As the rains descended upon the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry after it entered South Carolina, Capt. Frank Crowninshield found, to his chagrin, that his tent was pitched on a low piece of ground.
"I dug a ditch all around it with two ditches leading off to drain away the water and thought I was going to sleep dry, but discovered to my horror that the ditches only collected water...I awoke to find myself lying in about an inch of water, my shoes and other articles quietly floating around the tent. So in a great hurry, in my shirt and drawers, barefooted, I turned out in a pouring rain, seized a pail and bailed out my reservoirs then turned into my blankets wet through to shiver and wait for morning."
The countryside was so flooded that Capt. Dan Oakey's pickets were obliged to perform their duty "afloat in boats and scows and on rafts."
On the march, the regiment's foragers kept them well fed, so much so that, from early February well into March, Col. Morse did not draw a single government ration. A more serious problem, according to Capt. Dan Oakey, was the lack of drinking water. "At times, when suffering from thirst it was hard to resist the temptation of crystal swamp water, as it rippled along the side of a causeway, a tempting site for the weary and unwary. In spite of oft-repeated cautions, some contrived to drink it, but these were on their backs with malarial disease at the end of the campaign."
On one occasion, Dan Oakey and his company were out foraging and came upon an odd apparition in the form of a two old men, one of whom was "dressed in continental uniform, who waved his plumed hat in response to the gibes of the men." The other, wearing an "ancient militia uniform indicating high rank," was mounted on a "raw-boned horse with a bit of carpet for a saddle." This fellow, with his old plumed chapeau in hand, "rode with gracious dignity...as if reviewing a brigade."
During the army's occupation of Columbia, the 2nd Massachusetts set up camp outside of the city limits. There the regiment welcomes into its lines two Massachusetts officers (one from the 27th MA and one from the 2nd MA HVY ARTY) who had escaped from the Confederates during the hasty removal of Federal prisoners. "Exhausted and almost naked, they found their way to my command," reported Dan Oakey. "My mess begged for the privilege of caring for one of them. We gave him a mule to ride with a comfortable saddle and scraped together an outfit for him, although our clothes were in the last stages..."
In the town of Chesterfield, while his men bivouacked in the streets, Capt. Francis Crowninshield slept in the buggy of Dr. George Todd, Mrs. Lincoln's brother, and "warmed my feet at a fire composed of the shafts and wheels."
While at Fayetteville, Capt. Henry Newton Comey learned of the death of his brother, also a soldier. "Poor dear boy, his fate was hard. I feared such would be his fate, but how eagerly I hoped otherwise. Thank God he died and was buried under his own flag and not in a cursed rebel prison."
The regiment was still at Fayetteville when Capt. Theodore Parker and a scouting party happened upon a broken-down grist-mill. Parker, an expert machinist, had his men hoist the old wheel back into place and put the mill in working order. After allowing some of the other regiments to send over men to help work the mill, Parker went into the corn-meal business. The demand for his product was so great, the operation was kept going all night.
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