USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 45
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It would not be easy, and it would be invidious, to attempt to range the Boston regiments on a scale of merit; and the little that may be said must be said with diffidence. The Ist and 2d Massachusetts cavalry regiments and some of the Boston batteries were probably as good as any cavalry of volunteer artillery in the service; and some of the Boston infantry regiments had certainly no superiors in our armies, whether regular or vol- tinteer. The Second regiment had a peculiar origin and a grand history. It was raised by authority from the Secretary of War, and the appointment of officers was left to its projectors and organizers, -- two graduates of West Point, who became its Colonel and Lieut .- Colonel, and Wilder Dwight, a young Boston lawyer of great promise, who was the life of the enterprise, and who became Major of the regiment. A very large sum of money was raised to facilitate the project. The very best young men of Boston and its vicinity sought and obtained commissions as line officers, while the
" To the men of Boston, who died for their coun- try on land and sea in the war which kept the Union whole, destroyed Slavery, and maintained the Constitution, the grateful city has built this monument, that their example may speak to coming generations." The city printed an Army and Navy Monument Memorial the same year, including photographs of the monument, its sculptured figures and reliefs, and the chief address of the occasion, delivered by General Charles Devens. The monument is over sev- enty feet high, and the figure on the top eleven feet. It cost $75,000. There are other monu- ments erected in the same spirit in other parts of the city, -one at Charlestown, likewise the
work of Milmore, costing $20,000, and dedicated in IS72, with an address (printed) by Richard Frothingham ; one at Dorchester, after a design by B. F. Dwight, thirty-one feet high, dedicated Sept. 17, 1867; one in 'Forest Hills Cemetery in Roxbury, designed by Milmore, representing an infantry soldier, erected in 1867 ; one in Ja- maica Plain, thirty-four feet high, designed by W. W. Lummis, and dedicated Sept. 14, 1871, with an address by the Rev. James Freeman Clarke; one in Evergreen Cemetery, Brighton, thirty feet high, dedicated July 26, 1866, with an address by the Rev. Frederic A. Whitney. It cost about $5,000. King's Handbook of Boston, pp. 83-90. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
men were the cream of the volunteers of Massachusetts, the choice offering of the first fresh enthusiasm of the time. The discipline of the regiment was admirable. The fortune of war kept it long out of action, but in cov- ering Banks's retreat in 1862 it so bore itself as to win the highest commen- dation from Southern officers. There is probably nowhere in print such a tribute to the gallantry of Northern soldiers from the Southern side as is to be found in Allan's Valley Campaign, where he tells how Andrews and the Second Massachusetts contested Jackson's advance near Winchester. So long as this regiment was in the army of the Potomac it bore itself gallantly, and distinguished itself particularly at Cedar Mountain and at Gettysburg. Afterward it was sent to the West, and was one of the few Eastern regi- ments which made the march to the sea with Sherman ; and at Averysboro', at the very end of Sherman's campaign, and at the end of the war, it moved gallantly out with scant numbers to face the enemy; and one of its captains, leading forward his company, which the policy of Massachusetts had left of about the size of a corporal's guard, was shot dead just before the bugles sang trucc.
The vigor and splendid gallantry of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts in- fantry at the assault on Fort Wagner proved to the world that the African race would make excellent soldiers when properly trained and led. Their Colonel and Lieut .- Colonel were Shaw and Hallowell, who came to these positions, the one from the Second and the other from the Twentieth Massa- chusetts infantry. The Second and the Twentieth, though they seldom served together, were always mutually attached, and emulous of each other. They had many points of similarity. They were officered from very much the same social class.
Of the carly history of the Twentieth it is not well for the writer of this paper to speak; 1 but from the end of 1862 to the end of the war the discipline maintained in it was exact, like that of the Second, and both regiments showed many shining examples of brilliant bravery and tenacity.
