The Thirty-Ninth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862-1865

REGIMENTAL VETERAN ASSOCIATION

The beginnings of the Association seem to have been lost in the interval between 1867 and the present; it is agreed, however, that the first four meetings were held in Boston hotels and that they were not very largely attended. The time was too near the date of getting home and the pleasures of that supreme event far outweighed any rehearsal of common dangers in war-experiences. Of the 5th gathering, the first basket picnic of the veterans of the Thirty-ninth and their lady friends, there is in substance the following account:

Downer's Landing, Hingham, was the place and Thursday, August 17th, the date; the party, numbering 300, left Litchfield's Wharf at 9.15 a. m. on steamers "Wm. Harrison" and "Emeline," arriving about 11 o'clock; a half mile walk brought all parties to the "Melville Gardens" which had been hired for the day. Noon saw the tables spread with the many good things brought by the members. Before repairing to the hall for dancing, Colonel C. H. Porter, President of the Association, introduced as speakers, Lieut. Colonel Hutchins, Major Graham, Captain Brigham, Lieuts. Mulligan and Mills, Sergeants Eames and Gardner. At 3 p. m. came a dress parade with one hundred and fifty men in line, Colonels Porter and Hutchins dividing the honors of commanding. A letter was read from General G. K. Warren, regretting his inability to be present, a disappointment to the veterans, as they had expected to meet their former commander once more; everyone of the Regiment and, for that matter, every regiment in the Fifth Corps, holding the officer in the highest esteem. On the formation of the line and led by Edmunds Band, the company marched back to the landing, reaching Boston at 5.15 o'clock, all happy and conscious that the presence of the ladies had added no little to the enjoyment of the day.

The reunions of 1872, '73 and '74 were held in Boston Hotels; in 1875, Oct. 6th in Woburn was held the most notable of the Association's gatherings thus far, General Warren being the distinguished guest and Company K, along with citizens of Woburn, the hosts. There were present 166 men with General Peirson at their head; drum corps and brass bands furnished music and everyone joined heartily in the reception to the eminent soldier. At the rooms of the selectmen, the public had a chance to meet General Warren. At the armory the meeting was called to order by Captain Hutchins and the chief feature was the presentation to General Warren of a magnificent Maltese Cross in Gold, the badge of the Fifth Corps, the cost $100.00 having been met by the veterans. In the afternoon a banquet was served in Lyceum Hall to more than four hundred guests, the good people of the town having vied with each other in making the occasion memorable. At the post prandial exercises, remarks were made by Captains Hutchins and Tidd; there was an extended address by J. A. Harvey, Co. C, followed by the introduction of Sergt. Abijah Thompson, Co. K, as Toastmaster, who read an original poem after which, and the playing by the band of "Hail to the Chief," General Warren spoke briefly to the following effect, "I rise to acknowledge the kind attentions I have received to-day. Those who have spoken have referred in such kind terms to me, and your marks of approbation have been so many that I do not feel prepared to speak for the Fifth Army Corps, as I could wish. I hope you will excuse me. I shall carry from this place a sense of having been honored more than I deserve. (Cries of no, no.) The feelings which this day has inspired will always remain, and you have laid on me a debt of gratitude I never can repay." Col. C. H. Porter responded for General Peirson, letters were read from General J. C. Robinson, and Colonels Farnham and Tilden of the Sixteenth Maine; further responses to toasts were given by Maj. Ambrose Bancroft of the Thirty-second Regiment, Capt. J. P. Crane of the Twenty-second, Capt. C. S. Converse of the Fifth, Lieut. John L. Parker of the Eleventh and others, the exercises terminating in an evening's levee which lasted till midnight.

