USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Brookline > History of the town of Brookline, Massachusetts > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
Breckinridge and Lane 27
650
Just what differences in political principles these candi- dates represented is no part of my subject at present, but what I do want to emphasize are certain names on the bal- lots which were voted in Brookline. On the Bell and Everett ticket, Mr. Amos A. Lawrence of Brookline received 227 votes for governor, and on the same ticket Thomas Parsons received 211 for secretary of state. James Murray Howe on the Douglas and Johnson ticket was defeated for represen- tative to the General Court (189) by Edward R. Seccomb (382) who ran on the Lincoln and Hamlin ticket also. This difference of opinion in November, 1860, fades away in a few months and in April following we find Amos A. Law- rence, Thomas Parsons, James Murray Howe and Edward R. Seccomb all working together in a common cause, united
267
BROOKLINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
in doing everything possible to enable Brookline to do her part in the struggle to preserve the union. They might not think alike when their weapons were theories, argument and discussion, but they all believed and acted alike when the weapons were minié balls and canister against a common enemy and in defense of their country's flag.
Lincoln was elected president and Wilder Dwight of Brookline, who was in Washington at the inauguration, wrote his father on March 4, 1861:
'This morning broke badly but at noon the sky cleared. I remained quietly at Willard's and was present when Mr. Buchanan came to receive the President-elect. I saw Lin- coln and Buchanan take their carriage and the whole pro- cession pass .... I got a good place. The band played Hail Columbia. The crowd was immense. The capitol steps were covered with uniforms, etc.
'Parker, of Oregon, of the Committee of Arrangements, announced that Lincoln would speak; and when Abraham rose and came forward and rang out the words, "Fellow Citizens of the United States" he loomed and grew, and was ugly no longer. The address you will read, and like, I hope. ... When the address closed, and the cheering subsided, Taney rose, and, almost as tall as Lincoln, he administered the oath, Lincoln repeating it, and as the words "preserve protect and defend the Constitution" came ringing out, he bent and kissed the book, and for one, I breathed free and gladder than for months.'
OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES
We can imagine the excitement in Brookline [when Sumter was fired upon] and the news from Washington and Charleston was received at the telegraph office in the railroad station, and with what eagerness the people be- sieged John H. Grush, town constable and newsdealer, for the latest newspapers at his shop [on Washington Street near the railroad bridge]. How John McCormack, the post- master of that day, must have gloried in his importance talk- ing with all the people who thronged the little old office seeking the latest news. The affairs of the nation were dis- cussed in all the stores and gathering places, and we can easily assume that the gatherings in Baker's paint shop, Kenrick Brothers' plumbing shop, J. Guild's grocery store
268
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
and other places in the village, gave expression to quite dif- ferent sentiments than were heard at Coolidge's grocery store at the corner, which was a sort of Democratic head- quarters and called the 'Copperhead Crossroads,' although as time went on the name at first applied was forgotten in the loyalty shown by those identified with that center.I
Fort Sumter was bombarded on April 12, 1861. Three days later President Lincoln called for 75,000 men to serve for three months. Thanks to the work of Governor Andrew, the Massa- chusetts militia were ready to move on April 17; and while passing through Baltimore on their way to Washington on April 19, they were attacked by a mob. This stirred public spirit immensely, and there was a spontaneous response.
An informal meeting of citizens jammed the Brookline Town Hall on the evening of April 20, and was called to order by Amos A. Lawrence. Prayer was offered, and John Howe was chosen to preside. 'Mr. Howe, on taking the chair, made a few stirring remarks, and closed by offering to the first family in Brookline whose head should be lost in the defense of the country a land-warrant which he had received from the gov- ernment for his services in the war of 1812.'
A number of other eminent citizens made 'stirring remarks' also, and on motion of Wilder Dwight it was voted 'that a com- mittee of seven be appointed to prepare a plan for the organ- ization and drill of a company or companies in the town of Brookline to aid in the defence of the government, and that the committee report the plan at the earliest moment, and take such further action as they may deem necessary.' A com- mittee was chosen, considerably revised at the adjourned meeting of April 22, and finally confirmed at a formal town meeting of April 29 with a membership comprising Moses B. Williams, chairman, James A. Dupee, Marshal Stearns, Thomas B. Hall, Thomas Parsons, William Aspinwall, Wil- liam K. Melcher, Nathaniel Lyford, James Murray Howe, and Edward A. Wild.
