William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 1

The Quartermasters who receipted to Mr. Palmer for the property were Lieutenant Hayes, post-quartermaster for a time, who is now somewhere in New York, but where I do not know, and First-Lieutenant Richardson, quartermaster of the Thirty-third Regiment, who is now with his regiment in the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Palmer is a poor man; the money is owed by him to the farmers in Lynnfield and neighborhood, and he is much annoyed because he does not pay them; but he cannot do it until the Government pays him. The money has been due about a year. He has done every thing in his power to have the bills settled; but he cannot make officers make the returns they should make, and therefore he is denied what is his due. Captain McKim and all of us are satisfied that the bills are just, and that Mr. Palmer should have been paid long ago. I will thank you, therefore, if you will take the bills and vouchers as they are, and permit Captain McKim to pay Mr. Palmer what is so justly his due, and which he is so much in need of.

The bill was paid; not, however, without some further delay. There were a great many cases of this character, some of which have not yet been settled, for want of proper vouchers, which should have been furnished by officers.

On the 4th of June, the Adjutant-General reported to the Governor, in writing, that he had received a large number of reports from our batteries in the Army of the Gulf, which related to matters which he deemed proper to acquaint him with. The first was a letter from Captain Hamlin, of the Thirteenth Battery, which had left Boston on the 31st of January, but which was detained at Fortress Monroe, and, after ‘a very long and tedious voyage, arrived at New Orleans on the 10th of May.’ The ship was becalmed off the coast of Florida, and, for a time, was short of water. The captain wrote that he had received authority to recruit men from the Massachusetts nine months regiments in the department, whose terms of service were about to expire; and he had no doubt he would soon fill his battery to the full standard. Second, a letter from Captain Peirson, of the Fifteenth Battery, who represented that he had five officers and sixty-eight men ready for duty; sixteen men had deserted; and seventeen were in confinement, awaiting court-martial, ‘some of whom will be shot.’ The appointment of Peirson captain of the company was one of the few errors made by