Sunday, July 24, 2011

If you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it, especially if you are a Civil War re-enactor!

July 21 was the 150th anniversary of the first battle of Bull Run or Manassas. The re-enactment of the battle was held on Saturday. It is no secret that we are experiencing a staggering heat wave. The heat extends down to Virginia. Thousands of re-enactors gathered at the battle site. Each wearing his or her authentic period clothing. (WOOL!) Those portraying soldiers also carried Civil War equipment.
As unpleasant as this must have been for re-enactors and spectators it did duplicate the environment of the original battle. The original battle also had its fair share of spectators.
The Union Armies march from Washington and the ensuing battle took place in extreme heat and that heat played an important part in the battle. Many soldiers fell out on the march. This was a three day march that could have been made in one day later in the war, but both armies were still very green. Add to this the already mentioned wool uniforms, heavy packs and guns and heat stroke becomes an important factor in war. A general may leave his base with a much larger army and a much better equipped army than his opponent, but if he cannot get it all to the field battle of battle everything can change. Even if you still have an advantage on paper, heat may render the army so exhausted that the numerical advantage will fade.
In this battle the Union Army also had another odd factor that depleted their troops. Some of the regiments that made the march were ninety-day troops. Their enlistment ended on the march and they turned around and went home. None of these troops were from Massachusetts.
First Manassas started out in favor of the Union. A victory was even reported back to Washington via telegraph. As the afternoon drew on and the Union advance petered out the Confederate sent in the last reserves and the Union advantage turned into a complete route.  
Camp Cameron regiments, the First and Eleventh Infantry came under fire in this battle. The Fifth Infantry was also involved. It  did not go through Camp Cameron but its Company “I” was from Somerville.

DAN SULLIVAN

Monday, July 4, 2011

My Camp Cameron article

Below is an article I wrote for The Somerville Patch, on line newspaper. It led to an on going blog for The Patch. It is a cleaned up version of my first post here. I hope you enjoy it.

Somerville and Cambridge are cities with long histories. When we think about local history the Civil War is not the first thing that comes to mind.  
In this first year of the American Civil Wars’ 150th anniversary, it is important to remember that North Cambridge and West Somerville also have a very important Civil War history. On the Somerville and Cambridge line, in the area of Cameron Avenue, was a camp of rendezvous and instruction called Camp Cameron. From June 13, 1861 through late January 1863, thousands of recruits went through Camp Cameron on their way to the war.
The original belief was that the war would be over very quickly. One battle would end it. When the Union came to realize that the original three month recruits would not be enough they began enlisting men for up to three years. One of the first three-year regiments was the Massachusetts First Infantry. This regiment was organized at Faneuil Hall in Boston. This location proved too small to house a thousand men and the city environment gave no space for drilling. They quickly moved to an old icehouse on the shores of Fresh Pond in Cambridge, named Camp Ellsworth. The Commonwealth’s optimism for this site quickly waned. Anyone who has tried to run or play golf on the shores of Fresh Pond during rainy New England springs, knows it can be a very wet area. Camp Ellsworth was quickly deemed “unhealthy.”
The solution was a 140-acre parcel of farmland, offered by Gardner Green Hubbard and the Union Horse Railroad, about a mile away. Here is a contemporary description of the camp from Andrew J. Bennett’s history of the Massachusetts First Light Battery.

     “This was a Farm extending from the Old Lexington Pike,  (now Broadway Somerville) … south to North Avenue (now Massachusetts Ave) in Cambridge… the southern half of the farm in Cambridge was a plateau of perhaps ten acres, extending back from the Cambridge road, and falling off quite abruptly to a meadow through which ran a little brook, a branch of the Alewife (Tannery Brook). On the Northern border of this plateau, extending with intervals between them, clean across the plain, were barracks. About midway in the range of buildings, and between the two middle barracks in the range a road passed from the Cambridge road, north dividing the plain in two, and crossing the little brook and the sloping field beyond, which was in Somerville, (were) the barracks… Between the barracks and the Cambridge road was the drill ground, and a fine one it was.”

