Fort Massachusetts, D. C.,
Dec. 8, 1862

Editor of Register:

The friends of the Eleventh will, perhaps, be glad to learn that we are fairly in our winter quarters, and ready for any severity with which Boreas is likely to afflict this latitude. We were just in season with our buildings, for the weather now seems exceedingly cold to Vermonters even. Inhabitants of the District imagine that we must be completely impervious to frost, living as we do next door to the Esquimaux, but their ideas of Northern climate are somewhat exaggerated.

Our quarters are built of stockades, or logs on end, faced on the inside, chinked with moss, and roofed with boards. The barracks are 60 by 21 for each company. Space is economized by building the bunks with alcoves, and the men are all astonished to find how comfortably they are situated in comparison with the usual crowding of seven into a "wedge" tent, seven feet square. The officers will pass the winter under canvas.

We learn that Gen. Halleck has signed an order authorizing the transfer of the regiment to the artillery service. We are not formally transferred, as I see some Vermont papers have erroneously stated, but doubtless shall be ere long. As an artillery regiment, we shall be entitled to two additional companies, and our present companies can be greatly enlarged. If any of our friends wish to join us, they will probably have an opportunity before long. Vermont has furnished nobly of her brain and muscle for the prosecution of this war, and we hope that the request for the enlargement of our regiment will be answered as promptly as other calls of our government have been.

I fear Vermonters do not appreciate how well their interests are cared for by their excellent Senator Solomon Foot. I have been very much pleased to see how much he is respected in our nation's capital, and how indefatigable he is in exertions in behalf of Vermont and her citizens. We hear his name on every side, and are proud to see our state so well represented in the National Senate.

A. F. W.

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Fort Massachusetts, D. C.,
Jan. 12, 1863

Editor of the Register:

The "Eleventh (Artillery) Vermont Volunteers," as Gov. Holbrook has directed our regiment to be designated, seems to have gone into permanent quarters. Our barracks bid fair to be not merely winter quarters, but our three years home. By course our round of daily duties becomes mere monotony, but in our circumstances it is a pleasant one. Major Halsey, our courteous and efficient Paymaster, made us his first visit last Saturday. It was pleasant to see the countenances brighten as the men passed his table, bearing away the first material reward of their services in the shape of a handful of greenbacks. Though it rained steadily, everyone thought it a bright day.

Since my last communication Company B. has been saddened by the death of a second member. Charles F. Powers of Shoreham died of diphtheria after a very short but painful illness. His gentleness and kind reserve had endeared him to us all, and his faithfulness had in special degree attracted the notice of the regimental officers. He is probably lamented by a larger circle of friends here, than would be any other private in the regiment.

Allow me to put in a plea in response to the slur civilians love so well to cast upon the officers of the army, in relation to the "throng that crowd the streets of Washington." The fact is that the number of officers and surgeons stationed in the city and its immediate vicinity and in the hospitals one finds at every turn, is large enough to account for all the shoulder-straps in Washington. And when we remember that every officer in this portion of the United States is dependent on this city for all clothing and equipment, that many are assigned here on the various court-martials in session, and that every officer promoted in the Army of the Potomac has to visit Washington to be mustered in on his new commission, the wonder is that the streets contain so few.

A. F. W.

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April 15, 1863

Editor Register:

The 1st Artillery still remains in the Forts it has so long occupied; Fort Massachusetts, now called Fort Stevens, Fort Slocum, and Fort Totten. Marching orders were issued a day or two since for us to go to the city as a temporary Provost Guard, but we hear now that another regiment has been assigned to that dangerous and honorable service. Our usual monotony has been broken by a few incidents of late that may interest your readers. Last Monday evening, the presentation of a beautiful sword, belt and sash to Col. Warner was made the occasion of a social gathering for the officers of the command and so many of the fair sex as our command contains. No long speeches were made; Lt. Col. Benton made the presentation with the remark that our regiment had found I its popular Colonel a combination of qualities rare in officers of the Regular Army, namely firmness of discipline and adaptation to the peculiarities of Volunteers; Col. Warner accepted the gift in a few remarkably happy sentences expressing his pride and pleasure. So much unanimity of feeling towards a commanding officer as exists in this regiment is very rare.

Another of your citizens, Wm. V. Meeker, has just received a well-deserved promotion, having been made a Lieut. in Co. C. Our Quartermaster, A.L. Carlton, has been promoted to Captain of Commissary of Subsistence, and has gone to join the Army of the Potomac; Commissary Sergt. Clark has been made Quartermaster.

We have had a good deal of sickness of late. Almost every disease has found its victims. We have suffered from, among others, various fevers, typhoid and scarlet and lung, small-pox, diphtheria, &c., and most dangerous of all, measles, with its tendency to pneumonia. Cases f asthma and bronchitis have been frequent, with a good deal of rheumatic difficulty. Company B. has lost six men-Sweet, Powers, Mayo, Nicholson, Sargeant and Madgan; the regiment has lost about fifty. Sickness is rapidly decreasing now however, with the approach of spring. Our hospital accommodations are excellent; we have a wooden building sixty by twenty with about forty beds, much like one of the wards in the city hospitals. I think no other regiment can boast of so good arrangements for the care of the sick as ours. There is abundant warmth in cold weather, with a cool situation for warm and ample ventilation at all times. The room is high and commodious; the exterior appearance is neat and tasty, painted white; if a man is not seriously ill, it is rather a pleasure than otherwise to be in the hospital.

Spring is fairly opening here, and warm weather is most agreeable after our blasting March. April is one of the months in which Artillery practice is allowed, and the hills resound with the booming of cannon and the shriek of shells. I never understood the latter phrase till I saw a 100-Pound Rifled Parrott fired yesterday, when I realized that I had much rather be behind than before it. These heavy missiles can be very distinctly seen and heard, and their explosion is terrific.

A.F.W.