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There were many evidences of the popularity of the hotel in the days that had passed, and a number of tickets for a ‘Grand Hop’ were found and kept as souvenirs.
Re-embarking on the following morning, the regiment reached Fortress Monroe at 9 P. M. that evening, March 30, and disembarked in the morning, marching over execrable roads into camp at Hampton.
This place had been burned by the rebels, and nothing but chimneys were left to show its site.
A large army had already assembled at Hampton and the practical formation of the Army of the Potomac took place there.
The Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment was made a part of the First Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. N. J. T. Dana; of the Second Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. John Sedgwick; of the Second Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. E. V. Sumner.
The two other Brigades of the Division were commanded by Brig. Gen. Gorman and Brig. Gen. Burns.
Camp was pitched here as though a long stay was to be made, the men being quartered in Sibley tents, it being the first time they had been thus housed.
Thereafter, only shelter tents were used.
Each man carried his part of it. Five pieces would make a tent, four for the roof and one for the end, and each tent sheltered five men. Sometimes four men would own, between them, six pieces and they would have more room and a tent with two ends to keep out the wind and rain in stormy weather.
For sticks to hold them up, they had to trust to luck.
Two forked sticks, about four feet long, would be driven into the ground and a longer one placed across it. Then the four pieces of tent, having been buttoned together, would be stretched over and pinned to the ground.
As far as the eye could reach there was a sea of tents, wagons, horses, ambulances, infantry, artillery, cavalry, siege and pontoon trains, each branch complete in itself.
There were on the ground, with the army, 126 regiments, batteries and cavalry.
General McClellan arrived on April 3, and the order was given for the main body of the army to be ready the next morning for the advance upon Yorktown.
The soldiers were ordered to prepare five day's rations, three in their knapsacks and two in the wagons.
This command sent a thrill of joy through the
Salem Press. Co., Salem, Ma., 1906.
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