At Fredericksburg the Twentieth crossed the river in boats under fire,
1 [The Editor may venture to add that Gen- eral Palfrey was commissioned Lieut .- Colonel of this regiment at its organization in 1861 ; that he served with it continuously on the Potomac (commanding it during the captivity of Colonel Lec, from Oct. 21, 1861, to May 1, 1862), before Yorktown, and in the whole Peninsular cam- paign ; that the regiment bore a distinguished part in the battles of Fair Oaks, Savage's Sta- tion, and Glendale, in which last engagement it was directly commanded by its Lieut .- Colonel, Colonel Lee commanding the brigade; that Colonel Palfrey commanded the regiment dur- ing the stay at Harrison's Landing and the withdrawal from the Peninsula, and until the battle of the Antietam, where the regiment was in the hottest of the fight, and lost heavily in com-
mon with the rest of Sedgwick's Division, and where Colonel Palfrey was severely wounded. It is not too much to say, that the reputation of the Twentieth was established during this period, - a reputation for discipline, gallantry, and steadiness, which was accorded to it by common consent, and which it maintained throughout the war; and that in the formation of this reputation Colonel Palfrey ably seconded the efforts and example of the gallant officer in command of the regiment, Colonel William Raymond Lee, in whose stead he acted for over cight months of its first year of service. General Palfrey's wound, unfortunately for himself and for his command, proved so se- vere as to unfit him for further active service. -ED. Į
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BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
and cleared the main street leading from the river, losing thirty-five out of the sixty men of its leading company, and having ninety-seven officers and men killed and wounded in the space of about fifty yards. It made the forced march of over thirty miles to Gettysburg without having a single man straggle from the colors. It was part of the mass of men who hurried to the spot where Pickett's division had made a partial lodgment in our line on Cemetery Ridge; and when the fierce attack had failed, it was reduced to the complement of a company, - one hundred and two men, of whom three were officers. At Bristoe Station it took guns from A. P. Hill's corps. On a day of disaster before Petersburg, when the enemy had turned our left, and was rolling up our line and capturing regiment after regiment, it changed front under fire, stopped the enemy's advance, and saved the troops in the line to its right. It gave Putnam, Lowell, two Reveres, Ab- bott, Patten, Babo, Wesselhoeft, Ropes, Paine, and eight more officers, to the list of those who were killed in action or died of wounds received there. As the Second shared in the great review as a part of Sherman's army, so the Twentieth shared in it as a part of the army of the Potomac, with a rec- ord of some thirty battles.
Among the officers of the Boston regiments were Welles of the Ist, afterward killed while in command of the 35th Massachusetts, and Major Chandler, also of the Ist; Savage, Mudge, Dwight, Abbott, Cary, Robeson, Goodwin, Grafton, and Perkins of the 2d, who all were killed or died of wounds received in action ; Gordon of the 2d, who became a Brigadier, and was brevetted Major-General; Colonel Cass of the 9th, Colonel Webster of the 12th, and Lieut .- Colonel Merriam of the 16th, all killed in action; Colonel Hinks of the 19th, who became a Brigadier and Brevet Major-Gen- eral; Bartlett and Macy of the 20th, one of whom lost a leg and one a hand, and both of whom were brevetted Major-General; Colonel Stevenson of the 24th, who was killed near Spottsylvania as a Brigadier-General com- manding a division; Colonel Prescott of the 32d, who died of wounds re- ceived in action ; Underwood of the 2d and 33d, afterward a Brigadier and Brevet Major-General; Colonel Wilde of the 35th, promoted Brigadier- General, and Sidney Willard of the same regiment, killed at Fredericksburg; Colonel Griswold of the 56th, killed in the Wilderness; and the very gallant and accomplished Colonel Lowell of the 2d cavalry, killed in the Valley campaign of 1864.
No Boston man was made a Major-General in the War of Secession ; but the same is true of the men of Massachusetts, if we except General Banks and General Butler, who did not rise by regular promotion to that grade, but reached it at a bound on the stroke of a pen at Wash- ington. Several Boston men became Brigadiers, - as Cowdin, Gordon, Andrews, Hayes, Bartlett, Stevenson, Paine, Wilde, - and most of these received the brevet of Major-General. The brevet of Brigadier-General was given to many Colonels and Lieut .- Colonels who went from Boston. Disabling wounds or death fell to the lot of so many of the Boston officers,
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
by reason of the fact that the best young men of the period went into the infantry instead of seeking positions on the staff, or even in the artillery or the cavalry, that few of them lived or preserved their health long enough to rise high. It should never be forgotten that Boston gave freely of her very best to the infantry, which does the fighting and bears the losses. This means more than the general public is aware of. The 2d and 20th infantry, with their 5,997 men, had 308 killed in action; the Ist and 2d cavalry, with 5,608 men, had 111 killed. The 2d and 20th infantry lost thirty-four officers, of whom twenty were killed in action; the Ist and 2d cavalry, with their more numerous officers, lost seventeen, of whom nine were killed in action. The eight batteries which we have credited to Bos- ton, with 2,631 men, had twenty-three killed in action, of whom three were officers. Combine and analyze the figures as one will, and it will appear to have been many times more dangerous to be in the Massachusetts infantry regiments than in the Massachusetts artillery, and nearly or quite twice as dangerous as to be in the Massachusetts cavalry. The staff, of course, was comparatively safc. Wherever our Boston regiments went, it was common for the officers to find their friends from New York serving not in the line, but upon the staff; and this was almost equally true as to Philadelphia.
