We write this post in honor of Veterans’ Day, November 11, and to shine light on a comparatively little-known Cambridge chapter in the Civil War: that of Camp Cameron, the militia camp established in North Cambridge in 1861 and not to be confused with Camp Cameron in Washington, D. C. We tell the story as reflected in the newspapers of the day…seeing the actual print image – even if a little blurry – most viscerally conveys the feeling of the times.
Picture this: You are walking north on Mass Ave between Porter Square and Alewife. About a half a mile up, directly across the street from the Friendly Corner Convenience store on the left, you see the Law Offices at 2409 Mass Ave, shown below. This is the exact location of Camp Cameron.
On April 15, 1861, three days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for state militias to raise a total of 75,000 troops. Months before that proclamation, Cambridge attorney James Richardson saw what was on the horizon and had already begun recruiting men for a volunteer militia:
But before we get to the story of Camp Cameron: the very first militia camp was established in 1861 on Fresh Pond: an abandoned icehouse previously owned by ice dealers Reed and Bartlett was fixed up for barracks to hold 1,000 men. It was called Camp Ellsworth after Col. Elmer Ellsworth, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and the first Union officer killed in the Civil War.
Very damp, indeed. In fact, a marshy disaster. Lt. Amory of the army declared that the quarters were “unfit for the troops.” So, on June 13th, after only two weeks at Fresh Pond, the units departed for Camp Cameron on North Avenue in Cambridge, led by Col. Robert Cowdin (1805-1874).
Camp Cameron, June 1861-January 1863
The new site consisted of 140 acres along the northeastern section of Mass Ave between Shea Road and what is now Clarendon Ave, extending up the hill to Holland St in Somerville. The land was leased every six months by the government from the Union Horse Railroad and real estate investor Gardner G. Hubbard, namesake of Hubbard Park off Brattle Street, and subsequent son in law of Alexander Graham Bell.
The camp was named after the Secretary of War Simon Cameron. That was another bad choice. Cameron’s reputation for corruption precipitated renaming the camp just a year later in August 1862 to Camp Day. The new designation honored Ralph Day (1802-1887), a successful Cambridge builder who was involved in projects like Porter’s Hotel. Active in Cambridge politics, Day had owned a substantial portion of the land since 1842. Day Street is named after him. By 1854, Day had also sold a large portion of his holdings to George Meacham, a local real estate developer and commissioner of the Cambridge Cemetery. Meacham served as a Colonel in the war, was wounded, and died in 1864. Meacham Road is named for him.
Eventually the 30 buildings on the site housed about 1,000- 2000 recruits!
Just think of the noise and the smells! Up to 2000 men drilling, marching, and firing arms for target practice. There would be supply wagons clanking through the area, the smell of 30 fires cooking food, latrines, burning trash, and 90 baggage carts clattering down Mass Ave accompanying a regiment on the way to war. Not to mention bellows of up to 1,000 heads of cattle from the nearby Cattle Market at Porter Square, and the smell of the tannery near Alewife Brook.
An official flag raising ceremony took place at Camp Cameron on June 28, 1861. The event was reported on in this sentimental piece describing solders walking “arm in arm with ladies, …whispering loving words into the ears of those who were soon to be separated from them, never, perhaps, to meet again”:
The camp served as a short-term boot camp for the inexperienced volunteers from New England and New York before they shipped out to the war. Numbers fluctuated weekly as troops arrived and departed for the front:
Complaints soon arose around two issues at Camp Cameron. Despite the hopeful newspaper article below, the culinary situation at the camp was nearly intolerable, driving soldiers to regularly leave camp without a pass in search of edible sustenance.
One solder wrote “Nine days I have been in camp with a hard board to lie on, without any blanket to cover me at night, and insufficiency of food by day.” (Excerpt from Boston Herald September 3, 1862). The same article described how “many of the men are compelled to come into the city to get food enough to satisfy their hunger.”
It was a letter to the editor from E. R. Mudge, a wealthy Boston dry goods merchant whose son had been in the army for a year, that triggered the above article. Mudge noted that not only were the rations bad, he called attention to the large number of deserters: Out of 61 recruits for the 2nd Regiment, who had enlisted and been sent to camp since …only 31 could be found on Saturday. The rest had deserted.” A year later, Mudge generously put his financial resources behind the recruiting effort for the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteers.
