USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 44
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of us who were less than fifty-five or sixty years old had absolutely no personal knowledge of war, and uniforms and martial music are always attractive; and to those who have never followed the drum, and know nothing of fatigue and wounds and hunger and thirst and strain on the nerves, and the suffering that cold and heat and dust and sleeplessness and the other minor trials of war may bring to the soldier who is neither wounded nor ill, soldicring seems a dashing, fascinating life.
The relation of the city of Boston to the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts is imperfectly and incompletely indicated by a statement of the pop- ulation of the one and of the other.2 Boston was the capital of the State, and that was much; yet that it had always been. But it was much more than that. It was not only the principal city of the State and of New Eng- land, but the first without a rival to dispute its pre-eminence. The termini of the great railroad and steamship lines were there. The centre of thought, the mass of wealth, the most active trade and commerce, the leading news- papers were all there; while the improved facilities of the Post Office, sup- plemented by the electric telegraph, brought it into closer relations with the most distant corner of the Commonwealth than existed between it and Worcester at the time of the war of 1812. The very closeness of the ties which united Boston to the towns of the Commonwealth, whether near or far, - the very prominence of its position as a part of Massachusetts, - make it hard to tell with accuracy what it did towards carrying on the war. Much that was done there was done by other than Boston men. Much that was done there by Boston men was done in the furtherance of the good work in directions which were not distinctly, and in some cases little or not at all, Bostonian. But as in war the last dollar often wins; and as many men are procured, and all are supplied and cquipped and supported by money; and as no hostile gun was fired during the war within some
1 The population of the county of Suffolk, which included, besides the city of Boston, the city of Chelsea and the towns of North Chelsea and Winthrop, was 192,678. The valuation of the county in 1860 was $320,000,000. It is said
VOL. III. - 40.
that Suffolk county furnished for the civil war 28,469 men ; but this total includes large num- bers of men who served in the navy, and of what were known as " paper credits."
2 [See Governor Long's chapter. - En.]
314
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
hundreds of miles of Boston; and as neither the whole nor the half of what Boston did in and for the War of Secession can here be told, - there seems to be no better course to follow than to endeavor to tell what money the city raised, and what troops she placed in the field.
As in the war of 1812, so in the period preceding the outbreak of the War of Secession, public opinion was divided in Boston. The Democratic party was strong there; and the Democratic party had been too long and too firmly united to the dominant party at the South to feel any sympathy with a movement which took its rise in hostility to the most important and most cherished institution of the South. The Democratic party did not stand alone. The Whig party, though almost dead, was dying hard; and the Webster Whigs, the Silver Grays, the Bell and Everett men, the Conser- vatives generally, were for peace at almost any price. As late as February 5, such men as Judge Curtis, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Hillard, and Mr. Salton- stall were speaking in Faneuil Hall in favor of the Crittenden compromise resolutions; but in Cambridge, six days later, Mr. Palfrey and Mr. Dana were declaring the South to be in revolution, or in mutiny, and proclaiming themselves to be uncompromisingly loyal to the Union.
By the morning of April 16, 1861, when Sumter had been fired upon, companies of militia began to arrive in Boston, in obedience to the order of the Governor, based upon a telegraphic call for troops from Washington ; fifes and drums began to be heard, the streets were thronged with people, flags were displayed in every direction, and the red, white, and blue rosette was seen on many a breast. Individuals offered pecuniary aid to soldiers' families. The Hon. William Gray sent $10,000 to the State House. The banks of Boston offered to lend the State $3,600,000, in advance of legis- lative action. Many of the leading physicians of the city volunteered to give their professional services to the families of the soldiers. The Bos- ton bar voted to take charge of the cases of those of their brethren who went to the war, and that liberal provision be made for their families.1 By the 19th $30,000 had been raised in Boston to aid in the formation of a regiment of infantry, of which more will be said in its place.
The attack on Fort Sumter had a wonderful effect upon public opinion in Boston, as well as elsewhere. On April 16 the Boston Post, the leading Democratic newspaper of New England, published an appeal to the people, in which it called upon all to choose whether they would help to preserve " our noble Republican Government," or descend into the pit of social anarchy; and warned them to "adjourn all other issues until this self-pre- serving issue is settled." On the 21st, in the Music Hall, Wendell Phillips gave the war a welcome " hearty and hot," and said: "I rejoice, for the first time in my Antislavery life, I stand under the stars and stripes, and welcome the tread of Massachusetts men." On the 27th, Mr. Everett, in
1 For much of the statistical information con- tained in the following pages I am indebted to the History of Massachusetts in the Civil War,
in two volumes (one general, the other on the towns), by Mr. Schouler, for some years Adju- tant-General of the Commonwealth.