The Centennial year, 1876, found the veterans 150 strong in Natick, the guests of Co. I.; 1877, August 28th, Co. D of Quincy did the hospitable act with 220 comrades present. In 1878, Co. E of Somerville, on the 6th of Sept, helped celebrate the 16th anniversary of the departure of the Regiment with 225 veterans in attendance, the event gaining unwonted interest through the presence of General John C. Robinson who had been the Division Commander of the Regiment at the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania, losing there a leg; there was a spirited address by Mayor Bruce of Somerville, an extended historical paper by Col. C. H. Porter with speeches of greater or less length by Gov. A. H. Rice, Gen'l N. P. Banks, Collector Beard, Secretary Pierce, Speaker Long, General Peirson and others, the celebration continuing with music and dancing till after midnight. A pleasant feature of the afternoon was the presentation of an elegant punch bowl and ladle to General Robinson by Lieut. C. K. Conn to whose words the General responded so happily that all recognized him as a good talker as well as fighter.

Handwritten Letter

Newport Sept. 1. 1878

Capt. Chas H Porter
No. 27 State Street
Boston Mass

My dear friend

I am very sorry that the necessity for being in New York City on the 6th prevents my being with you at Somerville.

The 39th Massachusetts have been exceptionally kind to me, and I am grateful for it. I have got hard work to do to set right the record of my army career, and the recollection of this friendly feeling helps to keep up my nerves for going through with the undertaking.

I hope you will all have a fine day and a happy one.

Yours truly
G. K. Warren

August 27th, 1879, found the survivors of the Thirty-ninth in Taunton, guests of Co. F with Capt. J. J. Cooper president of the day and 125 veterans on hand; Adjutant O. A. Barker welcomed the old soldiers to the city and after a short business meeting, line was formed for the Agricultural Fair Grounds where Hiram Maxfield of Silver Springs fame served one of his imitable clambakes. In 1880, Sept. 15th, Medford was the entertaining place with Co. C at the front, Jas. A. Harvey being President. Oct. 5th, '81, the "old boys" came back to Woburn again, the reception being in the hands of the following named men of Company K., C. K. Conn., Geo. E. Fowle, Capt. L. R. Tidd, A. L. Richardson, J. F. Ramsdell, A. P. Barrett, J. Fred Leslie, A. Thompson and A. R. Linscott. Again Woburn has the honor of entertaining General G. K. Warren and he is accompanied by General J. C. Robinson, the valiant Division Commander, along with General Peirson, the ever popular regimental commander. At the dinner which was served in Lyceum Hall, remarks were made by those named above, Col. Porter and others. Before another reunion, General Warren will have passed away.

The regimental line formed again in Natick, Oct. 10, 1882; again Co. I plays the role of entertainers with fully 150 survivors to honor the occasion. Dinner was served in Concert Hall; Col. C. H. Porter spoke at length in praise of General Warren who had died the 8th day of the preceding August; resolutions of sympathy and respect were passed by the veterans and a contribution was made to a Fifth Corps fund to honor the General's memory. Remarks followed by Comrades Barrett, "K"; Beck, "C"; Locke, "E"; Eames, "C"; Oliver, "E," and others. 1883 brought the veterans to Quincy again with Co. D. Point Shirley in Winthrop was the place of meeting, August 26, 1884, with Co. H as entertainers. Roxbury, the home of Co. B, entertained next, Sept. 23, 1885. Company G came to the front Sept. 16, 1886, at Nantasket. The ladies of Somerville, in behalf of Co. E, furnish the dinner for the reunion of 1887, Sept. 6th. Through the selection of the Executive Committee, Bass Point was the place of meeting in 1888. Sept. 11, 1889, brought the clans to Medford, once more, with Co. C.

Sept. 24, 1890, the beginning of another decade, brings the veterans to Woburn, the home of Co. K, for the third time. As usual, great preparations were made for the reception, the principal guests, aside from the veterans themselves, being the widow and daughter of General Warren, and General Peirson and wife who with the wife of Mayor Johnson and the wife of the Hon. John Cummings formed the receiving line in the hall of the Y. M. C. A. The formalities of the occasion were conducted by Colonel C. H. Porter and Sergeant Abijah Thompson, "K," and 166 survivors pressed forward, glad of the opportunity of grasping the hands of their friends. Dinner was served in Lyceum Hall. The after-dinner exercises were presided over most happily by Sergt. Thompson who introduced Mayor Johnson, General Peirson, the Hon. John Cummings, Colonel Porter and others. Company A was the host Sept. 7, 1891, at the old Lynnfield camping-ground, and the occasion was rendered notable by the following paper, prepared for the day by Lieut. Elbridge Bradshaw of Co. H:

