USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 29
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At the beginning of the war, the military strength of Hanover in able- bodied men between eighteen and forty-five years of age, was two hundred and seventy-five. Of this number, one hundred and sixty-nine enlisted. Six of them were killed in battle, eighteen died in the service and several others died soon after their discharge by reason of service wounds or illness contracted in the service. The town was credited with seventeen men in the navy. Some of them served on the "Kearsarge," the "Cumberland" and the "Congress" in famous battles.
The population of Scituate at the time of the election of Abraham
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Lincoln in 1860, was 2,227. A large proportion of the able-bodied men volunteered and were assigned to service in the Second, Seventh, Twelfth, Fifteenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty- eighth, Thirty-second, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fifty- fourth, Fifty-sixth, Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth and Sixty-second regiments of Massachusetts Volunteers, and one resident of the town, Thomas St. James, to the First Iowa Cavalry.
South Scituate, now Norwell, furnished two hundred and thirty- nine soldiers who served in the Second, Eleventh, Sixteenth, Eight- eenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty- second, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-ninth, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-eighth and Sixty- first regiments of Massachusetts Volunteers. Benjamin F. Delano, a native of the town, was a naval construction engineer during the war, in fact from 1847 until his retirement from the service in 1873. During the rebellion he was one of the most efficient naval constructors in the employ of the government.
Edward H. Delano, youngest brother of Benjamin F. Delano, also served his country as a naval constructor. He built some of the best wooden naval vessels the United States ever constructed, among them the steam frigate "Merrimac" and the "Hartford," which was sent to Russia and various parts of the world to be exhibited, and was chosen by Admiral Farragut as his flagship.
When the rallying voices of the abolitionists were first heard in Abington Grove and at other selected spots in Plymouth, when the abolition movement was exceedingly unpopular and the people as a whole were not ready to accept the patriotic doctrine for which they flew to arms in 1861, even as early as June 22, 1852, Thomas B. Griffith and forty-seven others petitioned the governor of Massachusetts, as com- mander-in-chief of the militia, for leave to organize a company of light infantry in the town of Carver and vicinity. The petition was granted and the Company G, of the Third Regiment of Light Infantry, Second Brigade, First Division, came into being, July 10, 1852, with Matthias Ellis captain, Seneca R. Thomas first lieutenant, William S. McFarlin second lieutenant, Benjamin Ward third lieutenant, and Joseph W. Sherman fourth lieutenant. The company voted to take the name of "Bay State Light Infantry." Captain Ellis was, in January, 1854, pro- moted to the office of aide-de-camp to Governor Emery Washburn, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. This company became a minute-man company in 1861, with William S. McFarlin captain and John Dunham lieutenant, three non-commissioned officers and twelve privates.
Thomas B. Griffith, who headed the petition to the governor for the light infantry company which became Company G, was made captain of Company B, Third Regiment, Infantry, which volunteered from
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Carver, for three months' service, with thirty officers and men. When the volunteers went out for three years' service, Captain William S. Mc- Farlin was in command of Company C, Eighteenth Regiment, Infantry, as designations were changed when the local companies were mustered into the United States service. Carver lost in the service twenty-one men. She furnished her quota of soldiers in the army, two ensigns in the navy and had several men to spare to her credit at the end of the war.
Thomas B. Griffith volunteered as a militiaman and served early in the war as recruiting officer to fill the ranks of the Third Regiment. He was mustered into the Third Regiment in 1862, as captain of Com- pany B, served his nine months' enlistment, participated in several battles, and returned to Carver and his business of manufacturing parlor grates. He was promoted to the rank of major, after serving as captain of the Eighty-sixth Unattached Company, following the war, when that company was attached to the Third Regiment. He was major in com- mand of the Third Regiment until his resignation in 1875.
The votes at early town meetings, after the opening of the rebellion, showed that the town of Bridgewater recognized the seriousness of the impending struggle and intended to govern itself accordingly. At one of these meetings held April 26, 1861, it was voted to hold in reserve $1,400 which had been appropriated at a previous meeting for highways, and the county commissioners were requested not to lay out any high- ways in the town until it should be determined to what extent the town was liable to be called upon for money to support the war. It was voted to pay every volunteer soldier ten dollars a month while he was in the service, to provide suitable aid for his family while he was away, and in case he should die or be killed his children should be given a proper education and be put to some honorable calling or pursuit, "not as a charity but as a debt due." In other words the town proposed to as- sume the financial obligations of heads of families who made the supreme sacrifice on the altar of their country.