315
BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
a speech made in Chester Square, declared that the Government of the country must be sustained. He said: " Upon an issue in which the life of the country is involved, we rally as one man to its defence. All former differences of opinion are swept away. We forget that we ever have been partisans : we remember only that we are Americans, and that our country is in peril." He was followed by Mr. Hallett, one of the foremost of the Democratic politicians of Boston and of New England, whose loyalty to the Union, like that of Mr. Everett, from this day to the day of his death never grew cold.
On April 15, 1861, Faneuil Hall, and all other buildings under the con- trol of the city which were suitable for the accommodation of troops, were placed at the disposal of the Governor. On the 19th $100,000 were ap- propriated " for the good care and comfort of the soldiers who may be in Boston." By April 27, 1861, the city had arranged to subsist the troops detailed to garrison the forts in the harbor. The first detachment of these troops, the Fourth Battalion of Infantry, composed almost wholly of young Boston men, occupied Fort Independence on April 26.
In the ten months beginning with June, 1861, the Treasurer of the city was authorized to borrow $100,000 for the payment of State aid to soldiers' families, and this total gradually grew to upwards of $1,000,000; but the whole amount was repaid to the city by the Commonwealth. In July, 1862, $300,000 were appropriated to pay bounties to such volunteers as might enlist to fill the quota of the city, and this sum was swelled by suc- cessive appropriations, - the last of which seems to have been in July, 1864,-to a total of $1,380,000. The total amount of money expended by the city, exclusive of State aid, is set down at a little over $2,500,000.
Of the hospitalities of the city to soldiers going to and returning from the front; of the city relief committee ; of the discharged soldiers' home; of the " committee of one hundred," which raised and expended the Massa- chusetts soldiers' fund ; of the gifts of ice, provisions, and clothing; of Mr. Evans's offer of the Evans House as a place of deposit for contributions for the soldiers, and of the use made of it by Mrs. Otis, who established there the " Bank of Faith; " of the New England Women's auxiliary asso- ciation, a branch of the United States sanitary commission, with head- quarters in Boston; of the Boston soldiers' fund, - of all these mere mention must suffice; and to mention these leaves almost countless other patriotic acts and sacrifices unnoticed.
It is said that Boston furnished twenty-six thousand one hundred and seventy-five men for the war. As about one sixth of the men furnished by Massachusetts for the service of the United States during the war were men in the navy, it is fair to assume that the total above given as the quota of Boston is to be diminished by more than one sixth to approximate the number of men furnished by her for the land service.
This showing, apparently so creditable, is unfortunately far from being an accurate presentation of the truth. Many, very many, men took up
316
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
arms from patriotic motives, and were volunteers in fact as well as in name; but there were thousands and thousands of men who were perfectly able to go, and would have made excellent soldiers, but who preferred to stay at home. The ranks came to be filled by men who had received boun- ties - sometimes very large-to induce them to enlist. The fear of the draft was great, and money was pourcd out frecly to procure so-called vol- unteers, and to purchase substitutes. The trade in men became brisk and lucrative, and the character of the regiments so reinforced and so formed depreciated in proportion. While the drag-net, baited with dollars, was thrown out at home, desertion became common at the front. The phrase " bounty-jumper " became as familiar as a household word. Men enlisted, received the bounty, deserted, enlisted again, deserted, and so on; while plenty of women were found ready to marry successively the men whose pockets were heavy with bounty-money, and who were pretty sure not to reappear in the scenes in which they had been mustered and received their bonus. If these men had been all Americans, or persons resident in America, it would have been bad enough; but foreigners were imported in considerable numbers for the express purpose of being placed in the ranks. In one case some hundreds of freshly imported Germans arrived at the front one evening, were mustered into a Massachusetts regiment of the very first class, and the next morning were thrust into one of the bloodiest battles of the war, without being so much as able to understand the words of command. Enough was done and suffered by Massachusetts men in the war to afford just ground for pride ; but when we exult over the upris- ing of a great people, we of Massachusetts and of Boston must not forget that there were shadows to the picture. Had the men of Boston in July, 1863, been as full of patriotic fervor and the spirit of self-sacrifice as were the early volunteers, public opinion would have been such that even the short-lived riot which then disturbed the peace of the city could not have taken place.
