USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 60
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1 Henry Shaw Briggs was born at Lanesboro, August 1, 1824, being the second son of Governor George N. Briggs. He graduated at Williams College in 1844. Studied law at the Cambridge law-school, and was admitted to practice in 1848. He represented Pittsfield in the legislature of 1856, was police-justice of the town in 1857, and justice of the district-court of central Berkshire from 1869 to 1873, and was auditor of the commonwealth from 1865 to 1869. In 1873 he was appointed one of the five general appraisers of the United States custom-houses. He married, August 6, 1849, Mary E., daughter of Nathaniel P. Talcott of Lanesboro.
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for their alaerity in responding to the call of the government, and declaring that the town ought to make abundant provision for the members of the company and their families. And to carry this vote into effect, a committee was appointed, consisting of Thomas F. Plunkett, William Pollock, Theodore Pomeroy, E. H. Kellogg, Thomas Allen, and Thomas Colt.
At about half-past six o'clock in the evening, the guard- seventy-eight men strong-in their rich uniform of gray and gold : soon to be laid aside for the loose blouse and trousers of active service-marched through the crowded streets to the depot, and took the cars for Springfield; just twenty-three hours after the receipt of Captain Briggs's order ; thus a little bettering the time of the minute-men who left Pittsfield, in the Lexington alarm on the 22d of April, 1774. The latter had, however, to collect their men from a wider extent of territory, and to await the gathering of the regiment from all central Berkshire.
The scenes and emotions which marked this first departure of Pittsfield soldiers in the war for the Union, cannot be described ; and the meager outlines which we are able to give, will but feebly suggest the true picture to those who have not participated in similar events. Railroad square was thronged with men, women, and children, surging with excitement and enthusiasm; and evi- dently brought by the scene before them to a clearer realization of the grandeur and sadness of the conflict, which the thick com- ing telegrams of the day foreshadowed; while, on the platform, eloser around the position of the guard, were witnessed the varied partings of kindred, lovers, and friends, with those never so well loved as then ; partings in which pride and joy struggled strangely with grief and sad forebodings.
Within the next four years, the spot became but too familiar with similar seenes; but there never could come again the same emotions as when, for the first time, in the presence of a great, unaccustomed and unmeasured peril, men recognized in their intimate friends and acquaintances, the compeers of the heroes of Lexington and Bunker hill. As, amid cheers half choked with feeling, the cars bore away their precious burden, they left a peo- ple inspired by the events of the previous twenty-four hours, not only with a greater, but with an essentially new, sense of faith in and devotion to their country.
The march of the Eighth regiment to Philadelphia, was dis-
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tinguished only by the enthusiasm which marked the passage of all the earlier Union troops through the northern states. Arriv- ing at Philadelphia on the evening of the 19th, it was quartered at the Girard House; but at two o'clock on the following morn- ing, the Allen Guard and the Salem Zouaves were aroused from their repose on the bare floor. On the day before, the slaughter of the Massachusetts soldiers, of the Sixth regiment, had taken place at Baltimore; and now General Butler, who accompanied the Eighth regiment, learned that it was the intention of the rebels to seize the ferry at Havre de Gras, thus closing the only remaining line of railroad-communication between the north and Washington. It was General Butler's intention to send the two companies forward by steamer, to thwart this design of the enemy. But not being able to obtain the steamer, the whole regiment was sent forward by rail; and when within two miles of the ferry, the two companies were again detached for their original purpose.
Perryville, which is the north terminus, was reported to be occupied by a rebel force; and, for the first time, the order was given to load with ball. All believed that they would shortly be in action, and there was doubtless even more trepidation than is generally experienced by young recruits in similar circumstances, as officers as well as men were entirely without experience, and they expected to fight superior numbers in an enemy's country. They, however, displayed perfect coolness, and in some instances even chivalric ardor; although it was not put to the final test of actual conflict.
The ferry-boat-the large steamer Maryland-was occupied without opposition. Adjutant-General Schouler, in his history of Massachusetts in the war, states that the Maryland was sent to Perryville by order of President Felton of the Baltimore and Philadelphia railroad, for the express purpose of conveying the Eighth regiment to Annapolis. If this was the case, neither the officers or men of the Allen Guard ever heard of it until the pub- lication of Mr. Schouler's book, although the whole regiment at once proceeded in the steamer to Annapolis, and the fact would seem likely to have been made known by her officers and crew.