Deserters? That was the second and more serious problem at Camp Cameron. With no perimeter fence nor gate, it was easy for recruits to become “bounty jumpers.”
Here is how the system worked: In addition to their pay—generally about $13 per month—each recruit received a “bounty” of $25 paid by the U. S. Government, and an additional $100 paid by the City of Cambridge. When the need arose for specialized troops, additional bounties would be offered:
On top of these amounts, some businessmen such as Mudge also contributed to supplementary bounties from their private funds to increase recruitment. $1,000 was a pretty handsome supplement!:
Inevitably some ne’er-do-wells took advantage of the loose security at camp to take off for parts unknown. Showing up in another town, they repeated their scam.
Col. Hannibal Day (no relation to Ralph Day) was the General Superintendent of the Recruiting Services for the State of Massachusetts in 1861. Day also was aggrieved at the bounty jumping situation, which ultimately led to him closing the camp in January of 1863.
Who were these enlisted men?
On August 9, 1862, Congress passed the Recruitment Act, ordering a draft of an additional 300,000 militia. Each state was assigned a quota by the then Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. If the state could not meet the quota, the government would establish a draft in that state to complete the roster. A second Enrollment Act, passed in 1863, increased the bounty paid to recruits, and, astonishingly, allowed individuals to avoid military service by paying someone else $500 to join in their place.
The newspapers published the names of those who had chosen to pay for another man to fight the fight:
This category of replacement is not to be confused with “Representative Recruits.” In 1864, the War Department allowed for those men “not fit for military duty, and not liable to draft, from age or other causes…to procure at their own expense, and present for enlistment, recruits to represent them in the service.” These were called “Representative Recruits.” They were also listed in the papers:
A good description of the men volunteering appeared in the Cambridge Chronicle of September 7, 1861. These were the men who made up Company C, 3rd Recruitment, Cambridge Volunteers, led by the above-mentioned James P. Richardson of Cambridge, during the three months the unit was stationed on the coast at Fort Monroe, VA.:
“Whole number composing the Company, 94.
Born in Cambridge, 17; Boston, 16.
In thirteen other cities and towns in Mass, one each.
Total born in Massachusetts, 46.
Born in New Hampshire, 10; Maine, 8; Vermont, 3; Connecticut, 1; New York, 4; District of
Columbia, 1. Total American, 73
New Brunswick, 4; Nova Scotia, 3; Ireland, 7; England, 6; Scotland, 1.
Ages. – Oldest man, 39 years; youngest man, 18 years, average age, 22-3-95 years. [sic]
Tallest man, 6 feet 2 inches; shortest man, 5 feet 3 inches; average height, 5 feet ,7 one-half inches.
Occupations. – Clerks, 15; printers, 9, carpenters, 7; cigar makers, 6; book binders, 6; shoemakers, 5; painters, 4; soap makers, 2; plumbers, 2; bacon curers, 2; butchers, 2; farmers, 2; teamsters, 5; laborers, 2; wheelwrights, 2; sash and blind makers, 2; confectioners, 2, lawyers, 2; policeman, baker, stereotype finisher, carriage maker, machinist, hack driver, blacksmith, sawyer, physician, silversmith, barkeeper, tinman, cook, tailor, provision dealer, harness maker, 1 each.”
Some recruits belonged to regiments with interesting nicknames. For example, The Irish Brigade – the Massachusetts 28th Regiment,” recruited at Camp Cameron, was made up primarily of Irish men – by birth or descent. Its nickname was the “Faugh-A-Ballagh,” Irish for “clear the way.”
It is not hard to image in the emotional impact made on citizens by the daily drumbeat of newspaper announcements concerning the camp:
Frequently, notices included where the troops were being deployed. Today, reading these announcements, we recall the famous battles so familiar to us. But to soldiers at the time, places like Harper’s Ferry, Newbern, or Bull Run, or the Wilderness may have been unfamiliar or even unknown.