It is hard to say what regiments of infantry and cavalry and batteries of artillery Boston sent to the field, because it is probable that there was not a single organization all the members of which came from its people. It is coming pretty near the truth to say that the Ist, 2d, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 24th, 28th, 32d, 33d, 35th, and 56th regiments of infantry, the 3d regiment of heavy artillery, the Ist, 2d, 3d, 6th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th batteries, and the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th regiments of cavalry, were from Boston, - that is to say, the majority, or at least a large part, of their offi- cers and men were Boston men. The 54th and 55th regiments of colored infantry, and the 5th regiment of colored cavalry, were raised largely under Boston influence. To these may be added the 44th and 45th regiments of infantry, which were especially Boston regiments; but they enlisted only for nine months, and were not much exposed, and had less than one per cent of their numbers killed in action. Of the three-years' regiments the Ist was a militia regiment, which volunteered for the war. The 9th and
317
BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
28th were Irish regiments. The 2d, 20th, and 24th were raised under more or less exceptional circumstances, especially the 2d.
In the formation of all these three regiments, and to a considerable ex- tent in that of the ist and 2d cavalry, the officers were mainly selected by other judges than the men of their commands or the officials at the State House. In the formation of the other regiments and batteries, company officers were usually elected by their men, and the field and staff appointed at the State House. A comparison of the returns of the loss by death of some fourteen of these regiments shows a remarkable evenness of experience.
GENERAL THOMAS G. STEVENSON.1
In eight of them it was about ten per cent. One, which was thrust into the bloody battles of the Wilderness almost as soon as it left the camp where it was formed, lost about sixteen per cent by death. The loss of the other three was from twelve to fifteen per cent. In the percentage of killed in action, omitting those who died from wounds or disease, there is a dis- crepancy as remarkable, - the percentage ranging from less than three to
1 [General Stevenson was born in Boston in 1836, - a son of the Hon. J. Thomas Stevenson. He was a captain of the Massachusetts militia when the war broke out. He became colonel of the 24th regiment, and led it in the North Caro-
lina campaign. He became brigadier-general Dec. 27, 1862, and was in the attack on Fort Wagner. He was in command of the first di- vision, ninth corps, when he fell near Spottsyl- vania, May 10, 1864. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
over seven per cent. The actual loss in action of the 20th regiment was much the largest, - one hundred and ninety-two against one hundred and sixty-one in the regiment which came next to it; but the 20th not only had a larger number of men on its rolls than any other regiment of infan- try from Massachusetts included in the above list, but had the fortune to be
GENERAL WILLIAM F. BARTLETT.1
almost always actively engaged. General Orders from the headquarters of the army of the Potomac, dated March 1, 1865, specifying the names of the actions in which the regiments and batteries of the army of the Potomac had borne a meritorious part, and which they were ordered to have in-
I [General Bartlett was born at Haverhill, June 6, 1840, -- the son of a Boston merchant. He was appointed captain in the 20th Massa- chusetts regiment, July 10, 1861, while yet a student at llarvard. He became colonel of the 49th regiment, Nov. 10, 1862, and distinguished himself at Port Hudson. The next year he was made colonel of the 57th Massachusetts regi-
ment, and was in the Battles of the Wilderness. He became brigadier-general of volunteers, June 21, 1864, and commanded a division of the ninth corps ; and was captured before Petersburg, July 30, 1864. He was exchanged in September, and at the close of the war was brevetted major-gen- eral. Ile lost a leg, and was otherwise wounded, during his service. Ile died Dec. 17, 1876. - ED.]
319
BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
scribed on their colors or guidons, assigned to that regiment a number greater than that assigned to any other infantry regiment in that army. The loss of this regiment from desertion was also small, - about seven per cent, - while the average loss was about twelve per cent. The table on the next page may be found interesting ; but in consulting it, it must be remem- bered that the 32d, 33d, and 35th regiments of infantry did not go to the
COLONEL PAUL J. REVERE. 1
front till after the first of July, 1862, when the fighting of the Peninsula campaign, so called, was ended; that the 54th and 55th regiments of infan- try were not organized till 1863, nor the 56th till 1864; that the ist and 2d cavalry were three battalion regiments, each battalion containing four companies, and that they thus had a considerably larger number of officers than the infantry regiments; that the 3d cavalry was, from its organization
1 [Colonel Revere was born in Boston, Nov. 10, 1832; graduated at Harvard College in 1852; became major of the 20th Massachusetts Volun- teers in July, 1861 ; advanced to a lieutenant- colonelcy on the staff in September, 1862, and to
the colonelcy of the 20th in April, 1863. He was mortally wounded, July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, and died July 5. He is buried at Mount Auburn. A sketch of his life, by General W. R. Lee, is in Harvard Memorial Biographies, i. 204. - ED.]
