T Camp Meigs, READVILLE, M.VM MASS
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CIVIL WAR CAMPS AT READVILLE CAMP MEIGS PLAYGROUND & FOWL MEADOW RESERVATION VoL. PRELIMINARY HISTORIC DATA COMPILATION Cant oF t Camp Meigs, READVILLE, M.VM MASS. Sr 0 47c r i )1; CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PROGRANI W. A. Stokinger A. K. Schroeder Captain A. A. Swanson RESERVATIONS & HISTORIC SITES METROPOLITAN DISTRICT COMMISSION 20 SOMERSET STREET BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS April 1990 ABSTRACT Camp Meigs or the Camp at Readville was the most heavily used of the approximately thirty-nine Civil War training grounds established by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the processing of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (MVM) troops for induction into Federal service. Situated adjacent to the Neponset river on a site historically used for militia musters in what was the town of Dedham (now Hyde Park), a camp of rendezvous was first founded near the Readville railroad junction in July 1861 and remained in active service through early 1866. This camp supported over time the Commonwealth's primary training cantonment and a general hospital. During those Civil War years the Readville camps processed and trained at least 29,000 of the 114,000 men who served in the units raised by the Commonwealth. Thus, approximately a quarter of all men serving under Massachusetts state colors passed through Readville on their way to war. Preliminary research also indicates that of the 135 discrete, independently operating MVM organizations sanctioned and trained by the Commonwealth, Readville's graduates were allocated into at least 54 units, or forty percent of all MVM establishments, comprising: Nineteen of the Commonwealth's sixty-six camp trained MVM Infantry regiments. Twenty-one of the Commonwealth's forty MVM miscellaneous infantry units. One of the Commonwealth's four MVM Heavy Artillery regiments. One of the Commonwealth's thirty MVM Unattached Heavy Artillery companies Eight of the Commonwealth's eighteen MVM Light Artillery batteries. Four of the Commonwealth's four state trained MVM Cavalry regiments. The Commonwealth's only Battalion of MVM Frontier Cavalry. The site further supported a thousand-bed US Army General Hospital established in 1864, the other USAGH in Massachusetts being founded in Worcester that same year (AR AG 1865:27). State Library of Massachusetts State House, Boston ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES INTRODUCTION 1 METROPOLITAN DISTRICT COMMISSION HOLDINGS AT READVILLE 1 READVILLE CAMP NAMES 2 READVILLE AND THE MVM CAMP SYSTEM IN MASSACHUSETTS 2 MVM UNITS AT READVILLE 8 MVM BLACK ORGANIZATIONS 9 MVM UNIT SERVICE RECORDS 9 MASSACHUSETTS TROOP STRENGTH 10 RECOMMENDATIONS 11 REFERENCES FIGURES APPENDIX A MVM UNITS TRAINED AT READVILLE APPENDIX B MVM UNITS DISCHARGED AT READVILLE APPENDIX C ABSTRACTED SERVICE RECORDS MVM Units trained at Readville APPENDIX D 20TH REGIMENT INFANTRY MVM -excerpted regimental history APPENDIX E 24TH REGIMENT INFANTRY MVM -excerpted regimental history APPENDIX F 44TH REGIMENT INFANTRY MVM -excerpted regimental history APPENDIX G 45TH REGIMENT INFANTRY MVM -excerpted regimental history APPENDIX H 54TH REGIMENT INFANTRY MVM -excerpted regimental history APPENDIX I ADJUTANT GENERAL'S ANNUAL REPORT,1863 Activities 54th & 55TH Infantry MVM APPENDIX J ADJUTANT GENERAL'S ANNUAL REPORT,1864 Activities 54th, 55TH Infantry MVM & 5TH Cavalry MVM APPENDIX K ADJUTANT GENERAL'S ANNUAL REPORT,1865 Activities 54th, 55TH Infantry MVM & 5TH Cavalry MVM APPENDIX L ADJUTANT GENERAL'S ANNUAL REPORT,1864 The Organization and pay of Colored Troops APPENDIX M MVM UNIT TRAINING CAMPS APPENDIX N MVM UNIT TRAINING CAMPS NAMES BY TOWN APPENDIX 0 MVM UNIT TRAINING CAMPS BY ORGANIZATION APPENDIX P MVM UNIT TRAINING CAMPS BY YEAR APPENDIX Q MVM UNIT LIST APPENDIX R STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF MVM TROOPS I I I, I I LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 NORWOOD QUADRANGLE - Readville Vicinity 1985 FIGURE 2 READVILLE VICINITY - Street Map 1980s FIGURE 3 NEPONSET RIVER IMPROVEMENTS - Readville Vicinity 1919 FIGURE 4 CAMP MEIGS, 1861-1865 FIGURE 5 CAMP MASSASOIT, 24th Regiment Infantry MVM 1861 FIGURE 6 CAMP MEIGS, 45 Regiment Infantry MVM 1862 FIGURE 7 CAMP MEIGS, 44 Regiment Infantry MVM 1862 FIGURE 8 CAMP MEIGS - Barracks, post-1866 FIGURE 9 U.S. ARMY GENERAL HOSPITAL - Readville c1865 READVILLE CAMPS Camp Brigham, Readville 1861 Camp Massasoit, Readville 1861 Camp Meigs, Readville 1862-1865 INTRODUCTION The 1989 production of the movie Glory has once again focused public attention on the black regiments from Massachusetts which served in the Civil War. Coincident with this rediscovery has come a natural interest in the history and sites associated with those regiments, including Camp Meigs at