USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Brimfield > Historical celebration of the town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass > Part 5
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It had now become so difficult to secure the men needed for the army, that the legislature, December 2, ordered that all the ratable polls and estates should be divided into as many classes as there were men to be furnished, each " class " to furnish its man.
1781, January 1, the town was required to furnish 14,458 pounds of beef, and appropriated €34,000 for this and for soldiers' wages. The next money voted is in striking contrast in the figures, July 23, CI80 to hire twelve men three months to reinforce the army, each man to receive £15 hard money. The constable, Capt. John Sherman, was instructed " not to receive any more money than is now due to said Town at any other rate than will answer or pay the debts of said Town." Wages were to be reckoned " as when silver was the common currency."
1782, at the annual town meeting, in order to raise the five men called for to join the Continental army, £50 was voted to fit them out. €202 to pay in full the first. year's dues of the three years' men. . and May 16. the Treasurer was authorized to give each one enlisting under
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
the last call £60 in money and notes. After the surren- der of Cornwallis at Yorktown, 1781, October 19, the war was unpopular in England, and 1782, March 28, the House of Commons voted not to prosecute the war any farther. Preliminary articles of a treaty, acknowledging the United Colonies to be " free, sovereign and independ- ent States," were signed at Paris, 1782, November 30. 1783, April 19, just eight years after the battle of Lex- ington, Washington issued in camp a notice that hostili- ties had ceased.
After the first encounters with the British troops at Lexington, Bunker Hill, and the siege of Boston, for the succeeding years of the war Massachusetts was free from any hostile attack. Rhode Island was in possession of the British from the outbreak of the war till 1779, Octo- ber 25, and Massachusetts militia often marched to that State to repress invasion and pillage. 1776, November 28, Massachusetts men were also to be found far away from home, fighting the battles of Liberty with full ranks and untiring ardor. Said General Washington to Theo- dore Sedgwick, the representative to Congress from this district, as they stood together at West Point, while the army was under review : "Do you see from that fence to that tree those men in line ? They are all from Massa- chusetts, and they number one hundred and fifty more than one-half of the whole army." That incident is but one out of many, showing Massachusetts' patriotic devo- tion. So many men were called away, that it was ex- tremely difficult to carry on the needful daily work on the farm and in the shop. When Captain Sherman, de- tained, to his great anxiety, beyond the time he had fixed, came home from one of the short terms of service, short because the men could not be spared any long time, he wept like a child to find that two boys he left at home had not gathered the crops, and had made no preparation
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SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION.
whatever for the coming winter. Money was as freely given as time and life, and the records show that in spite of the depreciation in the currency, the town's obliga- tions were always fully and promptly paid. It is only by giving the town's record in full, that any due impres- sion can be conveyed of the honorable part the town took in the sacrifices and services of the Revolutionary War.
The Continental Congress, 1779, October 19, in making provision for a Continental army, called for quotas from the various States to serve one year. The enlisted men were to receive $5 per month, furnish their own arms, and instead of bounty receive one felt hat, one pair yarn stockings, one pair shoes. By act of Congress, 1776, September 16, enlisted men were to serve three years, or during the war, each man to receive $20 bounty and one hundred acres of land. The several States were to ap- point the officers, provide arms and clothing, two linen hunting shirts, two pairs overalls, one leather or woolen waistcoat with sleeves, one pair breeches, hat or leather cap, two shirts, two pairs hose, two pairs shoes. 1780. February 9, Congress called on the States to fill up the battalions in each State line. Massachusetts had to fur- nish fifteen battalions of nine companies each, with one light infantry company to each battalion. In 1781, Sep- tember 26, the Continental army landed at James river, and began the siege of Yorktown. Its surrender, 1781, October 19, virtually ended the war. It is possible, though difficult, to make out a list of the soldiers furnished by each town, and the period and place of service. Such a list, presumably complete, is given in the appendix.
