Springfield in the Spanish American War. Ward Walter W.
and candles were not issued as edibles but for cleansing and illuminating purposes. And it can also be seen that in the above rations there are possibilities for good eating and plenty of it. As a matter of fact milk and butter were soon supplied from the company funds.
G and B companies were mustered in on the 10th with full ranks. G was to have been mustered in the day previous but when the time arrived one private, a raw recruit, was missing and as the entire company was obliged to be on hand for muster the ceremony was dispensed with for that day and the men were marched back vowing vengeance upon the man who had kept them for 24 hours from getting into the service. Before very long another recruit was found and when the missing private turned up full of penitence and other things his uniform was taken off and after receiving a talking to from Capt. Leonard that made his cheeks burn with shame he was shipped out of camp.
The boys found plenty of amusement during their camp life and with nearly 1000 young fellows in one regiment time did not hang very heavily on their hands during the times between drills and other duties. Base ball and other sports were indulged in and letter writing and visits to the other regiments or an occasional pass to town prevented anything like ennui. In the Springfield companies there were few tent crews that did not have some distinctive appellation for their habitation. Private J. C. Ryan of B made his tent famous as a "steam laundry" and in G street there was the "Hotel Dingbat," so named because the men who occupied it could not think of anything else to call it. In K there was quickly organized an outfit later to be known as the "Wee Haws" and which made itself somewhat famous by the gift of song possessed by its members.
The "board of license commissioners" so famous during the encampment of 1897 was on hand but its members had but little of an official nature to do as the camp of '98 was officially a "dry camp." A good share of the dryness was, however, confined to the weather and a careful search of the records fails to show that any inmate of the camp died of thirst, although there were some serious cases.
WE GET ORDERS TO LEAVE FOR THE SUNNY SOUTH AND OBEY THEM
ALL of the time during our stay in camp speculation was rife as to when we were going to the front and how; also under what designation were we going. It had been circulated that we were to be known as the 63d United States Volunteers, and other rumors, all of which turned out to be just as near the truth as that one were put into commission. These marked the origin of the "Jo Jo" bureau of misinformation which later became an important feature of the campaign.
On the night of Wednesday, May 11th at 9.30, orders were flashed over the wires from Washington to Lieut. Weaver to send the Second at once to Tampa, Fla., where the army of invasion of Cuba was gathering. Almost everyone except the guard and a few officers and attaches at regimental headquarters, was asleep when the orders came but within a very few moments after their purport had been announced, there was the wildest scene of excitement in the camp that had ever been witnessed in South Framingham. From Lieut. Weaver the orders were quickly transmitted to regimental headquarters and from there to the officers of the regiment. Inside of ten minutes from their receipt by Lieut. Weaver, every man of the Second was awake and in his company street and exultant shouts that went up, quickly aroused the other regiments. The Second was to be the first command from the old Bay State to be ordered outside her boundaries for active service and the men were so proud of it that they could not refrain from reminding the men of the other three regiments of the fact. To the credit of the latter it must be said that although at first they were a bit inclined to sulk because their regiment was not the first to be called upon, yet they soon realized that the honor was in a sense as much Massachusetts' as it was the Second's, and their cheers joined in with ours.
Meanwhile, the regimental and company officers were doing some lively work. Col. Clark had gone to Springfield that morning, and a number of officers and men were away on leave, no one expecting that the orders would come for a day or two. The regiment was ordered to move the next day and before the orders had been known of but a very few minutes, telegraph and telephone messages were sent to the absent ones informing them of what had happened. This done, the work of completing the equipment of the regiment was taken up and pushed in lively fashion. There were many little details to be attended to and there was little sleep for headquarters that night. How well the work was done is attested by the fact that at an early hour the next morning the regiment had its tents struck and packed, and long before the hour at which many of the folks at home were eating their breakfasts, was in readiness to move. Reveille was sounded at 4 o'clock that morning and by 6 there was but little remaining to be done.
Although anxious for active service there was one thing about the orders which was not at all relished by the regiment and that was the route to be followed. It had been expected and understood that when the Second would go south its route would be through Worcester and Springfield, thus giving us a chance for a genuine au revoir to home and friends. We all of us knew that the "farewell" accorded us on leaving Springfield for the camp at South Framingham would be tame indeed to the reception we might expect when we passed through there as United States Volunteers, with a large V, and bound for the front. Some of the boys, to be sure, dreaded the thought of having to say "good bye" to the accompaniment of tears and sobs again but the majority were anxious for one more look at what part of Springfield to be seen from the union station and were consequently much disappointed when it was announced that instead of going via Springfield, the route was to be by way of Newport, R. I.
There was much disappointment, too, in Springfield when the route was announced. But not to be beaten, a party of citizens headed by Major H. S. Dickinson, arranged for a special train to South Framingham, the day we were to leave and so we were not allowed to go without some sort of a farewell demonstration from the people of our own city.
On the day previous to our receiving the "rush" orders to the south, a number of visitors including ex-Lieut. Gov. W. H. Haile, Col. A. H. Goetting and James D. Gill of Springfield were in camp, and it came to their attention that the Second was not provided with a band or even field music. No regimental bands were included in the organization of the volunteer regiments nor even field music, the sole musical property being the bugles of which there were two to each company. It was looked upon as a proper and desirable thing that the Second should at least have field music, or in civilian parlance, a drum corps, and these three gentlemen constituted themselves a committee on ways and means to that end. It was known that there were enough musicians in the regiment to form a drum corps if there were instruments provided for them and before the next day through the generosity of the three gentlemen named, the Second was provided with fifes, drums, etc., and the members of the corps selected.
Thursday, May 12th, we bade good-bye to South Framingham. There was difficulty in getting transportation for our baggage and it was not until a late hour in the afternoon that everybody was in readiness. Meanwhile we hung around our former quarters and killed time as best we could. A short time after dinner, our last meal on the "old camp ground," the "assembly" and "adjutant's call" were sounded and the regiment was formed to pass in review before Gov. Wolcott. The march past over, hollow square was formed and the governor presented the officers their commissions and made a brief speech telling us to uphold the honor of the old commonwealth.
While this was going on we heard the strains of a band and soon in marched a delegation from Springfield, headed by the Second regiment band and led by Mayor Dickinson, members of Wilcox post of the Grand Army and Peabody Guard Veterans, while relatives and friends of the boys made up the rest of the 500 in the party. Soon after their arrival we were dismissed and then followed one of the interesting scenes of our war experience. Hardly had we broken ranks before we were surrounded by the visitors and there was falling upon each other's necks, handshaking, good wishes, smiles and tears all commingled in one scene of such excitement as we had never been through before. Every male visitor brought cigars or refreshments for the boys and for an hour or so nothing was too good for us.
But all things have an end and finally the bugles blew and after a last hurried kiss or handshake we fell in again and marched out to the parade ground for the last time. The colors dipped once more to the governor and then through a double line of cheering soldiers from the other regiments and our own friends we marched out of the camp and down the dusty road to the railroad station, escorted by two troops of cavalry and amid the cheers