After a brief service at Annapolis, on board the frigate Consti- tution, the Allen Guard were sent to Fort McHenry, Baltimore harbor, and did not rejoin the regiment for three weeks. During the remainder of its service, the guard was employed at Washing-
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GREYTOWER. RESIDENCE OF MRS. WILLIAM POLLOCK.
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ton, Baltimore, and neighboring points. It returned home with- out having met the enemy in battle; but it proved an excellent military school, and its members showed good soldierly qualities. The greater part of them afterwards served in other corps, either as officers or privates ; there being among them one brigadier- general, two lieutenant-colonels, one major, four captains, and seven lieutenants.
Shortly after the departure of the Allen Guard, came the pres- ident's call for seventy-five thousand men to serve for three years, six regiments being assigned to Massachusetts, of which one- the Tenth-was recruited in the western counties. The system of recruiting, by calling upon towns to furnish their proper quota, not having been yet established, Governor Andrew commissioned Messrs. Thomas Colt and George H. Laflin, to raise a company in Pittsfield and its vicinity.
These gentlemen entered upon their work with zeal, and received the heartiest co-operation of the town and its citizens. William Pollock, Esq.,1 gave one thousand dollars towards the outfit of the company, and it took the name of the Pollock Guard. In the Tenth regiment, it was designated as Company D. It went into barracks at the hall on the agricultural grounds, May 2, 1861, and on the 4th, Thomas W. Clapp, who had been a cadet at West Point, was chosen captain.2
1 William Pollock was born at Neilston, Renfrew county, Scotland, Febru- ary 9, 1809. In 1836, he went to Canada, where he purchased a farm of one hundred acres, a large portion of which he cleared up with his own hands. But not liking farming, he sold his land and went to Brainard's Bridge, Columbia county, N. Y., where he was employed as a mule-spinner, by a Mr. Rider, who soon appointed him superintendent of his entire cotton-warp mills. He afterwards removed to South Adams, as superintendent of a similar mill, owned by the same gentleman. This mill he soon purchased, and after run- ning it a few years, built a large, stone factory upon its site. Having become one of the most prosperous manufacturers in Berkshire, he removed to Pitts- field in 1856, where he purchased the handsome stone cottage erected by Mr. Gains Burnap, on Elm street. This place was surrounded by very ample and beautiful grounds, and Mr. Pollock, in 1864-5, enlarged the house to a spa- cious and elegant mansion, to which he gave the name of Gray Tower, it being built of gray lime-stone. During his residence in Pittsfield, he was one of the most successful business-men of the town. He married October 17, 1855, Miss Susan M. Learned, of Watervliet, N. Y. He died December 9, 1866.
2 After the war, Captain Clapp, who was a son of Col. Thaddeus Clapp, took the name of Warren T. C. Colt, by permission of the probate court.
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While they remained in barracks, the committee, appointed April 18th, provided rations at the expense of the town, the average cost per week being one hundred and eighty dollars; and also expended for clothing about four hundred dollars, in addition to the gift of Mr. Pollock. On the 15th of June, the guard took the cars for Springfield, and joined the regiment. A short time before their departure, they had done excellent firemen's service at the burning of the Pittsfield Woolen Mills, and they left the town under the half-burned national flag of the factory, which had been given them by the proprietors.
Captain Briggs of the Allen Guard was appointed colonel of the Tenth regiment On the 16th of July, it left Springfield. It first went into battle May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Va., where Colonel Briggs was severely wounded; and before his recovery, he was appointed brigadier-general.
The regiment afterwards took part in the following engage- ments : Battles on the Peninsula, Fredericksburg, Chancellors- ville, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Wilderness, Spottsyl- vania, North Anna River, Cold Harbor.
The Allen Guard returned to Pittsfield, August 8, 1861, and were received with enthusiasm; Ex-Governor Briggs presiding over an assemblage in the park, where Hon, Thomas Allen made a speech of welcome, and presented a banner in behalf of his sisters.
