History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 43

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 43

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This regiment, four of whose eleven companies be- longed to the city of Lowell, had now become the first to volunteer in the great Rebellion, the first in the field of war, the first to shed its blood, and the first to come to the defence of the capital.

And now, the Sixth Regiment having reached its destination, it is well to return upon our steps and re- cord a few personal notices and a few interesting events of that memorable day at Baltimore.

Capt. Dike, of Stoneham, upon being shot through the thigh, was, by a Union man, Dorsey by name, conveyed to a remote room in a public-house and nursed and cared for for several days. He was be- lieved to have been killed by the mob, and at Stone- ham the sensation and excitement among his towns- men was most intense. But the ball, though coming very near an artery, did not sever it, and his recovery ensued.

Corporal Needham, of the Lawrence company, on leaving the car to march across the city, remarked to a fellow-soldier : "We shall have trouble to-day, and I shall never get out of it alive. Promise me, if I fall, that my body shall be sent home." Upon being wounded he was conveyed to an infirmary, where, after lingering eight days, he died. The soldier's re- quest was fully granted, for his remains were conveyed to the City Hall in Lawrence, where, before a vast concourse of people, most solemn and impressive fu- neral services were held, and they were buried be- neath a granite monument in the beautiful cemetery of that city.

Addison O. Whitney, of the Lowell City Guards, was a workman on the Middlesex Corporation, and was a young man held in high csteem. He was born in Waldo, Maine, and when killed was twenty-two years of age. His remains, and those of his comrade, Ladd,

lic in Monument Square in Lowell, ncar a beautiful monument erected in their honor.

Luther C. Ladd, of the Lowell City Guards, was born in Alexandria, N. H., and was a young Lowell mechanic-a merc lad of seventecn ycars. He was full of patriotic ardor, and when he fell his comrades heard him utter the words: "All hail to the stars and stripes !"

Charles A. Taylor, of the Lowell City Guards, was killed. He enlisted in Boston not many hours before he fell in Baltimore, and no trace of his family and friends has ever been discovered. Having upon him no uniform, he was supposed to have been a civilian, and was buried in Baltimore.

As the four companies were marching through Balti- more the mayor of the city took his position beside Commander Follansbee and assured him of a safe transit; but when the missiles began to fly thickly about his head, he remarked that it was getting too hot for him, took a gun from a soldier and shot down one of the insurgents, and disappeared from sight.

Timothy Crowley, the standard-bearer of the regi- ment, bore himself most gallantly. He might have rolled up his colors and escaped the special notice of the enemy, but he nobly kept them unfurled to the breeze, and to the last stood by the flag which he had sworn to defend.

In Capt. Follansbee's company was Jeremiah Crow- ley, Esq., one of Lowell's most distinguished lawyers, whose brother, Timothy B. Crowley, was major in the Tenth New Hampshire Regiment and fought under Gen. Grant in the campaign beginning with the battle of the Wilderness.

Capt. Follansbee, in the march through the city, exhibited a coolness and bravery worthy of a veteran warrior. At one place, being in doubt which of two streets to take, and seeing Marshal Kane, chief of the Baltimore police, posted in one of them and declaring that he would shoot the first man who should enter that street, Col. Follansbee shouted: "That is the street for us," and gave the order: "Forward, march !"

Nor should the patriotic conduct of Gov. Andrew be unrecorded. When the startling news reached him that Massachusetts soldiers had fallen, he transmitted the following dispatch to the mayor of Baltimore :

" To his honor, the Mayor :

"I pray you to cause the bodies of our Massachusetts soldiers, dead in Baltimore, to be immediately laid out, preserved with ice and tenderly sent forward by express to me."

The mayor acceded to the request, but, in his reply, alluded to the passage of the troops through Balti- more as "an invasion of the soil of Maryland." To this the Governor replied : "I am overwhelmed with surprise that a peaceful march of American citizens over the highway to the defense of our common capital should be deemed aggressive to Baltimore- ans."

It is impossible to report the number killed by the

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soldiers on the passage through Baltimore. It has been set as high as 100, and as low as forty. Many more would have fallen had not the indignation of the soldiers been held in check by their commanders, who ordered them to fire as little as possible. Moreover, there was a strong desire to avoid alienating the people of Maryland from the cause of the Union, and a patriotic purpose, on the soldiers' part, to forego the avenging of their own wrongs in order to hasten to the defense of the capital.

