USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 52
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 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
' Adjutant-general's Report.
1855]
ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.
605
In 1852 the Democratic party seemed strongly intrenched in power in New Hampshire, and were arrogant and overbearing. The Know-Nothing movement was introduced to break their solid front : and well it succeeded.
At the spring election in 1855 Ralph Metcalf was elected governor by the Know-Nothing party. Governor Metcalf was born in Charlestown in November, 1798, passed his youth on the farm of his father, who was a veteran of the Revolution, gradu- ated at Dartmouth College in 1823, read law, and settled in New- port and later in Claremont. In 1831 he was elected secretary of state, moved to Concord, and held the office until 1838. He declined the office of attorney-general while he was secretary, and during a temporary residence in Washington refused the place of editor of one of the leading journals of that city. In 1845 he was living at Newport, when he was appointed register of Probate for the county of Sullivan. He was a representative in 1852 and in 1853, the latter year serving on the committee for codifying the laws. He was re-elected in 1856. He died at Claremont in August, 1858. Governor Metcalf was a great lover of romance, read and reread the standard authors, and wielded a ready and humorous pen. He was fond of social life, and contributed freely to its promotion.
1 In 1855 the legislature was called upon to elect two United States senators. For the first time in a quarter of a century, with a single exception, the Democratic party was in a minority. The opposition was composed of the Whig party, then on the point of dissolving, the American party, commonly known as the "Know-Nothing" party, and the Free-Soil party. These elements, a year later, were fused in the Republican party. By common consent Hon. John P. Hale was nominated for the short term, and the contest for the long term was between Mr. Clark and the Hon. James Bell. In the senatorial caucus the latter was nominated and subsequently elected by the legisla- ture. The contest, although warm, was a friendly one, so that when, two years later, in 1857, the legislature was called to fill the vacancy in the office occasioned by the death of Senator
1 Judge I. W. Smith.
,
606
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1856
Bell, in obedience to the common wishes of their constituents the Republican members nominated and the legislature elected Mr. Clark. Upon the expiration of his term he was re-elected in 1860 with little opposition. The ten years spent by Senator Clark in Congress constituted the most eventful period in the history of the Republic. He witnessed the rise, progress, and overthrow of the Rebellion. He was a firm supporter of the various war measures adopted for the suppression of the Rebel- lion, and had the confidence of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton. He failed of a re-election in 1866, as his colleague, Senator Hale, had done two years before, not from any lack of ap- preciation of the invaluable services they had rendered the coun- try, nor of the honor they had conferred upon the State by their course in Congress, but because the rule of rotation in office had become so thoroughly ingrafted into the practice of the Republi- can party in the State that a departure from it was not deemed wise, even in the persons of these eminent statesmen.
In the summer of 1866 a vacancy occurred in the office of district judge of the United States District Court for the district of New Hampshire, and Sena- tor Clark was nominated for the position by President Johnson, and unani- mously confirmed by the Senate. He thereupon resigned his seat in the Senate and entered upon the discharge of his judicial duties. The wisdom of his selection has been justified by his career upon the bench. The office of district judge does not afford such opportunity for public distinction as the bench of some other courts, the jurisdiction of the court being principally limited to cases arising under the constitution and laws of the United States. New Hampshire, from its size, location, and business relations, furnishes only a small amount of business for the federal courts, and not much of that generally of public interest. In addition to holding his own court, Judge Clark has frequently been called to hold the federal courts in other States in the first circuit. He has brought to the discharge of his judicial duties the same learning, industry, and interest that characterized his labors at the bar and in the Senate. His decisions have commended themselves to the profes- sion for their soundness and fairness.
Daniel Clark was born in Stratham, October 24, 1809, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1834.
St. Paul's school, at Concord, was opened in April, 1856, for the admission of pupils, having been incorporated the previous year, Under the direction of Rev. Dr. Henry A. Coit, the school has
607
ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.