320
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
in the autumn of 1862, an infantry regiment, till midsummer of 1863, when it was " converted into a regiment of cavalry " by General Banks, and had three companies added to it. The formation of the 2d cavalry also dates from the autumn of 1862. The fortune of war made the experiences of commands so different, that only general results can be arrived at by a comparison of the returns. Thus the 19th Massachusetts, though brigaded with the 20th, was absent from several engagements in which the 20th took part in the first year of the war, and engaged at least once when the 20th was not : -
ORGANIZATION.
TOTAL.
Killed in Action.
Died of Wounds,
Disease, etc.
Deserted.
First Regiment Infantry
198
93
88
155
Second Regiment Infantry .
2767
116
156
276
Ninth Regiment Infantry
1922
153
105
24I
Eleventh Regiment Infantry
2423
85
1 47
328
Twelfth Regiment Infantry
17 58
128
126
191
Thirteenth Regiment Infantry
1584
71
75
17 1
Nineteenth Regiment Infantry
2469
104
160
174
Twentieth Regiment Infantry
3230
192
192
229
Twenty-fourth Regiment Infantry
2116
63
I47
I12
Twenty-eighth Regiment Infantry
2504
161
203
288
Thirty-second Regiment Infantry
2969
79
198
163
Thirty-third Regiment Infantry .
1412
69
107
79
Thirty-fifth Regiment Infantry
1665
91
I34
40
Fifty-fourth Regiment Infantry (black)
I574
54
I 54
40
Fifty-fifth Regiment Infantry (black)
1295
52
132
27
Fifty-sixth Regiment Infantry .
1319
69
134
129
Third Heavy Artillery
2358
I
40
383
First Battery .
319
5
7
Second Battery
415
I
25
13
Third Battery
318
6
I3
9
Sixth Battery
451
5
50
57
Tenth Battery
274
4
19
4
Eleventh Battery
199
2
I
Twelfth Battery .
300
25
75
Thirteenth Battery
355
26
99
First Cavalry
2767
49
167
161
Second Cavalry .
2841
62
147
622
Third Cavalry
2653
60
203
372
Fourth Cavalry
2018
21
123
262
Fifth Cavalry (black)
1516
II7
124
The regiments of colored infantry lost heavily, - the 54th about thirteen per cent, and the 55th over fourteen per cent; but the killed in action in each of these regiments was to their deaths from other causes as one to two and one half, or three; while in the white regiments it was in four cases as great or greater, and in three exceeded three-quarters. It should be
BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
'321
COLONEL ROBERT GOULD SIIAW.1
.
said further to the credit of these colored regiments, that the percentage of desertion in neither reached three per cent. The colored cavalry regiment had not a man killed, but lost about eight per cent by death and the same by desertion. The losses in the cavalry regiments proper, - that is, excluding the converted 41st infantry, - ranged from seven to eight per cent. Desertion in the Ist cavalry was small, - only six per cent. In the 4th it was about thirteen per cent, while in the 2d2 it rose to the enormotis
1 [Colonel Shaw was born in Boston, Oct. 10, 1837, the son of Francis G. Shaw, and grand- son of Robert G. Shaw, the well known merchant of Boston. Ile served a brief term in Washing- ton, on the outbreak of the war, as a private in the New York Seventh Militia regiment ; and, May 28, was made a second lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts Volunteers. He becanic first lientenant, July 8, 1861 ; and captain, Aug. 10, 1862 ; and then, when the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was formed, -the first of the colored regiments recruited under State authority, - he became its colonel, April 17, 1863; and died at VOL. 111 .- 4t.
their head, July 18, 1863, in an attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, and was buried with his men, where they fell. See Harvard Memo- rial Biographies, ii. 172 .- ED.]