For about two weeks the regiment enjoyed their stately quarters in the hall of the Senate of the United States. The colonel was wont to sleep in the Vice-President's chair, and the soldiers, with their muskets by their sides, indulged in peaceful slumber upon the floor. Their duties by day were not severe, and letters to their friends at home were written upon the desks of the Senators.

On May 5th, other troops having come to the de- fence of the capital, the Sixth Regiment was ordered to the Relay House, at the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio and the Baltimore and Washington Rail- roads, for the defence of this important position. On May 13th, for the purpose of checking the plans of rebels in Baltimore, they were sent to that city, but soon were ordered back to the Relay House. Again the regiment, on June 3d, is ordered to Baltimore to protect the polls during an election, and again re- turned to the Relay House, where they celebrated the Fourth of July, receiving a magnificent silk ban- ner from the loyal citizens of Baltimore.

On July 22d the three months for which the regi- ment bad enlisted expired, and after voting to pro- long their term of service by a few days, on account of the special emergency, their homeward progress began on the 29th of July. Once more they marched through Baltimore, receiving a cordial welcome. On August 1st Boston was reached, where a collation was given them, and where they found quarters for the night in Faneuil Hall. The next day they were mustered out of service upon the Common, and pro- ceeded to their headquarters in Lowell, where, after the heartiest greetings from the entire population, and a bountiful collation, the "gallant fellows" returned to the endearments of home. In April, 1862, the General Assembly of Maryland appropriated $7000 for the relief of the families of the soldiers of the Sixth Regiment who were wounded or killed in pass- ing through Baltimore. The intense interest with which this regiment, the first to shed its blood, was followed, is an ample apology for so minute and pro- tracted a record.

The Sixth Regiment will be heard from again.

So intense a martial spirit was kindled in Lowell by the firing upon Fort Sumter, and especially by the attack upon the Lowell companies in their pass- age through Baltimore, that within two weeks after this attack four new military companies were formed in the city.

These companies were the Hill Cadets, composed mostly of citizens of Irish birth, commanded by Capt. Patrick S. Proctor ; the Richardson Light Infantry, Capt. Phineas A. Davis; the Abbott Greys, Capt. Edward G. Abbott; and the Butler Rifles, recruited under Capt. Eben James, but mustered into service under Capt. Thomas O'Hare. Let us briefly trace the history of these companies.

The Hill Cadets and the Butler Rifles were at- tached to the Sixteenth Massachusetts Regiment, and took part in the battles of Fair Oaks, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Get- tysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the Pamunkey and Petersburg. After a service of three years they returned under Captains Donovan and O'Hare.

The Sixteenth Regiment had for its colonel the gallant Powell F. Wyman, of Boston, who was killed at the battle of Glendale, and for its chaplain, Rev. Charles W. Homer, rector of St. John's Church, in Low- ell. Capt. David W. Roche, of Company A, who had entered the service from Lowell as second lieutenant of the Hill Cadets, fell at Gettysburg. "He was one of Ireland's most noble sons, possessed of the real Irish impetuosity and courage." Lieut. James R. Darracott, of this regiment, who enlisted from Bos- ton, fell at the second battle of Bull Run. His wife was daughter of Alexander Wright, one of Lowell's prominent citizens. "He was a faithful officer, and won for himself the respect of both officers and men."

The Abbott Greys were recruited for three years' service in the brief space of three days by Edward G. Abbott, son of Judge J. G. Abbott, of Lowell, a young man of less than twenty-one years of age. He was chosen captain of the company and proved a most gallant officer. This company went into camp at West Roxbury, and was the first of the ten companies which constituted the Second Massa- chussets Regiment, raised by Col. Geo. H. Gor- don, of Boston. The regiment left camp July 8th, and joined the forces under Gen. Patter- son at Martinsburg, Va., and did service in the Shenandoah Valley, covering Gen. Banks' retreat and engaging in the battle of Winchester in May, 1862. In Pope's campaign in Virginia this regiment partic- ipated in the disastrous battle of Cedar Mountain, Aug. 9, 1862, in which Gen. Banks, with 7500, was- totally routed by Gen. Stonewall Jackson, with 25,000. In this battle Capt. Abbott fell, and more than halt of his company were killed or wounded in less than one hour. The regiment by re-enlistment served till the close of the war, leaving a noble record. It en- gaged in the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg and Atlanta, and attended Sherman in his march through Georgia. The well-known Rev. Alonzo H. Quint was its chaplain.

