Twelve Months with the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry in the Service of the United States

Preface

It is a habit with the citizens of old Essex, one of the pioneer counties of the grand old Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to point with pride to the fact that since the earliest days of the settlement, she was ever ready to take up arms at the country's call, and her sons were always found ready and willing to go forth to do battle for what they believed to be the right.

The record of her soldiers and sailors is a splendid one, and her sons have nobly represented her on land and on sea. It is perhaps a far cry from the early days of the settlement to the opening of hostilities in the last conflict at arms in which the men of the county figured.

In the earlier events the hazards of warfare were perhaps more, but on the other hand, in those days it was necessary for all men able to handle a gun to fight, while in the recent clash at arms the men who answered their country's call volunteered their services, seeking the privilege of bearing arms rather than having the duty forced upon them. Honor to them all, not only for "what they did, but all they dared."

Massachusetts has furnished her full quota of men at every call of the country. Old Essex has given her share, and as one of the Essex Regiments, the Eighth has figured on several occasions.

Of those previous to 1898 this volume has no detailed account to present, but it is a matter of pride to the citizens of this county that it is said of the Eighth Massachusetts that it was the first National Guard regiment ready, after a canvass of its officers and men, to volunteer, and was one of the first to leave the state in the service of the nation in the conflict with Spain.

The call to arms on this occasion did not come unexpectedly. For some months events had been so shaping themselves that it was evident to all close observers of national affairs that a conflict was almost inevitable, and the government had been placing itself in a position to enable the country to acquit itself creditably when the clash came.

War has been declared between nations for many causes, some of them trivial. Some have been wars of oppression, some of conquest, and so on, but the conflict of 1898 was in its way unique. It was a war waged in the interests of humanity. For years upon years, one of our next door neighbors, so to speak, the island of Cuba, lying just off our southern coast, had felt the iron heel of the despots of the Kingdom of Spain. As act after act of oppression galled upon the natives of the island they were stirred to revolt, only to be subdued and then subjected to even more crushing indignities.

The last great revolt was perhaps the best organized of any, and spreading from one end of the island to the other, became of such magnitude as to almost reach the dignity of a war between nations instead of the rebellion of a colony against its dominating power.

With the same spirit that made heroes out of our forefathers in the days of '76, the Cubans fought for their rights and for independence, and their gallant struggles not only enlisted the almost universal sympathy of this country, but many soldiers of fortune from the United States fought under the Cuban colors.

While the attitude of the government was diplomatically neutral, the press and a large majority of citizens were out and out sympathizers with the Cuban cause, and it was but a question of a short time before arms, ammunition, supplies and men found themselves surreptitiously on the way to Cuba, in aid of the cause of the islanders.

Naturally this state of affairs was resented by the Spaniards, and the feelings of the two nations gradually became more and more strained, even though diplomatically there was no breach.

No doubt the sensational press, especially the so-called "yellow journals", had a great deal to do with inflaming the public passion, but carefully planned investigations of the conditions on the island revealed a state of affairs so gross that the worst stories of cruelty and inhumanity seemed plausible, and the feeling against Spain eventually became so bitter that it needed only the spark to kindle the flame of war.

This was eventually furnished, and is one of the blackest chapters of the Cuban war, by the destruction of an American warship while lying peacefully at anchor in Havana harbor, under the guns of the Spanish forts, and in a time of peace.

The "Maine" had been ordered to Cuban waters to look out for American interests. She was received in due form by the Spanish authorities, and her berth was picked out by them. While lying at anchor on the night of February 15, 1898, she was blown up from the outside, presumably by a mine, and many lives lost, while many more men were horribly injured.

This was undoubtedly the specific act that led to the opening of war between the United States and Spain, the details of which will be found in other volumes.

It is the purpose of this book to treat simply of the part played in the conflict by the Eighth Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry, U. S. V., which was the official designation of the boys of the Eighth Regiment Infantry, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, when called into the service of the United States.

Although one of the first volunteer regiments to get away, it so happened that it was so assigned for duty that it missed getting into an engagement with the enemy, although being sent to Cuba and performing several months of its service there. It was the first foreign service of the regiment, and was a performance that will take a prominent part in the history of the Eighth Massachusetts, which embraces so long and honorable a record.

Introduction

To the officers and men of the Eighth Massachusetts Infantry, U. S. V.:—

I have been requested by the author, Mr. Harry E. Webber, to write some account of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, while under my command during the Spanish-American war.

I reported for duty in Chickamauga Park, June 20th, 1898, and was assigned to the Second Brigade, First Division of the First Corps, consisting of the Third Illinois, Fourth Pennsylvania, and Fourth Ohio Regiments. These were all good regiments, especially the Fourth Pennsylvania, under Colonel David B. Case. As I expected to remain with this brigade throughout the war, I began an inspection by company, battalion, and regiment, so that I might learn something more about their actual condition, and the capacity of the officers than could be learned on parade. I mention this circumstance, not because it concerns the Eighth Massachusetts, but because the information I gathered was of the greatest use to me later on in dealing with other volunteer regiments.