Lieut. Henry H. Richardson, who came home in command, immediately announced his intention to take the field again, and was commissioned captain in the Twenty-first regiment, for which he raised a number of recruits, whom pressing exigencies of the service rendered it necessary to send to the Twentieth. Still he took with him a good number of Pittsfield men for the Twenty-first; in which he distinguished himself as a gallant offi- cer, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
On the 1st of October, 1861, the adjutant-general of the army issued an order forming the six New England states into a mili- tary department, and providing that Maj .- General Benj. F. Butler should command it while recruiting his division. A controversy arose from this measure, between the war-department and Gov- ernor Andrew, which we have not space to enter into. A state- ment of but one side of the story occupies thirty pages of Schou- ler's History of Massachusetts in the Civil War. But in spite of
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the governor's remonstances, General Butler proceeded to raise two regiments in Massachusetts, known respectively as the East- ern and Western Bay State regiments. The latter was recruited in the fall and winter of 1861, and had its barracks at the agri- cultural hall, in Pittsfield, which took the name of Camp Seward. The regiment, while in barracks, was under the command of Charles M. Whelden of Pittsfield, who received a warrant from General Butler, to act as lieutenant-colonel, with the promise of that rank when the regiment should be finally organized. The men were raised rapidly and economically, and were well drilled.
The regiment was mustered into the United States service in the latter part of 1861, and left the state February 21, 1862. The special service for which the six regiments were required, turned out to be the expedition which resulted in the capture of New Orleans; and the Western Bay State was, according to General Butler's promise, the first to enter that city after its sur- render. In the winter of 1862, the controversy between the war-department and the governor was settled, by the transfer of the regiments in question to the state, and the Western Bay State became the Thirty-first Massachusetts. The governor, however, confirmed most of the appointments, but refused com- missions to Lieutenant-Colonel Whelden and a few others.
The regiment was mustered out of service in December, 1864 ; but left a battalion of five companies, which remained until Sep- tember, 1865. It took part in the engagements at Bisland, Port Hudson, Brashear City, Sabine Cross Roads, Cane River Crossing, Alexandria, Governor Moor's Plantation, Yellow Bayou, and in the several actions during the siege of Mobile.1
In the Thirty-fourth regiment, mustered into service at Wor- cester, August 13, 1862, were two companies raised at Pittsfield, by Captains Andrew Potter and William H. Cooley. No regi- ment suffered more severely, or sustained itself more gallantly. It was with General Hunter in his starvation-march up the Shen- andoah ; and in the first battle one-half the men in the Pittsfield companies were either killed or wounded. It fought in the bat- tles of New Market, Piedmont, Lynchburg, Snicker's Gap, Mar- tinsburg, Halltown, Berryville, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, Hatcher's Run, Petersburg.
1 Lieutenant-Colonel Whelden, after the change in the officers of the regi- ment, served on General Butler's general staff, and in other positions.
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In August, 1862, a camp of instruction for the reception of recruits from Berkshire, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, was established at Pittsfield, under the name of Camp Briggs; the grounds selected being those afterwards occupied by the Berk- shire Pleasure Park, on Elm street, and about a mile and a half east of Park square. Col. William R. Lee, of the Twentieth regiment, was assigned to the command; but was relieved on the 12th of August, by Adj. Oliver Edwards of the Tenth, who was commissioned major, and instructed to organize the Thirty- seventh regiment. Two weeks afterwards, the 'regiment was organized with the following officers : Colonel, Oliver Edwards of Springfield ; lieutenant-colonel, Alonzo E. Goodrich of Pitts- field; major, George L. Montague of Hadley ; adjutant, Thomas G. Colt of Pittsfield ; quartermaster, Daniel J. Dodge of Pitts- field.
On the 5th of September, in reply to an inquiry how soon the Thirty-seventh would be ready to proceed to Washington, Colonel Edwards wrote, " we are ready and ask no delay ; but await orders." The regiment was not quite full ; General Lee was in Maryland, and Washington was also threatened on the south side. The Thirty-seventh, therefore, left Pittsfield on Sunday, September 7th, and soon afterwards was attached to Couch's division of the Sixth Corps, then at Downsville, Maryland. From that time to the close of the war, it performed the most gallant service, and was engaged in the following battles: First Fredericksburg, Va., Mayres Heights, Salem Heights, Second Fredericksburg, Get- tysburg, Rappahannock Station, Mine Run, Va., the three days Wilderness, four engagements at Spottsylvania, two engagements and five days fighting at Cold Harbor, battles at Petersburg in 1864, Fort Stevens, Snicker's Ferry, and Charlestown, Va.
