The day now had come when, after the custom of the artillery service, the regiment must be broken up and scattered in its isolated posts along shore. General Merritt was relieved of the command of the Department of the East on May 20th, to go to the far East as commanding officer of the Philippine expedition. His successor was General Frank, U.S.V., promoted from the colonelcy of the First United States Artillery, who lost no time in issuing orders (S.O., 112, H.Q., D.E., 23rd May) for the final distribution of the regiment to its stations. The text of this order read:

"The following assignment to stations of the First Regiment Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, now at Fort Warren—Colonel Pfaff, commanding—is hereby ordered: Colonel Pfaff, with headquarters and two batteries, to Salem, and to command the various fortifications and points on the North Shore of Massachusetts where batteries of his regiment are placed. The Lieutenant-Colonel, and two batteries, to Clark's Point, Mass. Major Frye, with 'E,' 'F,' 'I,' and 'M' Batteries, will remain on duty at Fort Warren, as heretofore designated by telegraphic orders. The four remaining batteries, one each to Gloucester, Marblehead, Nahant, and Plum Island, Mass. Colonel Pfaff will designate the unassigned field officers and batteries for stations to the points other than Fort Warren, as he shall deem advisable, notifying these headquarters of the letters of batteries, and the officers so assigned, to the respective stations. The troops will take tents, camp equipage, and ten days' rations."

This order ended for the time being all speculation as to the destination of the regiment in the immediate future, and though it certainly failed to please everybody, it yet was received with little comment by those whom it concerned. It was recognized that artillery posts must vary from good to indifferent, or even from indifferent to bad, and the officers spent their leisure moments in pleasant conjectures as to undesirability of the assignments which were destined to fall to their lot.

On May 30th Colonel Pfaff issued the orders for the distribution of the First and Second Battalions. "G" (Chick's) and "L" (Whiting's) Batteries, with Lieutenant Paine, range officer, and Lieutenant Bryant, assistant surgeon, were ordered to report to Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman, to take station at New Bedford. For the garrison at Salem, "C" (Nutter's) and "D" (Frothingham's) Batteries were designated, under Major Dyar as commanding officer of the post, to whom was to report Lieutenant Rolfe, assistant surgeon, so soon as relieved from his detail as post surgeon at Fort Warren. Major Quinby, with "K" (Howes') Battery, and Hospital Steward White, were assigned to the defenses at Gloucester. Captain Lombard, with "B" Battery, and Hospital Steward Phillips, were ordered to Newburyport, to establish a post at the entrance of the harbor. Captain Pratt, with "H" Battery, was assigned to the works at Marblehead. Captain Bordman, with "A" Battery, was directed to take station at Nahant, for the protection of the mining casemate at that point.

Preparation for these movements began promptly, but stormy weather and delay in securing transportation made it over a week before the last of the departing batteries was able to leave Fort Warren. Meanwhile the posts for which these detachments from the regiment were destined had been garrisoned temporarily by the militia—commanded at first by General Mathews, and later by General Bancroft. Influenced by the prevailing uneasiness, Governor Wolcott, on May 7th, had prudently ordered his remaining State troops into the field for the protection of the coast until such time as the general Government should assume the responsibility, and the Fifth Infantry, the First and Second Battalions of Cadets, with the three light batteries, had been rendering valuable service at exposed points, from Hull to the mouth of the Merrimac. Unable to enter the volunteer service, under the limits imposed by the call of the President, these commands eagerly had responded to the call of the Commonwealth, and they most certainly are entitled to recognition for the faithful work performed, under most trying conditions as to weather, during the thirty days of their tour.

On June 1st, Lieutenant-Colonel Woodman and his command left for New Bedford, proceeding from Boston by rail; while, on the 3rd, Colonel Pfaff and the officers of his staff established regimental headquarters at Salem. On the 6th, Major Quinby and "A," "C," "D," and "H" Batteries left for their stations, followed on the 7th by "B" and "K" Batteries. All these latter commands were furnished with transportation by water, and it may be noted that the small steamers employed for the purpose were well loaded down by the troops and their baggage. It so happened that the departure of the detachments took place during a period of very heavy weather, and more than one anxious watcher stood on the parapet at Warren, to follow through field-glasses the course of the receding transports, as they rolled and pitched across the bay and towards the North Shore.