Of but few individuals, active in the Revolutionary War, is there any tradition or record, as having a career memorable for daring achievement or display of heroism. Courage is the common, as it is the indispensable virtue
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HISTORICAT, ADDRESS.
of a soldier. Christopher Ward, who died IS40. October 13. aged eighty-three, used often to tell how he narrowly escaped from some British dragoons. They came upon him unexpectedly while he was in a house, enjoying a good dinner. He rushed out of the house, and using his gun as a leaping pole, jumped over a fence as high as his chin, and was soon safe from his pursuers in the woods. Lieutenant Thompson. of Brimfield, is said to have been the last soldier killed in the War of Independence. Ma- jor Abner Morgan, afterwards a leading lawyer in Brim- field, served under Montgomery in the expedition to Can- ada. Col. Jonathan Thompson was in command of a regiment at the siege of Yorktown. Blodget was taken prisoner, but escaped by appropriating the red coat of one of his guard, and decamping with it incontinently. Enoch Morgan entered at the age of sixteen, and served through the war.
When, in 1874, repairs were made on the house in which Captain Nichols used to live, now occupied by Mr. L. A. Cutler, a letter to Captain Nichols was found, writ- ten by Jesse Parker, at that time one of the soldiers from Brimfield, stationed at Fishkill. In his later life, like many other old soldiers, Jesse was often overcome by strong drink. His drunkenness made him recall his mil- itary service. Mounting a rock, he would give his orders as commander-in-chief, "Attention, the whole world! Nations, wheel by battalions."
In the kitchen of Captain Nichols' house, on the wood work over the fire-place, some Hessians, that lodged there for a time, carved their names. They were stragglers from Burgoyne's army, who preferred to find a home in America to being given up to the British. At the surrender of Bur- goyne's army, 1777, October 17, five thousand seven hun- dred and ninety-one soldiers, two thousand four hundred and twelve of them Hessians, became prisoners of war.
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SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION.
By the terms of the surrender, they were to be marched to Boston by the most expeditious and convenient route, there to be exchanged and embarked on board transports that were to meet them. They marched through the country on the old Boston road. At Powers' Corner they rested several days. Farmers went there to thresh oats for the horses. They were escorted by a few militia, and marched slowly, taking three days to pass any given point. The Dorman family, of Monson, and the Weineke or Veineke family, of Wales, are descendants of Hessian soldiers, who dropped out on the line of march. The Dorman family are said to have been men of stalwart physique. One of them, standing in a half bushel meas- ure, would lift to his head four bushels of salt. Some Hessians died, and were buried during the halt at West Brimfield. Their front teeth were so worn by hard fare and hard usage, that to the unscientific observer, the sol- diers' seulls dug up in that locality a few years ago appeared to have double teeth all round the mouth.
The country was impoverished by the long-continued war for independence, the government unsettled, ordinary business stagnant, and the people hailed with joy the peace of Paris that terminated the war, 1783, September 3. The soldiers, when the army was disbanded, found themselves virtually defrauded of their reasonable claim for wages due, by being paid off in a worthless currency. The State debt was more than £1,300.000 ( £250,000 due Massachusetts officers and soldiers ); and besides this the State's proportion of the federal debt was £1,500.000.
At Burt's tavern, next to Abraham Charles' place on the road to Sturbridge, the farmers' cattle that had been brought, to be sold at auction to pay taxes, would often be driven back again, not a bid offered. because not a cent of money could be paid. The general indebtedness and the provisions of the laws then in force, unduly favoring
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
the creditor, not as now the debtor, were causes of gen- eral distress. But instead of seeking redress through the regular channels of constitutional legislation, conventions assembled in various counties to consider their grievances. Armed mobs prevented the courts from being held; the first at Northampton, 1786, August 29. Daniel Shays, of Pelham, and Luke Day, of West Springfield, who had both been captains in the Continental army, were especially conspicuous in fomenting disturbance. 1,200 men gath- ered in Springfield to prevent the opening of the Superior Court, September 26. The militia companies under Gen- eral Shepard, of Westfield, had been summoned to defend the Court House. The Grand Jury was thus pre-occupied with military duty, and though the court was opened, no business could be done. It is said that General Daniel- son, at this time Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, finding the steps of the Court House occupied by men disposed to prevent his entrance, being a large, stout man, took one man with one hand and another with his other hand, and slinging the crowd thus in opposite directions, made way for himself to the Court room.
The people of Brimfield, during the time of the Shays Rebellion, were on the side of law and order. Captain Sherman's and Captain Hoar's militia company, in Col. Gideon Burt's regiment, marched to Springfield, and did their part in sustaining the government and the authorized administration of justice, when Samuel Ely was taken out of Springfield Gaol, June 12, 1782, and rioters assembled at Northampton, June 16.
