1866-1878
It was inevitable that a reaction should follow the prolonged military
exertion of the Civil War. The north had strained its resources almost
to the breaking point, and people were tired of the very thought of a
soldier. Volunteer regiments, upon their muster-out, disbanded outright;
while militia organizations languished, and ofttimes died. “General
apathy” was again in command of the situation.
Disbandment was the ultimate fate of the three-year regiment which had
gone out under Col. Cowdin. Fortunately many veterans of the companies
retained interest in military affairs, and appreciated the importance of
maintaining the militia, so that they connected themselves with
organizations designed to perpetuate the old regiment. Finally, on May
18, 1866, orders issued for the reorganization of the command.
As Col. Burrell’s 42d Regiment had retained a place in the militia
establishment thru the sheer pertinacity of its officers, and as it was
recognized to be a continuation of the old militia 1st Regiment, Col.
Burrell was continued in command of the new 1st. The 1st Company was the
corresponding company of the 42d. An unattached company, the 81st,
consisting largely of 1st Regiment veterans and commanded by Lieutenant
George H. Johnston, Adjutant of the 1st, took 2d place in the
reorganized regiment. The Fusiliers’ reserve or “depot” company (the
25th Unattached) continued as 3d Company, under command of Capt. Alfred
N. Proctor, who had led the 3d Company of the 42d. Chelsea continued to
supply the 5th Company, having organized the “Rifles” (4th Unattached),
soon renamed “Veterans,” as a “depot” company for the original 5th
Company (the “Volunteers”); Capt. John Q. Adams commanded. Veterans of
the original 6th Company (now the 9th Unattached) under their war
commander, Capt. George H. Smith, continued to represent the old number.
The 10th Company of the 42d, under command of their war 1st Lieutenant,
Edward Merrill, Jr., remained as 10th Company of the reorganized
regiment. Thus six companies of Col. Burrell’s new command were
perpetuations of the old regiment of which he and Col. Cowdin had been
field officers. The new 4th Company had seen ninety days’ service under
its designation of 1st Unattached, and was commanded by Capt. Moses E.
Bigelow. Three companies, the 7th, 8th and 9th, had no war records, and
merely came in as the 45th, 66th (the W. Roxbury Rifles) and 67th
Unattached. The latter two, however, were commanded by veteran officers,
G. M. Fillebrown, formerly a 1st Lieut. in the Mass. Cavalry, and John
D. Ryan, a 2d Lieut. in the 61st Mass. Inf., respectively. Capt.
Fillebrown’s company is the 8th Co. today. With six of the ten companies
coming directly from the old regiment, it is no wonder that the new
organization was granted the right to call itself the 1st Mass.
Infantry.
Col. Burrell remained at the head of the regiment only sufficiently long
to see it established on a firm foundation; on July 26, 1866, he was
promoted to be Brigadier General. On August 29, 1866, Capt. George H.
Johnston of the 2d Company became Colonel. The original record book of
this period is in the custody of Maj. J. W. H. Myrick of the Fusilier
Veterans.
Col. Johnston’s first camp was held at Sharon in 1866, and had an
attendance of 533. With so large a proportion of the membership war
veterans, the event seemed very much like a military reunion. Officers
and men were already thoroly trained; all enjoyed the experience of
again wearing the blue uniform. Similar encampments were held in 1867,
1868, 1869 and 1872--all in Hull. In 1870 the entire state militia,
under command of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, encamped at Concord, and
revived the memories of 1859. But how greatly had the situation changed
during those eleven short intervening years! Then the war was a dread
prospect; now it was a glorious retrospect. In 1871 a regimental
encampment was held at Quincy.
On June 22, 1867, Col. Johnston and his regiment paraded as escort to
President Andrew Johnson. A similar compliment was paid to President U.
S. Grant, June 16, 1869. The regiment also paraded in honor of Gen.
Philip H. Sheridan, when he visited Boston.
A new company, the Claflin Guards of Newton, was organized in 1870, and
in 1872 became the 7th Company.
As a result of the Civil War the kepi and felt hat had been introduced
into the bill-of-dress, and the five-button blouse had become the
popular coat; the felt hat was a revival of a pattern common in old
Colonial days. In 1869 the regiment profited by a new feeling on the
part of the legislature that a good militia was worth the expenditure of
a little money; for at that time the state began to make an allowance
toward the purchase of uniforms. $20.00 was paid for each man--not
enough to buy a uniform, but far better than nothing. Since their
experience at Bull Run in 1861, the regiment had worn blue; now,
however, they returned to the gray uniforms of 1859. Breech-loading
rifles were issued in 1872.
