“Resolved, That the Adjutant and Acting Quartermaster-General be, and he is hereby authorized, under the direction of the Governor and Council, to provide, either by contract or otherwise, a sufficient number of overcoats, blankets, knapsacks, haversacks, and other articles of equipment, camp utensils, and trenching tools, as may be required to equip two thousand troops for active service; and a sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for that purpose.”
[Chap. 67, Acts of 1861.
Other Acts were passed subsequently to these already named, though not so directly pertinent, but all having the same object; namely, the preparing of the militia for active service, and providing the means of carrying on the war, then so soon expected to burst upon the country. Of these several Resolves, none are perhaps more noticeable for the strong spirit of patriotism that pervades them, than those of May 21 and May 23, 1861. The first was an Act entitled “An Act in addition to an Act to provide for the maintenance of the Union and the Constitution,” and is preceded by the following preamble:—
“Whereas, The people of Massachusetts regard with like feelings of loyalty and affection the Government of the United States and that of their own Commonwealth, and deem it fit that the arms of each should be strengthened by all which the other can give;
“And whereas, Some emergency may arise, during the recess of the Legislature, in which the aid of Massachusetts may be of service to the General Government in its financial arrangements; therefore, Be it enacted,” etc.
By this remarkably patriotic Resolve, the Governor, with the advice of the Council, was authorized to issue scrip, or certificates of debt, in the name of the Commonwealth, for such sums, not exceeding seven millions of dollars, as he, with the advice of the Council, might deem needful. The scrip so issued was to be sold, and the proceeds loaned to the United States Government, or expended in purchasing its treasury notes, or “delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, in exchange for obligations of the United States Government, of corresponding amount.”
The second Resolve referred to was entitled “An Act in aid of the families of volunteers, and for other purposes,” by which cities and towns were permitted to raise money by taxation, and apply the same in aid of the wife and children of any of their inhabitants who, as a member of the volunteer militia, enlisted into the service of the United States. By the same Act, it was provided that the State should reimburse towns and cities for all aid furnished in pursuance of this law, to an extent limited therein; and by section four of the Act, any city or town was authorized “to organize an armed police or guard,” whenever danger from an attack by sea was apprehended.[2]
For nearly three months before the first act of hostilities, the militia of the Commonwealth were busily engaged in drilling in their several armories; almost nightly, throughout the long, memorable winter of 1861, the patriotic soldiers of the State assembled and received from their instructors, lessons in the manual of arms and other military matters, and prepared themselves as best they could to answer the first summons to the field.
Finally, as the winter waned, and the signs of war began to thicken, these citizen-soldiers became clamorous for active service, and on the 13th of April, the Adjutant-General addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, asking permission to garrison forts Warren and Independence, in Boston Harbor, with two regiments of the militia. “I believe,” said the Adjutant-General, “that our troops would like to do garrison duty until called upon by the President for active service. The regiments might alternate every four or six weeks, and thus they would learn much that would be of service to them, and hold the forts against attack or surprise.”[3] In this letter, it was stated that we then had five thousand infantry, properly officered, armed, and equipped, though only three thousand of them were armed with rifled muskets, the others having “the old smooth-bores,” that had “been changed from flint-lock to the percussion.”
The desire of the volunteers to enter upon active service was soon gratified. On the 15th of April, only two days after the date of this letter, a telegram was received from Senator Wilson at Washington, requesting twenty companies to be sent to Washington to act in the defence of that city. This was followed on the same day by a formal demand by telegraph from the Secretary of War, calling for two full regiments of militia. This demand was at once complied with, for, on the same day, Special Order No. 14 was issued by the Governor, “directing Colonel Jones of the Sixth Regiment, Colonel Packard of the Fourth, Colonel Wardrop of the Third, and Colonel Munroe of the Eighth, to muster their respective commands on the Boston Common forthwith.” The order was transmitted by mail and special messengers to the various colonels, who severally resided at Lowell, Quincy, New Bedford, and Lynn. The companies composing these regiments were scattered throughout the cities and towns of the counties of Essex, Plymouth, Bristol, Norfolk, and Middlesex. But during the day and following night, nearly every man was notified, and on the morning of the 16th the regiments arrived in Boston. The Third and Fourth regiments were ordered to proceed “forthwith” to Fortress Monroe, Va., while the Sixth and Eighth were sent to Washington. The Fourth left Boston on the 17th of April, and the Third on the following day, the two regiments arriving at Fortress Monroe on the 20th of April, and becoming a part of the garrison at that post. Neither of the last two commands contained the maximum number of men; the Third Regiment having, both officers and enlisted men, only 450, while the Fourth, somewhat stronger, numbered 636.
It appears from the Report of the Adjutant-General of 1861, that from the 13th of April to the 20th of May,—the former being the date of the attack on Fort Sumter,—one hundred and fifty-nine applications for leave to raise companies were granted. These applications were not in every instance made in pursuance of the Act of February 15, 1861 (Chap. 49), but were often, and perhaps in the majority of instances, made by private individuals and the persons who desired to enlist. We have before us a copy of one of these rolls, the agreement of enlistment being as follows:—
“We, whose names are hereunto affixed, do severally consent, and, by our signatures hereunto made, do agree to be enrolled into a company of volunteer militia, to be raised in the town of —— and vicinity, subject to orders of the Commander-in-Chief; and we do hereby agree to serve for the period of five years, unless sooner discharged agreeably to law, and this enlistment we enter into with the full understanding that we are liable at any moment to be ordered into active service under the Government of the United States.”