Each volunteer was presented with a revolver and a Bowie knife. The Town Hall became a recruiting office. Eighty-five signed the roll in response to the call of the president for volunteers May 3, 1861. The town voted July 17, 1862, to raise thirty-six volunteers as its share to answer a new call and to pay each one a bounty of one hundred and sixty dollars. The quotas were met as fast as the calls came and, at the close of the war, the town had a surplus of forty men in the service in excess of all demands. There was a call July 18, 1864, for fifty-seven men and the citizens contributed $13,427 by subscription. The town was repre- sented in every branch of the service in the army and navy. Among them were two West Point graduates, Major-General George L.
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Andrews and General Samuel Breck, both of whom performed notable service. Company K of the Third Massachusetts Regiment was com- posed largely of men from Bridgewater and a large proportion of them reenlisted in the Fifty-fourth Regiment and performed gallant service.
Company C, Twenty-ninth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, pre- viously called Company L of the Fourth Regiment, consisted principally of East Bridgewater men. Company D of the Thirty-eighth Massa- chusetts Regiment had twenty-six East Bridgewater men on its rolls when the first quota was called for. The town paid for bounties for the soldiers, under all the calls for men, $51,605.
West Bridgewater furnished for the army and navy two hundred and ten men, four of whom were commissioned officers. At the close of the war the town had met all the demands and had a surplus of eleven in the service. Bounties were paid, the families at home well cared for, State aid was furnished the drafted men and every obligation cheerfully assumed and faithfully discharged. Exclusive of State aid, the town expended for the war, $21,950. The State aid, afterwards refunded by the State amounted to $11,691.17.
Middleborough was patriotically represented in the regiments which were the first to leave Massachusetts for the seat of war in April, 1861. The names of those who served during the war are included in the rolls of the Second, Third, Fourth, Ninth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Sixteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-eighth, Thirtieth, Thirty-second, Fortieth, Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth regiments of Infantry ; First, Third, Fourth and Fifth regiments of Cavalry. The roll of honor shows that fifty-four died or were killed in battle.
Among the gallant soldiers from Middleborough was General Ebenezer W. Pierce who enlisted in the Massachusetts Militia at the age of nine- teen and at twenty-two was major of the Fourth Regiment of Artillery.
He was honorably discharged from the militia at the age of twenty- six, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He became captain of the As- sonet Light Infantry Company two years later, and in 1851 was major of the Third Regiment of Light Infantry. He rose in rank and, at the time of the outbreak of the rebellion, was brigadier general of the Sec- ond Brigade in the First Division. Mustered into the United States service for the Civil War, he commanded the Second Brigade three months and then was commissioned colonel of the newly raised Twenty- ninth Massachusetts Infantry. In command of that regiment in the battle of White Oak Swamp, Virginia, June 30, 1862, his right arm was torn off by a cannon ball.
He was off duty only thirty days, participated in the second battle of Bull Run, and was soon afterward given the command of the Second
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Brigade in the First Division of the Ninth Corps. For a time he was in command of the division in Tennessee.
When the first call for volunteers was made by Governor Andrew, pursuant to the call from President Lincoln, the Lincoln Light Infantry, a Hingham militia company, was under command of Captain Joseph T. Sprague, who was dangerously ill. A telegram was received by Lieu- tenant Luther Stephenson, Jr., April 16, which read :
"Captain Sprague is discharged. You will report in Boston with the Hingham company by first train.
John A. Andrew."
There were forty-two men who responded, five of them credited to Weymouth and one to Marshfield.
The Lincoln Light Infantry had been organized October 19, 1854, and named for Benjamin Lincoln, a major-general in the army of the Revolution, not for Abraham Lincoln. As a matter of fact, however, the paternal ancestors of Abraham Lincoln were natives of Hingham. The company was mustered into the service of the United States to date from April 16, 1861. May 18, 1861, thirty-seven additional volunteers increased the roll to seventy-nine men.
