A. J. Bennett, private , First Massachusetts Light Battery, The story of the First Massachusetts Light Battery , attached to the Sixth Army Corps : glance at events in the armies of the Potomac and Shenandoah, from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1864.

[20] or sisters, and some from sweethearts,—nearly all leaving quiet and happy New England homes behind,—lingering adieus were said, and the First Massachusetts Light Battery, composed of five officers and one hundred and fifty-two men, was on its journey to the scene of action in Virginia.

Many of those brave hearts had said their last farewell. They were destined to see their loved ones no more,—no more to share the comforts and blessings from which they had separated.

Taking steamer at Fall River and reaching New York the following morning, we camped on the Battery near Castle Garden; remaining there until the afternoon, we marched to Washington Square, thence down Broadway, enthusiastic greetings being extended to us. In the evening of this day we embarked upon a steamer for South Amboy, New Jersey; reaching that place, proceeded across the state to Philadelphia via Camden.

In these days the patriotic ladies of Philadelphia maintained a refreshment room near the station of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, for Union volunteers who were passing to the front through the Quaker city, and here, ministered to by some of these motherly dames, we breakfasted on the 5th of October. There was opportunity, of which some comrades availed themselves, to write home.

There was a musical tribute rendered by a chorus of our comrades while waiting for the train, in appreciation of the attentions of the ladies; then adieus, and departure for Washington; through Wilmington before noon, and on to the bank of the Susquehanna. There, awaiting our train, was the huge railroad ferry-boat, the Constitution, the bridge from Port Deposit to Havre de Grace having been burned; this was said to be the vessel that conveyed Gen. Butler and his command to Annapolis when he took possession of that city in the previous spring. It was a a novel sight, the transportation of a train of freight and passenger cars with locomotive over the ferry. Late in the afternoon we arrived at the Baltimore station of this road, and thence marched across the city to the station from which we were to proceed to Washington.

In the evening we found ourselves ensconced in freight cars, and entered upon our forty-mile ride to the capital. It must for some reason have been very slow, inasmuch as it was past