It hardly need be said that this order caused little surprise to the officers of the regiment. From the day when the naval court of inquiry reported the destruction of the _Maine_ as due to external explosion, until the day that marching orders actually came, the command at any time could have reported for duty with full ranks, and on three hours' notice. It is a matter of official record that this regiment, for years, has been held in constant readiness for field service; the "Vigilantia" on the regimental badge has long stood for something more than an empty boast. As a strict matter of fact, though the officers had been convinced that war could not long be averted, there had been but little extra effort made on that account, for but little remained to be done; here and there battery rolls were judiciously weeded, all alarm-lists received final and careful revision—and that substantially was all. On the recommendation of the Military Advisory Board, to be sure, enough recruits had been enrolled to bring the regimental strength up to twelve hundred, and these new men had been faithfully drilled; but, as events proved, this labor was to result in small benefit to the regiment itself, though other commands ultimately profited by it. Matters now were moving swiftly enough to suit the most impatient, and there were many impatient ones among the officers and men of the Old First. On the 23rd of April, President McKinley had issued his call for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers; on the 24th, the regiment had been ordered to hold itself ready for instant response to marching orders; on the 25th, Congress resolved that a state of war then existed—and late in the afternoon of that day came the long-awaited summons to duty. "Colonel Charles Pfaff, commanding First Regiment Heavy Artillery, First Brigade, M.V.M.," so ran the third paragraph of Special Orders, No. 42, from the office of the Adjutant-General, "will report with his command, fully armed and equipped, to the commanding officer at Fort Warren, for eight days' duty in the defenses of Boston Harbor." An eight days' tour? It was destined to be exactly two hundred and three days before the regiment should be released from the service on which it started under the order signed by General Dalton that afternoon.