Camp Cameron was leased by the Commonwealth for six months at a time. The “First” moved into Camp Cameron on June 13, 1861 and stayed for all of two days before being ordered to the “seat of the war.” The camp would not be empty for long. The Eleventh Infantry moved in immediately. Over the next twenty months eleven different organizations spent time at “Old Camp Cameron.” These groups included infantry regiments, parts of regiments and artillery batteries.
Camp Cameron had thirty wooden structures. Fifteen of which were troop barracks. Each of these barracks housed a hundred men or one company. They were long and narrow “bowling-alley in proportions, having the entrance at one end, a broad aisle running through the centre, and a double row of bunks, one above the other, on either side.” Recruits came from all over the state and according to new recruit Thomas Kirwin they represented a broader mix of the population than most were used to. The noise, unfamiliar languages, and proximity overwhelmed many.
In the Civil War, training was quick and uneven as very few men had any experience. As soon as a regiment was full, it was sent to the front and another replaced it almost immediately. Camp Cameron often had multiple groups organizing at the same time and was rarely vacant.
At the beginning of the war, the United States had a very small army and most of it was scattered throughout the western territories. Washington would give each state’s Governor a quota of recruits to meet. It was also the governors’ duty to appoint officers. In the summer of 1861, General Butler was sent back to Massachusetts to help recruit troops for a force he would lead in the Gulf. He began to recruit troops in a way that they did not go toward the MA state quota and he began appointing his own officers. A power struggle soon began. Governor Andrew protested to Washington and Butler accused the Governor of treason. That Andrew was a Republican and Butler a Democrat only exacerbated the situation. In any century, this does not lend itself to cooperation. This would not be the last of the friction between the state and the U.S. Army. In June of 1862, Lt. Col. Hannibal Day was appointed the military commander of the Boston area. With this appointment, Camp Cameron passed to federal control and became the main camp in the state for recruiting men as replacements for regiments already in the field. Misunderstandings between Day and Andrews’ office over transportation issues led to more conflict.
The biggest problem at the camp was the practice of bounty jumping. As it became more difficult to find new recruits, the government began paying ‘enlisting’ bounties. Many men made a career of collecting these bounties. One would enlist; collect the bounty and then desert, move on to another town, and do it all over again. In response, Hannibal Day began to push for the closure of the camp soon after taking command. Gardner Green Hubbard, who would later become Alexander Graham Bell’s father in law, offered to help build a fence around the barracks though this offer was never accepted. In late January 1863, the camp was closed and the recruits were moved to Ft. Independence in Boston, a more secure location.
Camp Cameron may not be the first thing that every Somerville or Cambridge resident thinks of when it comes to local history, but it has left its mark on the neighborhood. Camp St. and Cameron Ave. are named after the camp; Fair Oaks St., Seven Pines Ave., Glendale Ave., Malvern Ave., and Yorktown St. are all named after Civil War battles. The camp was crossed by Tannery Brook. The brook was redirected underground in 1896 and is now part of the drainage system. Tannery Brook Row marks part of its path. The Union Horse Railroad owned the camp. It had a depot nearby and ran trolleys down North Ave., now Mass Ave. The MBTA’s trackless trolley still has a station in North Cambridge and continues to run down Mass Ave. to this day.
The camp had one more embarrassing brush with controversy. This problem came from its name. The camp was named after Simon Cameron. He was President Lincoln’s first Secretary of War.  Cameron had a history of corruption. The camp was formally renamed Camp Day in August 1862; a name locals used in honor of the Day family who had originally owned most of the farmland the camp occupied. This is the same Day family that Day St. is named after.
What we would now call boot camp is not what most historians or readers would consider a noteworthy part of any war’s history. Without the sacrifice of the thousands of men who went through Camp Cameron/Day and the other camps throughout the north, this country would not have survived the 1860’s.


DAN SULLIVAN

Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Sixteenth Regiment

This regiment arrived at Camp Cameron over a period from June 29-July 8. CO "H" arrived first on the 29th of June.  CO's "A", "B", "C" & "F" came into camp on July 2. (1) CO "K" also did not arrive until the 2nd of July.(2)    CO's "D", "E", "G" arrived in Cambridge on July 8th. CO "I" was recruited at Camp Cameron. The Sixteenth was commanded by Col. Powell T. Wyman of Boston. (1)

(1) Massachusetts Register, Serial No. 94, 1862, Adams, Sampson, & CO., Boston, pg. 314-321
(2) Watertown’s Military History, Committee Representing the Sons of the American Revolution & GAR post 81, David Clapp& Son, Printers, Boston, 1907, p136 & 242
   

DAN SULLIVAN

Friday, July 1, 2011

One Good Paragraph!

This time of year I am so busy with my book store that I do not get as much time as I would like to do new research at the archives. This does force me to review the material I already have. Often when you reread a document after seeing others you see it with new eyes. When it comes to actual books, I long ago got to the point where if I found new material on Camp Cameron I was happy if I found one good paragraph. A few days ago I had a little time and went to the local history room at the Melrose library. I was on the hunt for the source of some material someone else shared with me a while ago but could not remember where they found it. I had no luck, but before I left I picked up "Beyond the Neck: The Architecture and Development of Somerville, Mass". It had a short blurb on Camp Cameron. "Adjoning the orchards of the Philemon Russell property was a 50-acre military camp known as Camp Day or Camp Cameron.....Prior to the Civil War, annual musters were held at the camp, and it was used during the Civil War.... After the war contruction of new streets.... including Holland St. (built in 1867) .
Theses few sentences in a book that is not about the war cleared up several things I had long suspected or had misinterpreted.
As I have mentioned in my first post, it has been stated that the locals always referred to the camp as Camp Day. What is strange about this is, except for the first story the Cambridge Chronical ran on the camp, I have never found any other contemporary references by locals for Camp Day until it was officially renamed in 1862. It just seems that more stories or diary entries would use that name.
The Cambridge Historical Commision has a document on file called "Old Times in North Cambridge." It is a one page recollection of John J. Henderson of his time in the area. He mentions the camp and two other fields where "we boys" held musters also. Again, I have found no other other mention of these other fields in descriptions of the camp, but others have quoted this as part of Camp Cameron.
For quite awhile I have felt that Mr. Henderson was talking about the local militia's annual musters. "Beyond the Neck" seems to back up this idea. Also a few sources, like "Beyond the Neck" have used the 50 acre amount, when the map of the camp shows it was much bigger. I believe this most likely also describes the militia field.
The other thing it cleared up was due to my own lack of thinking something through. It states Holland Street was not built until after the war. I have stated Holland Street was the northern border of the camp. I simply read the description of the camp from Bennett and assumed it was Holland because Holland Street is there now. The wording fits Broadway not Holland. I do believe I would have caught this eventually and can take a little solace in the fact that other people have looked at the map and said the same thing. Of course they are not doing the research.
So, this one paragragh gives Camp Cameron a longer military history, the size of the militia fields, another block of real estate, the year Holland Street, Cameron (Street) and Elmwood were built through the old camp and the name of the company that developed the land in 1896. Not a bad paragraph!


DAN SULLIVAN