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[From My Dear Wife by Frank Putnam Deane II, Pioneer Press, 1964]
In an answer to President Lincoln's call for 300,000 volunteers in July, 1862, Captain Achille
DeVecchi, on leave in America from the Italian Army, organized a battery of light artillery which was designated as the Ninth Battery, Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery. The first rendezvous and the formal organization of the battery was at Camp Stanton near Lynnfield, with the officers being:
Captain, Achille De Vecchi
First Lieutenant, Christopher Erickson
Junior First Lieutenant, Alexander H. Whitaker
Second Lieutenant, George W. Foster
Junior Second Lieutenant, Richard S. Milton
At first the battery had no tents, and the original members when they arrived in camp slept on the ground or on the floor of the cook house, which was the only building in camp. It was not until August 2nd that tents were obtained and the camp took on the appearance of a military post. The first guard was posted on August 4th.
The battery was mustered into the service of the United States on August 10th by Lieutenant Elder of the Regular Army to serve three years unless sooner discharged. Ninety men were thus mustered into United States service. The original organization of the battery, dated September 3, 1862 was follows:
Officers
Captain Achille De Vecchi
Chief of Caissons
Junior Second Lieutenant Richard S. Milton
Orderly
Sergeant George Prescott
Guidon
Francis Quaranti
Buglers
1st Charles W. Reed
2nd Orin Reynolds
Artificers
George B. Morse
Marsena L. Martin
Forge Drivers
James A. Harvey
Thomas Fisher
Ambulance Driver
Warren H. Trask
Cooks
James Whitney
Austin Packard
Officers' Cook
Nathum A. Doe
Care of Officers' Horses
John H. Kelley
Teamsters
Charles B. Lord
H. F. Dearborn
Charles H. Brickett
This, then, was the organization of the battery September 3rd, when its one hundred fifty enlisted men and five officers boarded the Providence Railroad for Groton, where it went aboard the steamer
Commonwealth for New York, arriving there on the 4th. At New York the battery took the train to
Philadelphia where it arrived about nine that evening, and after being treated to a supper of cold meats, bread and coffee by the ladies, it again entrained for Washington city. Early on the morning of the 5th while crossing the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace, the battery barely escaped being dumped into the river when a truck near the center of the train suddenly broke, tearing up many ties. After a delay of several hours, while the damaged car was detached from the train and pushed into the river, and the damaged truck repaired, the battery-borne train proceeded to Washington City, arriving on the 6th when it went into camp at Camp Seymour on East Capitol Hill. On the 18th the battery received its guns, six three-inch rifled Rodmans, and on the 22nd it moved from Capitol Hill to Camp Chase, across the Potomac on Arlington Heights. The battery remained on the grounds which once belonged to Robert E. Lee until October 26th, when it again crossed the Potomac to go into camp at the newly formed artillery camp of instruction. Camp Barry, which was located on the Maryland side of the river near the Blandensburg Toll Gate, 1 1/2 miles northeast of Washington City. Here, at Camp Barry, which was under the supervision of General Barry, the battery was joined by the 19th and 11th Massachusetts Batteries, the 1st Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, and the 17th New York. Here the battery remained attached to General J. J.
Abercrombie's
Division, learning the art of the artillerist, until November 19th, when it again broke camp to move across to the Virginia side of the Potomac to Fort Ramsey on Upton's Hill, where it was to remain for the balance of the year 1862.
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