The First Massachusetts Regiment was the first regiment in the United States, armed and equipped, tendered at Washington for a serv- ice of three years. It left the State June 15, 1861, and was the first three- year volunteer regiment to reach the city of Washington. There were seven Hingham men in the regiment. As might be expected of a town on the coast, Hingham had a large number of enlistments in the navy, and no less than sixteen of them, possibly more, were officers. There were many commissioned officers, as well as non-commissioned officers and privates in the various branches of the army.
All the quotas from Hingham were filled with volunteers, with a single exception. A draft was made July 20, 1863, and, so far as known, only three joined the army under provisions of the draft, from Hingham.
The soldiers' monument, erected in 1870, bears the names of twenty- six officers and fifty privates who were killed or died in the service.
Company H, Third Regiment, Massachusetts Militia, responded to the call the day after the surrender of Fort Sumpter, with twenty-two Plympton men in the ranks, with Lucian L. Perkins captain and Oscar E. Washburn, first lieutenant. The men left Boston for Fortress Monroe April 18, and April 23 were mustered into the service of the United States. In enlistments to the credit of the town were eighty-two for three years, thirteen for nine months and four in the naval service. Fifteen were killed in battle or died in service. Out of a population of about eight hundred, Plympton furnished ninety-three soldiers, and thirty-four of them reënlisted.
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Marshfield furnished for the war one hundred and sixty-one men and, including those credited to the town in the navy, the whole number was two hundred and ten. The bounties paid amounted to $24,465. The disposition of the town is shown in a resolution, prepared by Nathaniel H. Whiting, and passed at a town meeting July 22, 1862, as follows:
Resolved, That we will stand by the government to the extent of our last dollar.
'Resolved, That in the dark and troubled night which surrounds us, we cherish with a deeper love and more exalted patriotism the noble sentiment proclaimed in that early conflict with the spirit of dissension on the floor of the American Senate by our great statesman, now sleeping in our midst by the sea he loved so well,-"Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!"
Resolved, that, in defense of this sentiment, we will stand by the Government to the extent of our last dollar and our last man, preferring to leave for those who shall come after us a wilderness like that our fathers found when they sailed into yonder bay, and landed on Plymouth Rock, rather than that this monstrous re- bellion shall prevail.
Among those who perished in the conflict was the son of the dis- tinguished statesman to whom reference was made in the resolution, Colonel Fletcher Webster, in command of the Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment, to which so many Plymouth County men belonged. He was killed at Bull Run, August 30, 1862. Fletcher Webster Post, No. 13, Grand Army of the Republic, of Brockton, was named in his honor and many members of that post were his comrades.
The men either killed or those who died in the service, from Marsh- field, numbered twenty-five.
At the time of the Civil War, as now, Hull was the smallest town in Plymouth County, having a population of two hundred and sixty. She did her part, however, furnishing twenty-two soldiers and two sailors. Three men were lost in service. Sergeant Ansel P. Loring was killed on duty near New Orleans June 24, 1863. His body was found floating in the Mississippi, with shot wounds through the head. He was a soldier in Company E, Forty-seventh Regiment. Nathaniel R. Hooper was killed at Fredericksburg, December 11, 1862. He was a member of Com- pany F, of the Twentieth Regiment. John M. Cleverly died of disease at Charity Hospital, New Orleans. He served in Company A, Third Rhode Island Cavalry.
Early Regiments to Leave the State-Plymouth County was repre- sented in nearly every branch of the army and navy in Massachusetts which took part in the Civil War. The Third Regiment was one of the earliest regiments to leave the State, taking with it several of the militia companies from Plymouth County towns, including Company A, from Halifax, the oldest of them all, organized in 1792. It was com- manded by Colonel David W. Wardrop.
