USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Spencer > Historical sketches relating to Spencer, Mass., Volume III > Part 7
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Feb. 11th. We started at 8 o'clock this morning by the way of the N. Y. & N. H. railroad and got to Springfield about one o'clock. We had to wait there till the night freight went east, about five o'clock. We went on that and got to Spencer depot about 8 o'clock. We then shouldered our knapsacks and started. John and I traveled for about a mile and a half together when I left him at his father's and I had about a mile further to go alone. I reached home about 9 o'clock. I can stay at home now until
A Good Time At Home.
the 16th of March and I am bound to have a good time if there is such a thing.
March 16th. Started from home today for my regiment. We started in the morning and stayed in Springfield till 6 P. M. While I was in waiting the cartridge factory blew up and there was quite a number of girls burned. I had one of my hands burned a little and John Worthington got scorched a lit- tle, but not very badly.
March 17th. Rode all night and got to Washington about 110011. We had to stay all night as we could not get transporta- tion to the front.
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DIARY OF THEODORE SARGENT
March 18th. We left Washington at 10 o'clock this morn- ing and got here at four o'clock this afternoon. The boys are in the same old spot at Brandy Station and it seems like home almost to get here again.
March 23rd. It snowed all night last night and the boys are having a great time snow balling.
March 27th. Gen. Grant has taken command of the army of the Potomac. They say he is going to reorganize the army. I hope he will not take Sedgwick away from us. Gen. Meade is still to have the command of the army only that Grant will be over him.
April 16th. Charlie Browning came up to see us today. He is an orderly sergeant in the new battalion of the 1st Mass. Cavalry.
April 17th. The boys are ball playing with all their might. Our regiment stands at the head of the corps in this game.
April 24th. We played a game of wicket yesterday with the 37th Mass. We beat them on 137 tallies. They challenged us in the first place to play them a game of wicket, twenty men on a side. We played them and beat them two tallies. Then they challenged the 7th Mass. to play a game of ball. The 7th boys beat them 50 to 10; then they challenged us to play thein another game of wicket, 25 men on a side. We played them yesterday with the above results.
May 4th. Broke camp this morning and marched to the Rapidan river; crossed at Germania Ford about noon. We stopped on the other side and got our dinner. We marched towards the Wilderness until night.
May 5th. We started this morning but did not get along very fast. We would march a little way and then we would stop. There is trouble ahead. We can hear the music. This afternoon our brigade was sent to the left. We got engaged about three o'clock this afternoon. I did not stop there long as I was hit twice, the first time by a spent ball and the next time in the leg just above the ankle, not severely but still enough wounded to get me to the rear.
May 6th. Lay at the hospital last night. Our regiment went in again this morning and was relieved by the 57th Mass. Our regiment lost 137 last night and this morning our Company had three killed and nine wounded.
May 7th. Our corps hospital is situated just in the rear of the right of our corps. Last night the rebs tried to flank us and our troops fell back to preserve their line which brought them pretty closely to the hospital. The men and doctors were all frightened; thought that we were going to be taken prison- ers surely. Those of us who were able skedaddled to the rear.
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
We finally got cooled down when we found there was no dan- ger, and went back to the hospital for the night. We started today for Ely's Ford. It is reported that we are going to go to Brandy Station and take the cars for Alexandria. Crossed the river just at night and laid just the other side of the river.
May 8th. Found out this morning that the rebs were at Brandy Station and we had to go back again by the way of Chancellorsville. The army is fighting every day now. There are thousands of wounded men in the rear. The doctors have
DAVID GREEN Copy by Currin
Co. D, 3d Mass. Cavalry. Born Aug. 20, 1827, at Wrentnam. Died
in hospital at Algiers, La., July 28, 1864.
all they can do. We have orders to march to Fredericksburg, all who are able. Jim Noble and I kept together. He is wounded in the arm. We got to Fredericksburg about dark.
May 9th. We are at one of the churches. The city is full of wounded men. The surgeons have to work night and day. We laid here all night.
May 10th. We are going to Washington today or tomor- row. The doctors are examining the wounds to see who is wounded and who is playing wounded. There are a good many of the latter class.