Immediately after the evacuation of Camp Briggs by the Thirty- " seventh regiment, it was occupied by the Forty-ninth, which was the only regiment raised exclusively in Berkshire county; and was enlisted for nine months, although it served for twelve. The first company to go into camp was that of Capt. I. C. Weller, which had been four days in barracks at Burbank's hall. Com- pany B, Capt. Charles R. Garlick, followed on the same day ; and, before the 14th, each of these companies numbered a hundred men. Both were commanded by Pittsfield captains, and shortly following them, came Company C, Capt. Charles T. Plunkett ;
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early in Qctober, Capt. Zenas C. Renne, also of Pittsfield, joined the regiment with eighty-eight men.
On the 20th of September, Capt. William F. Bartlett of the Twentieth regiment, who was invalided on account of the loss of a leg at the siege of Yorktown, took command of the post. Captain Bartlett, although a severe disciplinarian, soon became extremely popular with the regiment, as well as the citizens, and, the offi- cers being instructed by him daily, their companies showed great efficiency.1
The regiment left Pittsfield for Camp Wool, Worcester; and there the subalterns, who had been previously elected by the respective companies, chose the following field-officers : Colonel, William F. Bartlett of Boston; lieutenant-colonel, Samuel B. Sumner of Great Barrington; major, Charles T. Plunkett of Pittsfield. Colonel Bartlett appointed his college-friend, Benja- min C. Miflin of Boston, adjutant, and Henry B. Brewster of Pittsfield, quartermaster, which gave them respectively the rank of first-lieutenant. The non-commissioned staff were sergeant- major, Henry J. Wylie, Pittsfield ; quartermaster-sergeant, George E. Howard, Pittsfield; commissary-sergeant, H. H. Northrop, Cheshire ; hospital-steward, Albert J. Morey, Lee.
The regiment reached Carrolton, seven miles above New Or- leans, February 7, 1863, and first went into battle May 21st, at Plains Store, where it exhibited great gallantry. In this battle, Lieut. Joseph Tucker of Lenox, lost a leg while acting as aid to Colonel Chapin.2
During its whole term of service, the Forty-ninth fully main- tained the fame which the Berkshire soldiers won in former wars.
1 William Francis Bartlett was born at Haverhill, June 6, 1840, being the son of Charles Leonard Bartlett. His grandfather, Bailey Bartlett, was a member of the congress of 1800. When the civil war broke out, W. F. Bart- lett was a student in Harvard University ; but in April, 1861, he enlisted as a private, and in July, was commissioned captain in the Twentieth regiment. . After the return of the Forty-ninth, he was made colonel of the Fifty-seventh regiment, and in June, 1864, was promoted brigadier-general for conspicuous gallantry at Port Hudson, and commanded a division of the Ninth corps. In 1865, he was breveted major-general. In October, 1865, he married Agnes, daughter of Robert Pomeroy of Pittsfield, and became a citizen of the town.
2 Lieutenant Tucker, who was lieutenant-governor of the commonwealth in 1870-73, was appointed judge of the district-court for central Berkshire, in 1873, when he became a citizen of Pittsfield.
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At the siege of Port Hudson, no corps excelled it in gallantry and efficiency. We are precluded by a rule, necessarily adopted, from relating special instances of heroic conduct; but the stories of the Forty-ninth and the Tenth regiments have been published in well-written volumes, and that of the others, doubtless, will be. It would be impossible to do any of them justice in the space at our command.
The Forty-ninth left Baton Rouge for home, August 9, 1863, passing by steamer up the Mississippi to Cairo, and thence by railroad to Pittsfield, which was reached on the twenty-third.
The regiment left Pittsfield with nine hundred and sixty-two men. It returned with six hundred and seventy-six, including officers. During its absence, eighty-two men died of disease, and thirty-two of wounds ; fifty one were sent home sick, and twenty were left behind sick ; thirty-two deserted, two were missing, and fifty-six were discharged. After the return of the regiment, sev- eral died of disease contracted or wounds received in service.
For several weeks before the regiment reached Pittsfield, prep- arations had been making for such a welcome as would express the feeling of the county towards those who had done so much for its honor; and the vexatious delays, which from time to time postponed its arrival, were borne with impatience. When at last intelligence was received that it was surely near at hand, the news was at once dispatched to all parts of the county, and on the morning of the twenty-third, the streets were thronged as they rarely have been. The town was beautifully decorated with flags, evergreens, triumphal arches, and appropriate mottoes. The reg- iment was received at the depot by a procession consisting of a cavalcade of citizens, Stewart's band of North Adams, the Pitts- field and Lee fire-companies, the St. Joseph's Mutual Aid Soci- ety, the Pittsfield Liederkranz, and Schreiber's band of Albany. After marching through the principal streets, the procession halted at the park, where Hon. James D. Colt made an address of welcome : after which the soldiers partook of a collation in the park. From beginning to end, the reception was marked by genuine feeling. Never did returning soldiers receive a prouder ovation.
