I want your help.

If any one out there has any information on Camp Cameron / Camp Day I would love to see it.
The camp was open from June, 1861 until Jan. 1863.
The organizations that I know went through the camp are the 1st Mass. Infantry (June 13-June 15, 1861), 11th Infantry (June 15-June 24, 1861), 16th Infantry (June 25-Aug. 17, 1861), 9th Regimental Band (July 3-July 18+, 1861), 1st Light Battery (Aug. 27-Oct. 3, 1861), 26th Infantry (Aug. 28-Sep. 23, 1861), 19th Regimental Band (Sep. 17?-Sep. 23, 1861), 28th Infantry (Aug. 28, 1861-Jan. 11, 1862), 32nd Infantry CO. E (Dec. 13-Dec. 29, 1861), 29th Infantry CO. H (Jan. ?-Jan. 13, 1862), 1st Heavy Infantry CO. L (Feb. 19-MAR. 22), Disabled Soldiers, May16-?, 1862), 38th Infantry CO's A, B, & F (Aug. 4-Aug. 26, 1862). There may be more. Also during the final months of the camp began recruiting and training men for regiments already in the field. So, during this period men from most existing regiments of Infantry, Artillery and sharpshooting would have gone through Camp Cameron. If you have any diaries, letters,artifacts or images dealing with the camp it would be of great interest to me. I have delivered one lecture on the history of the camp and I have been blogging.  I will continue to do this. If I use your material I will give you credit. If you have material that you do not wish published I understand that. I would still love to see it though. Any new information could help me understand other information.
My interest also extends to the short lived Camp Ellsworth on Fresh Pond in Cambridge. The companies that made up the above regiments were recruited in local towns and then sent to the camp. If you have information on a group or individual recruit before they went to Cameron that would also be of great interest.

Thank you,


DAN SULLIVAN

Some Changes Come to Camp Cameron

In April of 1862 Lt. Col. Hannibal Day was named General Superintendent of Recruiting Services for Massachusetts and in June he was named Military Commander of the Greater Boston Area. With this, Camp Cameron came under his authority. (1)
By June the purpose of the camp had changed. The main purpose for the camp was no longer the recruiting and training of new regiments. It now served as the camp for recruiting replacement soldiers for regiments already in the field. (2)
This new relationship was not an easy one. Gov. Andrews office and Day did not get along. In the words of Adjutant-General Schouler, Day was "an old officer of the army; but he does not understand our people, and is too aged to learn. He will do nothing that is not in the "regulations." Cannot some discretionary power be given, or are we to "die daily," like St. Paul, by this abherence to the old rules, made when the army of the United States did not number as many men as the county of Middlesex has sent to this war." This was "making recruiting almost an impossibility." Schouler goes on to state that towns received "repulses" & "Vexations" from Day. (3)
In August the name of the Camp was changed to Camp Day. (4)

(1) Special Orders No. 131, War Department, June 11, 1862, NARA.
(2) Boston Evening Transcript, June 10, 1862, pg 4 & History of Massachusetts in the Civil War, Schouler, William, pg 340, E. P. Dutton, 1868, Boston
(3)  History of Massachusetts in the Civil War, Schouler, William, pg 425 & 426, E. P. Dutton, 1868, Boston
(4)    Cambridge Chronicle, Letters from J. W. W., Co A, 38^th Reg. M.V. Aug. 21, 1862


DAN SULLIVAN

The war made the home front a very lonely place.

A while ago I came across an interesting article in the Middlesex Journal, July 27, 1861. It talks about the effect of recruiting in South Reading, now Wakefield, MA. Even that early in the war. The opening sentence paints a very sad picture. "So many young men have left town for the Camp and the battle-field, that a feeling of lonesomness comes over those who remain at home." Most of the recruits, from this town, at the battle-field" would have been in the 5th Regiment, Company "B". Those at the "Camp" where the Sixteenth Regiment Company "E" at Camp Cameron in Cambridge.
A war of this magnitude pulls a huge percentage of young men away from home at the same time. This makes a very big impact on the community, families, schools, workplaces etc. When you add this to the fact that companies would be recruited locally, you had a situation in which one very bad day at the battle field could mean that a large percentage of families could learn that their sons would never be coming home in the same edition of the local paper or that days mail.
The article goes on to talk about the importance of the Post Office as a gathering place for those waiting for word from their loved ones but still reflected the lessened population of the town as a whole. "The Post Office is not now thronged as it used to be, though probably the mails are as formerly. There is a time, however, when a deep interest is manifested in the contents of the mails, as was the case on Monday afternoon and some days subsequently. The letters were opened with trembling and the papers eagerly read ...The news of Monday P. M. , cast a deep gloom over the village, and although the reports the next morning  
learned the probability of the fall of friends in battle from this vicinity, there was dreadful uncertainty in the matter, which caused the greatest anxiety for days." It was learned that several of the casualties came from the town.
This was the First Battle of Bull Run. Parents, wives, children, friends and other loved ones would repeat this process for another four years.


