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قراءة كتاب The Old First Massachusetts Coast Artillery in War and Peace
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The Old First Massachusetts Coast Artillery in War and Peace
two each, and in the Spanish War case the two colors of the 1st Heavy Artillery, seventeen flags in all, one may possibly remember that a Massachusetts Coast Artilleryman would be whispering to himself, “Those are our battle-flags.” And there are many other colors in the cases, under which members of the command fought during the Civil War—those of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 13th, 29th Infantry Regiments, and the 4th Heavy Artillery.
Indeed the sole battle-flag remaining from the Mexican War, that of the 1st Mass. Volunteer Infantry, may be claimed as a Coast Artillery trophy, since it was given by those who had borne it into the custody of the veterans who made up the National Guards, the 9th Co. of Coast Artillery. The National Guards eventually surrendered this color to the Commonwealth. No less a personage than Gen. Winfield Scott had been the original donor of the flag.
In some unexplained manner, three colors carried by the 1st Infantry during the Civil War escaped the State collector, and are preserved with religious care at the South Armory. They are the American flag presented by former Boston men who had “gone west” and there organized the National Guard of San Francisco, a blue infantry color presented in 1863 by the City of Boston, and a white State flag retained to replace a lost Commonwealth color presented by the people of Chelsea. As often as May 25 rolls around, veterans of the regiment bear these flags, together with the present National colors of the command, to the hall where the anniversary dinner is held; and under the sacred silken folds the white-haired warriors renew the memories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, of Gettysburg and Spotsylvania, while they smack their lips over something more savory than the hard-tack and muddy coffee of bygone days. Last winter these same veterans reviewed the Corps in the South Armory. As they came marching on the floor under their tattered battle-flags amid deafening cheers from hundreds of onlookers, strong men could hardly choke back their tears.
Post 23, G. A. R., of Boston, and Post 35 of Chelsea possess some 1st Regiment relics.
Headquarters will contribute to the regimental museum the sleeve of Drum Major James F. Clark’s coat, with its wonderful collection of service-stripes indicative of forty-one years’ service. Sergeant Clark died in office in 1910. There is also an old commission in a frame on the Headquarters’ wall, that of George S. Newell as Colonel of the 1st Reg., 1st Bri., 1st Div., dated May 11, 1839, signed by John P. Bigelow, Secretary of the Commonwealth; and the warrant of Daniel Horatio Belknap as Quartermaster Sergeant of the 1st Reg., 3d Bri., 1st Div., issued July 20, 1824, by Col. Louis Lerow. Between 1831 and 1834 the Roxbury Artillery had been temporarily attached to the 1st Reg., 1st Bri., but in Colonel Newell’s day we had no connection at all with that organization; the Fusiliers were a part of the 1st Reg., 3d Bri., in 1824, when Sergt. Belknap was in office.
Partly because it is the oldest company, and partly because it has always been made up of men who “do things,” the 1st Company possesses by far the finest collection of historical valuables of all the regiment. Indeed fully one-half of the regimental museum is already collected, and belongs to Capt. Joseph H. Hurney’s organization. In their room one sees Capt. J. J. Spooner’s original commission signed in 1784 by Gov. John Hancock, the first flag carried by the company—a flag with fourteen stars, the complete parchment roll of members from the very beginning, a drum which helped to keep up the company’s courage at Blackburn’s Ford and Bull Run, specimen uniforms and arms showing the development of military skill and taste during each period of the company’s history, and a small cannon captured by Washington from the British at Yorktown in 1781, and at Williamsburg in 1862 taken from the Confederates by a company of ours.
Shooting, military and athletic trophies almost without number adorn the walls of Headquarters and of each company room; but these can hardly be included in a regimental museum. The 6th and 7th Companies hold Knox trophies as proof of their preeminent excellence in artillery work, and will doubtless resent any suggestion of contributing them to anyone else; certainly other companies have been trying hard enough to get this, and have not succeeded even for a single year. But the museum will have the 2d Company’s original drum, dated 1798, and with it the first flag. Their most valuable possession is a Stuart oil portrait of their “patron saint,” George Washington. The same company also display a set of ancient by-laws inherited from their predecessor, the Independent Light Infantry, and perhaps also a set of their ancient breast-plates. If more is demanded, members of the company will fill their lungs and emit the old “tiger” yell or growl; and this is certain to prove sufficient so far as the 2d Company is concerned. The 3d Company room does not contain much of historical interest. Their proudest possession is an entry on the records of the Governor’s Council dated May 11, 1787, wherein it appears that a petition presented by Thomas Adams and fifty-three others was granted, and that a military company, the Independent Boston Fusiliers, was formally established in the eyes of the law. On the following Fourth of July the Fusiliers received their charter from Gov. James Bowdoin, while formed on the slope of Bunker Hill, and forthwith regaled themselves as guests at the hospitable table of Gov. (to be) John Hancock. Maj. James W. H. Myrick, Commander of the Fusilier Veteran Association, is custodian of the original 3d Company records.
We shall see that the Coast Artilleryman has reason for singing “The Old First still shall lead”; but the historian faces a difficulty when he essays to explain who the Coast Artillery are, anyway. Three different regiments are consolidated in the present body—which was the original? But see, what’s here! The regimental museum will solve even this vexed problem of genealogy. A resolve by the General Court of Massachusetts, duly engrossed and framed, together with an order of the Council approved by Gov. John L. Bates on April 6, 1903, not only certifies that the First Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia responded to the call of the President of the United States in April, 1861, for troops to suppress the rebellion, but also, and more importantly as concerning our present difficulty, that the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery are the “successors” of the regiment of 1861. Blessings upon the head of the man whose influence secured this legislative action! The historian may tread fearlessly in full assurance that the Coast Artillery is the First Infantry of Civil War fame, and that other ancestry is, if not collateral, at least not in the principal line. A complete genealogy of the command will be found elsewhere in this book.
One explanation is in order before proceeding. On April 25, 1842, the companies were designated by letter; on Nov. 1, 1905, they ceased to be designated by letter, and were numbered in order of charter-seniority. Altho all company and regimental history between 1842 and 1905 was recorded in terms of company letters, since 1905 the letters have rapidly passed into oblivion; and today have become almost entirely forgotten. For the purpose of interpreting the past in terms intelligible to the present, it seems best to translate letters into numerals—to speak, in other words, of the 1st Company rather than Company or Battery D. And now, the prelude being finished and the audience all having visited the museum, let the performance go forward.