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CHAPTER ELEVEN: "The Camp at Readville"
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C H A P T E R I I 'he camf atReadville" Oh! Standing on this desecrated mould, Methinks that I behold, Lifting her bloody daisies up to God, Spring kneeling on the sod, And calling with the voice of all her rills Upon the ancient hills, To fall and crush the tyrants and the slaves Who turn her meads tograves. —Henry Timrod, "Spring," 1863 The war was moving in slow motion as armies on both sides readied themselves for the spring campaigns. During the war, springtime forsook its normal meaning as a time of rejoicing, new birth, and life to become a time of fear, sorrow, and dying. Meadows became battlefields; streams and woods swallowed up soldiers and became gravesites. But in late winter 1863 in Massachusetts, a regiment trained that promised to turn springtime back into a time of new birth. Black"boys" were going to havethe chance to prove themselves "men" by donning blue uniformsand fighting Confederates. 2-95 T Boston [RGS] Feb. 2.3, (Monday) 1863 Dearest Annie, We haveopened the camp at Readville,got the barracks in good order, and sent twenty-seven men out there. I have a good quartermaster, who has got all the necessarystores out there, and seemsto be attending to his business in the most satisfactorymanner.1 Captain Edward Hallowell, a brother of the Lieutenant-Colonel, is in command of the camp.2 Day before yesterday he had the men all washed and uniformed, which pleased them amazingly.They are being drilled as much as is possible in-doors, for it is too cold out there to keep them in the open air for any length of time. These twenty-sevenmen are all from Philadelphia and Boston. From other recruiting-offices we hear very good accounts, and the men seem to be enlisting quite fast.3 Governor Sprague has authorized a recruitingoffice to be opened in Providence for this regiment.4 We have an officer at Fortress Monroe, but he has to be very secret about his work; and to-day three men are going on a campaign into Canada.5 By these different means we expect, or rather hope, to fill our rankspretty rapidly.Weare getting men from Pennsylvania,New York, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Sofar, they are not of the best class, because the good ones are loath to leave their families, while there is a hope of getting a bounty later. Now, they receive only the $100 from the Federal government at the expirationof their term of enlistment. Hallowell and I get along together in the pleasantest way.6 I like Governor Andrew more and more everyday.As Charles Lowell says: "It wasworth while to comehome, if itwereonlyto get acquainted with him." .. .Allmymornings arespent in the State-House; and asin-door, furnaceheated work does not agree with me, I shall get out to Readville as soon as possible. Good bye for the present, mydarling. Always your loving Rob i. First Lt. John Ritchie (1836-1919), z. Edward Needles Hallowell (1837of Boston and the Harvard class of 1861, 71) served as an aide-de-camp to General joined the Fifty-fourth on Feb. 19,1863. Fremont in Missouri in 1861 and wasa Shaw appointed him quartermaster the first lieutenant in the Twentieth Masnext day. Emilio,A Brave Black Regiment, sachusetts before accepting Governor p. 330; Rec. of Mass. Vols., p. 847. Andrew's invitation to join the Fifty- ^96 B L U E - E Y E D C H I L D OF F O R T U N E [3.141.24.134] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 19:49 GMT) fourth. Boatner, Dictionary, p. 367. 3. Camp opened at Readville for the Fifty-fourth on Feb. 2.1. By the end of the first week, seventy-two men were in camp. For the eighty days until Mayiz, when the regiment had its one thousand men, an average of twelve men a day removed their civilian clothes for the blue uniforms of the Union. Schouler, Report of theAdjutant General, pp. 899—900. 4. William Sprague. 5. The officer at Fortress Monroe is unidentified. 6. Norwood Penrose Hallowell. Boston [MHS] February 2.4,1863 My dear Charley, I thought I would write to you again this morning to tell you what Lowell says of the battle of Antietam. Hooker's 8c Mansfield's attack on the right was intended only for a feint—and Burnside's was to have been the true attack— which would have cut off...