1776, October 4, in accordance with a resolve of the legislature, at a town meeting of "all the inhabitants be-
« Simeon Hubbard was sent to the convention that met at Hadley, 1787, January 2, and advised the people to petition for relief, rather than seek it by force and violence.
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STATE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED AND AMENDED.
ing free and over twenty-one years of age "-property qualifications on this occasion not being specified, the first instance of simple manhood suffrage-it was voted "that the present House of Representatives, of this State of Massachusetts Bay, should prepare a Constitution and Form of Government to be submitted to the people for approval." Though government was without Constitu- tional warrant all this time, there was most perfect order maintained. 1778, May 13, the town voted against the proposed Constitution, twenty-seven yeas, four nays. 1779. August 21, Hon. Timothy Danielson, Esq., was chosen a delegate to the Convention at Cambridge, September 1, to form a new Constitution. The Bill of Rights and State Constitution proposed by this Con- vention, were submitted to the people and adopted, 1780, May 29.
1820, November 15, on the separation of Maine, the second State Constitutional Convention met at Boston. To this Dr. Israel Trask and Hon. John Wyles were elected delegates. Of the fourteen articles of amend- ment proposed, nine were adopted by vote of the people, 1821, April 29. Under one of these the legislature were authorized to propose specific amendments, some of which were adopted, some rejected. Not till 1840 was the prop- erty representation in voting for senators abolished ; pre- viously Suffolk County, because of its greater wealth, had one senator to 7,500 people ; Berkshire one to 20,000. Not till 1831 was the first Wednesday in January, instead of the last in May, made the beginning of the civil year. 1851. Nov. 10, the people voted against the proposition for another convention to revise the Constitution. 1853, May 4, the third State Constitutional Convention met in Boston, and Parsons Allen was the delegate from Brim- field; but the people refused 1853, Nov. 14, to ratify its action.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Not till 1787. September 17. was the Constitution of the United States framed. the old Articles of Confedera- tion serving. the meantime, to keep the States from sep- arating entirely. Though only ten out of the thirteen States, accepted it at first, this majority was such a com- pliance with the provisions of the Constitution, as to bring it into immediate operation. Maj. Abner Morgan was the delegate from Brimfield to the Massachusetts Convention in 1788, to adopt and ratify the United States Constitution. Washington was elected the first President, and inaugurated 1789, April 30. Four elections were necessary before the choice was made of Theodore Sedg- wick, in preference to Samuel Lyman, as the first repre- sentative to Congress from this district.
The period succeeding the adoption of the Constitution was one of general prosperity. Yet soon party feeling developed itself. The conservative and moneyed classes favored a strict construction of the Constitution. These classes, constituting the great body of the federalist party, took to themselves the credit for the successful operation of the Constitution. Against these the democrats were pitted. They disliked the vantage given to character and wealth in the decision of political questions, and sought to give those out of office fuller opportunity to taste its sweets. There was, undoubtedly, a mouldy flavor of aristocracy in some of the usages and institu- tions of our New England communities. The federalists seemed to think that the upper classes were entitled to rule, while the democrats disbelieved any such notion as that the lower orders were sent into the world only to obey. Party feeling ran high. In some pulpits strong prejudices found vent. as in one minister's declaration : " 1 do not say that every democrat is a horse-thief, but I do say that every horse-thief is a democrat." Jefferson, just returned from Paris, was suspected of cherishing such
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FORMATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES.
wild notions of individual liberty, as had shocked the world in the excesses of the French Revolution. The measures he proposed were thought to be not only de- signed to favor France against England, but to damage New England.
1807, December 22, Congress passed the Embargo Act, detaining all vessels then in our ports, and ordering all our vessels abroad to return home. It was a fatal blow to commerce, and brought ruin to many New England people. An incidental evidence of this is furnished by Squire Pynchon's record of cases tried before him as Jus- tice of the Peace. It is almost entirely filled with the claims of one person against another for small debts.