Capt. Abbott was one of Lowell's most gallant sons. He graduated from the Lowell High School and from Harvard College. When Fort Sumter was fired upon

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he was engaged in the study of law in his native city. With patriotic zeal he entered the service of his country. He was a young man of sterling merit, truthful, manly, generous, brave. He possessed the qualities for a commander. He loved his company and was proud of it. He was a model disciplinarian, and had his life been spared, he would have attained high military honors. The city of Lowell has rarely mourned so deeply and so tenderly for the loss of a favorite son. The funeral honors paid to his remains attest the love borne for him by his native city. He was buried in the Lowell Cenietery, by the side of his equally brave and noble brother.

The Richardson Light Infantry received its name from Hon. Geo. H. Richardson, one of the mayors of Lowell, who bore a very prominent part in raising and equipping it. This company, afterwards known as the Seventh Battery, on May 22, 1861, took passage on steamer " Pembroke " for Fortress Monroe. It had a great variety of service-on provost duty at Fortress Monroe, in the advance on Norfolk, in May, 1862, at Newport News, Yorktown and Suffolk, Va. It fought at Franklin and Providenee Church Road, and was stationed at various points in Virginia, and in the eity of Washington. In Jan., 1864, it was sent to New Orleans, and served in the Department of the Gulf, taking part in the various engagements in front of Spanish Fort, until the fall of that stronghold. It served through the war.

It should be here remarked that the first impulse of patriotie enthusiam suffieed to seeure a ready en- listement of soldiers in the companies first raised for the war, but something more than that was demanded to arm, and equip, and keep in service the vast army which was at length ealled into the field. In answer to the first eall of the President for 75,000 three months' men, Lowell furnished 223 men at an average cost of only $2.68.

In reply to the two calls of the President, viz. : for 50,000 in May, 1861, and 600,000 in July, 1861, Lo- well raised 2390 men at an average cost of $27.48 per man. Lowell's quota was 2098 for three years. We may here, by way of anticipation, state that dur- ing the war Lowell is eredited with furnishing 4763 men at an average cost to the city per man of $53.32 for recruiting and bounties. The above does not inelude the State bounty, which, in case, for example, of the Twenty-sixth and Thirtieth Regiments, in which were seven Lowell companies, was, for re-enlistment, $325. The amount of bounties greatly varied, how- ever, according to the exigeneies of the serviee.

Of the Thirty-third Regiment of Massachusetts In- fantry about 250 were Lowell men. It was mustered into serviee in May, 1861. Few regiments saw so mueh hard fighting, or lost so many men, or gained so high renown. It fought at Fredericksburg, Chan- eellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain and Mis- sionary Ridge, and was with Sherman in his mareh through Georgia. The charge of this regiment up

Lookout Mountain will be recorded in history as one of the most splendid of military aeliievements. Gen- eral Hooker says of it: "It is the greatest charge of the war, but no more than I expeet of Massachusetts troops." Its commander, General Underwood, was one of the heroes of the war. The regiment engaged in so many hard-fought battles that at one time it was reduced almost to a skeleton. It appears from the report of the adjutant-general of Massachusetts, that of the more than 1200 soldiers of this regiment less than 350 belonged to the regiment at the expira- tion of service, so sadly had it been decimated by loss in battle and the various vicissitudes of war. At the battle of Resaca, Georgia, this regiment lost eighty- eight in killed and wounded-eighty-eight out of 240 men. Among the wounded was'ex-Alderman Charles H. Kimball, of Lowell, orderly sergeant, who still carries the bullet.

In August, 1861, the Twenty-sixth Regiment of three years' men was formed. After spending three months in eamp in Cambridge and Lowell it left Camp Chase in November and proceeded to Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, about seventy-five miles from New Orleans. Companies A, D and H of this regiment were mainly enlisted from the citizens of Lowell. Its colonel was Edward F. Jones, of Pep- perell, who led the Sixth Regiment through Balti- more, and Lieutenant-Colonels Farr and Sawtell had served as officers in the Sixth Regiment under Colonel Jones. Indeed, the Twenty-sixth has been styled the legitimate offspring of the "Old Sixth."