1857]
increased from five pupils in 1856 to three hundred pupils in 1888.
The school is located on a domain of six hundred acres pleasantly situated in the valley of Turkey river, two miles west of the State House. The buildings erected from time to time to meet the wants of the growing school are architecturally pleasing to the eye and are charmingly grouped. The chapel, not complete in 1888, cost over $100,000, and is said to be the finest of its class in the United States. The founder of the school, a Boston physician, was desirous of endowing a school of the highest class, for boys, "in which they may obtain an education which shall fit them for college or business, including thorough intellectual training in the various branches of learning ; gymnas- tic and manly exercises adapted to preserve health and strengthen the physical condition ; such æsthetic culture and accomplish- ments as shall tend to refine the manners and elevate the taste ; together with careful moral and religious instruction."
The full course of instruction is designed to cover seven years and to prepare for admission to the freshman or sophomore class in any American college. The school gathers most of its pupils from other States; and its high success has won honor for the Episcopal Church which it represents.
Adjoining the grounds of St. Paul's school, and intimately connected with it, is the Diocesan Orphans' Home, the first refuge of the kind opened in the State, and always full of chil- dren.
In 1857, William Haile of Hinsdale was elected governor of the State.
Governor Haile was the standard bearer of the newly or- ganized Republican party, whose first national campaign had been led by John C. Fremont. The party drew to itself Whigs, Free-Soil Democrats, Abolitionists, and all those in opposition to the Democratic party.
Governor Haile was born in Putney, Vermont, in 1807, passed his boyhood and early manhood in Chesterfield, and in 1834 embarked in business in a country store in Hinsdale, with small capital but good credit. In 1847 he undertook manufac-
:
1
608
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1859
turing, and was as successful as he had been in trade. His honesty and untiring devotion to business insured success. He took an active and prominent part in church affairs, and belonged to a number of benevolent societies. Though extensively en- gaged in business he took a prominent part in political affairs. With the exception of two years he represented Hinsdale in the " legislature from 1846 to 1854. In 1854 and 1855 he was a mem- ber of the Senate, being chosen president of that body the latter year, and was elected as representative in 1856. He was the first successful standard bearer of the Republican party for the office of governor. He was re-elected in the year 1858. In 1873 he removed to Keene, built a fine residence, and took an active part in business till his death in July, 1876.
The panic of 1857 came upon the country with crushing and disastrous effect. Every interest was prostrated ; and the president was compelled in his message to Congress to portray the disastrous condition of the country in strong colors. Mr. Buchanan said :-
With unsurpassed plenty in all the elements of national wealth, our manu- facturers have suspended, our public works are retarded, our private enter- prises of different kinds are abandoned, and thousands of useful laborers are thrown out of employment and reduced to want.
Following the panic of 1857 there were four years of " hard times." Money was scarce, specie payment was maintained by the banks with great difficulty, as the gold from the California mines had largely been shipped to Europe to pay adverse bal- ances, and new enterprises were few in number and unprofitable in result.1
Ichabod Goodwin was chosen the governor of New Hamp- shire, as the Republican candidate, in the year 1859, and was re-elected by the same party in the following year, his second . term of office having expired June 5, 1861. Born at the close of the last century in North Berwick, Maine, he was a ship- master for a number of years ; settled in Portsmouth, in 1832, and established himself as a merchant. He served in the legis-
I James G. Blaine.
609
1860]
ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.
lature of New Hampshire as a member of the Whig party for a number of years. He was also a delegate at large from the State to the conventions at which Clay, Taylor, and Scott were nominated by the Whigs for the presidency, and was a vice- president at the two first-named conventions; and he twice served in the constitutional conventions of New Hampshire. He was the candidate of the Whigs for Congress at several elections before the State was divided into Congressional districts. New Hampshire was in those days one of the most powerful strong- holds of the Democratic party in the country.