The Boston men who filled the ranks of the regiments and batteries which have been named as coming more from Boston than from elsewhere, saw service almost everywhere. In all the campaigns and battles of the army of the Potomac, from the first Bull Run to Lec's surrender, many of them were present. At Fair Oaks and Glendale and Malvern Hill, at the second Bull Run, at the Antictam, at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, at Gettysburg and Bristoe Station, in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania, at Cold Harbor and before Petersburg, at Deep Bottom and Ream's Station and the Boydton Road, at Roanoke Island and Newbern and Olustee, from Lookout Mountain to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Savannah, and from Savannah through the Carolinas, - from the first clash of arms in the sum- mer of 1861, to the firing of the last shot in the spring of 1865, the white flag with the arms of Massachusetts was to be seen; and wherever it waved, brave men from Boston fought and fell.
The militia of Massachusetts has been, ever since the end of the War of Secession, a favorite object for our legislators to try their plastic hands upon. In 1864 Colonel Henry Lee, who had served long and efficiently on the personal staff of the Governor of Massachusetts, printed a very elab- orate pamphlet of one hundred and thirty pages,1 in which he laid down what he considered to be the true basis for a satisfactory militia system ; urging especially reduction in numbers, uniformity of organization, the furnishing by the General Government of arms and equipments, the framing of a code of tactics expressly for the militia, the creation of a general mili-
1 Entitled, The Militia of the United States : What it has been ; What it should be.
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BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
tia staff, and rudimentary instruction in tactics in every public school. Large use of his labors was made by the commission which had much to do with framing the existing militia law of Massachusetts.
The pressure of the war being removed, our legislators went busily to work on the militia. In thirteen years they established three systems, and filled more than one hundred and fifty pages of our statute book with provisions in regard to the militia. The law now in force was passed in 1878. It is the shortest and much the best of the three. It provides that, " to resist invasion, quell insurrection, and in the suppression of riots to aid civil officers in the execution of the laws of the Commonwealth, or in time of public danger, the volunteer militia shall first be ordered into service." The law provides for sixty companies of infantry, three companies of cavalry, three four-gun batteries, and two corps of cadets. The infantry companies are to consist of from forty-one to fifty-nine men, with a captain and two lieutenants; the cavalry companies of from fifty-six to seventy-seven men, and a captain and two lieutenants; the bat- teries of from fifty-seven to eighty-three men, with a captain and three lieutenants. These troops are assigned to two brigades, each of which is to contain six infantry regiments, each of two or three battalions, and each battalion to contain four companies. The number of enlisted men in the companies of cadets is not limited, and each may have a lieut .- colonel, major, staff, and not to exceed four captains, four first, and four second lieutenants. Original enlistment is for three years; afterward it may be for one, two, or three years, at the option of the individual. Nine years of continuous service exempts from jury duty for life.
The existing system is thought to have worked well. The present con- dition of the militia is good, and probably as good as it is likely to be. The men have enthusiasm, a good amount of pride, and of soldierly spirit. Relatively they are better than their officers; but the officers are improving under the established practice of requiring them to pass an examination before receiving promotion. The weakest part of the system is the want of control of the colonels, who, once commissioned, are not easy to remove, and of whom several are at the present time not up to the mark. A strong and independent adjutant-general is the only remedy for this; but it is hardly possible for an adjutant-general, whose tenure of office is what it is in Massachusetts, to reach this standard, though the present adjutant-general is well spoken of. It is desirable that the individual holding so important a position should have had experience of real service, or West-Point train- ing, and important that he should not be given to red-tapism, and two rigid construction of the letter of the law and regulations. Our code of regula- tions is excellent. It is modelled largely upon the English code, and is likely to be followed, with such changes as their laws may make necessary, by New York and by Maine. Properly construed and applied, it will be most useful; but too rigid construction is undesirable, as it tends to discour- age men who would make excellent officers from taking or holding com- VOL. III. - 42.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
missions. The unnecessary multiplication of the clerical business of the officer is especially to be avoided. The ideal adjutant-general will take broad and not narrow views. What is best in our militia is due to the prevailing soldierly enthusiasm. There is next to no power anywhere to force militia-men in time of peace to be good soldiers; and this defect is one which appears to be irremovable.