Readville - several parcels of which are currently controlled by the Metropolitan District Commission. Recognizing that a detailed history of the camps at Readville would entail a commitment of time presently unavailable to Commission staff, research efforts concentrated on compiling a preliminary data base for further familiarizing the Commission with the general evolution and significance of the Readville site during the Civil War. To meet this objective, the research addressed four tasks: Provide a context for evaluating the significance of the Readville camps as they supported the Commonwealth's efforts in the Civil War. Secure an outline and database for the troops who trained at Readville. Provide a small body of historic documentation that would allow the casual reader to get a sense of the Readville camps during the War. Collect a preliminary body of historic information concerning the Black regiments, infantry and cavalry, who trained at the Readville camps. The tabular appendices developed for this compilation are intended to provide a ready, albeit streamlined, overview of the Commonwealth's training activities both specifically at Readville and generally across the rest of the state. The xeroxed excerpts from the various regimental and organizational histories are intended both to free staff from producing, at this juncture, a detailed secondary narrative history of the camps while providing a basis for readers to form their own assessment of the troops associated with Readville. Although the exploration of primary sources obviously costs the reader more time than scanning a second hand distillation, the background to the Readville camps is worth the effort, particularly given the ease with which one can become involved with the lives and times of the men who passed through Readville. METROPOLITAN DISTRICT COMMISSION HOLDINGS AT READVILLE The MDC appears to currently own two separate parcels of land which were once part of the Camp Meigs Civil War reservation. The first and best known parcel is the Camp Meigs Playground between Hyde Park Avenue and Clifford Street (Parcel 1 on Figures 1-2). A c1864 sketch of the Camp 1 Meigs compound suggests that this playground is situated within what was at one time the camp's drill field (Figure 4). Barring subsequent military construction, and given recent playground construction, this area may only have a limited potential for archeological survivals. The second parcel appears to lie within the confines of the Commission's Fowl Meadow Reservation (Parcel 2 on Figures 1-2). Comparison of more recent maps with the c1864 sketch suggests that the Cavalry Barracks noted near the vicinity of Paul's Bridge, and the smallpox hospital shown isolated by the river's flood plain may both lie within the boundaries of the present park reservation (Figures 1-4). If so, there exists the potential that archeological remnants from these structures may still survive on Commission lands in conjunction with the prehistoric resources already confirmed at this site (Mrozowski 1990). READVILLE CAMP NAMES The three Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (MVM) camps at Readville were evidently located in the same basic area along the upper terrace of the Neponset River by the present Hyde Park - Dedham boundary. Being previously "... famous also as an old muster-field of our martial militia ... ", it was only natural that the Readville site be appropriated in time of actual war (Adams 1862:339). The earliest of the Readville camps was Camp Brigham. This encampment was one of approximately twenty-eight, variously short and long lived, unit camps instituted around the Commonwealth in 1861 for training troops in order to fulfill President Lincoln's first two requests for 3 year service volunteers (Schouler 1868 1:187-189). Established in the late spring of 1861 to train the 18th Regiment Infantry, and later the 1st Regiment Calvary, Camp Brigham seems to have been a tent encampment named in honor of Colonel Elijah Brigham, the Commissary General of Massachusets (Ibid:189) . Concurrent with and adjacent to Camp Brigham was Camp Massasoit. Also situated on "Sprague Plain by Sprague Pond at Readville Station," the site was originally proposed by Colonel William Lee for drilling his 20th Regiment MVM (Bruce 1906:1). Camp Massasoit was primarily a tent encampment which was presumably named after the Wampanoag Indian chief who befriended the Pilgrims, probably as acknowledgement that the troops had their tents "... pitched on an old Indian camping-ground" (Adams 1862:339). This encampment also trained the 24th Regiment Infantry and the 5th Battery of Light Artillery. The designation of the Readville site as Camp Meigs appears to date from 1862 when the nine month regiments were authorized. The camp site was formally named after Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs. By this time quarters at Readville