[CHAPTER V.]
WE GET ORDERS TO LEAVE FOR THE SUNNY SOUTH AND OBEY THEM.
ALL of the time during our stay in camp speculation was rife as to when we were going to the front and how; also under what designation were we going. It had been circulated that we were to be known as the 63d United States Volunteers, and other rumors, all of which turned out to be just as near the truth as that one were put into commission. These marked the origin of the "Jo Jo" bureau of misinformation which later became an important feature of the campaign.
Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Officers of G Company
On the night of Wednesday, May 11th at 9.30, orders were flashed over the wires from Washington to Lieut. Weaver to send the Second at once to Tampa, Fla., where the army of invasion of Cuba was gathering. Almost everyone except the guard and a few officers and attaches at regimental headquarters, was asleep when the orders came but within a very few moments after their purport had been announced, there was the wildest scene of excitement in the camp that had ever been witnessed in South Framingham. From Lieut. Weaver the orders were quickly transmitted to regimental headquarters and from there to the officers of the regiment. Inside of ten minutes from their receipt by Lieut. Weaver, every man of the Second was awake and in his company street and exultant shouts that went up, quickly aroused the other regiments. The Second was to be the first command from the old Bay State to be ordered outside her boundaries for active service and the men were so proud of it that they could not refrain from reminding the men of the other three regiments of the fact. To the credit of the latter it must be said that although at first they were a bit inclined to sulk because their regiment was not the first to be called upon, yet they soon realized that the honor was in a sense as much Massachusetts' as it was the Second's, and their cheers joined in with ours.
Meanwhile, the regimental and company officers were doing some lively work. Col. Clark had gone to Springfield that morning, and a number of officers and men were away on leave, no one expecting that the orders would come for a day or two. The regiment was ordered to move the next day and before the orders had been known of but a very few minutes, telegraph and telephone messages were sent to the absent ones informing them of what had happened. This done, the work of completing the equipment of the regiment was taken up and pushed in lively fashion. There were many little details to be attended to and there was little sleep for headquarters that night. How well the work was done is attested by the fact that at an early hour the next morning the regiment had its tents struck and packed, and long before the hour at which many of the folks at home were eating their breakfasts, was in readiness to move. Reveille was sounded at 4 o'clock that morning and by 6 there was but little remaining to be done.
Although anxious for active service there was one thing about the orders which was not at all relished by the regiment and that was the route to be followed. It had been expected and understood that when the Second would go south its route would be through Worcester and Springfield, thus giving us a chance for a genuine au revoir to home and friends. We all of us knew that the "farewell" accorded us on leaving Springfield for the camp at South Framingham would be tame indeed to the reception we might expect when we passed through there as United States Volunteers, with a large V, and bound for the front. Some of the boys, to be sure, dreaded the thought of having to say "good bye" to the accompaniment of tears and sobs again but the majority were anxious for one more look at what part of Springfield to be seen from the union station and were consequently much disappointed when it was announced that instead of going via Springfield, the route was to be by way of Newport, R. I.
There was much disappointment, too, in Springfield when the route was announced. But not to be beaten, a party of citizens headed by Major H. S. Dickinson, arranged for a special train to South Framingham, the day we were to leave and so we were not allowed to go without some sort of a farewell demonstration from the people of our own city.