After the Forty-ninth regiment was mustered out of service, Colonel Bartlett was assigned to the Fifty-seventh, of which Edward P. Hollister, also of Pittsfield, was lieutenant-colonel, and
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which contained several Pittsfield men. It was engaged in the following battles : Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Poplar Spring Church, Hatcher's Run. The regiment left the state April 16, 1864, and Colonel Bartlett was promoted brigadier-general in June.
In November, 1864, the Eighth regiment of militia was again called into service, and a Pittsfield company, under the command of Captain Lafayette Butler, was attached to it. The service was for one hundred days, and it did not go into battle ; but two of the Pittsfield soldiers died of disease.
The Sixty-first regiment was recruited in the fall of 1864, for one year's service. One company was raised at Pittsfield. The regiment took part in the battle before Petersburg.
The Twenty-seventh regiment, Colonel Horace C. Lee, which has a most honorable record in the war, had a considerable num- ber of Pittsfield men. It fought at Roanoke, Newbern, Wash- ington, Gum Swamp, Walthal, Arrowfield Church, Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor, and other battles before Richmond, and South-west Creek.
The town was also represented largely in the First, and to some extent in the Second, Third and Fifth regiments of cavalry. And it furnished soldiers to a number of other regiments in all branches of the service, whose names will appear in the roll printed in the appendix.
During the first year of the civil war, the soldiers of Pittsfield hurried to the field, as we have seen, with no thought save the imminent danger of their country; and the contributions of their fellow-citizens in their aid were spontaneous, and not the result of previous contract. Afterwards, as the prolonged contest demanded more and more of pecuniary sacrifice on the part of those who represented the town in the field, a part of this sacrifice was assumed, in the form of bounties, by those who remained at home. Those who received this aid were, however, assured that it was only in compensation for their pecuniary losses. For the dangers which they were to encounter, for the lives which they might lose, the reward which was proffered them, next after the satis- faction of having fulfilled their duty, was, that they should be for- ever held in grateful memory as brave, true, and patriotic men.
The first bounty offered was when, early in July, 1862, it was made known to the people of Pittsfield, that, under the president's call
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for three hundred thousand men, the quota of the town would be one hundred and two men. The exigency did not admit of the delay necessary for calling a legal town-meeting, but the citizens assem- bled and passed a resolution to offer a bounty of one hundred dollars on each enlistment prior to August 15th. They also passed unanimously a series of resolutions, among which were the following :
Resolved, That the forces of the United States should be adequate to suppress domestie insurrection and to repel foreign invasion, and that in order to maintain the authority of this government, and the integrity of the Union, the militia of the United States ought immediately to be placed upon a war-footing, so that a million of soldiers, if necessary, in addition to the federal armies now in the field, may be ready to respond to any draft which may be made by the President of the United States.
Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, the exigencies of the country demand that the government should at once call for a draft of at least half a million of men in addition to the three hundred thou- sand already called for, and that they should at once be placed in the field for service.
Resolved, That the governor of this state should at as early a day as possible put the militia of the state in readiness for such a call.
The action of this meeting, which was held on the 7th, was immediately communicated by the chairman, Hon. Thomas Allen, to Governor Andrew, who replied on the 9th, in a letter of which the following extract shows the spirit: "Nothing can exceed the patriotic spirit of the people of Pittsfield. The town has already most nobly connected its name with the brightest pages of this war, and now it is the first to take hold in the right way to raise its quota for the new demand. I find that the cities and towns are taking hold with a will; and I feel very much encouraged that we shall get our quota, not only without drafting, but before any other state has got half its share." On the 2d of August, Mr. Allen also reported the action of the informal assem blage of citizens to a regular town-meeting, by which both the resolutions and the offer of bounties were ratified. Bounties in the meanwhile had been paid in the faith that this would be the case. On the 25th of August, 1862, the town voted to offer fifty dollars bounty to each recruit for the nine-months service. On the 27th of June, 1864, it offered a hundred and twenty-five dol-
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