I did not complete this inspection, however, as on the 28th of June, I was assigned to the command of the Third Division of the First Corps, composed of the Twelfth Minnesota, Fifth Pennsylvania, First South Carolina, Eighth Massachusetts, Twelfth New York, Twenty-First Kansas, Ninth Pennsylvania, Second Missouri, and First New Hampshire. Subsequently, during the changes and vicissitudes which occurred, there were assigned or attached to this Division, the Third United States Volunteers, Engineers, the Fifth Missouri, the One Hundred and Sixtieth Indiana, the Second, Third and Fourth Kentucky, Third Mississippi, First Territorial, and the Third and Fourth Immune Regiments of Infantry, and one squadron of the First Kentucky Cavalry,—so that I had ample opportunity to observe and compare different volunteer regiments.

The Eighth Massachusetts arrived in the Park May 19th, and came under my observation about one month later, and before I joined the Third Division. It was the only volunteer regiment I saw fully uniformed in khaki. As this dress was new to me, it attracted my attention at once, and I rode over twice to the Second Brigade of the Third Division for a better look at the regiment, which, needless to say, made a very favorable impression.

As will doubtless be remembered, the Third Division remained in the Park until the 21st of August, when it was transferred to Lexington, Kentucky, where it went into camp on the Bryan road at Clark's Farm, about five miles east of the city. There it remained until November 4th, its official designation was changed by orders from the War Department, to the Second Division, First Army Corps, and on the 10th it was ordered to Georgia, the Headquarters Signal Company, Third United States Volunteers, Engineers, and First Brigade to Columbus, the Second Brigade to Americus, and the Third Brigade to Albany. At this time the Second Brigade consisted of the Eighth Massachusetts, Twelfth New York and Fourth Kentucky, under Brigadier General Waites, U. S. V. The Fourth Kentucky was ordered to be mustered out, leaving the other two regiments to compose the Brigade, and this arrangement was not changed while the Division remained in service.

On the 16th of November I was relieved from the command of the Second Division and ordered to the Second Brigade, relieving General Waites, and was thus brought into closer contact with the Eighth Massachusetts. The Brigade remained in Americus until November 26th when, under orders from the War Department, the headquarters, the Brigade Hospital and the Twelfth New York Regiment, were ordered to Charleston, S. C. en route to Matanzas, Cuba, where it arrived January 1st.

A few days later the Eighth Massachusetts rejoined, and not long thereafter the One Hundred and Sixtieth Indiana, Third Kentucky, Tenth United States Infantry, and six troops of the Second United States Cavalry which composed the garrison of the city and district of Matanzas, and the Second Brigade of the Second Division of the First Army Corps, practically ceased to exist. When the Third Division became the Second Division, Major General Ludlow was assigned to command it. He remained in command until December 17th when I was ordered to relieve him. I rejoined the Second Brigade in Americus December 26th and went with it to Cuba.

The Eighth remained in Matanzas until April 4, 1899, when it sailed for Boston, where it was mustered out of the service of the United States, and reverted to its status as a regiment of the National Guard. While it was not given to the Eighth Massachusetts to undergo the supreme test of the battlefield, it proved beyond the shadow of a doubt by its calm indifference to death in other forms and its devotion to duty, that it would have met that test with a glorified record of good discipline and steadfast courage. Who among all of those who had the misfortune to remain in Chickamauga Park through the summer of 1898, will ever forget the trials and dangers of that encampment? From forty to sixty thousand men huddled together within an area not too large for a sedentary camp of two divisions.1

Prior to August 1st the camps of all the regiments of the Third Division, were in the woods with an average of from six to eight men in a tent, many of which were unfit for occupancy. Polluted water, insufficient supplies and protection from the incessant rains of that year, and the fact that neither the camp nor the tents were ever moved, from lack of space, produced their inevitable result, and when the Third Division left the Park, August 21st, there were twenty-nine officers and 1237 enlisted men on the sick report, out of 337 officers and 9464 men present; or, in other words, one officer out of twelve and one man out of eight. Although questioned at the time by those high in authority, it is now well known that a large proportion of the sick had typhoid fever; in fact it was epidemic.2

My recollections of Chickamauga Park are not pleasant for reasons which I cannot very well explain here. It is sufficient to say that I was fully cognizant of the wretched conditions which sent the sick report higher each day and subjected the sick in hospital to needless privation and suffering, but was powerless to prevent or ameliorate them. In fact, for administrative purposes, I was very little more than a figure head, although held responsible by the regiments, whose appeals for a relief which never came while we remained in the Park, were most distressing to me. At that time the collapse of the war had not been foreseen, and although the Spanish forces in the eastern district of Santiago, Cuba had capitulated July 16, it was not until the protocol of August 12th, providing for a cessation of hostilities, that we felt the war was over and that the Third Division would probably never fire a hostile shot. In the meantime, however, under the orders of the Corps Commander, the Division was held in readiness to move at a moment's notice, and every effort was made to prepare it for service against the Spaniards.

