132 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



setts Volunteer Militia, while its ranks were recruiting, was 

 encamped on this ground. The regiment was raised from 

 Groton, and Clinton, Leominster, Fitchburg and other towns 

 in the neighborhood belonging to Worcester County, and 

 was mustered into the public service for nine months. 



Special Order, No. 916, issued by the Adjutant-General 

 of the Commonwealth, September 19, 1862, contains the 

 following : — 



A camp of rendezvous is established at Groton Junction, Middlesex 

 Co., where barracks are being built, which is designated Camp Stevens. 

 Capt. W. C. Sawyer, 23d Regt. Mass. Vols., is appointed Comman- 

 dant. Due notice will be given when the barracks are ready for use. 



Special Order, No. 955, under the date of September 23, 

 has the following : — 



Lindsey Tilden [Charles Linzee Tilden], 20th Regt. Mass. Vols., is 

 detailed for Post Adjutant at Camp Stevens, Groton. 



The camp was so named in memory of General Isaac 

 Ingalls Stevens, a native of Andover and a graduate of West 

 Point, who was killed in the battle of Chantilly, Virginia, 

 on September i, 1862, about a fortnight before the camp 

 was established. 



The Commandant was Wesley Caleb Sawyer^ born in the 

 adjoining town of Harvard, on August 26, 1839, who gradu- 

 ated at Harvard College in the class of i85i. Soon after 

 leaving Cambridge he was commissioned, on October 8, 1861, 

 as a Captain in the Twenty-third Massachusetts Volunteers, 

 and he left the State with that regiment. He was attached to 

 the Burnside expedition, that went to North Carolina ; in the 

 Battle of Newbern, March 14, 1862, he was severely wounded, 

 which resulted in the amputation of his left thigh, and neces- 

 sarily prevented him from further participation in an active 

 campaign. 



The regiment left Camp Stevens, on Saturday, November 

 29, for New York, where it remained until January 17, 1863, 

 at which time it embarked for New Orleans. Subsequently 

 to the departure of the troops from Groton, the following 

 order was issued : — 



