Josiah Fitch Murphey of Nantucket

I recently read "The Civil War: The Nantucket Experience" by Miller & Mooney.  It includes selections from the memoirs of Josiah Murphey. Murphey enlisted as a replacement for the 20th Reg, (CO I) in 1862. From Nantucket he was sent to Camp Cameron for two weeks of training before being sent to the seat of war. He estimated the number of soldiers to be between four & five thousand. The day before he left the number was three thousand recruits, and that is the greatest number I have seen,  but even this number would have been augmented by camp staff and civilian visitors. No matter how you count the population of the small camp it was still a very high percentage of the entire island of Nantucket at that time. The dense population and wide range of nationalities presents made the camp a "hard place." His other observations include, how at that time of high bounty jumping, the camp guard was there to keep recruits in the camp, not to keep intruders out. He also described how every morning you could see several hundred men washing themselves in the Tannery Brook.

DAN SULLIVAN

Union Horse Railroad

The land that Camp Cameron sat on was owned by the Union Horse RR for the first half of its life. In 1862 the company sold the land to Gardner Green Hubbard, one of its directors. after the war a piece of the property, along what is now Mass. Ave, was sold back to the Railroad. They built their car barns on the property. Later when technology moved the RR from horse power to electricity they sold the portion of the land the horse barns sat on. The rest of the property remained a trolley depot, and still does. It went from Union RR, to West End RR, to Boston Elevated RR to MTA and now it is the MBTA. Members of my parents generation called the land the "Car Barns" to the day they died, even though the physical barns had disappeared decades before.  

DAN SULLIVAN

Boys from the Mass 28th get into trouble in Dedham Ma.

A letter from the Adjutant General's Office to Gov. Andrew, dated 1/13/62.
"In compliance with orders, I went on Saturday morning to Dedham and gave to the officer in charge of the county jail the pardons of Patrick Gaines (CO. F & Roxbury) & Thomas Moriarty (CO H & Chicopee), privates in the 28th Regiment, M. V. who had been confined for felony crimes. 
The men were taken to the Camp in Cambridge & delivered to Lieut. Moore. "
The second page of the letter is missing so it is not signed and  no mention is made of what the crimes were. The events in the letter would have been 1/11/62. Who knows how much time these two men would have spent in jail if the regiment was not leaving the state?


DAN SULLIVAN

Woburn, MA recruits for the 28th Regiment.

The Oct. 11, 1861 Woburn Budget reported that a recruiting office for the 28th Irish Regiment had been opened in Mrs. Leathe's building. Mrs. Leathe owned several buildings on the corner of what is now Main St. and Montvale Ave, (Then Rail Road St). She lived in the one right on the corner, with businesses also in it, downstairs. Since it is refereed to as Mrs. Lathes building I would give that one the best odds. (The one with the red awning) The current building went up in 1979. It is right across the street from the Civil War monument.

DAN SULLIVAN

Errors on the Camp Cameron Historical Marker.

These mistakes are more of a reflection of the lack of information and the contradictory nature of a lot of the information that does exist about the camp.

1 & 2:  "Camp Cameron occupied a 140-acre tract along Massachusetts Avenue  between Shea Road and Claredon Avenue that extended up the hill to Holland Street in Somerville."

The first mistake is the 140 acre statistic. This comes from the Cambridge Chronicle. (1) It has also been quoted as 40 (2) & 50 acres. The 40-50 acre number is the right range when you compare it to other places. Look at the map of Cambridge. Compare it to Danehy Park that is 50 acres(3) it is very close. This may not be exact but it is not one third the size of the camp neighborhood. Also if you use one of those internet sites that measure the length of you walk/run and trace the outline of the camp you come out with the 40/50 acre measurement.
The second is that the northern boarder is Holland Street in Somerville. The road shows up on the period map of the camp. Holland St did not exist yet. Also The History of the 1st Light Battery described the road on the northern border as the "the Old Lexington Pike,   which crosses Winter Hill and thence over the ridge in Somerville to Arlington." This describes Broadway.(4)
3: "Thirty wooden barracks sheltered about a 1,000 recruits." Fifteen of the building where barracks for enlisted men. The others where a gate house, brig, stables, hospital, cookhouses, and officer barracks. The barracks for just the troop barracks held 100-125 men. Hard Tack And Coffee quotes the 100 number. (5)
A report from the Sanitary Commission quotes 125 enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. It is a very detailed description of the barracks. (6) This puts the troop barracks alone at 1500-1875, then add the commissioned officers.
4: "So Late in 1862 operations were transferred to the security of Fort Independence."  The final troops did not leave (by then) Camp Day until 1/22/63. (7)