The Denoument
Camp Cameron/Day closed in January of 1863 and remaining soldiers were transferred to the more secure Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston:
Perhaps in preparation for its closure, camp items were auctioned off in 1862 ahead of its close in 1863.
“One Wooden Building, 50 feet by 20.
Ten temporary framed Wooden Buildings, battened and shingled, about 12 feet square.
29 Cast Iron Cylinder stoves, 3 sizes
600 feet 5-inch English Iron Funnel
A lot of 8-inch Funnel
10 Cauldrons, with Russia Iron Covers
2 Iron Bedsteads
2 Husk Mattresses
4 Pair Sheets
2 Pillows
4 Pillow Cases
2 Chairs
Half dozen Axes
A quantity of Raye Straw, &c.
By order of Lieut. Col. H. Day, U. S. A., General Supt. Recruiting Services state of Mass.
Terms of sale, cash.”
Between 1861 and 1865, 4,588 Cambridge men enlisted in the Union Army and Navy. (Cambridge Historical Commission)
In the 1890s, Camp St and Cameron Ave were named after the camp. Fair Oaks St, Seven Pines Ave, Glendale Ave, Malvern Ave, and Yorktown St in the same neighborhood were named after Civil War battles.
An historic marker honoring James S. Richardson and Company C can be found in Central Square near the site of Richardson’s former law office on Richard B. Modica Way—otherwise known as “Graffiti Alley,” the passageway between Central Kitchen and Tent City on Mass Ave. True to its location, the marker is now covered with graffiti. A mockup can be seen here:
Richardson, with a white beard, appears front center in the photograph below, depicting of a reunion of Company C in 1886.
To Richardson’s left is Lieutenant Chamberlain. To the far left as you look at the picture stands drummer Charles Cobb, holding the drum he had carried throughout the war.
It was not until 1866 that President Andrew Johnson issued a formal proclamation announcing the end of the Civil War.
Where once there were thousands of men training for war, today there are baby strollers, bikes and pedestrians.
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen M. Fox
Sources
Ancestry
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “military unit”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Oct. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/military-unit.
“Cambridge Civil War Monument” by Patrick T.J. Browne. https://macivilwarmonuments.com/tag/cambridge-civil-war-monument/.
Cambridge Historical Commission archives
Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection
“Cambridge History Minute: Meet ‘The Women of the Bee.’ by Alison Bauter. https://patch.com/massachusetts/cambridge/cambridge-history-minute-meet-women-bee.
“Camp Cameron: A Civil War Camp in Somerville” by Dan Sullivan. https://patch.com/massachusetts/somerville/bp–camp-cameron-a-civil-war-camp-in-somerville.
“Camp Cameron/Camp Day Diorama: An Exhibition” by Dan Sullivan. https://thecambridgeroom.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/camp-cameroncamp-day-diorama-an-exhibition/.
“A Camp Cameron Enthusiast” by Dan Sullivan. https://thecambridgeroom.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/a-camp-cameron-enthusiast/.
“Civil War Army Organization: Innovations, Opportunities, Challenges” in American Battlefield Trust. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-army-organization.
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“Ending the Bloodshed: The Last Surrenders of the Civil War” by Trevor K. Plante. Prologue Magazine, Spring 2015, Vol. 47, No. 1. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2015/spring/cw-surrenders.html.
Genealogy Bank
History Cambridge
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“A Poor Man’s Fight” by William Marvel in Civil War Series: The Civil War’s Common Soldier. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/civil_war_series/3/sec2.htm.
“‘Representative Recruits’ in the U. S. Army.” https://civilwartalk.com/threads/representative-recruits-in-the-u-s-army.132221/.
“The Story of the Bee” by Mary Towle Palmer. https://historycambridge.org/articles/the-story-of-the-bee/.
“To Protect the Union”: Civil War History in Central Square. Cambridge Historical Commission. https://www.cambridgema.gov/-/media/Files/historicalcommission/pdf/CompanyC.pdf.
“Town recruitment and enlistment quota correspondence, 1862-1864.” Massachusetts Adjutant General’s Office. https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/80284599.
Unit History – 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. https://www.28thmasscob.org/history.