During his administration the war of the Rebellion was com- menced. The military spirit of the people of New Hampshire had become dormant, and the militia system of the State had fallen pretty much to decay, long before the first election of Mr. Goodwin to the office of governor. A slight revival of that spirit, perhaps, is marked by the organization in his honor, in January, 1860, of "The Governor's Horse Guards," a regiment of cavalry in brilliant uniform, designed to do escort duty to the governor, as well as by a field muster of several voluntary organ- izations of troops which went into camp at Nashua in the same year. But when the call of President Lincoln for troops was made in the spring of 1861, the very foundation of a military system required to be established. The nucleus itself required to be formed. The legislature was not in session and would not convene, except under a special call, until the following June. There were no funds in the treasury which could be devoted to the expense of the organization and equipment of troops, as all the available funds were needed to meet the ordinary State ex- penditures. The great confidence of the people of New Hamp- shire in the wisdom and integrity of Mr. Goodwin found in this emergency full expression. Without requiring time to convene the legislature so as to obtain the security of the State for the loan, the banking institutions and citizens of the State tendered him the sum of $680,000 for the purpose of enabling him to raise and equip for the field New Hampshire's "quota of troops. This offer he gladly accepted ; and averting delay in the proceed- ings by refraining from convening the legislature, he, upon his -
610
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1860
1
own responsibility, proceeded to organize and equip troops for the field ; and in less than two months he had dispatched to the army, near Washington, two well-equipped and well-officered regiments. Of this sum of $680,000 only about $100,000 was expended. On the assembling of the legislature that body unanimously passed the " Enabling Act," under which all his proceedings as governor were ratified, and the State made to assume the responsibility.
-
In Bo. Bachelder Del.
VIEW NEAR MEREDITH VILLAGE.
r
-
Seman Maraton
CHAPTER XIX.
WAR OF THE REBELLION, 1861-1865.1
ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN -SECEDING STATES - FIRING ON SUMTER - FIRST REGIMENT - MASON W. TAPPAN - OLD MILITIA -GOVERNOR'S HORSE GUARDS -THOMAS L. TULLOCK - SECOND REGIMENT - GILMAN MARSTON- J. N. PATTERSON - NATHANIEL S. BERRY - THIRD REG- IMENT -ENOCH Q. FELLOWS -JOHN H. JACKSON - JOHN BEDEL - FOURTHI REGIMENT - THOMAS J. WHIPPLE - LOUIS BELL - FIFTH REG- IMENT - EDWARD E. CROSS -CHARLES E. HAPGOOD - EDWARD E. STURTEVANT -SIXTH REGIMENT - SIMON G. GRIFFIN - HENRY H. PEARSON - SEVENTH, EIGHTH, NINTH, TENTH, ELEVENTH, TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, FOURTEENTH, FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTII, AND SEVENTEENTH REGIMENTS - COLONEL HENRY O. KENT - JOSEPH A. GILMORE - EIGII- TEENTH REGIMENT - CAVALRY, ARTILLERY, AND SHARPSHOOTERS - SUMMARY OF NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS -E. H. DURELL - GEORGE HAM- ILTON PERKINS.
N the fall election of 1860 the Republican party was success- ful. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, received one hundred and eighty electoral votes for president; John C. Breckinridge, seventy-two; John Bell, thirty-nine; Stephen A. Douglas, twelve ;- and Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, pledged to resist the extension of slavery into the Territories, when the votes were counted in the United States Senate, was declared elected president of the United States. December 20, 1860, the State of South Carolina, through a popular convention, passed an ordinance of secession from the Union In January, 1861, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina followed, and adopted similar acts of secession. Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861, and imme- diately called to his cabinet William H. Seward, as secretary of state ; Salmon P. Chase, as secretary of the Treasury ; Simon
" The facts in this chapter are largely derived from the Adjutant-General's Reports.
612
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1861
Cameron, as secretary of war ; and Gideon Wells, as secretary of the navy.
