May 2, 1864. Tore our huts down and were ordered to build with only one log and cover with shelter tents. This afternoon we were visited by a terrible whirlwind. For a long time the air was so full of dust that we could not keep our eyes open and were compelled to go into our tents. After the whirlwind we had a heavy thunder shower.On the first of May the regiment numbered 350, with two field and ten line officers. During the month of April Captain Hume of Co. K. was on detached service in Philadelphia. In response to the order to prepare to march, nearly every soldier wrote a letter home and also sent home such little money as he had on hand, through Captain Pearl, the sutler. None of the ‘Boys’ will ever forget ‘Ed. Pearl.’ Originally a captain in the First Massachusetts, he had become the sutler of the Nineteenth Massachusetts and loved the regiment dearly Generous to a fault, he was never known to refuse officer or man an article he needed, whatever the state of his account. He devoted his time and his means, outside of business, to the interest of the regiment and its members. He was one of the most popular men in the command, and justly so. The sutlers, as a rule, were described as a swindling, hard-fisted and grinding race, but Pearl was not one of these.
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Salem Press. Co., Salem, Ma., 1906.
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