ISOS, August 29, the town in special meeting voted to petition the President to suspend the Embargo. General Eaton advocated the measure, and the town requested him to furnish a copy of his speech for publication. He read a written address. Daniel Frost objected to reading in the town meeting. The Moderator decided that Gen- eral Eaton had a right to read ; whereupon Frost sent out for a copy of the Constitution. When General Eaton had concluded his address, Frost commenced to read his book. It was sometime before he could be made to com- prehend that his reading was not in order.
1809, March 1, the Embargo Act was repealed, three days before Jefferson went out of office; but the Non- Intercourse Aet was passed the same day, which was almost equally oppressive in its restrictions.
Complications with Great Britain on questions of juris- diction, culminated in a declaration of war, 1812, June 18. At the annual town meeting, the state of the coun- try was one of the topics for consideration, and at a spe- cial meeting in July, a vote was passed approving the resolutions adopted at a meeting in Boston, June 15. Those who had brought on the war had made no prepa- 8
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
ration for it. The federalists of Massachusetts strongly opposed the war, discouraged enlistments, called the Hartford Convention, which met 1814, December 14, and upheld State Rights, if it did not recommend secession. Yet Massachusetts furnished fourteen thousand troops, more than any other single State. The militia of the State were called out for the defence of Boston against an anticipated attack. When the order for the draft was read in Brimfield on Sunday, September 10, some men mounted their horses and rode off out of the town to avoid the odious service. Lemuel Allen and Sanders Allen, twin brothers, were both drafted. Brimfield and Monson furnished one company. Adolphus Homer, of Monson, was Captain ; Abner Brown, Lieutenant. They rendezvoused at Palmer, 1814, September 12, marched to Boston, and remained in the fortifications there till No- vember 24, when they were discharged and sent home. The militia forces were under the control of State officers, ninety-three thousand five hundred men, ten thousand from Massachusetts having been ordered out by the Pres- ident July 4. Major-General Whiton, of Lee, one of eight militia major-generals, was the commander-in-chief. All that was seen of the enemy was a ship cruising off the harbor of Boston. In the wrestling matches with which the men whiled away their time, the Brimfield soldiers showed special skill, many of them being very stalwart men.
Commissioners met at Ghent, 1814, August 8, but En- gland's demands at first were too insolently imperious, insisting as she did upon her retention of Maine, our giving up Ohio and the territory westward of the Ohio to her Indian allies. These demands were modified, how- ever, and 1814, December 24, the treaty of peace was signed, and the country rejoiced.
The country was immediately flooded with British
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ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.
manufactures, cheap, and to be sold at a loss with final profit, if our own manufacturers could be crushed out. But Yankee ingenuity had been busy devising labor-sav- ing machinery, and Yankee enterprise devoted itself to manufactures as giving speedier and larger profits than farming. The increased value of cotton made the aboli- tion of slavery a vexed question in politics. 1837, Sep- tember 11, the town adopted a resolution against the ad- mission of Texas. The sentiment of the town was always strongly against the continuance of slavery, though some members of its prominent families-Trasks and Pynchons -had gone to the Southern states to become land-holders and slave-owners.
The admission of Texas, 1845, March 1, was followed by the war with Mexico, declared 1846, April 24. The volunteers who served in the Mexican campaigns were largely from the Southern states. None went from Brim- field. The treaty of peace, 1848, February 2, gave us possession of California.
The discovery of gold in California caused an unprec- edented rush of emigration to that far-off El Dorado. Some of the young men, Edward Sherman and George C. Homer and others, went with the crowd of gold-seekers in 1849. The admission of California as a State, in 1850, was attended with heated discussions of the slavery ques- tion, and when. in 1854, May 30, the Missouri compro- mise was repealed, such an anti-slavery feeling was aroused, that on this tide of tempestuous emotion Lincoln was seated in the Presidential Chair, 1860.
In the war of secession that followed. the record of the town shows that patriotism was as ardent, the readiness of the town to meet the country's call for men or money, or woman's sympathy and self-sacrifice. as honorable as in the days of the Revolution. The firing on Fort Sumter. the first overt belligerent act of Secession, occurred 1861.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
April 11. April 15. President Lincoln called for sev- enty-five thousand volunteers to defend Washington ; May 3, for eighty-two thousand seven hundred and four- teen additional ; July 5, after the disastrous conflict at Bull Run, another call was made for four hundred thou- sand; August 2, this was increased to five hundred thousand. Those were days of darkness, when little progress seemed to be made. It was soon evident that instead of a few days' junketing we must expect a long and bloody war. 1862, July 1, there was a call for six hundred thousand volunteers, followed, August 4, by the order for a draft of three hundred thousand to serve nine months. August 8, Governor Andrew or- dered a new enrollment of all male citizens of Massa- chusetts, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. 1863, January 1, with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the scales of victory slowly turned in favor of the North. October 17, there was a call for three hundred thousand more troops. 1864, March 1, the Pres- ident issued an order for two hundred thousand drafted men, unless a sufficient number should volunteer, previ- ous to April 15, so as to fill the quotas demanded up to that time. March 18, the legislature authorized the towns to raise money for bounties not to exceed one hun- dred and twenty-five dollars for each man enlisted to fill . the quota. July 18, there came a call for five hundred thousand men to serve one, two, or three years. By or- der of Major-General Dix, 1864, May 4, Massachusetts was called on for militia for ninety days' service, and June 30, for others for one hundred days' service. The last call for troops was 1864, December 21, for three hundred thousand men to make up deficiency of two hundred and sixty thousand through credits and discharges on previ- ous calls. 1865, April 30, volunteering ceased.
To all these calls there was a ready response. The
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WAR OF SECESSION.
first volunteers enlisted in the Twenty-seventh Regiment, mainly in Co. I. When the draft was made in 1863, either the drafted men went, or they paid the three hun- dred dollars commutation money accepted by the govern- ment. If the time of service was, as in 1862, only nine months, there were enough who were ready to leave home and farm for that length of time, to more than fill the town's quota. Re-enlistments, volunteering of young men for the new levies, and the payment of bounties for substitutes, kept the town's quota filled in advance of the calls ; and at the close of the war one hundred and four- teen men had been sent, though the whole number liable to do military duty, in 1864, was only 184. The town was credited with five more men than, according to the Adju- tant-General's calculation, was demanded as its quota on all the calls.
The Twenty-seventh Regiment mustered at Springfield 1861, September 20, and left camp November 2, under command of Col. Horace C. Lee, of Springfield. They were in camp at Annapolis till 1862, January 6, when they left for Fortress Monroe, as part of the Burnside expedition. A storm came on, and they remained on board the transports till February 6. Landing on Roa- noke Island, February 7, marched against the enemy, and under General Foster's leadership drove them from their fortification. Went next to Newbern, N. C., March 11, where they attacked and drove out the enemy. May 1, they went out to Batchelder's Creek, about eight miles from Newbern. July 25, they marched on a reconnois- sance to Trenton. September 3, those companies were sent to Washington, N. C. December 11. marched on the expedition to Goldsboro, to break up the Wilmington and Weldon railroad. Met and routed the enemy at Kinston, December 17: tore up the track and burned the railroad bridge over the Neuse river, 1863. January 4;
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
went to Washington, N. C. March 30. The place was attacked by fifteen thousand confederates under Maj .- Gen. D. H. Hill. The steamer Escort, with the Fifth Rhode Island Regiment and supplies, safely ran the block - ade, whereupon the confederates abandoned the siege. April 27, the regiment was in the engagement at Batch- elder Creek, and again May 20, at Cove Creek. June 6. served as provost guard at Newbern. July 17, marched to Swift Creek to support the cavalry on the Rocky Mount raid. The regiment served as provost guard at Norfolk and Portsmouth. March 5, went on an expedition to Magnolia Springs; April 12, beyond Suffolk ; May 5, to Bermuda Hundred, up the James river ; May 9, in the engagement at Swift Creek before Petersburg, were op- posed to the Twenty-seventh South Carolina regiment of the confederate forces; May 15, in one of the fights in front of Petersburg, lost nine officers, including both colonel and lieutenant-colonel, with two hundred and for- ty-three enlisted men ; May 31, marched to Coal Harbor ; June 3, suffered severely in the attack on the enemy's works at that place ; June 15, marched towards Petersburg and lost nearly one-half their number in the attack of June 18; left the front September 17, and Colonel Lee, with the detachment of men (one hundred and seventy- nine) whose term of service then expired, was mustered out 1864, September 27. Twenty-five from Brimfield were in Company I; of these nine re-enlisted.
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