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DIARY OF THEODORE SARGENT
May 11th. Jim Noble and I started for Bell Plain today. We did not get there till 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We went on board the steamer "Rebecca Barton." There were about 400 wounded men on board. We did not get to Washington un- til nearly morning. When we were within two miles of Wash- ington just opposite the branch of the Potomac that comes out by the arsenal there was a steamer came down off that branch and through a mistake of one or the other of the boats in show- ing their lights, that steamer ran into us. She struck us just. forward of the main mast and stove a hole into us eight feet long. Two feet of it was below the water line. Fortunately the channel of the river was not very broad at this place and the. pilot headed the boat for the shore and signaled to the engineer to put on a full head of steam. The boat struck bottom before the water got up to the fires and we were all right as far as danger of sinking was concerned. We blew the whistle as a signal of distress and the steamer "Columbus" came down from Washington and took us off. After we got to the wharf we got into ambulances and were conveyed to different hospitals. Jim and I to the Stanton Hospital.
May 15th. Received a furlough for 30 days and started for home. We left Washington in freight cars about noon. We did not get to Philadelphia until after dark. Got our supper and I had my wound dressed at the "Union Refreshment Rooms." We then started and got to New York about daylight and to Springfield at one o'clock.
May 16th. Left Springfield a little after one p. m. Got to Worcester about four and took the accommodation train back to Spencer, and got to mother's about six p. m., tired and hungry.
How to Stop the Baby From Crying.
Luther Hill used to tell the story of a man by the name of Eli Hinds who once owned the Erastus J. Starr farm and whose slumbers were greatly disturbed by the midnight crying of his first and only infant child. " Why Eli," said his wife in re- sponse to his words of censure, " I can't help the child's crying so." " Yes you can too," replied Eli in cross and surly tone, " If you had'nt let him cry in the first place he never would have cried."
Centenarians Deceased in Spencer.
Elizabeth Ormes, 1785, aged 100 years, 5 months; Elijah Hersey, Feb. 26, 1850, aged 100 years, 23 days; Anna Pope, July 14, 1859, aged 104 years, 7 months.
POSTSCRIPTUM.
BY MAJOR WM. T. HARLOW.
On the friendly suggestion of Mr. Tower I will add here just a brief allusion to the obvious historical parallel to the great popu- lar uprising in the Northern States that followed the taking of Fort Sumter. I mean, of course, the red-hot outbreak of public indignation in the colony of the Massachusetts Bay that resulted from the appearance of British troops on Lexington Common, April 19, 1775. It was in 1863 that Longfellow, minded thereto, not unlikely by events then recent and passing, wrote his charming ballad of " The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." Who
* *
"Spread the alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm For the country folk to be up and to arm."
But the famous alarm did not stop at the county line between Middlesex and Worcester. Other fast riders took up Paul's inflammable war cry and sped it and spread it "to every village and farm" in the colony.
In his History of Worcester, Lincoln says : " Before noon on the 19th of April an express came to the town shouting as he passed through the street at full speed : "To arms! To arms ! The War has begun." His white horse bloody with spurring and dripping with sweat, fell exhausted at the church .* Another was instantly procured and the tidings went on. The bell rang the alarm, cannon were fired and messengers sent to every part of the town to collect the soldiery. As the news spread imple- ments of husbandry were thrown down in the fields and the citizens left their homes with no longer delay than to seize arms. In a short time the minute men were paraded on the green by Capt. Timothy Bigelow and after fervent prayer by Rev. Mr. MacCarty took up their line of march for Concord "-soon followed by the train bands under Captain Benj. Flagg-110 men in all.
After giving an account of what had taken place at Lexington and Concord the historian of Spencer says-" An alarm was immediately spread through the country like an electric shock. Great was the commnotion among the people. Like the fiery cross
* "Old South" which stood where the City Hall now stands.
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POSTSCRIPTUM
of the Scottish clans a messenger on horseback with the speed of the winds passed through the towns from the East, shouting at the top of his voice : " The war has begun, the British are march- ing to Concord." All business and recreations were immediately suspended. The farmer left his plough in the furrow and the mechanic his tools on his bench and there was an instantaneous gathering of the people with stern wills to do whatever should be necessary to meet the emergency. The company of minute menl (names all given by Mr. Draper in an appendix ) Capt. Ebenezer
FRANK BIRD.
Co. C, 37th Mass. Vols. Born in Canada. Killed in battle of the Wilderness, Va., May 16, 1864.
