Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

526 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
ou the 31st of May, 1861, the others following within a few days.
The Springfield City Guard formed one of the companies, and in the
organization of the regiment was known as Company F. Its officers
were : Captain, Hosea C. Lombard ; 1st lieutenant, Hiram A. Keith ;
2d lieutenant, George W. Bigelow. The other officers of the regiment
from Springfield were : 1st lieutenant and adjutant, Oliver Edwards ;
cliaplain. Rev. Frederick A. Barton ; captains, Frederick Barton,
Joseph K. Newell, George W. Bigelow, Homer G. Gilmore, and
Edwin L. Knight ; 1st lieutenants, Byron Porter, L. Oscar Eaton, Ed-
win B. Bartlett, and Levi Ross ;
2d lieutenants, James Knox, Henry
E. Crane. In the non-commissioned staff were P2. K. Wilcox and
Roslin W. Bowles, serving as sergeant-majors. Lieutenant Bartlett
was killed on the 18th of May, 1864, at Spottsylvania. The regi-
ment was reviewed by Governor Andrew and staff on the 10th of July,
and five days later was presented with State and national colors of
unusual magnificence by the ladies of Springfield ; Mrs. Barnes, the
wife of Gen. James Barnes, making the presentation.
Next day the regiment took cars for Medford, where, in Camp
Adams, ou the Mystic river, it found very agreeable quarters, in
which, perfecting itself in drill and discipline, it remained till the
25th, when it left the State for Washington.
The Twenty-seventh Regiment was made up from the four western
counties of the State, under the call for five new regiments, issued
the 1st of September, 1861, which later formed the Massachusetts
quota of the " Burnside P^xpedition." The duty of recruiting and
organizing the command was assigned to Horace C. Lee, of Spring-
field, who had had large experience in militia matters. He had just
before been offered the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Twenty-first Regi-
ment, then in camp at Worcester. Accepting instead the wider field of
usefulness, Mr. Lee caused recruiting offices to be opened in ten of
the principal towns of the district on the 10th, and in a few days
several of the companies were well filled ;
and Camp Reed, at Spring-
field, — so named in honor of Quartermaster-General Reed, of Massa-