Camp Cameron Poem

DAN SULLIVAN

Another description of the buildings at Camp Cameron.

Here is a description of the non-barracks buildings from the Boston Herald, June 12, 1861, page 4. The land was originally George Hayes' farm. The contractor who built the camp was Leonard Day and he employeed about 150 men. At this date the field was covered with its spring crop of grass that was being mowed. Buildings for Colonel and staff, 30 feet by 50 feet, Commissioned officers, 40 by 30, Bands, 20 by 30, Commissary stores 40 by 20, Hospital, 30 by 30, Guard House, 30 by 40, Cook House, 40 by 60. Sinks and water closets were also planned. Over 200,000 feet of lumber was used.

DAN SULLIVAN

Merry belated Christmas, 29th Regiment, CO. H

On Christmas day 1861 CO H of Charlestown left Camp Cameron for Charlestown. They attended services at the First Baptist Church, where Rev. Mr. Gardner preached. From there they went to City Hall for a Christmas meal, attended by about 250 people. After dinner Capt. Sibley was presented a sword, sash, belt etc... and a check for $100.00 for a military uniform. Several other officers also received presents. Rev. Mr. Ellis also donated $100.00 to be paid after the war to the private who showed the most bravery.
The festivities went on late into the night.

DAN SULLIVAN

Boston Traveler, Dec. 26, 1861, page 2

Happy Thanksgiving 1861. 28th Regiment Camp Cameron.

The Nov. 20 1861 Boston Daily Advertiser ran a story looking for Thanksgiving donations to the Quartermaster of the Twenty-Eighth Regiment. On the 22nd the Boston Traveler ran a story from Wm. H. Bullock, "Colonel Commanding Camp Cameron", thanking  all the ladies and gentlemen of the area who donated materials to the soldiers Thanksgiving dinner. Of the "over 900 men on Thanksgiving day, there was not a single case of intemperance or insubdination, and not one man in the guard-house?"

DAN SULLIVAN

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