A VACATION IDYL

Some thirty years ago, leading a sedentary life and gradually sinking into a semi-bituminated condition, my medical adviser, alarmed at my symptoms, ordered travel and change of scenery. Having learned that Virginia contained more travel and scenery to the square mile than any other spot on the globe, I determined on visiting that State. Being of a timid nature and fond of Company, I joined myself to about a thousand other invalids, similarly afflicted, and seeking the same remedy, forming ourselves into a methodical organization. For convenience we divided ourselves up into groups of one hundred men each, using for purposes of distinction the first eleven letters of the alphabet, omitting the letter J. For menial service, i. e. to look after our physical wants, each group hired for such purpose, six servants, viz. a captain, two lieutenants, with a cook, a drummer and a bugler or fifer, the latter two being hired to wake the excursionists in the morning. To keep these captains and lieutenants in order, we placed over them a colonel, a lieut. colonel and a major, at the same time they being our head servants or butlers. These people added to themselves an adjutant to run errands, a chaplain, a doctor and a pill-driver. To insure a faithful discharge of duty, from each group were chosen a dozen fellows called sergeants and corporals who were set over the others.

Virginia at this time being in a tumultuous condition, and the U. S. Government having heard of our organization's plan of travel and objective points, invited us, through its Chief Magistrate, to walk over Virginia as peace officers, punching the heads of belligerants and arguing with the discontented, an invitation which we accepted. When President Lincoln secured our services he loaded us with benefits, first massing us at Lynnfield, giving us canvass houses to protect us from the dew and damp, sweet straw to nestle in, a pretty blue uniform, a belt to keep us from bursting, an iron toothpick, a tube of iron with a wooden handle, a little black bureau, in which to keep our collars, cuffs and bric-a-brac, a black cotton pantry for provisions and plates, with a round tin vessel for whiskey. Uncle Sam also gave our servants (the shoulder-strapped ones) toasting forks to stick pigs with and red sashes with which to gird their persons when running and chasing the pigs down. Rendered proud and arrogant by their good clothes and shoulder straps, our servants rose on us and captured our organization, styling themselves our superior officers, and our entire body the Thirty-ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. To give the usurpation a flavor of legality, they procured from Governor Andrew commissions indicating officially their rank and authority. On the whole they exercised their powers with great moderation and kindness.

Though to the last, we suffered them to think themselves our superiors, yet in reality, they still continued to be our servants, caring for our food, clothing and morals, furnishing us clean, airy lodgings having adequate fire-escapes, so that in fact we had nothing on our minds worth mentioning and all we had to do was to travel and fight; in a word, take our pleasure. They also taught us many pretty and amusing tricks; how to stand up straight in rows to be shot at; to abstain from whiskey (with quinine in it); to use the pickaxe and spade with the least expenditure of muscular energy and, in mud and night marches, to say our prayers without even stopping. As soon as we could march without scalping each other's heels, we left Lynnfield for active service and mighty active it proved on the start, our first engagement being a footrace against time through Boston. We left Lynnfield with cooked rations, meaning saltpork and hardtack.

How dear to this heart is the old army hardtack,

As Lynnfield's reunion presents them to view;

When eaten with raw pork or fried into doughnuts,

The rations that beat him, are scat'ring and few.

How oft in our marches, he's braced up our courage,

As with gnawing and growling we've hobbled along;

Oh! well may the hardtack, the old army hardtack

Prove a classical theme for an old veteran's song.

That dear army hardtack was a limber old codger,

In the hands of a Thirty-ninth's amateur cook;

In his grip, the old hardtack took metamorphosis

Not mentioned by Ovid, nor in Parloa's cook-book,

As a pudding or pie in a cob-house as a dumpling,

As a fry or a toast, or a raw on the shell;

That old army hardtack, that blessed old hardtack!