The year 1872 brought the most prolonged tour of duty for the
maintenance of public order, if we except Shays’ rebellion, that the
regiment ever had. Boston was then a city of frame buildings, standing
close together, and separated by very narrow streets. On Nov. 11, fire
broke out, and speedily grew uncontrollable by reason of high winds.
When after three days of horror, the devouring flames were finally
stayed in their work of destruction, old Boston lay in ashes.
Thieves, thugs and criminals of every sort are prompt to congregate in
seasons of public calamity. When society is threatened by such a danger
as conflagration, its ordinary police precautions break down; and people
are helpless to protect their property or even their lives. All the
militia in Boston were immediately called out to help rescue endangered
lives, and to protect the panic-stricken fugitives. Where everyone is
suspicious of everyone else, a man in uniform is the only one able to
render any aid. Victims of the fire would not allow a stranger in
civilian clothes so much as to assist them to places of safety, for fear
of violence and robbery. The troops were kept on duty during thirteen
days, the latter part of the period being devoted to guarding the ruins
and aiding in the task of rehabilitation. One picturesque feature of the
regiment’s service was the escorting across the city of treasure valued
at $14,000,000. No other call to duty is so truly a test of military
readiness as that in connection with a fire, coming as it does always
without the slightest previous warning. And no other duty, performed as
the 1st Regiment performed it in 1872, does so much to win friends for
the organization, and for the National Guard of which it forms a part.
At no other time does the National Guardsman appear so nearly in his
true rôle, as “a soldier of peace.”
During the term of the next commander, Col. Henry W. Wilson, Dec. 12,
1872--April 28, 1876, the regiment felt the effects of a new movement
for military efficiency. Col. Wilson was himself a Civil War veteran, an
ex-Captain in the 6th Regiment. But he believed the time ripe for
innovations and improvements. The Civil War officers were growing too
old for active service; and no one was in training to take their place.
England, with a military system not essentially different from ours, had
introduced strict principles of instruction for her volunteers some ten
years previously, and now commenced to reap beneficial results.
Consequently the 1st Regiment welcomed the new state muster-field, first
opened for use in 1873. Framingham at once became a synonym for
increased efficiency; that very year the tour of camp duty was
lengthened from three to four days, and from time to time thereafter
successful effort was made to secure further extension. Massachusetts
had the proud honor of leading all other states in providing a regular
state camp-ground.
Perhaps because so many “old fellows” were bidding farewell to active
military life, perhaps for other reasons, this was an age of
sentimentalism in the regimental history. On Dec. 17, 1873, the 1st
Company adopted a badge or medal for use with full-dress uniforms and
also on civilian clothes; and other companies were so favorably
impressed by the innovation as to imitate it. Col. Mathews later
designed the regimental emblem which stands on the cover of this book,
and which is based on the “white diamond” of the old “third corps.”
Capt. William A. Smith of the 1st Company was an enthusiast about
rifle-shooting; and kept agitating the matter with a view to inducing
Massachusetts to take it up. Already England had her ranges for
volunteers, and in New York the Creedmoor range was in active operation.
Capt. Smith presented many excellent reasons why small arms practice
should be made part of the militia requirements. In Colonial days every
farmer was a good shot--he had to be, in order to keep down “varmints”
and to keep off Indians. But when the state became fully settled the
reason for popular skill in shooting ceased, and the shooting itself was
discontinued. Thruout the Civil War, marksmanship was a neglected factor
in the training of both northern and southern armies. By 1875 the need
had become so crying that Capt. Smith and others succeeded in convincing
the Massachusetts authorities. As soon as genuine rifle competitions
were authorized, the members of the regiment, and especially of the 1st
Company, stirred themselves to render the matches exciting; as a
consequence, up to the time the regiment became interested in artillery,
it was noted in the state for success in small arms competitions. From
the 1st Company alone went out two such shots as Col. Horace T. Rockwell
and Major Charles W. Hinman, both of whom had places on rifle teams
which went to England and represented America in international matches
held in 1880, 1883 and 1888. After 1878 the 4th and 12th Companies also
won fame with the rifle.