Steps were taken to establish a military fund by popular sub- scription to buy muskets, and another fund to provide mate- rials with which the women of the town might make clothing for
I The quotation from Mr. Baker ends here.
269
BROOKLINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
the recruits. Male inhabitants over seventeen years old were invited to register for drill, and arrangements were made to re- move a fence between the Town Hall and school house, so as to provide an adequate parade ground. Fifteen thousand dol- lars were appropriated for the uses of the military committee, to be paid on the requisition of their chairman and any two members, approved by the selectmen.
FIRST BROOKLINE SOLDIERS
The military committee promptly hired a drill hall, and en- gaged Jacob Miller, a former sergeant of artillery, as drill master. Dr. Edward Augustus Wild, as captain, with Charles Lyon Chandler and William Latham Candler, brothers-in-law, as lieutenants, commenced to recruit a company. In this they were almost immediately successful, and the military commit- tee planned to outfit them as a unit.
Captain Wild, however, was given command of Company A of the First Massachusetts Infantry, taking Lieutenants Chandler and Candler with him, and his orders from Governor Andrew were to fill that company to its full strength with his Brookline volunteers, and distribute the rest of them to other companies in the regiment that were incomplete. The military committee therefore curtailed their efforts on behalf of the com- pany, but sought to do all that they could for the comfort and convenience of the Brookline men as individuals.
The First Regiment enjoyed the distinction of being the first one to respond to the call of May 3, 1861, for three-years men. Its commander, Colonel Cowdin, had offered to start for Wash- ington immediately after the assault on Sumter, but other regi- ments were sent, under three-months' enlistments, while the First was retained for the time being in case it should be needed in Boston.
Company A, primarily the Brookline company, was mus- tered in on May 23, with Company B, the Union Guards, of East Boston, Company G, the Independent Fusileers, of Boston, and Company H, the Chelsea Volunteers. On May 24 as- sembled Company D, the Roxbury City Guards, Company F, the National Guards, of Boston, Company K, the Chadwick Light Infantry, of Roxbury, and Company I, the Schouler
270
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
Guards, of Boston. The next day the Pulaski Guards, of South Boston, got together as Company E, and on May 27 the North End True Blues, of Boston, assembled, with the field and staff officers.
Headquarters were temporarily at Faneuil Hall, then for the fortnight from June 1 to 13, at an old ice house called Camp Ellsworth, on the shores of Fresh Pond, in Cambridge. On June 14 and 15 the regiment was at Camp Cameron in North Cambridge, marching on the latter day to Boston and their south-bound train.
Meanwhile Wilder Dwight had been active.' He and Major George H. Gordon were members of the New England Guards, the major in command being a West Point graduate of 1846, and a veteran of the Mexican and Indian wars.
On April 18 Dwight went to Gordon's office and asked him, 'Will you raise a regiment?'
'I am already committed to that,' Gordon replied. 'I have spoken to the Governor and he has promised me command of the first regiment that leaves the state for the war.'
There were many difficulties in the way of proceeding with this organization, notably the fact that there was no law to per- mit the receiving of forces into the national service except as organized militia. Further problems were concerned with the choosing of officers, and the provision of uniforms and other equipment.
Dwight and Gordon agreed that private financial aid would be indispensable. The former accordingly drew up a sub- scription paper, took it out among his friends, and in less than an hour received pledges amounting to $5000, which within a few days totaled $30,000. Advertisements were issued and posted in public places, and recruiting began.
George L. Andrews, lieutenant-colonel, and Wilder Dwight, major, left for Washington on April 25 to get from the Secretary of War the necessary authority to raise the regiment, so that it might be certain of acceptance when organized. That official reluctantly granted their request, and they returned with the first authority, in point of time, for raising a three-year regi-
I This account of Wilder Dwight's work, as well as that of the mustering of the First Massachusetts Infantry, is derived from Edward W. Baker's manuscript.