Mason, buckled on their knapsacks, shouldered their muskets and were immediately on their line of march.
A volume of like quotations might be made from other town histories.
In 1863 Longfellow said : " Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year."
It is now forty years more since the alarm than it then was and 128 years from the alarm to the present time, and no man is
6
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
now alive who remembers it. But it is within the easy recollection of the writer when many persons were living who heard the Lex- ington alarm and I will call from the unwritten history of another town on the direct line from Lexington Common through Worcester to Spencer, a short story told me by an old soldier of the Revolutionary War who was at the time of the alarm fourteen years old. He was at work with his father ploughing when they heard the hurrying foot beats of a fast rider* coming up the road who shouted as he rode : "To arms : The war has begun." His father, wlio was an officer of the Shrewsbury minute men, instantly stopped his team and detaching a horse started off to rally his men. He (the teller of the story) wanted to go too and cried because his father would not let him. Later in the war, when his father had come home to die of an illness contracted in the service he was permitted to enlist to go and fight the British in. his father's stead.
The ploughman, whose ploughing was interrupted by the Lexington alarm, was Lieut. (later captain) Nathan Howe, who died long before the war was over, but his son, Nathan Howe Jr., not only survived the war but lived to tell many a war story to his grandchildren. Two companies of minute men (I am unable to give their numbers) rallied and marched from Shrewsbury, April 19, 1775, one with Capt. Job Cushing and the other (from the North Parish, later Boylston) with Capt. Robert Andrews.
The names of the fast riders who spread the famous alarm westward from Middlesex, less fortunate than Paul Revere, are unknown, and like the many brave men who lived before Aga- memnon, spoken of by Horace, will have to go down into oblivion unsung for lack of a sacred bard to sing their praises. The sequel of the Lexington aların as briefly told by the sacred bard who immortalized the exploit of the fortunate Revere runs thus :
You know the rest. In books you have read, How the British regulars fired and fled, How the farmers gave them ball for ball, From behind each fence and barnyard wall, Chasing the red-coats down the lane, And crossing the field to emerge again, Under the trees at the turn of the road, And stopping only to fire and to load,
which is only a small fragment of the whole grand sequel. "You know," too, how from the spark kindled at Lexington followed the Revolutionary War and American Independence and the United States, our great and beloved country as it now is.
* The same, doubtless, who arrived at the church in Worcester before noon. It was. probably about II o'clock when his foot-beats were heard coming up Shrewsbury Hill.
ARMY LIFE.
BY SOLOMON K. HINDLEY OF SPENCER, A MEMBER OF CO. H roth REGIMENT MASS. VOLUNTEERS.
It is generally understood that this letter was written on re- quest of Luther Hill to whom it was addressed. After its recep- tion in Spencer it was passed along from house to house and read and re-read with intense interest.
CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., APRIL 13th, 1863. LUTHER HILL ESQ.
As I had spoken to my sister Eliza about sending home my diary of last year and several of my townspeople and friends wishing to see it, hoping to read something of interest, I thought if I should spend a few evenings in glancing over my service in the army and write sketches of places, thoughts and incidents, it might be more interesting and they would have a better idea of the life of a soldier than by reading my diary, which contains nothing but abbreviations for my own reference, hence I submit a sketch of the ups and downs of myself and regiment from the time I became enthusiastic in the cause of the country until the present.
The bombarding of Fort Sumter, the mobbing and torturing of loyal citizens in the South, the tearing down of the stars and stripes, and such infernal outrages committed on our people and flag, had kindled a fire of indignation within me; patiently I bore all these insults until our brave 6th battalion was mobbed in Baltimore; then my mind was at once fixed to do duty and ser- vice for my country. After debating and arguing with my classmates at Wilbraham Academy, seeking their co-operation and company, I bade them farewell and started alone with a sin- cerity and determination of purpose that burns today, as when the throbs of patriotism first beat high. I went home to make known my resolves to my parents and to leave my books and clothing with them. I found a company forming and drilling, and after obtaining the consent of my parents, in two days I was a member. You know how anxious we were to depart for the seat of war and how long we were disappointed and delayed and how a part of the company in such haste departed for Spring-
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
field, June 24th, 1861, to fill up the regiment forming there; officers and non-commissioned officers retiring to the ranks that they might at once help to crush the rebellion. Our band of about sixty-four divided to fill three companies and though I say it, it was my fortune to join Co. H, always remarkable for discipline, honesty and a strict adherence to every duty and superior in most every respect to any other in the battalion.