The annual routine of a militia regiment--weekly drills, two or more
field-days, shooting, one or two weeks’ camp, etc.--keeps the members
busy along useful lines. But it does not afford a historian much to
tell, save as he indicates the steps of progress from year to year.
Parades, on the other hand, possess some romantic and popular interest;
and it is hard to convince laymen that they have almost no military
value. A regiment is largely judged by its appearance on parade. In Col.
Wilson’s time there chanced to be included the fateful year, 1875, when
eastern Massachusetts celebrated the centennials of Concord and Bunker
Hill. With President Grant present from Washington on April 19, there
were “great doings.” On June 17 the “crack”-est military organizations
from other states visited Boston to lend “tone” to the procession,--the
7th N. Y., the 5th Md., the 1st R. I., the 1st and 2d Pa. That day Gen.
W. T. Sherman was reviewing officer. Sherman’s war experience had
trained him to judge troops. He was forced to admit that Boston’s parade
was a fine military display; and he had to add that the 1st Mass. was
not behind the best. On Nov. 29, 1875, by a singular coincidence, Col.
Wilson was called upon to parade his regiment as part of the funeral
escort for his great namesake, the late Vice-President Henry Wilson, who
was interred at Natick.
At first the regiment suffered from the new innovations. Its older
members, trained in the hard school of actual war service were capable
soldiers and required little instruction; and the younger men who needed
more training were only a minority in point of numbers. As soon as it
became evident that more time was going to be demanded for encampments
and for small-arms practice, many older soldiers applied for their
discharges. As the ranks grew shorter and thinner, the state authorities
began to talk of disbanding companies, just as they had always been
accustomed to do. Finally the break came. Col. Wilson resigned on April
28, 1876, leaving Lt. Col. Alfred N. Proctor in command; and on the
following July 6, the regiment was reduced to the dimensions of a
battalion and was redesignated the “1st Battalion of Infantry.” Lt. Col.
Nathaniel Wales, who was placed in command, was a Civil War veteran with
a brilliant record. He had enlisted as a private soldier, had served in
the 24th Regiment, the 32d, and finally in the 35th, and came out of the
war-service a Colonel. It is highly unusual to pass thru so many grades
within less than four short years. Furthermore, Col. Wales was said to
have been the youngest man holding the rank of Colonel at the time he
attained it. His love for the 1st Regiment was such that he was willing
to endure a reduction of rank for the sake of re-establishing the old
command upon a secure basis.
A company of the 3d Regiment, the Cunningham Rifles from Brockton, were
transferred to the 1st Battalion at the time of the reorganization and
became the 10th Company. This reorganization was by no means limited to
the 1st Regiment--it was state-wide in its incidence. The 1st Battalion
emerged from it as a six-company organization.
One or more companies of the 1st made the trip to the Philadelphia
Centennial in 1876, and to the Valley Forge Centenary the year
following. On Sept. 17, 1877, the battalion participated in the parade
and ceremonies connected with the dedication of the Soldiers’ and
Sailors’ monument on Boston Common. The companies presented a fine
appearance in the eyes of the public; and following the celebration
dined together much to their own gratification. New members enlisted,
new interest began to be manifest, and there was a feeling that the
present reduced condition would be only temporary. Col. Wales of course
exerted all of his influence to have the regiment restored.
Finally the legislature responded and passed an act creating a 1st
Regiment by a process of consolidation. There were four companies left
of the 3d Regiment, then forming the 3d Battalion. And four companies
represented what had originally been the old 1st Infantry of ante-bellum
days, now organized as the 4th Battalion. So the legislature transferred
the Fusiliers and the Claflin Guards to the 5th, the Chelsea Rifles to
the 8th, and consolidated the 1st Battalion, the 3d Battalion and the
4th Battalion, as the “1st Regiment,” Col. Nathaniel Wales commanding.
The date of this important legislation was Dec. 3, 1878. By a stroke of
genius the law-makers had created a twelve-company regiment, organized
in three battalions each under command of a Major; and had devised a new
plan of organization which was destined to work so well that, twenty
years later, Congress would adopt it for use all over the United States.
As the companies from the 3d Regiment were located in Plymouth and
Bristol counties, they introduced a new geographical element into the
1st. Thereafter “The Cape” was to stand side by side with Boston, and
right nobly were the Cape companies to uphold the regimental
traditions.