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Colonel Abner B. Packard of Quincy was in command of the Fourth Regiment, which included in its make-up Company I, of Hingham, the Lincoln Light Infantry company. It was mustered into the service of the United States in April, 1861, and ordered to Fortress Monroe, Vir- ginia, with the Third Regiment. The first enlistment was for three months but when the call was made in 1862 for nineteen thousand and eighty men for nine months, the Fourth Regiment again volunteered. It was sent to Camp Joe Hooker to receive recruits, and was placed under the command of Colonel Henry Walker, and ordered to join the forces under Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Department of the Gulf.
There were some Plymouth County volunteers in the Seventh Regi- ment but it was principally composed of men from Bristol County. Major-General Darius N. Couch, of Taunton, when colonel, was in com- mand of the regiment, which was mustered into the service June 15, 1861. One month later it had arrived in Washington. It took part in the battles of the Peninsula, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsburg, Gettys- burg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor.
County Furnished War Governor-The governor of Massachusetts during the Civil War was John Albion Andrew, who is buried in Hing- ham, in Plymouth County. He had long been known an an anti-slavery man and a leading member of the Republican party. There is a statue of him above his grave in Hingham which was dedicated October 8, 1875, with an address by Horace Binney Sargent. The statue is of marble and views of it were contained in a memorial volume, containing an account of the dedication exercises, compiled by Luther Stevenson, Jr., and published in 1878. Another statue of him stands in Doric Hall in the State House, the work of Thomas Ball. The Hingham statue is by Thomas R. Gould.
Webster Blood Was Stirred-Governor Andrew quickly united all of Massachusetts enthusiastically and devotedly in opposition to se- cession. Among his admirers was Colonel Fletcher Webster of Marsh- field who, as soon as he heard the governor's proclamation, offered his services and promised to raise a regiment to represent Massachusetts in the war. A mass meeting was held in State Street, Boston, near where the Boston Massacre took place just before the Revolutionary War. Among those who addressed the people was Fletcher Webster. He said : "I shall be ready on Monday to enlist recruits. I know that your patriotism and valor will prompt you to the path of duty, and we will show to the world that the Massachusetts of 1776 is the same in 1861."
The regiment was organized at Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, and was mustered into service, June 26, 1861, numbering one hundred and forty men. Company F was recruited at North Bridgewater and left
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that town April 29, at 9 o'clock in the morning, under escort of the North Bridgewater Light Dragoons, marching to the music of the North Bridgewater Brass Band, with the hand engine companies and citizens generally in line. Many towns in the county contributed to the make- up of the regiment. It left the State July 23, 1861, and took part in the battles at Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna River, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. The Second Bull Run battle took place August 30, 1862, and Colonel Fletcher Webster was killed. It was afterward under the command of Colonel James L. Bates of Weymouth. Attached to the Twelfth Regiment was Martland's Band, with William J. Martland as bandmaster. It served the regiment until May 8, 1862, when it was mustered out of the service. More about its service is given on a later page of this volume.
The Fletcher Webster Regiment, as the Massachusetts Twelfth was often called left Boston July 23, 1861, arrived at Maryland July 27, and went into camp. The regiment marched twenty-one miles to the Monocacy River, encamped there several days, then marched to Hyatts- town, a distance of six miles; to Darnestown, eighteen miles; to Muddy Branch, seven miles; to Edwards Ferry, fifteen miles; and to Seneca Mills, by way of Poolesville, fifteen miles. The regiment went into winter quarters at Frederick, Maryland, having arrived through Darnes- town and Barnestown, a distance of thirty miles. February 27, 1862, the regiment marched to Shenandoah City, Virginia, and went into camp there, twenty-five miles from the other camp. Marching orders seemed almost continuous, the regiment being kept practically always on foot for four months, until the battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, in which Captain N. B. Shurtleff, Jr., was killed and ten men were wounded. Marches and countermarches were again made almost continuously until August 30, except on August 20, when the regiment stopped marching long enough to engage in the battle of the Rappahannock. August 30, in an engagement at Grovetown, near Bull Run, Colonel Fletcher Webster, Captain Kimball and ten privates were killed and one hundred and thirty-five were wounded or missing.