Time passed slowly away, our time being occupied by severe drilling by company and regiment. On the 16th of July 1861, we
SOLOMON K. HINDLEY
were ordered to Medford, preparatory to our journey to Washington. There we were not long delayed, for on the 25th we took cars for Boston and embarked on the steamers Ben Deford and S. R. Spaulding. A few days previously I was taken sick and being unable to carry my knapsack and musket, an ambulance was provided for me to drive to Boston, unfortunately having to take care of the horse. I was not on the steamer with my com- pany, thus deprived of nearly all acquaintances and friends. Having had some experience on the water, I provided myself
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ARMY LIFE
with lemons and a canteen of something else in case of sea sick- ness and so felt at rest concerning a trip at sea.
About five p. m. the moorings were let loose; amid the cheers for our success, the good-bye, and sobs of friends, we steamed into the bay, joyful and buoyant as on a pleasure ex- cursion. We lingered long, looking towards our dear homes and when distance was great and the eyes grew dim, we turned away, heaved a long farewell sigh and then thought of our work and duty before us. 'Twas four days after the first battle of Bull Run, the blood was still oozing from our brothers' veins. We
To Avenge Col. Ellsworth's Death.
were aching to be avenged for the loss of brave Col. Ellsworth, who fell a few days before. I wanted to skim over the water lightly and swiftly, but the steamer, heedless of all my desires, kept plowing along heavily and apparently in indolence.
Night came on ; the sky was beautiful and clear, the stars poured forth their mellow light upon the placid bosom of the sea. 'Twas a lovely night; after watching the phosphorus in the water and the quietude and beauty of everything around until a late hour, I turned into my ambulance and slept through the night. Before daylight next morning I was aroused by a sound as of men in distress. I will not attempt to describe the scene as I heard it; on the Ben Deford were about 500 men and 100 horses, two or three hundred of the former were sick before daylight and such heaving and groaning is only known by those who are experienced. I was fortunate, my system had been so recently re- duced that the water did not affect me.
The next day we were out at sea, naught but a broad ex- panse of ocean around us 'Twas magnificently grand. I thought I could always live thus; soon a breeze sprang up, caus- ing the billows to swell and the ship to roll. Then would the timid landsman, at each rise and roll seize some fixture hold his breath and wish himself back to the old farm ; wishful and home- sick glances and sorry faces were all around ; many sick on deck unable to move ; so passed the day Friday and Friday night. Sat- urday we sailed beautifully, both steamers keeping near each other. Nothing occurred of importance until about six p. m. when we passed Fortress Monroe in the distance. The next morning we were in the Potomac; about ten we passed Mount Auburn, the home and burial place of Gen. Washington ; an hour later Alexandria hove in sight. As we passed, many a silent and bitter curse was heaped upon its people, the country's enemies. The Jackson house stands proudly above all the rest, (the house where Ellsworth fell.) Could we in our rage have been turned upon it, its massive walls would soon have been a heap of smoul- dering ruins.
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
Gently steaming up the Potomac the Capitol came in sight; all eyes were turned to the far-famed building and city, its public buildings, rising far above all others, makes it a grand sight from the river; the Capitol, Treasury building, Smithsonian Institute, Postoffice and Patent Office buildings are very prominent; the masses of white marble glittering in the sun and at a distance ap- pear with snowy whiteness.
About noon we came to anchor near the arsenal, awaiting orders, where we remained a couple of hours. The S. R. Spauld- ing ran alongside and the Ben Deford sailed a couple of miles farther up the river to the navy yard. In ten minutes every man was ashore and in half an hour the hundred horses were taken off. Next came a hard tug of unloading and putting to- gether of heavy wagons. Our regiment was supplied with twenty-five four-horse wagons, five one-horse ambulances and two two-horse hospital wagons. The wagons had been taken to pieces in Boston and stowed away in the hold of the steamner. On arriv- ing in Washington all had to be refitted and loaded with tents, hospital stores and provisions. It was a great piece of work but it was surprising with what alacrity they were taken to pieces, stowed away, hauled up, refitted and loaded. All was done in
News From Bull Run.
about twelve hours. This day, July 28th, is one week after the meniorable battle of Bull Run. We were all anxious to hear particulars so we crowded around the workmen in the navy yard and listened to all kinds of stories of the horrid battle, what good time some of our men made from the battlefield to Washington and many such like, bordering on the ridiculous.
