Maine Troops at Camp Cameron

Early in my research I read about how busy the Boston area was with troop movements. I think it was in the book "Hardtack and Coffee." It mentioned how in the early days of the war, when Washington was desperate for troops it seemed like you could see troops in Boston every day. First were the troops who were training in the area, secondly were the troops marching into Boston to take either a train or a steamer south. The author mentioned how this was not just Massachusetts troops but how troops from northern New England would often take a train into Boston and need to either transfer to another train in the city or a ship in the harbor. This made me think that not all the troops might be able to schedule that on the same day and some may have slept at Camp Cameron. I quickly found out of state troops staying at Faneuil Hall or on Boston Common. I knew Faneuil Hall was often used by local troops and could run out of room. Boston Common is much bigger but what if they arrived on a day with three feet of snow on the ground or below zero temperatures. Camp Cameron and Camp Meigs seemed like the most likely places to turn to. It took a long time but I have found one time when this happened.
According to the Dec. 18, 1861 Boston Evening Transcript 221 recruits from the state of Maine spent the night at Camp Cameron. They shared the camp with the Mass. 28th, Co H of the 29th and Co. E of the 32nd under the command of Capt. Brady.
Since the Maine troops consisted of 99 men from the Maine 2nd,  96 from the 5th, and 19 from the 6th they most likely were replacement troops for those regiments. Since these numbers do not add up to 211 and the next evenings paper reports that Capt. Brady arrived in New York with 250 men I would guess that some rounding may have happened to arrive at a nice round 250 but that at least six more men from other regiments or officers also were present.

Dan Sullivan

Massachusetts Twentieth Regiment (Maybe)

I found a story in the Sacramento union supplement, quoting a Boston Journal article. It is from Oct. 19, 1861 and states that the Sixth (26th) had left Camp Cameron for Camp Chase in Lowell. With the exit of the old 6th Camp Cameron was left with just "Porter's Battery (1st Light Artillery) and squads of recruits for the Nineteenth and Twentieth Regiment." Other than this story I have found not found any mention of the Twentieth at Camp Cameron. The regiment was organized at Camp Massasoit, Readville Mass., and left the state a few weeks before the 26th.  At the time of the 26th's departure Camp Cameron did hold the 1st Light and the 19th's Band but it also housed the 28th. Some of the smaller groups have left very few pieces of evidence. Is this a clue of another regimental band or is it simply a typo? The story ran in Sacramento almost a month after the fact and was second hand from another paper. At this time in history type needed to be set by hand and one character at a time. It would be easy to make a mistake. This situation adds to the possibility. First the story was set in Boston, was a mistake made at the Boston Journal? Is the story so late because a copy of the paper was mailed to California? If so was a mistake made in transcribing it into the  Union? Was the story telegraphed to the west coast? If so a mistake may have been made in entering it into Morse code, writing it out at the other end or simply bad hand writing.  Was 20th supposed to be 28th? The 28th was a whole regiment, and had been in camp a month by the time the 26th left. It would have been recruited to a decent size. It is unlikely it would have been forgotten.   Still the next time I go to the State Archives I will look into this to see if some small part was left behind. One clue that it may have been the band is the fact that the 19th & 20th encamped together outside of Washington. (According to the Massachusetts Register #94)   Would it have been simpler to keep the two bands together to make transportation easier?
This is a good example of needing to be conservative in making judgments about believing everything you read. You take it in, you weigh it against your other evidence and you keep looking for more facts.

Dan Sullivan 

Massachusetts Eleventh Regimental Band

The July 1, 1861 Boston Evening Transcript reported that the when the regiment left for the seat of war the band remained behind. Three recruits sick with the measles stayed with them. The men in the band were left with four days rations so they would have left soon after the rest of the regiment.

DAN SULLIVAN  

Massachusetts 32nd Regiment Companies A, C & E

The Thirty-Second Regiment has three connections to Camp Cameron. The Regiment as a whole was an out growth of the First Battalion stationed at Fort Warren.
Company A of this group received at thirty one men from Camp Cameron sometime in Nov. 1861. They had come to Fort Warren via Hingham, Mass. with Lt. Charles Dearborn of Salem.  At the fort this company was under the command of Captain Luther Stevenson, Jr. of Hingham, Mass. Company C was mostly if not entirely recruited at Cameron. The November 11, 1861 edition of The Boston Evening Transcript stated that 96 men where at the camp for Co. C and Captain Jonathan Pierce.
When the state decided to enlarge the 1st Battalion into a full regiment, Company E was recruited at the camp. They entered the camp on DEC. 13, 1861 and left on Dec. 24, 1861 to join the rest of the regiment at Ft. Warren.  Being mustered in on the 17th. They were under the command of Capt. Cephas C. Bumpus.


DAN SULLIVAN