Josiah G. Abbott to Brigadier-General Benjamin F. Butler, April 30, 1861

42 Court St., BosTON, 30th of April, 1861

Gen. B. F. BUTLER

MY DEAR GEN: God bless you for what you have done; let what has been done only be kept up. I want to say to you everybody here are overflowing in their praises of you & your troops. We think old Massachusetts is yet the head of the column, and your name had the enviable fortune of leading that column. You should understand the feeling here — you can get it if you have time from the papers. The blood is up as it never was before, and you tell those people who rule at Washington that the people are up to the occasion. We only hope they will be. We are here trying to organize a scheme by which our troops now forming may be sent into camp for sixty days & made soldiers of. I wish you would help it along if you can find time in the intervals of building railroads & repairing engines. The country is bristling all over with military companies, but they ought to have the discipline of the camp. Lowell has four more companies organized, full. That son of mine, who I was in hopes would be with you, has recruited one. I have another boy in Fort Independence with the N. E. Guards, & another in the company of the eldest. The people at Lowell are taking every means to take care of the families of those with you, and also provide for the wants of your soldiers while away. I want you to understand we will take care of your interests while you are absent. Your family are well. Mrs. Abbott & Mrs. Butler meet quite frequently in the committee rooms for supplies, so that I hear from the latter lady almost every day.

If you can find a place for that boy of mine about your staff I would like it. He is spoiling to be where there is action, & I’ll go bail you wouldn’t be ashamed of him where hard work & dare-devil qualities were required. Excuse my writing this. I thought even as you are you might like to hear a little gossip from home.

Most truly & sincerely,

J. G. ABBOTT

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 58-9

Major-General George G. McClellan to Major-General John A. Dix, September 5, 1861

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

September 5, 1861.

Respectfully referred to the general commanding with a recommendation that the seventeen prisoners referred to by General Dix be transferred to some other place for' safekeeping; and I beg to repeat my suggestion that some other suitable place be selected for keeping prisoners at war that may be captured in future. For present purposes it seems to me that Fort Independence, Boston Harbor, or Fort Adams, Newport, might suffice.

 GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, U.S. Army.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Volume 1 (Serial No. 114), p. 593

Simon Cameron to Wilder Dwight and George L. Andrews, April 28, 1861

washington City, April 28, 1861.

To Messrs. Wilder Dwight And George L. Andrews: —

The plan which you communicated for raising a regiment in Massachusetts for service during the war meets my approval. Such a regiment shall be immediately enlisted in the service of the government, as one of those which are to be called for immediately. The regiment shall be ordered to Fort Independence, or some other station in Boston Harbor, for purposes of training, equipment, and drill, and shall be kept there two months, unless an emergency compels their presence elsewhere.

I am, gentlemen, very respectfully,

Simon Cameron,

Secretary of War."

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 42-3