Captain Josiah Porter was appointed the duty of organizing this battery. The name Porter should be familiar to anyone who knows the area around what was Camp Cameron. His father was the owner of Porter's Hotel in what is now Porter Square. He returned to the Commonwealth after duty in the Boston Light Artillery in the militia. Recruiting went quickly and they occupied the camp on August 27, 1861. (1) The biggest delay they had in leaving for the war was obtaining equiptment. In a letter Porter sent to Lt. Col. Lee on Sept. 2, he stated had recruited almost the full 150 men the battery needed but was still awaiting his equiptment. The gun carriages and caissons from the old Boston Light where being repaired and would be ready soon. The company of Winstone and Roundstone where furnishing the harnesses but that would take up to a week and a half. Without this equiptment he could not drill his new recruits in how to use it. (2) Equiptment and training did proceed, and on Oct. 3, 1861 they left for Boston and the Fall River train. They left the camp with 150 men, 125 horses, 6 pieces of artillery, 6 caissons, 1 ammunition wagon, 1 army forge and 3 baggage wagons. (3) In a letter home, a soldier from West Cambridge, now Arlington, on seeing this battery stated that it was "composed of superior men, to be ambitious of exelling in the art of arms, etc." (4) The history of this battery was written by one of its members, private A. J. Bennett of Somerville.

(1) Boston Evening Transcript, Aug. 24 & 29, 1861

(2) Letter from J. Porter to Lt. Col. Lee, Sept. 2, 1861, Massachussetts State Archives

(3)Massachussetts Register, #94, Adams, Sampson & CO. Boston. pg. 409

(4) Letters From Brothers Serving in the War For The Union To Their Family At Home in West Cambridge, Mass. Printed for private circulation, Cambridge, 1871, pg. 23