We had sarcely been ashore two hours when a terrible thun- der shower burst upon us, and we were for the first time without shelter and umbrellas. Such a storm I never saw before; they are only known to the South. The wind blew with mighty fury, cleaning the streets and walks of dust and hurling it to the clouds to mingle with them in their blackness. The thunder was terrific and startling; it shook the very earth. For half an hour it was almost as dark as night, then came the distant thunder and the frequent flash of lightning; it became more rapid and increased until the heavens seemed bursting with liquid fire and rain and the artillery of the world was sporting in vain mockery. So the storm raged for an hour, then ceased its fury. For the first time I was completely drenched and no change of clothing, no supper, no bed and 110 chance to get any- thing to eat for it was Sunday eve. I crawled into a wet wagon and slept through the night.
The next day was very sultry and the heat oppressive. At mid-day we took up the march, passing down Pennsylvania Ave-
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ARMY LIFE
nue, past the Treasury department and War department, the White house and the residence of Gen. Scott. Before reaching Georgetown we turned to the right and halted on Kalorama Heights, four miles from Washington, in time to experience an- other severe storm before we could pitch our tents, consequently we were without supper or a dry place to sleep that night.
Sentinels Easily Scared.
The next day we moved camp quarter of a mile; here it was that we commenced to do military duty in earnest. Guard duty was performed with loaded muskets and two sentinels placed over a spring to prevent its being poisoned. Here it was that some of the boys became alarmed at their own shadows and knapsacks. Let me tell the story. A sentinel was posted in a piece of woods at night at the rear of the camp with emphatic orders to fire, after challenging three times, any one approaching if they did not halt. So while he was musing and walking his lonely beat he discovered some one crawling across his beat at the lower end, so he cries, "Halt!"' at the same time bringing the piece to a "ready." Again he cries "Halt ! Halt!" and bangs away at the enemy. After a few min- utes he mustered courage to see his dead foe, and behold there lay his knapsack with a bullet hole through it. Another bold soldier shot a bush one night and almost frightened himself to death because it did not fall, expecting he would be captured. He is considerably gray now I suppose in consequence. Nearly every night some imaginary enemy was fired at and not infrequently did the sentinel find himself minus a finger -- I suppose thinking he was a rebel and determined to hit him.
Our stay here was less than two weeks, then we packed and started for Brightwood in the cornfield. This was a splendid place, in corn from ten to fourteen feet high and the ground nice and soft after a rain, making mud ankle deep; beyond the corn was a cucumber and water melon field, also a large peach and apple orchard. I need not state how many we left after staying there three or four days, for of course in those days everybody in that region was an enemy or so considered. We made beds of the cornstalks and all the hay we could get besides. This not being a desirable place for camp we moved a mile North and near the Maryland line to Camp Brightwood. We were the outpost ; consequently should the enemy advance on the city we should hear the first attack from that direction. It made us doubly watchful and on the lookout. If a man was seen in the distance on horseback a guard was sent out to reconnoiter and watch him. Grand guards were posted three or four miles from camp to inspect wagons and suspicious looking persons and prevent all passing in the night without authority.
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SKETCHES OF SPENCER HISTORY
I. D. Livermore, Sylvester Johnson and myself invariably were on post together. Well do I remember the first time we occupied the outpost in the road. We lay in the ditch by the
Hucksters' Teams Ransacked.
fence and watched all night, but nary a Reb did we see or hear. Between two and three the next morning the hucksters going to market came along. We halted them and examined their wagons and passed them along, but if my memory serves me rightly those wagons furnished us all the fruit and melons we needed. Those days were like our boyish days at home, full of pleasure and enjoyment, but time was passing swiftly along preparing us for the sterner realities of war. continued drilling by company, battalion, brigade skirmishing, the bayonet exercise, together with the wheelbarrow, pick, shovel and axe, occupied the eight months of our stay. We daily toiled with our brigade in build- ing Forts Massachusetts and Slocum, the former named after the 7th regiment and ours, the latter, after Col. Slocum of the 2nd R. I., who was killed in the battle of Bull Run.
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