As at the other posts of the regiment, the earlier days of the detached tour at this station found much work requiring immediate attention: range charts for each gun-group were plotted; guns, carriages, and equipments were overhauled and made ready for action; ammunition was prepared and stored at hand in the service magazines. Department orders called for three hours' gun-drill daily, and in addition to this—in order that the command might be ready for any kind of service required by later developments—an hour more was devoted to battalion drill as infantry. Evening parade was held daily by the volunteers, though the regular batteries at the post omitted this ceremony. Aside from its record of steady and faithful work there were but few events during the summer which concerned this portion of the regiment. On August 16th it was presented a battalion color by its friends in Boston, which it carried so long as on its detached service. Beginning on August 20th, there was test firing of all the recently mounted guns—12-inch mortars, 10-inch rifles, and 4.7- and 4-inch rapid-fire guns—under the supervision of Major Crozier, A.I.G., who visited all the posts in the harbor on this duty. It may here be noted, as a curious matter of record, that poverty in ammunition had forbidden the expenditure of even a single round from these modern guns until after the suspension of hostilities. On September 2nd, the men of the garrison lined the parapets and cheered lustily when the squadron of nine warships, led by the grim _Massachusetts_, steamed into the harbor for the naval parade. On the following day the Third Battalion paraded in Boston as escort to Captain Higginson, and the officers, seamen, and marines of the vessels under his command—the _Massachusetts_, _Machias_, _Detroit_, _Castine_, _Wilmington_, _Helena_, _Marietta_, _Topeka_, and _Bancroft_. Orders for change of station now arrived. On the 17th of September the battalion tendered a final review to Colonel Woodruff, and on the 19th marched out from the fort, taking transport on the _City_ _of Philadelphia_ for Boston, and thence proceeding by rail to rejoin the regiment in camp at Framingham. Officers and men alike left the post with feelings of sincere regret, since their relations with the regulars of the garrison had been most pleasant. On relieving the battalion from duty under his orders, Colonel Woodruff took occasion officially to compliment it on its uniform state of efficiency and discipline. FINAL DAYS IN THE SERVICE XIV.