2 I have it from good authority that the de- sertion from the second cavalry was almost wholly from the seven companies enlisted in Massachusetts, and that from the five companies which came from California there was scarcely any. It occurred almost entirely before the re- cruits were sent forward from the State, and on the way to the field. It is understood to have been owing to the fact that the better class of
322
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
number of six hundred and twenty-two in two thousand eight hundred and forty-one, or nearly twenty-two per cent. The losses in the batteries were heavy, but only in two instances seemed to have reached ten per cent, while the desertion from them was generally creditably small.
LIEUT .- COLONEL WILDER DWIGHT.1
The general reputation of the Massachusetts troops was extremely good, and there were none among them better than some of the organizations which have been named as coming from Boston. If the Governor and people of Massachusetts had been as eager to keep the early regiments full, as they were to furnish their quota in such a way as to make sure that no man should go to the war who did not wish to, it is probable that by- midsummer of 1863 the Massachusetts contingent would have been as fine a
real volunteers was exhausted, that high bounties had begun, and that anything in the shape of a man which the medical officer would pass, was eagerly taken, regardless of quality, to fill the quota. Men under sentence are said to have been released from jail on condition of enlisting. As soon as the bounty was paid, the first oppor- tunity to desert was seized. Some of these men were so mutinous one day in Boston that Colonel Lowell shot one of them dead.
I [This cut follows a likeness prefixed to the Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight, by his mother, Boston, 1868. A briefer narrative by the same is given in the Harv. Mem. Biog., i. 252, undler the class of 1853. 1le was wounded at Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, and died two days later. He is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. His brothers, William, Jr., and Howard, were respectively brig- adier-general and captain. The latter was killed by guerillas in Louisiana, May 4, 1863. - ED.]
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BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
body of troops as the world has often seen. The men were intelligent, apt, . reasonable, healthy, patient, and brave, ready to submit to discipline as soon as they perceived its meaning and value; ready and able to march all day and all night when the occasion called for it; ready to die in their
MAJOR HENRY L. ABBOTT.1
places so long as their orders bade them to stand and the evil hour lasted. It was a shame to pour in among such soldiers the scum and refuse of humanity which the pernicious bounty system turned in their direction.2
1 [Major Abbott, the son of Hon. Josiah G. battles in which the army of the Potomac was Abbott, was born in Lowell, Jan. 21, 1842 ; gradu- engaged, and for a long time commanded his regiment. His record is admirably recounted by the writer of this chapter in the Harvard Me- morial Biographies, ii. 91. - En.] ated at Harvard in 1860. On the outbreak of the war he did a brief garrison duty at Fort In- dependence, and was commissioned second lieu- tenant in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment on 2 [It will be remembered that while Bur- goyne's army was in Cambridge, a practice ob- tained of recruiting the Massachusetts quota of the Continental army by enlisting deserters from this convention camp, and that it met the earnest protest of Washington. Sparks's Washington, v. 287, 297 .- ED.] July 10, 1861 ; first lieutenant, Nov. 8, 1861 ; a captain, Aug. 29, 1862; and major, May 1, 1863. lle was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, May, 6, 1864, and his commissions as brevet colonel and brevet brigadier-general date from that day. Ile was in most of the considerable
324
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT ON THE COMMON.1
Brilliant as were the records of many of these bodies of men, there was probably not one among them that did not suffer in reputation and fall be-
1 [This monument, executed by Martin Mil- bears the following inscription, which was fur- more, sculptor, was dedicated Sept. 17, 1877. It nished by President Eliot of Harvard University :
325
BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE.
low its own ideal, because of the contaminating flood which was let loose upon them. To such pollution was duc the death of a gallant captain of a distinguished Massachusetts regiment, murdered by the camp-fire on the ground of his own company, and almost certainly by one of his own bad men, who was never brought to justice.
The system of bounties would have been bad enough if it had stood alone, but it was coupled with another evil, - the constant formation of new organizations. It was natural that men should flock into them, for it meant for all a period of easy life so long as the formation was completing, while enlistment in a regiment or battery in the field meant a speedy plunge into the grim realities of war. It meant for the best men a vastly greater chance of promotion. Corporals and sergeants had all to be made, and a man who showed himself an efficient and serviceable sergeant in the home camp had a good chance of soon finding himself a lieutenant. But so it was; and by reason of this course of action at home our best regiments saw their numbers dwindling, and only feebly swelled from time to time by men generally of low quality, while up to the very end of the war they saw fine detachments of recruits arriving to enter the Western regiments, which came from States where a wiser policy prevailed.
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