For every recipe turned out equally well.

I have eaten high banquets at Young's and at Parker's,

I have tasted their beef, roast turkey and lamb;

But all of these dishes are flat and insipid,

Beside the old hardtack of dear Uncle Sam;

For the old army hardtack is seasoned with memories

Of battles and sieges when wearing the blue;

Of marchings and flankings and digging of trenches,

And loving communion with old comrades too.

The old army hardtack speaks, too, of dear comrades,

Whose faces are missing to-day in our line;

Their battles all fought, their warfare all ended,

But whose virtues still live in mem'ry's pure shrine,

Then cheer the old hardtack, the square army hardtack,

Who was flinty and wormy at times, I must own,

But when at Mine Run, he took a vacation,

His absence was greeted with many a moan.

Chorus.

The old flinty hardtack, the iron bound hardtack;

The moss-covered hardtack, we all knew him well.

Travelling the next three years through Virginia and its environments, we were often obstructed by mud and other earthern impediments, and the scenery was much disfigured and frequently obliterated by sulphurous clouds of smoke, hence excursioning for health and pleasure was, on the whole, a failure. Speaking for myself, individually, the climate didn't agree with me a bit. This I attribute largely to the horizontal metallic showers with which that region was infested and against which no ordinary cotton umbrella was an adequate protection. Indeed the atmosphere was so impregnated with little pellets of lead and ragged chunks of cast iron, that my system must have absorbed about fifty-five pounds of old junk and brought it home with me for, on my return, I weighed 190 lbs. against 135 when I left Lynnfield.

Natick with its Company I entertained for the third time, October 5, 1892; Quincy and Co. D did the hospitable act, also for the third time, in 1893, August 30; Roxbury and Company B were the entertainers in 1894 and Co. H of Dorchester received at the U. S. Hotel, Boston, Sept. 25, 1895; for 1896, no record is found, but Sept. 6, 1897, Co. E and Somerville appear again; it is Medford and Co. C in 1898; Woburn and her K Company in 1899. The old century ends, as far as our Regiment is concerned, October 10, 1900, with I Company and Natick, while the new one begins Sept. 7, 1901, on the old campground at Lynnfield; Sept. 22, 1902, finds the veterans again in Quincy; Sept. 24, 1903, in Roxbury; August 19, 1904, with Co. H. at Nantasket. Then with no special company distinctions the reunions follow, directed by the Executive Committee, at Squantum Inn, Sept. 21, 1905; Bass Point, Sept. 6, 1906; in a Dorchester hotel, October 23, 1907; again at Bass Point, Sept. 29, 1908; at Revere Beach for three successive years, viz. August 30, 1909, August 18, 1910, and August 18, 1911. Fifty years after the departure of the Regiment from Massachusetts, nearly a hundred (92) veterans assembled again in Somerville with Company E and a large number of prominent citizens to celebrate the semi-centennial; the state armory was the gathering place and General Peirson was the marked figure on the occasion while wives, daughters and other lady friends added to the pleasures of the hour; Sergt. Abijah Thompson of Co. K was the oldest man present, he having seen fully 90 years. After the dinner, over which Comrade the Rev. John F. Locke said grace and at which Lieut. J. H. Dusseault, Co. E, presided, there was speaking by Ex-Mayors Edward Glines, C. A. Grimmons and John M. Woods, the latter a veteran of the war, and the first named a brother of Fred Glines of Co. E who died in Salisbury. Mayor Burns of Somerville extended the courtesies of the city to the veterans and welcomed them all most heartily. General Peirson was received with accustomed enthusiasm and was heard with rapt attention. The half century event was a great success. The 51st anniversary was observed in Medford, with the survivors of Co. C, Sept. 6, 1913; the day, the place, the guests, quite one hundred in numbers, made the event notable; the forenoon's meeting was in the hall of the S. C. Lawrence Post, G. A. R., while the dinner was served in the drill-room of the magnificent armory, presented to Medford and the State by General S. C. Lawrence.

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