts in the harbor on this duty. It may here be noted, as a curious matter of record, that poverty in ammunition had forbidden the expenditure of even a single round from these modern guns until after the suspension of hostilities. On September 2nd, the men of the garrison lined the parapets and cheered lustily when the squadron of nine warships, led by the grim Massachusetts, steamed into the harbor for the naval parade. On the following day the Third Battalion paraded in Boston as escort to Captain Higginson, and the officers, seamen, and marines of the vessels under his command—the Massachusetts, Machias, Detroit, Castine, Wilmington, Helena, Marietta, Topeka, and Bancroft. Orders for change of station now arrived. On the 17th of September the battalion tendered a final review to Colonel Woodruff, and on the 19th marched out from the fort, taking transport on the City of Philadelphia for Boston, and thence proceeding by rail to rejoin the regiment in camp at Framingham. Officers and men alike left the post with feelings of sincere regret, since their relations with the regulars of the garrison had been most pleasant. On relieving the battalion from duty under his orders, Colonel Woodruff took occasion officially to compliment it on its uniform state of efficiency and discipline.
FINAL DAYS IN THE SERVICE
XIV.
So through the long and weary summer months the scattered batteries of the regiment served faithfully at their posts along the coast, patiently enduring the dull monotony of garrison life, and hoping against hope that the fortunes of war yet might bring them their own chance for training their guns upon an enemy. For a time rumor still busied itself with the movements of the Spanish fleet, while spook cruisers still held the seas—as the men on Shafter's crowded troopships could have testified to their sorrow—but, as the final event proved, Spain either was too blind or too feeble to improve her one possible opportunity of inflicting injury on her adversary by striking a sharp and sudden blow at some point on our long and weakly defended coast line. The national salute fired on the Fourth of July at all the posts along-shore answered a double purpose, since, while complying with army regulations for the observance of the holiday, it also served to celebrate the victorious fighting on land and sea at Santiago. But the men of the coast artillery, regulars and volunteers alike, listened with heavy hearts to the booming of their unshotted guns; rejoicing with their brethren of the Navy over the signal victory that had been won, they yet felt that the destruction of Cervera's squadron had deprived them of the one chance to which they had trusted for obtaining distinction. Like all thinking men, they had to face the fact that the events at Santiago marked the beginning of the end.
On July 11th, Governor Wolcott informed the authorities at Washington that the people of Massachusetts no longer were in uneasiness regarding the safety of the cities and towns on the coast, and requested that the First might be relieved from its present stations and assigned to more active duty. Colonel Pfaff also urged that his command be retained in service for any work that yet might remain to be done, while General Lee, who had heard of the efficient condition of the regiment through Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis Guild of his staff, made strong efforts to secure its transfer to his Seventh Corps, then completing its organization for the occupation of Havana.
But the time had not yet arrived when conditions would permit any further depletion of our already weak artillery garrisons. It is true that Spain, after the utter annihilation of her sea power, had been humbled into asking terms on July 26th, and that, with the signing of the peace protocol on August 12th, hostilities had been suspended; but there yet remained possible complications with Germany over the long and ugly succession of unfriendly acts of which the vessels of her fleet in Philippine waters had been guilty. Within a very recent period Berlin has seen fit officially to disavow any intention of interfering at that time with our naval representatives at Manila, but in spite of this disavowal it still remains a fact that such interference occurred, and it was not until early in the fall that our military and naval authorities could feel assured that the immediate future might not find this country called upon to face a fresh and really powerful adversary. Under these circumstances, all our available artillery troops, both regulars and volunteers, wisely were held at their stations until, on the final passing of the German war-cloud, there remained no further hope for active service against Spain.
On September 4th, telegraphic orders from the War Department were received at all the posts garrisoned by fractions of the regiment, directing preparations to be made for the assembly of the command for furlough and ultimate muster-out; and on the 17th, Colonel Pfaff issued his orders for the concentration of his widely scattered batteries at Framingham. On the 19th, the regiment was again reunited at the State camp ground, the batteries from the posts on the North Shore, under command of Colonel Pfaff, being first to arrive, followed at short intervals by the battalion from Fort Warren, under Major Frye, and the garrison from Fort Rodman, under Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman. It was found that camp already had been pitched by Captain Landy and his men, under direction of Colonel Converse, and all that remained to be done by the command was to settle in quarters and start in operation the battery messes.
After over three months of detached service at isolated points along the coast the twelve batteries again were welded together in the regimental organization. For the time being, all artillery drill and formations were dropped, and the command easily and quickly settled into the routine of an infantry encampment. Regimental and battalion drills daily were held on the broad field which, prior to 1896, had been familiar territory to the command, and in a surprisingly short time the regiment again developed the snap and precision in infantry work for which it had been distinguished before its transfer to the artillery arm of the service. Here, through the thoughtfulness and generosity of the State authorities, the regiment was rejoined by its band. None save those who have learned by actual experience in service how much may be done by music towards alleviating the wearing monotony of camp and garrison life can appreciate the welcome given by the men of the regiment to Bandmaster Collins and his musicians, on their return after their long absence.
Meanwhile preparations for leaving the service were pushed forward. The work was done under supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel Weaver, U.S.V. (captain First United States Artillery), detailed as mustering officer for Massachusetts, to whom had been assigned as assistants Lieutenants C. C. Hearn, Third United States Artillery, and O. Edwards, Eleventh United States Infantry. Slowly but steadily the absurdly cumbersome and complex tangle of "paper-work" was unravelled, final muster and pay rolls were completed, and the thousand-and-one accounts with ordnance, quartermaster, medical, commissary, and signal departments were closed. On October 5th this work substantially was finished, and shortly after noon on that day, in a drizzling rain, the batteries for the last time formed line as a regiment of United States Volunteers. Marching across the soaked parade, the regiment stood at attention while the garrison flag slowly was lowered, in token of the abandonment of the post, and then swung out through the main gate of the reservation for the muddy march to the waiting troop-train.