The next day the regiment arrived at Centreville, remaining until September 14, when it marched to South Mountain and was engaged in that battle, losing one man killed and five wounded. From that place the regiment went to Keedysville, formed in line of battle September 16 and bivouacked for the night; engaging the enemy at five o'clock in the morning, but was ordered to leave the field at nine, and withdrew in good order. The regiment went into that fight with three hundred and twenty-five men and of this number forty-seven were killed and one hundred and sixty-six wounded. On leaving the field, bringing off their
Plym-18
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regimental colors, four officers and thirty-two men, they volunteered to support a battery ; after which they rejoined their brigade, and partici- pated in the pursuit of the flying enemy, who withdrew across the river. The regiment was at this time under command of Captain B. F. Cook of Company E. Colonel James L. Bates took command of the regiment September 22. From this time until November 10 the regiment was almost continuously on the march in Maryland and Virginia and arrived at the Rappahannock Station, near which it encamped.
A narrative of the Twelfth Regiment continues :
At the battle of Fredericksburg, fought on the thirteenth of December, 1862, the Twelfth Regiment was in General Gibbon's division. The division was formed in three brigade lines, and the third, commanded by General Taylor, had the advance, the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment acting as skirmishers for the division. Colonel Lyle's brigade, composed of the Twelfth Massachusetts, the Twenty-sixth New York, and the Nineteenth and One Hundred and Thirty-sixth regiments of Pennsylvania Volunteers, formed the second line, this regiment having the right. The third line was Colonel Root's brigade, the Sixteenth Maine Regiment having the right. The position of the Twelfth Regiment was taken at 9 o'clock in the morning; the enemy were hidden from view by a thick wood.
Our men remained lying down until 1 o'clock P. M. under a brisk fire of shot and shell, the skirmishers being hotly engaged, and the balls of the enemy passing over us. During these four hours there was but one man of this regiment injured. At 1 o'clock the signal to advance was given to the whole division and immediately obeyed. A heavy fire of musketry broke from the whole line of woods in our front. General Taylor's brigade stood the fire some thirty minutes, when the brigade in which was this regiment was ordered to relieve them. As they advanced they became separated from the brigade by the retiring regiments of the Third Brigade, and continuued to advance independently, taking a position and firing until their ammunition began to fail. Their brigade had fallen to the rear, and they. were alone until the third line came forward; their solid ranks broke the right of this line, which opened to the right and left to get to the front, where it was quickly formed.
The Twelfth Regiment followed the one in their front, the Sixteenth Maine, a short distance and being out of ammunition, were about to join their brigade in the rear, when they were ordered by General Taylor to prepare for a charge. The colonel thereupon gave the command to fix bayonets, and filed to the right of the brigade and charged with them into the woods in their front. About two hundred of the enemy rushed through our lines and gave themselves up as prisoners of war.
We carried the position and remained some twenty minutes expecting support, but none was in sight and the men were constantly falling before the fatal fire of an unseen enemy. Captains Ripley, Reed, Packard and Clark and a hundred of the men had fallen.
After consulting with the officers, the colonel gave orders to about face, and they fell back slowly and reluctantly and in very good order, bearing their tattered banners with them to their brigade. After reaching the place they were ordered to fall back to where they were supplied with rations and ammunition. They re- mained under arms all night, and early on the morning of the 14th they were ordered to another position, where they remained until the night of the 15th, when they recrossed the river to Falmouth with their corps.
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During the battle the Twelfth was under fire six hours, and their loss was chiefly sustained during the last two hours. During that time they had five officers wounded and fifteen men killed, eighty-seven wounded, and three were missing, making an aggregate of one hundred and five out of two hundred and fifty-eight, with which they went into the fight.
The Old Colony Regiment, if one might be given that designation, was the Eighteenth Massachusetts which was largely recruited from volunteers in Duxbury, Middleborough, Carver, Hanover, Wrentham, Dedham, Quincy and Plymouth. The nucleus of the regiment was a com- pany previously formed and drilled, largely from Plymouth County towns, which were ordered into camp at Dedham in July, 1861, until there were nine hundred and ninety-six loyal men. The regiment was mustered into the service of the United States August 27, 1861, and served as a regiment until September 2, 1864, when it was mustered out. Members of the regiment whose term of service had not expired by that date were transferred to the Thirty-second Regiment, concerning which more will be told later.
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