Though it was barely six o’clock in the morning when the company reached the flagstaff (then standing in front of J. Folsom’s house), from which the Stars and Stripes were flying, and where they were addressed by Mr. Harris, yet a large majority of the inhabitants of the town had assembled there; and so intense was the war spirit that pervaded the community, that many of the male spectators freely offered the volunteers considerable sums of money for their chance to serve as soldiers.
Upon reaching Boston, the company proceeded to Faneuil Hall, where the members signed a formal enlistment-roll for a term of three years’ service; from Faneuil Hall, they marched to the State House, receiving here canteens, haversacks, and other equipments; and here, also, they met Governor Andrew, who seemed to take a deep personal interest in each one of them.
Dinner had been prepared for the company at the Hancock House, Court Square, at the expense of the town of East Bridgewater, under the direction of Mr. George Bryant and Hon. B. W. Harris, both of whom were present and dined with the soldiers at two o’clock in the afternoon. At the conclusion of the dinner, the company marched to Federal Street, where each man received a knapsack, one of the gray overcoats, a rubber and woollen blanket, tin cup, plate, spoon, knife, and fork; and when these articles had been distributed, marched to Commercial Wharf, where it went on board the “Cambridge,” a screw steamer, then in the service of the State. This was about four o’clock in the afternoon; and here assembled Captain Barnes’s company of East Boston, Captain Doten’s company from Plymouth, Captain Chipman’s company from Sandwich, and a body of recruits for the Fourth Regiment,—all to take passage in the same steamer for Fortress Monroe, Va.
At about five o’clock, the steamer hauled out of the dock and passed down the harbor, receiving and returning a salute from Fort Warren. By the time Provincetown was reached, it was quite dark, and the air becoming cold, the soldiers sought shelter below, where they passed the night in much discomfort; for crowded between-decks were nearly five hundred men, and with no adequate means of ventilation, the air soon became overheated and foul.
Sunday the 19th of May was very fine; but as the sun went down, threatening clouds gathered in the east. Soon after dark, the storm burst upon the vessel, then off the coast of Delaware, with great fury. She was ill-adapted to ocean navigation, and being heavily loaded, labored greatly with the sea. Before the storm began, the men had been singing, telling funny stories, and bandying jokes; but a few rolling motions of the steamer made the large majority of them less mirthful, and gulps and groans were heard in every quarter of the dark apartment.
The steamer was armed with two heavy guns, mounted between-decks. At about midnight, one of these pieces broke away from its fastening and began plunging against the side of the vessel. Every soldier not utterly prostrated by sea-sickness sprang to his feet, manned the gun-ropes, and by hard work brought the gun into position and secured it;—not a moment too soon, for perhaps another blow against the side would have made a ragged hole, through which the merciless sea would have rushed unchecked, engulfing boat and passengers.
The storm continued till the noon of the 21st, during which time the steamer had passed south of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay and reached a point in dangerous proximity to the sunken reefs off Hatteras Inlet, on the coast of North Carolina. The “Quaker City,” a United States steamer cruising in that vicinity, hailed the “Cambridge,” just in season, it is confidently believed, to save her from being stranded upon the then inhospitable coast of that region.
Fortress Monroe was reached about noon of the 21st, and with but slight delay the volunteers were landed, those not wholly disabled by the voyage bounding ashore with the glee of escaped prisoners. When the men left their homes, the grass there had scarcely put off its seared and gray coating of winter; here nature had all the vernal appearance of mid-summer, the trees were in full leaf, and the air laden with the rich perfume of roses that bloomed about the officers’ quarters in the fort and the many attractive residences outside the walls. Captain Leach’s company and the East Boston men were assigned camping-ground in the midst of a group of beautiful live-oaks, in the southerly part of the fortress, and were furnished new and commodious tents and a liberal supply of clean fresh straw.
On the day after the arrival, May 22, the company was examined by the Surgeon of the Post, and Privates Francis C. Bryant, Oliver H. Wade, Henry B. Rogers, Edmund Reed, and R. H. Quinley were rejected; the others being sworn into the service for three years, and the company assigned to duty with the Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Militia.
The arms of the men, which had been furnished by the State, were old smooth-bores, altered from flint-lock to percussion; but no ammunition was supplied by the State, nor was any issued to them by the United States Government till late in the summer of 1861.