(1) Cambridge Chronicle, June 15, 1861
(2) Boston Evening Transcript, June 10, 1861, pg. 2
(3) http://www.cambridgema.gov/CityOfCambridge_Content/documents/danehy.pdf
(4) (3) Story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery, Attached to the 6^th Army Corp. , Andrew J. Bennett, 1886, Press of De Land & Barta, Boston, Ma
(5) Hardtack and Coffee, Billings, John D., 1888, George M. Smith & Co. Boston
(6) Report on condition of troops in the Bostom area.  July 25, 1861, S. G. Howe of the U. S. Sanitary Commission
(7) Boston Evening Transcript, 1/22/63, pg. 3


DAN SULLIVAN

Update on the Watertown, Ma, local History Story

Historical Society of Watertown, Watertown MA

July 18

A rebuttal to the Historical Society's letter. Posted in Boston.com.

Library trustee defends culling of historical volumes, despite public outcry
Posted by Jaclyn Reiss July 17, 2013 10:15 AM
A Watertown library trustee last night defended her board's June decision to move some historical books out of the local library's history room to clear shelf space, despite the uproar it has caused among local genealogy and historical experts.
"There just isn’t enough room," said library trustee Raya Stern in a Town Hall hallway Tuesday night. “This is stuff no one looks at. Not everything in there is valuable to Watertown.”
The volumes are not directly related to Watertown's history. However, the decision has prompted a letter and email campaign by local historians, and brought nearly a dozen protesters to Tuesday's Town Council meeting to rail against the move.
Many said that even volumes not directly related to Watertown could be monumental to historians and genealogists researching in the library's history room. The historians pointed to the valuable nature of many of the volumes, including the journals John Winthrop, an early Massachusetts founder.
"This is some of most important material historically in the Commonwealth," said David L. Smith, president of the Civil War Round Table of Greater Boston. "To get rid of it is outrageous and irresponsible."
The books are being cleared to make space for the Army's Arsenal property cleanup records - which are federally mandated to be housed there - as well as new incoming historical volumes, Stern said.
"This is a federal mandate that was dumped on us," Stern said. “There are no tucked away places in the library to put the Arsenal papers. All our rooms and shelves are being used.”
The non-Watertown materials would either be moved to general shelves in the library, offered to various communities' libraries and historical societies, digitized for online use, or put in the local circulation network, Stern said.
“We’re not throwing anything away,” she said. “We’re just finding other places for them.”
Although the library has offered any of the titles to the Watertown Historical Society, board member Joyce Kelly said the organization does not have room to house the books.
"We believe the library can house both the Arsenal material and the research collection," she said, noting that the Arsenal cleanup documents could likely be digitized faster and easier than any of the research volumes.
Supporters of the historical volumes also worried that since the decision was already made at the library trustees' June 4 meeting, valuable titles could begin disappearing from the history room at any time.
"It took 150 years to put this collection together, and in another month or so, it could all be gone," said Bob Erickson, former veteran's agent for Watertown.
But Stern said the decision, while discussed in detail last month, has been in the works since last fall.
"This policy has been in the works since October," she said, adding that the board will likely uphold their decision. “They can come to our meetings. Some got all excited and now they’re overreacting.”
Stern said the library is still deciding what books to move out of the history room, and said the process is continuous and has no firm deadline.
“We’re working on this constantly,” she said.
The next Board of Library Trustees meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.

From Historical Watertowns FaceBook page.

DAN SULLIVAN

Video of Possible Camp Meigs officer barracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97j4sqVUG0w

I have not verified this, nor have I found it referenced anywhere else, so take it as you will. It you Google Earth the address you can also see the side view. If it is authentic then it would give you an idea of the size of the officers barracks at Camp Cameron.


DAN SULLIVAN