On May16, 1862 between 200 & 300 sick and injured soldiers were sent from Gen. Butler's operations in New Orleans, via the ship "Undaunted" to Camp Cameron. These soldiers belonged the the 12th, 13th 14th and 15th Maine, the 26th, 30th and 31st Massachusetts, the 24th Indiania, the 4th Wisconsin, the 6th Michigan, the 8th New Hampshire, the 12th and 13th Connecticut infantries, the 1st Maine Battery and the Everett Battery of Boston. They stayed at the camp until they where fit to return to service or could find transportation home. Some of the soldiers received their first pay here since joining the army.

This is the only instance I have found of either non-Massachusetts troopd or troops returning from the front being stationed at Camp Cameron. Their lenghth of stay most likley would have varied depending on the severity of their condition and the availability of transport to their home state or back to their regiment.

Not only did many of these recruits suffer from wounds and disease, but the trip to Boston was also quite a hardship.

According to Henry Robinson of the NH 8th, the Undaunted lost its main mizzen mast in a storm off Cape Hatteras. They then began taking on water. The ship needed to be towed into Boston Harbor. Mr. Robinso states in his account that the Undaunted did not arrive in Boston until June 2. The Boston Evening Transcript has the date as May 13th, then both this paper and the Cambridge Chronicle agree that the troops arrived at Cameron on the 16th of May. The Transcript also mentions that The Undaunted left Ship Island on April 21st. This was a trip of 24 days. I know the ship was greatly slowed by the damage it sufferedbut I doubt it could have made two seperate trips in this time and repaired such significant damage. Robinson did not write his book until 1893, over three decades after the event. I believe the most likely thing is a mistake in the dates after such a long gap.

Around this time Gardnier Green Hubbard purchased the property the camp sat upon from the Union Railway.

 The information for this post comes from:

The Cambridge Chronicle, May 17, 1862

the Boston Evening Transcript, May 16, pg. 2, 1862

The History of Pittsfield N.H. in the Great Rebellion, Robinson, H. L., pg. 131, Pittsfield, NH, 1893