| “Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui.” |
PROVIDENCE:
SIDNEY S. RIDER
1878.
Copyright by
SIDNEY S. RIDER.
1878.
PRINTED BY PROVIDENCE PRESS COMPANY.
(Late Lieutenant-Colonel First Rhode Island Light Artillery.)
PROVIDENCE:
SIDNEY S. RIDER.
1878.
Copyright by
SIDNEY S. RIDER.
1878.
When the first call for troops, to serve for the term of three months, wasmade by President Lincoln, in 1861, for the purpose of suppressing therebellion, which had assumed most dangerous proportions to the NationalGovernment, the Marine Artillery, of this city, responded cheerfully tothe call, and under the command of Captain Charles H. Tompkins, leftProvidence, April eighteenth, for the seat of war.
The senior officer of the company, who remained at home, was CaptainWilliam H. Parkhurst, then book-keeper at the Mechanics Bank on South MainStreet. Before the company was fairly away, I called upon him andsuggested the propriety of calling[Pg 6] a meeting to organize a new company totake the place of the one that had gone. The suggestion met his views, andhe at once published a notice that a meeting for the purpose would be heldthat evening at the armory of the Marines, on Benefit Street. The meetingwas largely attended, and comprised among its numbers a great many of ourmost intelligent and influential citizens. A large number of names wereenrolled that night as members of the new company, and arrangements weremade to have the armory open daily, for the purpose of obtainingadditional signatures to the roll of membership. In a few days some threehundred names were obtained, and every man whose name was enrolled seemedto take the greatest interest in having the work proceed.
By general consent, rather than by appointment or election, I assumed theduty of conducting the drills and of reducing matters to a system. It wassupposed at the time that the force already called into the field,consisting of seventy-five thousand men, would be amply sufficient toeffectually quell the disturbance that had arisen at the South, but[Pg 7] thereappeared to be in the minds of all the men who gathered at the Marines’Armory, a quiet determination to go to the assistance of those who hadalready gone, should they appear to need aid. The call for men to servefor the period of three years put a new phase upon matters. Those whoseprivate business was of such importance that absence from home that lengthof time would injure the interests of others as well as their own,withdrew, leaving more than a sufficient number to man a full battery.From that time drilling of the men proceeded uninterruptedly both day andnight. A greater number than the capacity of the armory would admit ofdrilling at one time, presented themselves daily. Many of the eveningswere spent in