To this end, and on the day after I assumed the command, orders were issued to prepare the Division for active service in accordance with the instructions of the War Department. These prescribed the clothing, ammunition, and rations to be carried on the person and in the two wagons allowed each company,—all other clothing and all other personal belongings of the men to be packed in boxes legibly marked with the company and regiment, and turned over to the depot quartermaster for storage or shipment. To render the officers and men expert in packing, and to determine just what could be carried under the instructions referred to, each regiment was required to strike tents and pack up, after which it was marched to the regimental parade grounds, followed by its wagons, and inspected by the Brigade Commander. It was well understood that all regimental and company property which had not been disposed of when marching orders were received, must be abandoned.

As up to the time I assumed command of the Division there had been no target practice, on July 1, Major Edward H. Eldredge, of the Eighth Massachusetts, was appointed Inspector of Rifle Practice, and preparations were at once made to begin target practice. Nothing could have been more fortunate than the selection of the major for this most important branch of instruction. Conscientious, enthusiastic, and thoroughly competent, he had the target ranges established, and the Division at work firing within a week, and this was continued daily (Sunday excepted), until just before the Division left the Park.

On July 26 a division rifle competition was held, each regiment furnishing a team of 12 men; ten shots were fired off hand by each man, at 160 yards (possible score 600 points). The highest score was made by the Eighth Massachusetts with 481 points; the lowest score was 409.

In the course of the instruction it was found that many men had never fired a gun and were correspondingly ignorant of this most important requirement. What would they have done in the line of battle? Well, I will tell you. Those who were not killed would have been perfectly demoralized until they either ran away or perhaps were wounded, in which case they would have added vastly to the cares of the Division Commander and his medical staff. In either case, they would have been of no possible use except as stretcher bearers. Nothing could be more objectionable on the part of the high military authorities than to send such men under fire, and there is no possible excuse for it.

Other measures taken to prepare the Division for active service were careful instruction in guard duty, the service of advance guards and outposts, by battalions and regiments; litter drill and "first aid."

As it was rumored that the First Corps would be sent against Havana, orders were issued for the formation of a pioneer detachment in each regiment to consist of one officer, two non-commissioned officers and ten privates, to be specially selected for their practical knowledge of the duties of pioneers, viz: the removal of obstructions, corduroying roads, the building, repair and destruction of simple bridges, culverts, railroad beds and embankments, and the use of high explosives. No difficulty whatever was experienced in finding the men who in the discharge of their duties rendered most valuable services to the Division.

To give the brigade and regimental commanders some idea of the difficulty of forming the Division in line of battle on broken and obstructed ground, and to exercise the officers and men in preserving the line, supplying ammunition, and caring for the wounded,—problems in which the entire Division took part, were carried out practically.

Many of you will doubtless remember those exercises and how difficult it was to form the Division in line without wide gaps between brigades, or to move it in any direction without breaking the formation. These problems, although extremely simple, were of great benefit as a relief to the monotony of drill, and in testing the field efficiency of the medical and ordinance services.

In the meantime, the Corps Commander, with the First Division of the Corps, left the Park en route to Cuba and Porto Rico, and on August 15th I went to Lexington to select a camp for the Third Division, in which the typhoid had spread rapidly, and on August 21st, the movement to Lexington began. Although we left between three and four hundred men in the hospital when we moved to Lexington, the Division was so thoroughly impregnated with this disease and with malarial fever that more cases were inevitable, and the hospital of 1000 beds, which was established in anticipation of this very contingency, proved inadequate, and but for the timely removal of the convalescents to other places, would have needed a large extension. Those of the regiment now living will not have forgotten the struggle which then took place to stamp out the typhoid fever. It was a fight to a finish, in which every available means known to medical and sanitary science was used during a period of three months.

For the information of those members of the regiment who have joined since the war with Spain, and because it was the most serious condition which confronted the regiment during its service in the field, I venture to give some account of our efforts to overcome this dread disease.

In selecting and arranging the site of the Division encampment, I was influenced more by sanitary requirements than by any other considerations whatever. To the camp of each regiment fifty acres of cleared land were allowed. This insured wide company streets, sufficient space between tents to admit of their being moved, plenty of room for the regimental and battalion staffs, guard tents, cook tents, sinks, corrals, and regimental parade grounds, with sufficient isolation from neighboring regiments.

