About midnight of the 12th of May, when, by the judgment of the officers,—all lights on that part of the coast having been extinguished,—it was calculated that the steamer was about forty miles from her destination, suddenly from the south, and directly in her course, “shone out what seemed nothing less than the light of a heavy bombardment. Within a narrower space, as it appeared to us, fierce flashes broke forth, and from the opposite quarter were as fiercely answered again.”[4] That Fortress Monroe was being bombarded, was the belief of all on board, and the soldiers kept the deck nearly all night, watching and speculating upon these novel scenes. As the steamer sped on her way and neared the scene of the apparent battle, hugging the shore closely, the view increased in splendor, and occasionally there came wafted over the water the low, hollow sound of a distant gun. When morning broke, leaden-colored, though wasted, clouds in the south showed that the soldiers had been watching from a distance a terrific thunder-storm. A little after sunrise, the form of a frigate was observed approaching the steamer from seaward, which in the course of an hour came up and spoke the “Pembroke.” The frigate proved to be the “Minnesota,” then engaged in cruising off the coast.
On the 13th of May, the “Pembroke” reached Fortress Monroe, the battalion entered the fort, and both companies were attached to the Third Regiment, Captain Tyler’s company receiving the letter “M.” On the following day, May 14, both commands were mustered into the service for three years by Lieut. C. C. Churchill, U. S. A.
Captain Tyler’s company served with the Third Regiment till the term of the latter expired, and then became a part of the Massachusetts Battalion, retaining its letter “M” till the formation of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, when, by order of Governor Andrew, it became a part of that regiment, and its letter was changed to “B.”
The number of officers chosen at the time of the organization of the company was greater by two than that authorized by the laws of the United States, and the only officers who accompanied the command to the seat of war were Captain Tyler, First Lieutenant Samuel A. Bent of Boston, and Second Lieutenant Thomas H. Adams of Boston. Captain Tyler resigned on account of ill-health, July 18, 1861, and Lieutenant Bent the same day. Israel N. Wilson of Billerica, who was a First Lieutenant in Capt. P. A. Davis’s company, was commissioned Captain July 24, 1861, and succeeded Tyler. On the same day, Ezra Ripley of Cambridge, an able lawyer, was commissioned First Lieutenant, and assigned to this company, joining it soon after, and while it was doing duty at the “Rip-Raps.”
CHAPTER IV.
Captain Lebbeus Leach’s Company. [“L” in the Fourth Regiment, “L” of the Massachusetts Battalion, and “C” of the Twenty-ninth Regiment.]
This company, raised almost wholly in East Bridgewater, Plymouth County, was the direct outgrowth of a series of war meetings, the first of which was held April 20, 1861, the day after the Baltimore affair. At this meeting there was a very large attendance of the citizens of the town, who, after listening to several stirring speeches, adopted a resolution for the formation of a company of volunteers; an informal roll was prepared, and received the signatures of thirty-eight young men.
A second mass meeting was held on the evening of the 24th of April, and, like the first, was largely attended and enthusiastic, resulting in thirty-one additional enlistments.
In the meantime, a legal meeting of the voters of the town had been called for the afternoon of the 27th of April, to take formal action concerning the impending war, for at that time every town and city in the Commonwealth made the cause of the General Government its own, imitating the practice of the colonists in the days of the Revolution, by raising troops and providing for their equipment and payment.