The 2nd Massachusetts Infantry spent its first winter in the field in the vicinity of Frederick, MD. It was a welcome change of locale from the unhealthy neighborhood in which they had been living near Seneca Creek.
One day Chaplain Quint was entertaining an out of town visitor in his tent when Col. Gordon stepped in to discuss some business. Quint introduced Gordon to the gentleman, a Mr. Clark, who happened to be the brother of the Chaplain of the 12th Massachusetts. Gordon simply bowed and continued his discussion with Quint. Suddenly Mr. Clark leapt to his feet.
"This is Colonel Gordon!," he cried.
"The same," Gordon replied.
The look of surprised and confusion on the man's face puzzled Gordon, who quickly finished his business with Quint and departed.
"Is that your colonel?" Mr. Clark asked Chaplain Quint.
"It is." But as his visitor seemed to be considering whether or not to believe him, Quint reassured him, "Certainly it is. You look incredulous"
"So I am," was the reply. "I thought Colonel Gordon was 50 years old and as savage as thunder."
The Chaplain informed Mr. Clarke that he had obviously gotten his idea of what Gordon must look like from the exaggerated and fanciful newspaper stories of his reputation for cruelness and savagery.
A big event in the camp of the 2nd Massachusetts was the arrival from Boston of a box of "necessities," courtesy of Mrs. George Ticknor. "Soldiers are like children," Major Dwight observed. "And the idea that there is a box from home with a present in it is, you know, the crowning joy of childhood." But he had to voice his protest over the design of the mittens the ladies had sent. "Make a good, honest mitten, in which there shall be no aristocracy or seclusion among the fingers, but where they might dwell together in unity. When the men had to shoot their weapons, he argued, they wouldn't be wearing their mittens. "At other times he wants the old, warm mitten, not this eccentric invention." By his criticism, Dwight did not wish to discourage the sending of mittens. Any kind of mitten would do. "I speak only in the interests of science and truth."
In one of his letters home, Capt. Samuel Quincy complained about the interference of Gov. John Andrew in the appointment of officers to the regiment. "I wish we could cut loose from Boston State House, even if it is the hub of the universe," he moaned. "The commonweal would be much better served. We are not State militia any longer, but soldiers of the nation and the absurdity of our having to depend on the favor of a little curly-headed fat & philanthropic lawyer with double-back action legs strikes me as self-evident." Quincy then felt the need to explain his last remark about the Governor's legs. "Well, you watch him some day standing still, and in a few minutes you will see his kneejoints suddenly bend the wrong way & let him down about half an inch with a jerk."
Maj. Wilder Dwight struck up an acquaintance with a young lady named Annie Shriver. "I can give you no good news of conquest," he wrote his mother, "but there is time enough yet."
Lt. Robert Gould Shaw was one of the officers invited to a ball given by Col. Maulsby. Shaw reckoned there were about 100 ladies and 300 men, making it difficult for every one of the later to find a dancing partner. The handsome young officer, however, was not among them. "I enjoyed myself very much, though, and danced nearly all the time." He reported that none of the ladies of Frederick danced""round dances" but that all of the officer's wives who were present did not object. The only problem was in the amounts of liquor provided for those who were not dancing. "The result of it was a general scrimmage between some Secessionist civilians and some officers."
Frederick, like Maryland itself, was divided in sentiment in regards to secession. Chaplain Quint noted that a number of citizens "privately still drink the health of Jefferson Davis...and publically look daggers at Northern soldiers, though not very dangerous daggers."
Pvt. Henry Newton Comey thought that winter quarters might spell the end of drill as he knew it, especially when General Abercrombie informed Col. Gordon that he might do away with it altogether for the time being. But that was not Gordon's way and the 2nd Massachusetts continued to drill twice daily as weather permitted. "We have drilled when the mud was from 4-12 inches deep." Comey concluded that "Some drill is beneficial but we get a little too much of a good thing."
The band of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry, under the direction of Charles Siegel, gave several well attended concerts in Frederick. At one of them, Maj. Dwight noted that "all the beauty and fashion of Frederick" were there, and the music was superb. "The whole closed with Hail Columbia and the Star Spangled Banner....You would be surprised to see with what hungry ears they listened to Yankee Doodle in this country. Those short-sighted persons who advise the disbanding the bands would disarm our army of a great strength."