Our infantry is well equipped and fairly well drilled, and is much the best of our militia, though one of our batteries is good. The cavalry is as good as militia cavalry anywhere; but from the nature of the case militia cavalry is practically valueless as cavalry. Both horses and men must be trained, and trained together, to make good cavalry. The medical depart- ment of our militia is the ablest branch of the service, and is positively excellent. The first corps of cadets has been for many years .under the command of a rarely accomplished and indefatigable officer, and under his influence it has made remarkable progress in the direction of military efficiency, and is now the example which the rest of the militia strives to equal.
Whether our militia will ever improve, or even continue to be as good as it is now, will depend very much upon the degree to which the poli- ticians will let it alone. The men are capable and willing, and to very many of the officers a commission means work, and not play or show; but there must not be frequent changes in high places, or appointments or changes for other than sound moral and military reasons, if the Massachusetts militia is to be an institution of value.
F.W. Paltry
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CHAPTER V.
THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.
BY REAR-ADMIRAL GEO. HENRY PREBLE, U.S.N.
T HE naval history of Boston for the last one hundred years is not replete with exciting incidents. It exhibits in the main the growth and development of a great naval establishment for the building and re- pair of the ships of the United States. Many ships of war which have since become historic have been launched, but no great naval battle has been fought within its harbor.1
In 1789 the ship " Massachusetts" was built at Germantown, - a large, double-headed promontory, jutting into Boston Bay, in the town of Quincy. The " Massachusetts " was the largest merchant vessel which at that time had been built on this continent, her keel being one hundred and sixteen feet in length. She was a frigate-built ship, of nearly one thousand tons burden, pierced for thirty-six guns, of a remarkably fine model, and con- structed in the most thorough manner. People came from all parts of the country to witness her launch, and the day was one of jubilee and rejoicing.2
1 The correspondence of the commandants of the Navy Yard with the Department and Bureau at Washington, since 1816, and the log-books or journals of the Yard at Charlestown index suf- ficiently the principal naval events of the one hundred years; and these, supplemented by the newspapers of the day, furnish ample material for a much more extended naval history of Bos- ton than this chapter can afford. Under an or- der from the Navy Department, dated May 22, 1874, the writer of this chapter was detailed to special duty to write the histories of the Boston and Portsmouth Navy Yards. Having accom- plished the duty, he reported his results to the Department ; but the historics of those Yards remain on file, in MS., in the Bureau of Yards and Docks, at the Navy Department. [Admiral l'reble has touched some parts of this subject already in his Notes on Shit-Build- ing in Massachusetts, published in the N'. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. ; nor is his elaborate History of the Flag of the United States, 2d ed., 18So, with- out interest in this connection. - ED.]
2 Quincy, in his Memoir of Major Samuel Shaw, says: "On this interesting occasion the hills around Germantown and the boats which covered the harbor and river were filled with spec- tators from Boston and the neighboring country. Both the English and French naval commanders, at that time visiting Boston in national ships, expressed their admiration of the model of this vessel; and afterward it was pronounced by naval commanders at Batavia and Canton as perfect as the then state of art would permit." The French squadron referred to consisted of the " Patriot," 74, Admiral De Ponderez, and "Leopard," 74, commanded by Monsieur De la Galissonière. The " Patriot " a few months before had been dis- tinguished by taking that unfortunate monarch, Louis XVI., when visiting Cherbourg, a few leagues into the Atlantic, and giving him a sight of that ocean. The " Leopard" was a splendid ship; and not far below the castle was anchored the "Penelope," 32, an English frigate, com- manded by Captain John Linzee, one of the squadron of Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Hughes.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The " Massachusetts" was built under the direction of Major Shaw, for an East India trader; and with Captain Job Prince as commander, and a crew of seventy-five officers and men, with twenty guns mounted, she pro- ceeded on a voyage to Batavia and Canton, where she arrived without accident, notwithstanding the prediction of Moll Pitcher, the famous fortune-teller of Lynn, that the ship would be lost on the voyage and all hands perish. She made the passage to Batavia in one hundred and fifty-eight days, and was sold at Canton, to the Danish East India Com- pany, for $65,000.
