there was not unnaturally much sickness among the men in
the early part of their service; there were political campaigns at
home, in which the volunteers had and showed a strong interest;
there was a regrettable quarrel among the officers in which
Lieutenant-Colonel Kellogg was placed in an unfortunate light, and the
termination of which gave the men an opportunity of showing their
feeling for him. All these matters were well aired in type; meanwhile
the regiment, doing well such duty as was laid upon it, grew in
efficiency for hard and active service when it should be called for.

The possibility of a call to action at almost any minute was seen in
April, 1863, when orders came that the regiment be held ready to
march. Reinforcements were going forward to the Army of the Potomac,
now under Hooker, in large numbers; but the Nineteenth was finally
left in the Defences. Thus months were passed in the routine of drill
and parade, guard mounting and target practice, varied by brief and
rare furloughs, while the lightnings of the mighty conflict raging so
near left them untouched. "Yet," it is related, "a good many seemed to
be in all sorts of affliction, and were constantly complaining because
they could not go to the front. A year later, when the soldiers of the
Nineteenth were staggering along the Pamunkey, with heavy loads and
blistered feet, or throwing up breastworks with their coffee-pots all
night under fire in front of Petersburg, they looked back to the
Defences of Washington as to a lost Elysium."

* * * * *

It was in November, 1863, that the War Department orders were issued
changing the Nineteenth Infantry to a regiment of heavy artillery,
which Governor Buckingham denominated the Second Connecticut.
Artillery drill had for some time been part of its work, and the
general efficiency and good record of the regiment in all particulars
was responsible for the change, which was a welcome one, as the
artillery was considered a very desirable branch of the service, and
the increase in size gave prospects of speedier promotions.

Recruiting had been necessary almost all the time to keep the regiment
up to the numerical standard; death and the discharge for disability
had been operating from the first. It was now needful to fill it up to
the artillery standard of eighteen hundred men, and this was
successfully accomplished. Officers and men were despatched to
Connecticut to gather re