Captain Whipple’s company is full and additional applications enough have been made for admission, almost, to recruit another company. Applicants are daily refused, because the complement is already filled' — Salem Register, Oct. 24.

I do not know that we ever complained at being called to our meals by the resonant vibrations of the sheepskin, but we have complained that the musicians persisted in announcing dinner by calling ~‘ Roast Beef’ when the Commissary had provided only ‘ Salt Horse” and ‘~ Hard-tack.’

We did, however, enjoy the host of visitors who came in upon us every pleasant afternoon, fairly crowding us out of our tents at times, bringing many a dainty dish for our gastronomic enjoyment, and to eke out what they evidently considered a monotonous if not a scanty menu.How well do we remember the performances of our regimental band under Harry Brown. Even yet can we hear those stirring notes as the band passed down the line at Dress Parade and vividly can we see the throngs of admiring friends, as they pressed upon the line of sentries, to witness that always interesting feature of camp-life.The ordinary routine of duty was more or less faithfully performed. Fatigue, Guard, Drill by squad and company, the evolutions worked out in the larger field of the battalion, fully occupied our days and made the scantily filled bed-sack “soft as downy pillows are.”

October 26, Dr. Worcester and S. B. Ives, agents of the Bible Society, visited camp and distributed over one hundred Testaments to the men of Company F.

October 28, Governor Andrew visited camp, and witnessed battalion drill, after which he made a short address to the regiment.

On the 31st of October, Company F participated in the march to Salem. Receiving the City Fathers at the City Hail, the regiment proceeded to the Common, whence, after a short battalion drill, a welcome opportunity to greet our friends and what our regimental historian calls a scant collation,” we returned to camp.
Many incidents of our stay in Lynnfield, novel as they were, have been crowded out of mind by similar or more important events of later years of the war. One of our members, whom I will call Smith as that was not his name, had not a particle of time or tune in his composition, and the step always bothered him.

One day at drill, Smith was persistently getting out of step and out of place until the officer H charge of the squad impatiently demanded, “Smith, where do you belong? With an innocent expression upon his face and an injured tone in his voice, he meekly answered, “Ipswich sir.” “I wish to heaven you were there," was the despairing rejoinder.But the time of our stay in Camp Schouler, though lengthened somewhat by the non-arrival of equipment, drew rapidly to a close.

The 10th of November, our last Sunday at Lynnfield, saw the camp thronged with visitors, and interesting services were conducted by Rev. George D. Wildes. It was a day of farewells, and although the members of Company F were light-hearted and full of hope, to the friends whom they were to leave behind, it was a day of sadness with many, deep foreboding.

Taken from : STORY OF CO. F, 23d Massachusetts VOLUNTEERS IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION 1861—1865BY HERBERT E. VALINTINE BOSTON:W.B. CLARKE & CO 340 WASHINGTON STREET 1896