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

[258] regiments already in the field. It also gave notice that two new regiments, to be composed of men of Irish birth, were soon to be placed in camp, one of which, the Twenty-eighth, ‘to form a part of the command of Major-General Butler, whose headquarters is at Lowell.’

On the 23d of September, Mr. Cameron telegraphed to the Governor, ‘Will the three regiments for General Sherman be ready this week? He must be supplied in advance of all other applications for same service. Please reply immediately.’ To which the Governor answered the same day, and requested the Secretary not to issue an order detailing particular regiments to General Butler, but to leave all such details to him: he could provide for him otherwise and sufficiently. To which Mr. Cameron answered, ‘Select the regiments yourself for Sherman, and supply him first.’ Same day, Colonel Browne, military secretary to the Governor, by order of His Excellency, addressed a note to General Butler, in which he proposed to assign to his command an Irish regiment, in the raising of which Patrick Donahoe, Esq., of Boston, took much interest. This was afterwards known as the Twenty-eighth Regiment. The receipt of this letter was acknowledged by Major Haggerty, of General Butler's staff, on the 24th, and information given that General Butler had gone to Portland, Me., and that his attention would be called to it as soon as he returned, which would be ‘to-morrow evening.’

A letter was sent to General Sherman on the 23d by the Governor, requesting him to exert his personal efforts to secure for his command the regiments promised him, and prevent them from ‘being diverted to General Butler or any other officer.’ The regiments designed for him were the Twenty-second and Twenty-third, in camp at Lynnfield, and known as General Wilson's, and the Twenty-fifth, encamped at Worcester. The letter further stated that the Governor proposed ‘to assign to General Butler the Twenty-sixth Regiment, being raised by Colonel Jones at Lowell,’ and an Irish regiment. To this General Sherman replied, on the 27th, that he had immediately called the attention of the Secretary of War to it; that ‘five regiments are yet waited for,—three from Massachusetts, one ’