John D. Billings, The history of the Tenth Massachusetts battery of light artillery in the war of the rebellion

Tuesday morning, June 14th, the troops began to cross the river, being transported in steamboats of varied description, that the government had assembled here in large numbers for that purpose. A pontoon was begun in the forenoon at Cole's Ferry, a short distance below the Landing, and finished at midnight This bridge was considered a remarkable achievement in pontoon engineering, it being two thousand feet long, and the channel boats being anchored in thirteen fathoms of water.¹

The troops continued crossing all this and the succeeding day, our turn not coming until during the afternoon of the 15th. Our guns were loaded on one boat, and the men and horses on another; but the guns did not reach us until evening. Among the boats used in the ferriage were the ‘Jefferson,’ an old East Boston ferry-boat, and the ‘Winnissimmet,’ that plied so many years beween Boston and Chelsea, and when we embarked on board the latter to make the crossing, it seemed almost as if we were at home once more.

The landing having been effected at what was known as Windmill Point, we went into camp for the night, not far from the brink of the river; but sunrise of the 16th found us up again and resuming the advance. The country we were now traversing was quite level, and had not been the theatre of warfare, hence houses, fences, and crops were generally undisturbed.

From the estates of some of the more wealthy