The widely scattered detachments of the First now settled themselves as best they might at their respective coast-guard stations, and prepared to make the most of the scanty materials for defence which they found at hand. Under the final assignments, the distribution of the regimental strength was as follows:

Hardly had the regiment begun to adapt itself to the new conditions, when telegraphic orders from the War Department arrived directing that the batteries be at once recruited to full artillery strength, two hundred enlisted men each—or an aggregate of sixty officers and twenty-four hundred men for the entire command, since an additional second lieutenant would be appointed to each battery when on a war footing. It is needless to say that this order was hailed with delight by both officers and men: to the former it gave promise of more active service, while to the latter it meant unlimited promotion, since over two hundred and fifty additional sergeants and corporals would be required in the expanded batteries. No time was lost in preparing to comply with this order. Major Dyar was detailed as chief recruiting officer, with Captains Williamson and Nutter as assistants, and plans were made for opening recruiting offices in Boston, New Bedford, Brockton, and Salem. Battery commanders immediately attempted to get into communication with the men whom they had left behind, under former conditions, in the hope of finding that not all of them had yet enlisted in the regulars or in other volunteer regiments. Everything was ready for beginning the work of recruiting—when word came by telegraph from Washington that the whole matter was a mistake, and that the recruiting order had been meant to apply alone to the Massachusetts infantry regiments. It was a bitter disappointment. The regiment stood sadly in need of recruits, since its strength as organized barely sufficed for the performance of routine garrison duty, and when the President, on May 25th, issued his call for seventy-five thousand additional volunteers, the officers of the First felt that from the allotment of Massachusetts they should at least secure enough men to bring the regimental enrolment up to twelve hundred. But for a second time they were destined to see their command passed by without consideration. The pressure exerted to bring the Fifth Infantry into the volunteer service, or it may be some other cause yet remaining to be explained, left the faithful First still serving with skeleton ranks.

In spite of all disappointments, however, the command never slackened in the performance of its appointed work. There were many problems to be solved, and of these the most perplexing was how to evolve an efficient defence from ridiculously inadequate materials. In his command on the North Shore Colonel Pfaff found himself confronted by a grave situation of affairs. To him had been entrusted the defence of five important points, among them four towns aggregating over eighty-five thousand inhabitants, and with property interests to be reckoned by tens of millions; and, to state unpleasant facts with relentless exactness, every modern and effective appliance for defensive operations had been denied him. Newburyport, Gloucester, Marblehead, and Salem were all liable to bombardment from the open sea, and the fire of heavy guns alone could give even a promise of immunity from that form of attack; but there were no heavy guns mounted at any of these points. Eight 3-inch, muzzle-loading rifles (type of 1862) had been brought to the coast by two of the militia light batteries, and these had been turned over to the volunteers relieving them, while sixteen Driggs-Schroeder rapid-fire guns, ranging in calibre from one-to six-pounders, hastily purchased by the State from its war emergency appropriation, also had been placed in the hands of the batteries of the First. Beyond these there was nothing in the way of ordnance—not a gun, not a round of ammunition was supplied by the general Government for these five posts to which it had seen fit to order artillery garrisons!

After making a rapid study of the situation, it became apparent that serious resistance to anything like a resolute fleet attack could not be made, but it was confidently believed that, with the means at hand, at least three other forms of naval attack might be successfully parried. Dispositions accordingly were made to meet sudden descents by Spanish auxiliary cruisers, dashes into harbors by torpedo-boats, or any attempts at operations by landing parties; and it should be said here that nothing was left undone towards providing, with the material available, all possible protection to the points garrisoned by these volunteer batteries.