Dan Sullivan

The Nineteenth Regimental Band

While looking through some old Boston Globes I found a reference that makes it seem likely that at least the band and maybe some members of Company "K" spent some time at Camp Cameron. In a July 27, 1902 article on the life of Henry Grant Weston, as a soldier and musician, it is stated that he was mustered in at Camp Cameron on Sept. 17, 1861 and left for the front with CO "K" on Sept. 23. In the Massachusetts Register #94, it states that the regiment was recruited at Camp Schouler, Lynnfield. I can find no references to it moving or any of the companies forming at other camps, as happened with some of the regiments that went through Cameron. "History of the Nineteenth Regiment" adds "The regimental band of 24 pieces, under bandmaster John A. Spofford, and a squad of recruits under Lieut. Bishop, of Company K, reached Camp Benton on September 27, 1861." This confirms that the band followed the regiment and a piece of Co. K did also. I do not know as yet how many men of Co. K traveled to the front with the band or if they also spent time at Camp Cameron. I also do not know as yet when the band arrived.
This does show the possibility of a trend at the camp. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, the Eleventh's Band remained behind at Camp Cameron for further training/recruiting and the Ninth's band went to Cameron after the Regiment went to the front. Now we know that the nineteenth did the same thing. Was this camp a training ground for Massachusetts bands? The locals often complained about the noise from the camp. It has generally been assumed that was on account of the muskets and cannons, could it also have been because of Henry grant Weston's tuba?

Dan Sullivan   

Cambridge Library puts its historic newspaper collection on line.

Recently the Cambridge, MA Public Library put its old newspapers on line. This collection spans from 1846-1923. It also contains several different Cambridge papers. More will go on line every year as they come into public domain. This is a great resource for any type of research. When you click on an article both the original image an a text version comes up. The text recognition often has trouble recognizing the old type. The library is looking for volunteers who will help correct the text. Even you just correct the one article you looked up it will help. Check it out.
http://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/

Their blog also did a write up on my work. Thanks for the plug.
http://thecambridgeroom.wordpress.com/

DAN SULLIVAN

Whats in a name.

Several sources have stated that Camp Cameron was known to the locals as Camp Day. Several documents at  the Cambridge Historical Commission mention this. The earliest source I have found is a book published by the CHC on the architectural  history of Cambridge MA. It is unfortunate that none of these sources site their source.  Earlier I stated that a single Cambridge Chronicle article refers to "Camp Day" before the official name charge, I was wrong. I confused two articles. The one I quoted was from 1862, after the military official changed the name of the camp to "Camp Day", so I have no evidence of the residents ever used the name "Camp Day" before 1862. When I thought I had one use of the name I had put out the theory it was in reference to a Militia Field that was in the area before the war. One would think that if the locals were calling the camp "Day" all along and during the end of the camps life the name officially became "Day", then after the camp closed many if not most people would have used "Camp Day". This did not happen. Two sources stand out.  The first is Mr. Henderson's account of his life in North Cambridge. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs he talks about "Camp Cameron", he also talks about two other fields outside of the know camp. He was a long time resident and maybe a Militia member hints that he was a member of the Militia. If any "Local" should have referred to the camp as  "Camp Day" he should have. He does not. The Cambridge Chronicle is the same way. They have many references to "Camp Cameron" for decades after the camp closed. The unused land is always refered to as the "Camp Cameron" property, right up until it is developed. It is never called  "Camp Day".


DAN SULLIVAN

Disabled soldiers from many states come to Camp Cameron

On May 16, 1862 between 200 & 300  sick and injured soldiers were sent from Gen. Butlers operations in New Orleans, via the ship "Undaunted" to Camp Cameron. these soldiers belonged to the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Maine, the 26th, 30th and 31st Massachusetts, the 24th Indiana, the 4th Wisconsin, the 6th Michigan, the 8th New Hampshire, the 12th and 13th Connecticut Infantry, the 1st Maine Battery and the Everett Battery of Boston. They stayed at the camp until they where fit to return to service or could find transportation home. Some of the soldiers received their first pay here since joining the army.

This is the only instance I have found of either non-Massachusetts troops or troops returning from the front being stationed at Camp Cameron. Their stay would have varied depending on the severity of their condition and the availability of transportation either home or back to their regiment.

Around this time Gardner Green Hubbard purchased the property the camp sat upon from the Union Railway.

Not only did many of these recruits suffer from wounds and disease the trip home was also quite a hardship.

According to Henry Robinson of the NH 8th, the Undaunted lost its main mizzen mast in a storm of Cape Hatteras. They then began leaking water. They needed to be tugged into Boston Harbor. Mr. Robinson states in his account that the Undaunted did not arrive in Boston until June 2. the Boston Evening Transcript has the date as May 13th, then both this paper and the Cambridge Chronicle agree that the troops arrived at Cameron on the 16th of May. The Transcript also states that The Undaunted left Ship Island on April 21st. This was a trip of 24 days. I know the ship was damaged and would have been slowed but I do not think it made two trips. If it did, in the period between May 14, 1862 and June 2, 1862 it not only would have made another round trip from La. to Ma. but also finished significant repairs on the ship. Robinson did not write his book until 1893, over three decades after the event. I believe his memory may simply failed him on this one point. Though it is interesting that the Chronicle article does not mention any soldiers from the 8th NH., so it possible. 

The information for this post comes from:

The Cambridge Chronicle, May 17, 1862

The Boston Evening Transcript, May 16, pg. 2, 1862

History of Pittsfield, N.H. in the Great Rebellion, Robinson, H. L., pg. 131, Pittsfield, NH 1893

Dan Sullivan