This regiment left Ship Island in April, 1862, and participated in the capture of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, below New Orleans, by cutting off the commu- nieation between the forts and New Orleans. Subse- quently it was, for several months, on duty in New Orleans. After the service of three years had ex- pired about two thirds of the regiment re-enlisted and did service in the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia, participating in the battle at Cedar Creek under Sheridan. On April 2, 1864, this regiment, having come to Lowell on a furlough of thirty days, partook of a collation in Huntington Hall.

In December, 1861, the Thirtieth Massachusetts Regiment was organized at Camp Chase, in Lowell, under General Butler. Companies B, C, F and H of this regiment were composed mainly of Lowell men. It was under the command of Aeting Lieutenant- Colonel Jonas H. French, and its chaplain was Rev. Dr. John P. Cleveland, pastor of the Appleton Street Church (now Eliot Church) of Lowell. It was -des- tined to be a part of General Butler's expedition to Ship Island, which it reached ou the 12th of February, where it soon received as its commander Colonel N. A. M. Dudley. This regiment did service in Louis- iaua, beiug at the battle of Baton Rouge and aiding in the reduction of Port Hudson.

At the expiration of its service of three years nearly three-fourths of the regiment re-enlisted.

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Having. in February, 1864, returned to Massachu- setts on furlough of thirty days, it subsequently served under Gen. Sheridan in Virginia, and engaged in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. It was in service till the close of the war.

Mr. Crowley, in his "History of Lowell," pays the following tribute to Capt. Crowley, of this regiment ; "Oct. 5, 1862, Capt. Timothy A. Crowley, of Com- pany A, 30th Infantry, died at New Orleans of inter- mittent fever. He was born in Lowell, Feb. 14, 1831, and after quitting school, was long employed as a ma- chinist in the Lowell Machine Shop. For several years he was connected with the city police, and in 1858 was Deputy Marshal of Lowell. He subse- quently studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1860. He bore the colors of the Sixth Regiment during the Baltimore riot of 1861, with a steady cour- age that attracted the admiration of all. He then gathered the company of which he was captain at his death. He displayed fine abilities as an officer, and won the entire respect of all with whom he came in contact in the Department of the Gulf. He left a widow and two children. His remains were brought to Lowell and buried with public honors, Oct. 26, 1862."

Here may be mentioned another gallant young Irishman, Thomas Claffey, who was born in Cork, Ireland, came to Lowell when a boy, and was edu- cated in a Lowell grammar school. He was a young man of studious habits and high promise. He en- listed in July, 1861, in the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment, in which were but few Lowell men. From first sergeant he rose to second lieutenant. He was killed at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862. He was made captain by brevet for gallant conduct, but did not live to enjoy the honor.

The Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment was re- cruited at Camp Massasoit, Readville, and left for the seat of war in command of Col. Wm. Raymond Lee, September 4, 1861. It contained very few Lowell men and its officers belonged mainly to Boston and vicinity. But Lowell was represented in that regi- ment by one of her noble-t men, Henry Livermore Abbott. He was son of Judge J. G. Abbott, and brother of Capt. Edward G. Abbott, who fell at Cedar Mountain. He was educated in the Lowell schools and at Harvard College, graduating from the college in 1860. When the Rebellion broke out he was en- gaged in the study of law. With generous alacrity he gave himself to his country. Having first enlisted in the Fourth Battalion of Infantry, he was commis- sioned second lieutenant in the Twentieth Regiment in July, 1861, at the age of nineteen years. He eariy displayed such splendid qualities as a soldier, that he rose rapidly through the various grades of office to that of brevet brigadier-general. His regiment fought at Fair Oaks, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Get- tysburg, the Wilderness and many other places. It was at the battle of the Wilderness that Major Ab-

bott fell. While he was gallantly leading on his vet- eran troops, already fearfully decimated in battle, he was struck down. Major Abbott to a remarkable de- gree combined those qualities which make the highest order of manhood-high birth, personal beauty, bright intellect, conspicuous gallantry and untarnished honor. He sleeps by his elder brother's side in the beautiful cemetery of the city, in which there are no more sacred spots than the graves of these two gallant young soldiers.

On Jan. 2, 1861, three companies of cavalry left Camp Chase, in Lowell to proceed to Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico. This island had been selected by General Butler as a rendezvous of troops for offen- sive operations under his command in Louisiana, and other Southern States. These were unattached com- panies until they were, in June, 1863, merged in the Third Massachusetts Regiment of Cavalry. The captains of these companies were respectively S. Tyler Reed, James M. Magee and Henry A. Duravage. Subsequently Edward F. Noyes (late mayor of Lowell) was assigned to the command, for a season, of the second company, on account of the ill-health of Capt. Magee, and Capt. Duravage, of the third com- pany, having been drowned in the Mississippi on the ' expedition for the capture of New Orleans, Lieut. Salon A. Perkins, of Lowcil, became its commander.