Edmund Hart's ship-yard will be ever famous as the place where the U. S. frigate " Constitution" was built. Before the establishment of govern- ment dockyards, private yards were used for building our national vessels ; and Hart's for a long time went by the name of " Hart's Naval Yard." 1
The depredations of Algerine corsairs upon our mercantile marine in- duced Congress to authorize the purchase or building of four ships, to carry forty-four guns each, and two to carry thirty-six guns. Their act was ap- proved by the President, March 27, 1794, and the keel of the "Constitution" was laid by Mr. Hart the November following, and preparations made for setting up her frames. The first official mention of her by name is in a report from a committee on the state of naval equipments, etc., to the United States House of Representatives, dated Jan. 25, 1797, which says : " The frigate building at Boston, called the 'Constitution,' is in such a state of forwardness that it is supposed she can be launched in July."
The Constitution " was designed by Joshua Humphreys, of Philadelphia, and constructed under the superintendence of Colonel George Claghorne, of New Bedford. Captains Barry, Dale, and Truxton, of the navy, agreed upon her dimensions, with Mr. Humphreys, who prepared the drafts, moulds, and building instructions. It was decided that the frame should be of live-oak and red cedar, the keel, keelson beams, and planking, etc., of the best white oak, decks of the best Carolina pitch-pine, but under the guns to be of oak. John T. Morgan, a master-shipwright of Boston, was sent to Savannah and Charleston to procure the live-oak, red cedar, and pitch-pine for all the frigates. The original draft of the "Constitution" was changed at the sug- gestion of Colonel Claghorne, to whom her construction was confided. A portion of the timber used was taken from the woods of Allentown, on the borders of the Merrimac, fifty miles from the ship-yard.2
1 On the map of 1722 the yard is designated as "Thornton's," and the site is now covered by Constitution Wharf, - so named because the frigate "Constitution " was built there. The frigates "Constitution " and " Boston," and the brig "Argus " were all built in Hart's Yard. For Hart and his yard, see Drake's Landmarks, 181.
2 Paul Revere furnished the copper bolts and spikes, drawn from malleable copper, by a process then new; and Ephraim Thayer, who had a shop
at the South End, made her gun-carriages. Isaac Harris, who worked as an apprentice in the mast yard in 1797, put new masts into the frigate dur- ing the war of 1812. To him is conceded, in this country, the honor of first making ships' masts in sections, and he constructed the first masting shcers used at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The anchors were made in Hanover, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and her sails in the Old Granary building, at the corner of Park and Tremont streets. No other building in Boston
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THE NAVY, AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD.
Her first battery - that which she carried throughout the war of 1812, and long after - bore the monogram "G.R.," showing its English origin.
Mr. Hartley, of Boston, was appointed to assist Colonel Claghorne, and Captain Samuel Nicholson, of the navy, exercised a general supervision, aided by General Henry Jackson and Major Gibbs, of Boston, Edmund Hart being the master-carpenter. At last, Sept. 20, 1797, was announced as the day for her launch. Commodore Nicholson left the yard to get his breakfast, with express orders not to hoist any flag over her till his return, designing that honor for his own hands; but during his absence Samuel Bentley, a shipwright and calker, assisted by a comrade named Harris, hoisted the Stars and Stripes, which thus for the first time floated over this historic ship. The Commodore, on his return, expressed himself in words more strong than polite at this disobedience of his orders. People poured into the town from all quarters to witness the launch, and several hundred went over to Noddle's Island to get a better view. The day was pleasant · though cold, and the neighboring wharves were crowded with spectators, who were warned that the passage of so large a vessel into the water would create a swell which might endanger their safety. At high water, just twenty minutes after eleven, the signal was given, but the ship would not start until screws and other machinery had been applied, and then she moved only about twenty-seven fect. Mr. Claghorne wrote the Secretary of War: " Concluding some hidden cause had impeded her progress, and the tide ebbing fast, I decided it to be most prudent to block and shore her up, and examine carefully into the cause of the stopping; and found that the ways had settled about an inch, which, added to some other cause of no great importance, had occasioned the obstruction." Her colors were then hauled down, and the multitude dispersed, disappointed and anxious.
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