271
BROOKLINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
ment. This became the Second Massachusetts Infantry and, like the First Regiment, it responded to the President's call of May 3, 1861, for thirty-nine regiments of infantry and one of cavalry to serve three years.
The Second Regiment went into camp at Camp Andrew, on the Reverend James Freeman Clarke's Brook Farm at West Roxbury, where the first company arrived on May II, and whence the regiment left for the war on July 8.
RECRUITING EFFORTS
Governor Andrew had, from the first, urged the importance of military organization on a much larger scale than most others thought necessary. The activity of volunteer companies in Massachusetts persuaded him that additional regiments ought to be organized without delay, and this man power put at the disposal of the Federal Government. After long efforts, he was able at last to bring this proposal to the personal attention of President Lincoln, and on June 17, 1862, he received notice that the President would accept ten additional regiments 'from the loyal and patriotic State of Massachusetts.'
To form new regiments and fill the ranks of those which had already gone, Governor Andrew asked for 15,000 men, and Brookline's quota was determined to be sixty-one. A citizens' meeting of July 12, 1862, resulted in a request that the select- men call a town meeting as soon as possible to raise bounty money, and that they open a recruiting office and pay each volunteer $100 bounty. A. A. Lawrence offered to advance $6000 for bounty payments.
This time there was not a complete and immediate response. On August 9 another citizens' meeting was addressed by a num- ber of returned soldiers who sought to encourage enlistments. Moses B. Williams, chairman of the town's military committee, said that eighteen months previous 'the enthusiasm was so great on the part of the people that the question was not who would go to join the army of the Union, but who should stay at home; now the question was, who will come forward and enlist in this great cause of right and law, ... ' The fact was, that in almost four weeks, only forty-seven of the desired sixty- one enlistments had been obtained.
272
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
When this citizens' meeting met again at its adjournment on August 12, it did so 'amid the firing of cannon, the ringing of the bells and the playing of the band.' Chairman Williams 'reported that the roll was full and more than full.'
Meanwhile, however, the Federal Government had learned, from the experience of the first Richmond campaign, that many more troops would be necessary. On July 4, 1862, President Lincoln called for 300,000 men to serve for three years or the duration of the war, and while recruiting for this purpose was going on, there was an additional call for 300,000 more men.
It was thus clear to the citizens' meeting of August 12 that recruiting must go on in Brookline. Several citizens pledged themselves to provide men, and a half dozen volunteers came forward after a talk by Major D. K. Wardwell, of the Army of the Potomac, who 'gave an account of the army and its manner of living, marching and fighting; also, of the best manner for new recruits to take care of their health and render the most help to the cause. He closed with an eloquent and fervent appeal to all classes and parties to join to uphold the old flag and preserve the best country that ever the sun shone upon, to be a blessing and a home to the generations that shall come after us, as it has been to us.' The powers of patriotic oratory should be a never-ending source of wonder.
Facing the necessity of raising further quotas, the town meet- ing of August 19 voted $20,000 for military purposes, and au- thorized the military committee to enlist 122 men, 'being the probable quotas of the town for volunteers and drafted men.' Such bounties were to be paid as the committee and the select- men thought expedient. The military committee reported that 130 three-year men had already been placed in the United States service, which they thought 'would more than cover the town's quota under both calls.'
In this, however, they were mistaken. The second call was, by its terms, to be met by the drafting of men for nine-months' service. Massachusetts officials were anxious to avoid the draft, and Governor Andrew wrote to Lincoln, on August 8, 1862, that 'we can answer the call, in great part, without a draft, by sending our militia regiments already organized, and being filled up, and by recruiting new ones. The iron is hot; strike
273
BROOKLINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
quick. Drafting is mechanical; the impulse of patriotism is vital and dynamic.' Volunteers filled the Massachusetts quota.
A special town meeting in Brookline on September 11 of- fered one hundred dollars bounty for enlistments for this service, and adjourned to October 2, when it raised the reward to two hundred dollars, with a special offer of ten dollars to persons who might bring in recruits. It was voted to appro- priate $16,000 for this purpose, on the assumption that seventy- five men were to be enlisted. This was confirmed at another special meeting on October 8. The quota was duly filled.