Subsequently Capt. Noyes was placed in command of a company of the First Texas Cavalry, and was promoted to the rank of major, while the company under Lieut. Perkins was ordered to a most perilous and arduous service in the western part of Louisiana. In the battle at New Iberia, April 16, 1863, Lieut. Jared P. Maxfield, of Lowell, who had gained a high reputation as a brave and skillful officer, received a wound which disabled him for life, and on June 3, 1863, Lieut. Perkins, in a battle at Clinton, near Port Hudson, was mortally wounded.

Lieut. Perkins was one of Lowell's bravest sons. The city had no more costly sacrifice to lay upon the altar of patriotism. He was the son of Apollos and . Wealthy Perkins, of Lowell. He fitted for college in the High School, and was a fine classical scholar. After several years spent in mercantile employment in Boston and afterwards in South America, he re- turned to Lowell, and early in the Rebellion entered the service of his country. As commander of cavalry he exhibited an intrepidity and daring which won the admiration both of friend and foe. It is when we contemplate the loss of a life so precious and so full of promise that we feel most tenderly and most pain- fully the inestimable cost at which our liberties liave been maintained.

On Aug. 4, 1862, President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 nine months' men. Lowell furnished 557, which was nearly twice its quota. Among the most prompt to enlist was the Old Sixth Regiment, which for more than a year had seen no military service. Under its reorganization, Capt. Follansbee, of the Me-

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chanic Phalanx, of Lowell, who had shown conspicu- ous bravery in the march through Baltimore, was com- missioned as colonel. Other officers were Melvin Bcal, of Lawrence, lieutenant-colonel; Charles A. Stott, major ; Walter Burnham, surgeon; O. M. Humphrey and G. E. Pinkham, assistant surgeons; and J. W. Hanson, chaplain. The regiment was ordered to Washington, where it reported to Gen. Cascy, who ordered it to Fortress Monroe, whence it was sent by Gen. Dix to Suffolk, Virginia, where it remained on duty until the nine months expired. Suffolk was an important position commanding the railroad lead- ing from Petersburg to Norfolk.

While at Suffolk the Sixth Regiment had a varied experience of numerous alarms, and skirmishes, and expeditious to neighboring places. Though in one engagement the loss was twenty-one men, the sojourn at Norfolk was one of general comfort and good cheer. The soldiers occupied themselves in constructing a formidable line of defences, and in efforts to make their camp-life home-like and comfortable. They held religious services; they obtained from the neigh- borhood sweet potatoes, grapes and other luxuries, they kept Thanksgiving Day with tons of goodies sent to them from their Northern homes, and on the whole enjoyed a somewhat holiday experience. They reached home on May 29, 1863, when the people of Lowell gave them a splendid ovation.

But even this expedition, with so much to soften the usual asperities of war, had its aspect of sadness. In the engagement at Carrsville, only a few days be- fore the regiment started for home, two excellent young men, graduates of Lowell High School in the class of 1859, lost their lives. These were Anson G. Thurston and Geo. I. Fox. Young Thurston was a good scholar and much beloved for his genial char- acter. On leaving the High School he entered Har- vard College, and at the close of the second year of his college course he enlisted in the service of his country. When wounded at Carrsville, he lay for nearly six hours neglected on the field of battle. He was then conveyed to a deserted house, where after two days he died. His classmate Fox, also an excellent young man, fell in the battle and soon died of his wounds in the hands of the enemy.

In Company H of the Forty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment of nine months' men were forty-four re- cruits from Lowell. This regiment was commanded by Colonel Eben F. Stone, of Newburyport. It saw but little hard service and lost but few men. It took part in the reduction of Port Hudson, where its lieu- tenant-colonel, James O'Brien, of Charlestown, a gallant officer, was killed.

This regiment left Camp Meigs for New Orleans in December, 1862. It took part only in the battles of Plain's Store and Port Hudson.

The Fifteenth Light Battery was recruited at Low- ell and at Fort Warren, and was mustered into service February 17, 1863. Its captain was Timothy Pear-

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 43

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226