Ground was also set aside for division and brigade headquarters, and for a general parade ground, the division hospital and the various departments of supply, and these were far enough removed from each other and the troops to prevent any encroachment. All told, the Division occupied about 1000 acres.

The different camps were then laid out by the division engineer, aided by the pioneer corps, and a copious supply of pure water secured, and all the sinks (kitchen and men's), were dug, ditched and housed, and tent floors made ready before the first regiment of the Division arrived, so that there was no occasion for defiling the ground or for unnecessary exposure to the weather.

As soon as practicable after the regiments arrived, the following sanitary orders were carried into effect. A non-commissioned officer was placed in charge of every sink, who received his instructions from the regimental surgeon as to the use of chloride of lime, quick lime, crude petroleum and corrosive sublimate, large quantities of which were provided by the medical purveyor and chief quartermaster of the Division.

For example, a box of the chloride of lime was kept in each of the men's sinks and it was the duty of the non-commissioned officer in charge to see that a small quantity was thrown into the sink three times daily, and that the sink floors were scrubbed every morning and then mopped with a solution of corrosive sublimate. All the men's sinks were lighted at night. Quick-lime and crude petroleum were also used in all the sinks, not only as disinfectants, but to keep the flies away.

Tents were moved once each week, the sites vacated thoroughly sprinkled with quick-lime, the under surface of the floors lime washed, and the tent floors mopped with a solution of corrosive sublimate; tent walls were raised, clothing and bedding thoroughly aired daily; all bed sacks were filled with clean straw, the old straw burned, and the bed sacks boiled every month, and whenever a man was sent to the hospital his bed sack received the same treatment; all water barrels were burned out every two weeks, all stable manure removed from the camp daily, and together with all other refuse, burned, and for this purpose regimental or brigade crematories were constructed as might be most convenient.

Facilities were provided in each company for washing and bathing and every soldier was required to bathe at least twice each week and to keep his hair and beard neatly trimmed. All drinking water was boiled and filtered and the men cautioned against drinking water of any other kind.

The indiscriminate sale and use of farm products, garden truck, fruit, pies, cakes, and all soft drinks were prohibited, nor were hucksters permitted in any of the regimental camps without the written authority of the commanding officer.

To insure the execution of these instructions, a division sanitary inspector was appointed, whose duty it was to visit the camp of each regiment daily and, together with the medical officer on duty and officer of the day, make inspection of the police of the camp, giving all needful orders for the correction of sanitary abuses and defects.

As no regimental hospitals were contemplated by the War Department, and none were permitted in Camp Hamilton, men sick enough to require treatment in bed were removed to the division hospital. On arriving there their clothing was removed and carefully disinfected, labeled and packed away, and if their cases were of doubtful character they were sent to the detention ward until the nature of their disease could be determined, when they were disposed of accordingly.

At 2 P. M. daily a medical officer of each regiment reported at the division hospital, and with the medical officer in charge of the wards, visited the sick of his regiment and decided whether they should be returned to duty or not. This had a very good effect, as it brought the medical officers of the regiment into daily contact with the sick of their own regiments, which was a great comfort to them, and besides kept the medical officers fully informed of their condition.

As far as possible the sick of the different regiments were kept together, and no one except the regimental and company commanders, the medical officers, chaplains, and immediate relatives of the sick were allowed to visit them. This restriction was rendered necessary by the danger of infection in typhoid cases, and to prevent the excitement and noise caused by visitors.

I am aware that many of the requirements and restrictions ordered at that time were considered harsh and unnecessary and gave rise to some bad feeling and grumbling, but as they had the unqualified approval of the medical staff, I had no hesitation in enforcing them. That they were fully justified was clearly shown by the results.

Within a short time after our arrival in Lexington the number of sick increased so rapidly that the division hospital was filled to overflowing. But in the course of five or six weeks, and as a consequence of our strenuous efforts, the number began to diminish, until finally, and before the Division moved to Georgia in November, not a single case remained in the Division outside of the hospitals, and no new cases were ever reported to me while the Division remained in service.

Of the part taken by the Eighth Massachusetts in this heroic struggle, a great deal might be written by way of commendation. It is probably sufficient to say that Colonel Pew and his officers appeared to realize fully the gravity of the situation, and relying on the good discipline and high order of intelligence of the rank and file, had but little difficulty in carrying out the sanitary regulations of the camp, thus preserving the lives of many of the men.

Before leaving this subject, and at the risk of exhausting your patience, I can not refrain from giving you a word of warning. Of all the diseases which infest sedentary camps, such as those established in the United States and Cuba during the recent war, none is more insidious or deadly in its effects than typhoid fever.