George H. Gordon, From Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain

[14] On the eleventh of May, 1861, the day celebrated as an anniversary, when the first company of the regiment, detailed to take possession, came in sight under command of its captain,--Abbott of Lowell,--a single piece of artillery, borrowed from the City of Roxbury, manned by volunteer gunners, awoke the slumbering scene with a national salute.

Then the Stars and Stripes were given to the breeze, and Brook Farm was baptized “Camp Andrew.” On Sunday, the twelfth of May, Captain Abbott made to me his first report of the condition of matters in camp.

“We reached camp,” he says, “about four o'clock Saturday afternoon (the eleventh). The flag-staff was raised, the flag saluted, and a national salute fired at sunset. We did not receive any supper until about eight, but when it came it was excellent, and has since so continued. The men have behaved excellently; have cheerfully obeyed my orders, and found something to amuse themselves with.” The number of men then (May 12, 1861) in camp, he enumerated as follows: officers commissioned, 5; noncommissioned, 8; musicians, 2; privates, 72; total, 87. If I would give the order, he added, since the tent equipage was ready, he would put the men in camp immediately.

Between the twelfth and twentieth of May, the site of the encampment was selected, and the permanent regimental camp established.

On the third of May, as I have said, the President of the United States called by proclamation for forty-two thousand and thirty-four volunteers; and as my regiment was accepted under that call, and provided for by a subsequent act of Congress, I must follow the War Department in its relations with the State, where it touches upon this regiment. On the fourth of May, 1861, the War Department issued a general order, No. 15, in which rules