Early in February forty-two delegates, representing the seven seceded States, had assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, and organized a Southern Confederacy. Jefferson Davis was elected president, and Alexander H. Stevens, vice-president, of the new government.
April 12, 1861, the Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, which was held by a small garrison of loyal men, under command of Major Robert Anderson. The news of the attack was flashed over the wires north and west. The whole American people were roused as never before. The president immediately issued a proclamation calling for seventy- five thousand volunteers. The secretary of war made a requisi- tion on the State of New Hampshire for one regiment of infan- try for three months' service.
Governor Goodwin directed Adjutant-general Joseph C. Abbott to issue the necessary orders calling for the required number of volunteers ; and in less than ten days a thousand eager recruits were assembled at Concord. Mason W. Tappan was com- missioned colonel, Thomas J. Whipple, lieutenant-colonel, and Aaron F. Stevens, major.
After a month of drill on the fair grounds, about a mile east of the State House, the First regiment embarked May 25, 1861, and proceeded to Washington. Active hostilities were opened between the opposing forces of the North and South at the battle of Bull Run, July 21 ; a battle which was destined to open the greatest struggle of modern times, if not the greatest in the history of the world.
The First formed a part of the Union line, but was many miles away from the active operations of that eventful day. The regiment was mustered out August 9, 1861.
Connected with the First regiment were Adjutant Enoch Q. Fellows, Quartermaster Richard N. Batchelder, Surgeon Alpheus B. Crosby, Captain Louis Bell, Captain Ira McL. Barton, Cap- tain Edward E. Sturtevant, Lieutenant Henry W. Fuller, Ser- geant-major George Y. Sawyer, Sergeant Daniel B. Newhall, and many others who afterward won honor in the service.
613
WAR OF THE REBELLION.
1861]
Colonel Mason W. Tappan, who led the First regiment of New Hampshire volunteers to the field of battle to help the president maintain the integrity of the Union and resist the attacks of those rebelling against the government, was a native of Newport, and a resident of Bradford. He was born October 20, 1817 ; studied law with Hon. George W. Nesmith ; was in the legisla- ture in 1853, 1854, and 1855, and was elected a member of Con- gress the latter year. He served in all six years, and was a fear- less defender of Union principles. After his return with the First, he was appointed colonel of the Fourth and of the Six- teenth regiments, but decided to let younger men take the com- mand. He was appointed attorney-general in 1876, and served until his death, October 25, 1886. He was an able lawyer and an eloquent public speaker.
At the breaking out of the war, Ichabod Goodwin was gov- ernor of the State ; Moody Currier was a member of the Council, Thomas L. Tullock was secretary of state, Allen Tenncy was deputy secretary, Peter Sanborn was State treasurer, and Asa McFarland was State printer ; Daniel Clark and John P. Hale were United States senators ; and Gilman Marston, Mason W. Tappan, and Thomas M. Edwards, members of Congress.
The militia consisted of 34,569 men, divided into three divi- sions, six brigades, and one regiment. The only really effective military organizations at the time were the Amoskeag Veterans and the Governor's Horse Guards. Of the latter, George Stark was colonel, A. Herbert Bellows, lieutenant-colonel, Henry O. Kent, major, Thomas J. Whipple, adjutant, Chandler E. Potter, judge advocate, Joseph Wentworth, quartermaster, Charles P. Gage, surgeon, J. C. Eastman, assistant surgeon, Henry E. Par- ker, assistant chaplain, Frank S. Fiske, sergeant-major, Charles A. Tufts, quartermaster-sergeant, Natt Head, chief bugler, Stebbins H. Dumas, commissary, True Garland, standard bearer. John H. George and Cyrus Eastman were captains ; and Edward H. Rollins, Benjamin Grover, Bainbridge Wadleigh, and Micajah C. Burleigh, were lieutenants.