HOME WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS
Meanwhile all of the women's activities customarily asso- ciated with war work, were going on. Writing from camp on November 26, 1861, to the Brookline War Committee, Captain Edward A. Wild had acknowledged the receipt of boxes con- taining shirts, drawers, and mittens; stockings were expected in another box. Hospital supplies were also part of the women's contribution. Not until August of 1862 did an emergency con- front the women's organization.
Then the second battle of Bull Run resulted in the loss of tremendous quantities of Union hospital stores. An urgent tele- gram requesting such supplies, and medical services, arrived in Boston on a Saturday night, and was relayed among the suburbs. George B. Blake, of Brookline, notified his own town, as well as Brighton and Roxbury, having first enlisted the aid of Ginery Twichell, former express rider and then president of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, a prominent Brookline citizen.
Mr. Twichell assisted first in notifying church authorities, and then in arranging transportation plans. When the congre- gations assembled, prayer was offered, and the people were notified of the great national emergency. In every church, materials were assembled, and the preparation and packing of bandages went ceaselessly and efficiently forward. All manner of fine garments and edible delicacies were included in the cases which, by four o'clock that afternoon, were on their way to fill the two freight cars which Mr. Twichell had waiting. These were assembled with eight additional cars in Boston-a
274
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
hundred tons of supplies in all - which Mr. Twichell personally conducted to Washington, together with twenty-one surgeons, and a number of nurses and others. The supplies were being distributed among the wounded before seven o'clock Tuesday morning, less than forty-eight hours after the appeal had been received in Brookline.
Throughout the war, Brookline continued to furnish sup- plies of this sort for the United States Sanitary Commission. There were personal services by women in other capacities, as well. Miss Helen M. Griggs, of an old Brookline family, served as a nurse in Washington, and after the war was a teacher among the Negroes of Richmond.
THE NEED FOR MORE MEN
In Massachusetts, at any rate, it had proved wholly feasible to raise the necessary quotas of troops by calling for volunteers. Congress, however, passed draft legislation in the conviction that it would distribute the burden more fairly. When this was put into effect in New York, riots occurred, and Governor Andrew accordingly took precautions when drafting was under- taken in Massachusetts in June and July of 1863. There was a little trouble in Boston during the first few days, but that was all.
No mention is made in the Brookline records of draftees. And it may be remembered that in Revolutionary days, the town, though it threatened a local draft to fill its quota, dis- regarded orders of the provincial government to draft soldiers, and persisted in raising them by the offer of bounties for vol- untary enlistments.
At any rate, a special town meeting on November 24, 1863, authorized the expenditure of $10,000 to raise the town's 'quota of men, under the call of the President of the United States.' On December 4, a citizens' meeting heard familiar patriotic appeals, and when chairman James Bartlett of the selectmen said that there was doubt of the legality of the vote of the previous town meeting, whereby the town agreed to pay the expenses of enlisting its quota, the citizens agreed to back up the selectmen, whether such use of the funds was strictly legal or not. In a few minutes those present had sub-
275
BROOKLINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
scribed nine thousand dollars to indemnify the selectmen (who were now acting as the town's military committee), in case they should be called to account for going ahead in the matter.
The question of the application of the draft in Brookline is a trifle obscure, but it seems probable that this point of legality was raised on that account. If the law directed that the men be raised by draft, an expenditure of town funds in the form of bounties to induce voluntary enlistments, would hardly be proper. But sentiment in Brookline was emphatically in favor of the principle of free enlistment; and perhaps there were those who preferred higher taxes to the alternative risk of being drafted themselves, though the employment of substitutes by draftees was no uncommon thing in Civil War days. In any event, the quota was raised once more, though not quite so readily and spontaneously as before.
Raising soldiers again appears as a town problem in the records of the meeting of July 29, 1864, in response to a presi- dential call of July 18. The town appropriated $35,000 for the purpose, which was duly fulfilled. This is the last formal account of recruiting in Brookline for the Civil War.
SERVICES RENDERED
William Schouler, Adjutant General of Massachusetts, stated in his final report that Brookline furnished 720 men for the war, this number being 135 in excess of the total demanded. Thirty- four were commissioned officers.
