WHILE the work of settling the regiment at its new station was in
progress, its officers found themselves confronted by a new and serious
cause for apprehension. Up to the time of arriving at the fort, there
had been a marked lack of definite information as to the future service
of the command. Only two facts seemed assured: that the President had
called for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers, and that the
hurried ordering out of the First had been in partial answer to that
call. Before the enthusiasm attending the prompt assembly of the
regiment had died away, there came to Fort Warren a bit of news which
literally dumbfounded its officers and men. Word was received from the
State House that General Corbin, in assigning the quota of
Massachusetts, had made requisition for four regiments of infantry, and
but three batteries of heavy artillery!
The effect of this announcement may be better imagined than described.
Here was a regiment which since 1882 had received desultory instruction
in artillery work, and since 1892 had devoted itself seriously to the
study of the duties of this arm; year by year it had improved in
discipline and gained in efficiency until its officers and men, beyond
any doubt or question, were fully capable of serving intelligently and
well the secondary armament—even if not the most modern ordnance—in any
works on the coast; it had annually, in its encampments, been brought
into contact with regulars, and had become thoroughly familiar with the
surroundings of permanent fortifications; moreover, it was the only
regiment of militia heavy artillery in the entire country—and yet a
single telegram from Washington threatened to overthrow the work of long
years, and to destroy by a stroke of the pen an organization to whose
up-building patriotic men unselfishly had given their time, their money,
and their most earnest effort.
It hardly need be said that on the receipt of this intelligence the
officers of the regiment, from the Chief to the last subaltern, passed
through the successive stages of astonishment, humiliation, and bitter
chagrin, to a final condition of supreme disgust. It seemed evident that
the First Massachusetts, after its half-century of honorable service in
peace and war, either had been forgotten, or else was destined to be
entirely ignored. The action of the War Department seemed inexplicable
under the circumstances. The country suddenly had become involved in a
war in which attacks on its coast cities were possible, if not imminent;
while wofully lacking in trained troops of all arms, it stood most
distressingly in need of garrison artillery; Massachusetts, alone among
the States, was ready and waiting to offer a regiment of fairly
disciplined and fairly trained artillerymen—and was called upon for but
three batteries! And this, it should be noted, in the face of an
exigency which compelled the Commanding Officer of the Department of the
East (General Orders, No. 21, 6th June, 1898) to issue such instructions
as these: "In case the regular artillery troops at any post are not
sufficient properly to man all the guns, the commanding officer will
apply for such officers, companies, or details from the infantry
supports, to be assigned to these duties, as may be necessary. At
fortifications where _no artillery troops are stationed_, the post
commander will select such companies or number of troops as shall be
necessary, and assign them to that duty." It is a matter of record that
such assignments had to be made, and that the raw troops used for the
purpose not only were absolutely useless as artillerists, but even, in
some instances, proved themselves incapable of properly caring for the
expensive artillery material placed under their control.
[Illustration:
Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton.