USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Spencer > Historical sketches relating to Spencer, Mass., Volume III > Part 2
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Public opinion, supported by the old school militia authori- ties of the town, insisted that music was a very necessary accom- paniment of military instruction, and Mr. Cheney Bemis and am other man about his age (probably sixty or thereabouts) whose surname is believed to have been Redfield, not a resident I think
CORPORAL GEORGE W. HENRY. Copy by Currinz Co. C, 21st Mass. Vols. Born in Spencer, Dec. S, 1840. Killed in battle at Roanoke Island, N. C., Feb. 8, 1862.
of the town, very kindly volunteered to play the fife for us and two boys or very young men, whose names are gone from my memory, also very kindly offered to drum for us and I think we marched. about on the streets a little keeping step to the music of Mr. Bemis' "band." But our drill master did not think much more- highly of our music than he did of our firearms. No music or arms were required he said in teaching the first lessons of the school of the soldier and the school of the company.
Our daily drill was about six hours, three in the forenoom. and three in the afternoon. It was hard work. I remember
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
however that some Spencer critics who looked on while we drilled could not see why we should not, like any other laboring man, "'work" ten hours a day and earn our money ($1.50.) The men soon learned the movements and in the course of two weeks could go through them quite well. They were anxious to learn and took pains. I had had some experience as a student before-not in studying tactics and drilling-but what with studying my ""'Scott" both before and after drill and attempting all at once to learn not only the duties of company commander but those of the other officers, non-commissioned officers and privates too, I think it was the hardest studying I ever did. It would not be of in- terest for me to dwell longer upon our military instruction in Spencer. It was of course monotonous and without variety. . I don't remember now how many days or weeks we followed up our drilling, but I think it was three weeks, more or less.
We were all very anxious to get away into the U. S. service, but there were perplexing and trying delays, unexpected and un- explained. Congress having authorized the call for 300,000 men and President Lincoln having called for the first instalment of them (42,000) the War Department, May 4, issued general or- ders No. 15, giving a plan of organization for regiments and companies, officers and non-commissioned officers, with many de- tails not necessary to enumerate here, caused it to be printed for public information. It was generally understood to call for eight regiments from this state and so Gov. Andrew understood it. Not so, however, Mr. Secretary Cameron. At any rate, he be- came alarmed lest he should have too many troops on his hands and (May 15) in a letter to Gov. Andrew, declared that he meant only six regiment of three years' men, which with two of militia (three months' men) would make eight, and directing if eight had been called for by the Governor that their number should be reduced by discharge. And for a time in May it was given out at the War Department that there was not going to be so very much of a war after all, and Mr. Secretary of State Se- ward sagely predicted that it would be all over in ninety days.
Secretary Seward Predicts War Would Soon be Over.
Before this occured, to keep posted as to what was going on and to materialize the anxiety that we all felt to get into the U. S. service as soon as possible. I had more than once visited the State House and I had written letters to every man of influence that I knew urging him to help us.
One morning, I can't now fix the exact date, but I know it was after the date of the letter before referred to, I found in the anteroom of the Adjutant General's office several men waiting for the door of the inner room to be opened. Only interchange of
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
a word was sufficient to reveal the fact that they were all present on errands similar to mine. Presently the door opened and Gov. Andrew came out and dividing a hasty bow between the whole crowd of us, went up stairs to his own room. A Massachusetts sena- tor was present who, as I had learned by meeting him on several former occasions, was not very difficult of approach, and was quite fond of giving good advice. We (the crowd in waiting) all rushed into the room and began to lay before the Adjutant General the claims of our volunteers to be immediately transferred into the U.
SAMUEL D. SARGENT,
Co, C, 21st Mass. Vo'. Born at Durham, Canada East, Feb. 6, 1813. Killed in battle at Roanoke Island, N. C., Feb. S, 1962.
S. service. Gen. Schouler said we must have more patience. "There was 110 place for us. The government call was more than full, in proof of which he picked up from his desk and read to us the letter above referred to (or a copy of it ) then just received from the Secretary of War, to the effect that by eight regiments he meant only six, and directing the discharge of two. (This letter has been published in Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Vol. I, page 203.)
Meantime the senator was sitting by a window holding up before his face a newspaper as if he were reading it. I soon de-
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
tected that he was listening very attentively to what we were say- ing, and therupon made bold to interrupt his absorbtion in the news and ask his opinion. He said he had then just returned from Washington and could assure. us that everything was going on well there. He was well acquainted with the views of the administration. The country had been too much alarmed ..
Country Too Much Alarmed.
We must have more patience and confidence in the government. It would never do to take away all the young men up in Worcester County from agricultural and mechanical pursuits and send them off to war. They just now were needed at home greatly more than they were by the U. S. Government. Such in May 1861 was the military sagacity and good advice of a Mass. senator, late a Briga- dier in the M. V. M. and later titular colonel of the 22nd Mass. Vols., in which offices doubtless he acquired the military experi- ence which qualified him for chairman of the military committee of the U. S. Senate during the entire War of the Rebellion- afterwards Vice-President of the United States.
Before returning to Spencer I went up to the Governor's room and had a brief interview with Gov. Andrew, who, though he could only give me a minute, received me most graciously and kindly. He did not concur with the Honorable Senator's views and
Gov. Andrew Does Not Concur.
expressed himself in terms almost bordering on the profane in con- demnation of the inefficiency and folly prevailing at Washington, but he thought the rebels would soon teach the administration a lesson that nobody else could teach it, that it needed all the troops it could possibly get. Meantime no Mass. volunteers were: going to be discharged. We should all be wanted and that very shortly.
As soon as the call for three years' men was issued, a form for three years' enlistment was printed and distributed to the militia companies. Only a few days after our company election, I received one of these forms, which at once we all signed. In. accordance with military usage to transmit all returns through the next superior officer, and also with Gen. Morse's express order, I forwarded this paper to his headquarters at Worcester with the expectation that it would be forthwith forwarded by him to Adjutant General Schouler. But soon after, when the formation of a new regiment from Worcester County, to be called the 15th Mass. was announced, it appeared that the Spencer company was not one of the ten named companies. I took the next train for Boston to find out what it meant. I was told by Adjutant Gen-
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
eral Schouler that no return of enlistment for three years had been received at his office from the Spencer company. I was also told that the order for formation for the 15th Regiment had been made up for good and could not be changed so as to substitute our company for one of the others.
Naturally both the company and the people of the town of Spencer were much disappointed. The 10th Mass. Vols. was then encamped at Springfield and needed more recruits to fill up some of its companies and fifty-one of our men, chafing under their dis- appointment, impatient of further delays and desiring at once to enter the service of their country, decided to enlist in the 10th, and June 20th escorted by the Spencer Fire Company and great num- bers of the people of Spencer of both sexes, marched from the village to the railroad station, then called Spencer Depot, but now named South Spencer, and there, showered with everybody's blessings and good wishes, took the cars for Springfield and eil- listed in the companies of that regiment which after remaining about a month longer in camp, then went to Boston and after waiting a few days in camp at Medford embarked July 25th in
Off To Washington.
two steamers (the Gen. Deford and the S. R. Spaulding) for Washington.
Six companies of the second regiment to be formed in Worces- ter County and named the 21st, encamped by order of Gen. Augus- tus Morse, July 20th, on the Fair Grounds at Worcester. Camp Lincoln was the name given to the camp. The Spencer company was ordered in at the same time with the other six companies, but owing to its depletion of 51 men and the disheartening effect on the rest, I was unable to march with even the minimum number of men required until Tuesday, July 24, when my little nucleus of about twenty Spencer men had grown by recruiting in Wor- cester and elsewhere to 56 men. I rallied them together on Front street in Worcester and marched them over with fife and drum to Camp Lincoln, where our arrival appeared to take General Morse by surprise. But he turned out and paraded his six com- panies to receive us with military formality. Such honors took us by surprise. I had no sword and my men had no muskets nor did they know how to "present arms" if they had had. I could only bow and lift my kepi. Whether the commander of the camp or the commander of the re-enforcement arriving the better per- formed his part in the formality aforesaid I will not undertake to say. More of Major General Augustus Morse shortly.
My Company, to be hereafter known as Co. C. 21st Mass. Vols., was not further recruited from Spencer. I will only briefly add here that I found in camp an accomplished drillmaster especially in the Manual of Arms, who was giving lessons to both
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
officers and men. I soon made an arrangement with liim to give us lessons. He was also able to aid in recruiting and brought nie a considerable accession of recruits all at once from western Massachusetts. And I finally made a further arrangement with him, subject to approval by the Governor, to give up my office of captain to him and take that of first lieutenant myself. It was the expectation both of myself and of my friend, Capt. James M. Richardson, under whose command my company entered the U. S. service, that he would shortly be promoted to higher rank and that the captaincy of the company would sooner revert to me than in fact it did.
The 21st remained in Camp Lincoln recruiting and drilling
War Department Learning a Lesson.
till Aug. 23rd, 1861, when by order of the War Department, which was then fast learning the " lesson which nobody else but the rebels could teach it," the 21st Mass., Colonel Augustus Morse, late Major General M. V. M., commanding, took by rail its sudden departure for the "Monumental City " of Maryland and on the way in the cars again and again broke out the refrain of the old melody, "I'm off for Baltimore."
From Worcester to Baltimore our passage was one continuous ovation. Everywhere along the route we were greeted with the most enthusiastic cheers, not merely in cities and towns through which we passed, but from fields and solitary farmhouses men and women left their avocations to hail us with enthusiastic de- monstrations and waved us goodby and God's blessing as we rapidly passed by them and out of sight. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania it was the time of ripe fruit. If our cars stopped anywhere a few minutes, crowds of people gathered around us and were perfectly delighted to get us to eat their grapes and peaches. At one place, passing through an immense peach orchard, the harvesters actually stopped our train of cars and compelled us to accept baskets upon baskets of delicious fruit. In Philadelphia where we were delayed an hour or more, thous- ands upon thousands of people of both sexes, old and young, came to see us and were as glad to meet us and shake hands with us and talk with us as if we had been their nearest of kin and lifelong friends, and we were feasted and feted to a surfeit. They could not say enough or do enough to express their gratitude to us be- cause we were going to fight the enemies of their country.
My original purpose was to have concluded these reminis- cences with the entry into the United States service of the Spencer soldiers who enlisted in the spring of 1861, but after showing how Col. Morse got a few of them into the 21st Regiment, I beg leave of my friend, Mr. Tower, and his readers to go a little further and show how he ( Col. M.) got out of it.
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
From the time of our company election, Col. Morse seems to have had the purpose to have our company for one of the companies to form a regiment for him to be colonel of. During. the time we were in Camp Lincoln, my opinion of him had been daily sinking till it had reached zero. He was a pompous, con- ceited, ignorant man, utterly unfitted either by nature or edu- cation for command of men. He knew nothing of the tactics.
Those Dress Parades.
Dress parade with him was the art of war, and he put us throughz two dress parades a day. His masterpiece in battalion drill was
JAMESLACKEY. (not Larkey as printed on town hall tablet) Co. C, 21st Mass. Vol. was born in Ireland. Died of wounds at Arlington, Va. June 4, 1864.
to form a square, which he taught the regiment to do by placing- markers at the corners of his square and marching the regiment around them. To begin with, I knew nothing about battalionr drill myself, but it did not take me long to compare his method of forming square with that laid down in the U. S. Infantry Tactics which was then my daily and nightly vade mecum.
Shortly after our arrival at Baltimore we were ordered to, Annapolis and Col. Morse was made " Commander of the Post,'
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
for him a most desirable position, which had come to him by sheer luck. And for him to have it was a very desirable thing for his regiment, too, if it merely wanted to have a good time and never have anything to do with fatiguing, footsore marches and fighting fields. Not a regiment in the service had such a soft snap as we had-quartered in the Naval School Buildings with as fine parade grounds as taste and skill could prepare. Col. Morse had a grand strategetical scheme for crushing out the rebellion-not original with him -other fools had much talked it up, but it was a great favorite with him. Let all the U. S. forces, naval and military, by land and by sea, be coiled all around the rebel states like a great anaconda snake and be kept so coiled till the rebels surrendered. There need not be any fighting at all. He was too old to fight. He would not fight. He was going to stay at Annapolis and " command the post."
But in the course of time, having a good time all the time palled on our appetites and there grew up in the regiment a strong feeling in favor of active service. And it hailed with delight and with reiterated and far resounding cheers a rumor that the regi- ment was soon to be ordered off on some perilous, adventurous enterprise, nobody knew what or where, which rumor turned out
Going Into Active Service.
to be true and we went off on the Burnside expedition, but not. with Col. Morse. The aforesaid cheers had fallen like a pall on his ears and he got himself detailed to stay at Annapolis and "' command the post," and under command of Lieut. Col. Alberto C. Maggi, a born soldier and fighter, who had had experience in European wars, full of contagious zeal, energy, enthusiasm, ambition and fight, as unlike Col: Morse as fire is to ice, sailed away in the steamer Northerner for Roanoke Island.
After our successes there and elsewhere in North Carolina, we the officers of the 21st, drew up a petition to the President of the United States to remove Col. Morse from his office of colonel, which petition President Lincoln approved, and by order of the War Department, May 15, 1862, Col. Morse was discharged from the service, no reasons assigned. The 21st did not win its famous name and laurels as a fighting regiment under its first commander, but under his successors, Maggi, Clark and Hawkes, under whom I became as proud of it and as much attached to it as I could possibly have been to any other.
But one word more-I was bitterly disappointed that our Spencer company was not included in the 15th Regiment. No member of that company nor any of the people of the town of Spencer could have been more disappointed than I was. Besides
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REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR
the great desire felt by all of us in common to get away into the service as soon as possible, I had other special reasons for desiring to go with the 15th. Not another member of the company had ever given a thought or cared a straw as to who were to be the colonel and other officers of the regiment in which they should go to service. I wanted to go with Col. Devens, whom I had long known as a friend and admired as the leader of the County Bar, and of whose friendship for me I had not a doubt. And there were a few other officers of the 15th with whom I was on terms of friendship and several others with whom I was more or less acquainted.
Afterwards there occurred unexpectedly an opportunity for me to have got into the 15th with my company if I had had men enough at the time. Just before the 15th left Worcester to go away to the service, one of the companies of it refused to be mustered in unless the Governor would commission as Captain the officer whom the men of the company had chosen. This Gov. Andrews refused to do and that company was discharged. To take the place of it one of the companies of the 21st was to be transferred to the 15th. Col. Devens would have taken my company if I had had men enough. I lacked 28 men at the time to make up the number required and another company was taken.
Here endeth the undertaking into which I entered at Mr. Tower's request to furnish some reminiscences relating to Spencer in the War of the Rebellion. I procrastinated commencing it till after it ought to have been completed and was obliged in haste and under pressure of other duties to try to recall dates and details of events that occurred over forty years ago, when I, who am now over three score years and ten, was a young man. I be- speak upon the imperfect performance of my undertaking the lenient judgment of Mr. Tower and his readers.
Postmasters at North Spencer with Date of Ap- pointment.
John M. Goodell, Harvey Wilson, Jonas Wilson, Discontinued, Reestablished,
Sheldon C. Tyrrell, Discontinued,
April 15, 1831 July 6, 1832 October 12, 1833 June 29, 1868 August 12, 1868 August 12, 1868 May 13, 1872
5
Diary of Theodore Sargent of Co. K 10th Reg't. Mass. Vols.
WRITTEN DURING THE CIVIL WAR 1851-5.
THEODORE SARGENT. Born at Spencer and died at Leominster. (See record elsewhere )
April 1861. When it became evident that there was going to be war, the citizens of Spencer set about forming a company in which I enlisted on the 29th day of April. We chose for cap- tain, Wm. T. Harlow; J. W. Bigelow, 1st Lieut .; "California " Adams, 2nd Lieut .; Lawson Powers, 3d Lieut., and Horace Prouty, 4th Lieut. Capt. J. B. Studley of Worcester was our drillmaster. We expected to go in the 15th regiment but we could not go as a full company as there was already ten com-
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DIARY OF THEODORE SARGENT
panies in the regiment. We kept on drilling, waiting for a chance to go together but a part of us got tired waiting and on the 20th day of June, about 45 of us marched down to Spen- cer depot accompanied by the greater part of the village folks and there took the cars for Springfield to join the 10th regiment, then in camp on the Hampden Park, commanded by Col. Henry S. Briggs, a son of Ex-Gov. Briggs. I joined Co. K, Capt. L. B. Walkley.
June 21st. Went on guard this morning. Was mustered in today. Yesterday forenoon I was at work in the potato field;
From Potato Field to War.
today I am a soldier with three years of soldier's life to look for- ward to. We expect hardships, yet we little know after all, in what shape it will come, but we little expect that the war will last our time of service.
June 22d. Relieved from guard at nine o'clock. Had no duty to perform until dress parade.
Sunday, June 22d. Went on guard again today as the rest of the Co. that belong in Westfield have gone home.
June 24th. Relieved from guard and wrote to mother.
June 26th. The horse stalls here have been fitted up for barracks. There are three bunks, one above the other, four men in each bunk; two at each end, putting their feet together in the middle.
June 28th. Wrote to mother and told her who my mess- mates were. They are as follows: Silas T. Chamberlain, David Moore, Thomas Carney, Edmund Toomey, George P. Clark, William W. Mason, John J. Beaumont, Murray B. Lovett, James Bacon, William Conway and John Graham.
June 30th, Sunday. Had preaching by the chaplain, Rev. Fred Barton of West Springfield. Amasa Bullard has come up from Spencer and joined our company.
July 4th. Today we had to take part in the procession got up in the city. We were furnished with muskets from the Ar- senal. It has been an exceedingly hot day and we were not used to carrying arms so that it has been a very hard day's work. A number of the men were prostrated with the heat. Every man had a bouquet of flowers in the muzzle of his musket. We had a dinner in a large tent on the Park but I could not enjoy it much as I had one of my old sick headaches. Take it alto- gether, it was a pretty hard day.
July 11th. We have received our overcoats and muskets. We are armed with the Enfield rifle musket. They are an Eng- lish weapon, a little heavier than the Springfield rifle and of the
30
SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY.
same calibre. They are a very serviceable gun. They are sighted to shoot 1100 yards.
July 14th. We are expecting to get orders every day to go south. I have been home for the last time, I expect, before we go. The people of Springfield have treated us first rate since we have been in camp here. They have furnished us with strawberry shortcakes for supper two or three times. The regiment was pretty much all raised around Springfield and the adjoining towns.
Feasted on Strawberry Shortcake.
July 24th. Well, here we are in Medford and have been here for a week. We left Springfield all of a sudden a week ago; got here about ten o'clock at night. The next morning we all, or pretty much all of us, started for town, about one-half a mile from camp. The officers took what men there was left in camp and came into town and tried to get the men back. They succeeded in getting some of them, but more of them they did not get, my- self amongst them, though I came pretty near getting caught once. Lieut. Johnson was chasing Levi Boynes and myself but we man- aged to evade him by going into a house. We went back to camp about dark and would have been put into the guard house but that it was full already. There was a battle fought at Bull Run, Virginia, on the 21st in which our men got the worst of it. The report now is that we shall be in the City of Washington within a week.
July 25th. Broke camp at noon and went into Boston on the cars and embarked, the left wing on the steamer Ben Deford and the right on the S. R. Spaulding. We left the wharf about 6 p. m. and before dark we had passed Fort Warren, Fort Independence and Governor's Island, and got outside the harbor.
July 26th. It is very pleasant today. I slept below last night. Did not feel very well, am not seasick yet, but Charlie Browning is dreadfully sick. We were insight of Cape Cod this forenoon.
July 27th. I slept on deck last night and slept much better than I did the night before. We arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and were met by the war steamer "Quaker City." They advised us to look sharp for rebel batteries on the Virginia shore going up the Potomac river.
July 28th. We were up early this morning. There are two brass pieces on board and they are pointed towards the shore with ammunition ready to load them with. We had ball cart- ridges served to us this morning. It begins to look a little like war. We passed along. however, without any trouble. We looked at the Rebs and they looked at us but did not offer to in-
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