Another estimate fixes the total at 880, but this is evidently inclusive of natives of Brookline who had moved to other places, and enlisted among the recruits of other communities. Considering that there were only 738 voters in the town in 1860, and that the number of men over the military age of forty-five was probably far in excess of the number between the minimum military age of eighteen and the voting age of twenty-one, Brookline's contribution of man power was gen- erous in the extreme.
In money the town's expenditure amounted to $134,224.99, not taking into account the purchase of some $20,000 worth of materials to the value of which the work of women and children added immeasurably.
276
HISTORY OF BROOKLINE
THE BATTLE-FRONT
To attempt to recount, even in outline, the services of the men of Brookline as soldiers, or even of those units composed largely of Brookline men - Company A of the First Massa- chusetts Infantry, Wilder Dwight's company of the Second Massachusetts, and the Tenth Massachusetts Battery - would be to summarize a large part of the history of the Civil War. Somewhere the line must be drawn between making this not primarily a history of Brookline, but a history of Brookline and the nation.
But something must be told of the outstanding Brookline officers who won special distinction in the service. There was that gallant trio, Wild, Candler, and Chandler, who started out with Company A of the First Massachusetts.
Edward Augustus Wild was born in Brookline, November 25, 1825, the son of Dr. Charles Wild. He graduated from Harvard in 1844, studied medicine, and went into practice in Brookline in 1847. The next year he went abroad for travel and study, and looked into Garibaldi's Italian revolutionary forces so interestedly as to bring himself under suspicion as a spy.
He returned home in 1850, married in 1855, and set out for Constantinople on the opening of the Crimean War, to engage himself as a lieutenant-colonel in the Turkish medical corps. At the conclusion of this service he returned to practice in Brookline, but was soon active again in military matters. He had long been ardently opposed to slavery and this fact, coupled with his military enthusiasm, led him to enlist at the beginning of the war for its duration. He was commissioned a captain by Governor Andrew on May 22, 1861.
At Fair Oaks, Virginia, on June 25, 1862, his right hand was permanently crippled by a bullet, and he came home for a short period of recuperation. In August of that year he became colonel of the Thirty-Fifth Massachusetts, and three weeks later was engaged in the battle of South Mountain under General Burnside. There his left arm was shattered by a shell, and he himself courageously ordered its amputation.
But the mere fact that he was invalided home with one arm gone, and the remaining hand crippled, by no means put an end to the usefulness of Edward Wild. Before long he was
HARVARD SQUARE, BROOKLINE, IN 1865 The station is draped in black for President Lincoln
277
BROOKLINE IN THE CIVIL WAR
assisting Governor Andrew in the recruiting of colored troops, and in April of 1863 President Lincoln made him a brigadier general of volunteers. In that capacity, he set about raising colored troops in North Carolina, and during the campaign of 1864 he was again active in the field commanding a division of colored troops - infantry, artillery, and cavalry - in the siege operations against Petersburg and Richmond. When a superior force of Confederates surrounded him while he was guarding some army stores on the James River, General Fitz- Hugh Lee called upon him to surrender. He returned the demand with the inscription, 'We will try it. Ed. A. Wild, Brig. Gen'l Vol's.' His defense prevailed.
General Wild entered Richmond April 3, 1865, took part in the pursuit of Confederate fugitives south as far as Georgia, and later participated in the early work of 'reconstruction.' Mustered out on January 15, 1866, he found himself physically incapable of resuming his medical practice.
After several years of varied experience in mining, both in California and near Lake Superior, he went to South Amer- ica in 1891 to assist in the construction of a railroad in Colom- bia. Less than a month after his arrival there, he died, in the city of Medellín; and there lies the grave of this courageous gentleman and gallant adventurer.
William L. Candler was one of the two original lieutenants of the famous Company A. He had not been in active service long, when he attracted the attention of General Hooker, and was presently made a colonel on that officer's staff. With him he served throughout the war, and though it is said he had three horses shot under him, he was fortunate enough to escape being wounded himself. Subsequently he was active in vet- erans' affairs, and at his death was President of the Third Army Corps Union, Commander of the C. L. Chandler Post of the G.A.R., and a member of the Board of Officers of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.