Major Wilder Dwight was looking foward to better things in the coming year. "I think the birds of spring will sing Hail Columbia and the Star Spangled Banner all over the South, though the Christmas chimes and carols may be sadly out of tune," he wrote his family on December 20th. "I hope this letter may reach you in season to bring my greeting for Christmas eve. We can hardly receive the Christmas message, 'On Earth peace, good-will toward men,' in any obvious and literal sense this year....Yet I can confidently wish a Merry Christmas to you, and look forward to a happier New Year. We are fighting a good fight; if only we can be true to our cause and ourselves, we have the right to indulge the brightest hopes and rely on the best promises. God is with us."
Capt. Richard Cary did not find life in a quiet camp preferable to active field service. "There is nothing at all new here & the life is one calculated to make a driveling idiot of a genius."
When Capt. James Savage gayly related to Sam Quincy that he had been dancing until 2 a.m. on the previous night, Quincy informed him that he, too, had been dancing-- "on grand rounds in order to keep war."
Lt. Col. Andrews reported that snowball fights had become the rage. The men "took sides, charged upon each other with a pile of snowballs under the left arm, & it was quite a sight to see the balls fly. Nearly the whole regiment was engaged in it."
Maj. Dwight was among those who joined an excursion arranged by Col. John White Geary up to Point of Rocks to witness a performance by the "Geary Thespian Corps." . The participants traveled by train, which was filled with "young ladies and old generals." Dwight was delighted with Geary's outdoor stage, which was "bright with hanging Chinese lanterns." The theatricals went on until after midnight. The train ride back, Dwight observed, set off the signal lights of the enemy on the other side of the Potomac, "and undoubtedly they failed to explain the activity in Col. Geary's camp."
Lt. Robert Shaw spent some of his spare time learning how to write with his left hand just in case he should lose his right arm in battle.
Capt. Richard Cary trusted his wife, Helen, without question, so the news that she had gone for a drive with another man did not concern him in the least. Still, he hoped that the "virtuous, scandal-loving tabbies of Boston" would not find something shocking in the excursion, "as it is not customary for married ladies to drive with young unmarried men especially when their husbands are away." For his part, he did not care a farthing for such gossip, but he admitted it would "annoy me terribly" were his wife to be criticized by the wagging tongues of people who did not know "on what easy terms Dan is with you and me."
One day Lt. Shaw went to church in the company of a young lady from Baltimore and was rather astonished to find that he and the sexton were the only men in the place. "It was full of ladies, though, and as we sat facing the congregation, I had a fine view. I was much confused by finding twelve little orphan girls who sat in the front seat, in enormous hoods, staring at me every time I looked up."
Henry Comey was getting tired of seeing officers appointed to the regiment rather than enlisted men being promoted. He dismissed the new crop just arrived from Massachusetts as "young, inexperienced and half-witted some of them" and concluded that their commissions had obviously been bought. Comey was under the impression, which he stated in his private correspondence, that Col. Gordon had no intention of promoting men from the ranks "for he did not think a man that would enlist in the ranks fit to command a company."
Comey could not have been more wrong. In fact, a number of enlisted men-including Comey-were eventually appointed as officers in the 2d Massachusetts.
Lt. Col. Andrews and Maj. Dwight were assigned to sit on a board of examination to ascertain the ability of officers in the volunteer regiments. "The army certainly needs a great deal of weeding out among its officers," Dwight soon concluded. "To-day, under the terror even of our presence, were two resignations,-one a colonel."
Whenever the weather proved too inclement for drill, the men of the 2d Massachusetts put down their rifles and picked up snowballs. Lt.-Col. Andrews described one mock battle for his wife. "They took sides, charged upon each other with a pile of snowballs under the left arm & it was quite a sight to see the balls fly. Nearly the whole regiment was engaged in it."
In was inevitable to Chaplain Quint that literature of a certain ilk would find its way into camp "among a class that way affected." He was pleased to see Col. Gordon issue an order to seize the material and commit it to the flame "where it speedily became very 'light' literature indeed."
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