The secretary of state, Thomas L. Tullock, was a native of Portsmouth. He was very efficient in aiding Governor Goodwin
614
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1861
in arming and equipping the first troops sent from the State to suppress the Rebellion. At the expiration of his term of office he was appointed navy agent at Portsmouth. At the navy yard several thousand workmen were employed, and an immense amount of material was purchased for the construction of ships of war. Among the number launched at the yard during the war, or while Mr. Tullock was agent, were the Kearsarge, Franklin, Ossipee, Sacramento, Sebago, Mahoska, Sonoma, Conemaugh, Pawtucket, Nipsic, Shawmut, Sassacus, and Agamenticus. Mr. Tullock was instrumental in forming the nucleus of the very perfect collection of portraits of governors and statesmen which adorn the State House. He was afterwards postmaster of the city of Washington. He was a student of historical subjects and a graceful writer on historical and antiquarian themes.
Thomas Logan Tullock, son of Captain William and Mary (Neal) Tullock, was born in Portsmouth, February 11, 1820. He received his education at the Portsmouth High School, and in early youth embarked in commercial pursuits. In 1849 he was appointed postmaster of Portsmouth, and held the office four years. In 1858 he was elected by the legislature secretary of state, and held the office until June, 1861, when he was appointed navy agent. He resigned the latter office in August, 1865, and accepted the office of secretary of the Union Republican Congressional Committee, with headquarters at Washington. Upon the election of General Grant, Mr. Tullock was appointed chief of the appointment division of the Treasury department, and later collector of internal revenue for the District of Columbia. He held the office until 1876. The next year he was appointed assistant postmaster of Washing- ton. In 1882 he was appointed postmaster of Washington. He died June 20, 1883.
Mr. Tullock was twice married; first, August 29, 1844, to Emily Estell Rogers; second, January 10, 1866, to Miranda Barney Swain, a native of New Hampshire, " whose devotion to our wounded soldiers during the war of the Rebellion is gratefully remembered throughout the State." Of his children by his first wife, Thomas L. Tullock, jr., paymaster U. S. Navy, was lost on the steamer Oneida, in Yokohama, Japan, January 24, 1870; and Seymour M. Tullock settled in Washington. By his second marriage he left one son, Henry Vanderbilt Tullock.
Mr. Tullock was an active member of the Methodist church, and was a Mason of high degree.
Upon the first call for troops so many volunteers assembled that a camp was established at Portsmouth, and enough enlisted to form another regiment. The call came for three hundred
Ihr I Feellack.
615
WAR OF THE REBELLION.
1861]
thousand troops to serve three years ; and most of the men re- enlisted. Colonel Thomas P. Pierce, a veteran of the Mexican war, resigned; and the Second regiment was organized, with Hon. Gilman Marston as colonel ; Frank S. Fiske, of Keene, as lieutenant-colonel ; and Josiah Stevens, Jr., of Concord, as major. The regiment left Portsmouth for the seat of war June 20, 1861. A month later, July 2!, they took part in the battle of Bull Run. Early in the fight, Colonel Marston was severely wounded, but having had his wound dressed, came again upon the field to lead his men. The Second behaved like a veteran regiment, but shared in the panic which seized the Northern army. The loss of the regiment was seven killed, fifty-six wounded, and forty-six prisoners. While in winter quarters the commander of the brigade had noticed the guard-house of the Second, and considered it altogether too comfortable quarters for the prisoners confined there. Accordingly he ordered Col- onel Marston to build a dungeon, without so much as a crack or an opening anywhere, so that it should be perfectly dark. The dungeon was built, and one day General Neaglee went over to inspect it.
" Where is the entrance," said he ; "and how do you get any- body into it ? "
"Oh!" said Colonel Marston ; "that's not my lookout. I obeyed orders to the letter ! How do you like it ?"
In April, 1862, the Second joined the main army of the Poto- mac at Yorktown, and took part in the siege, and in the attack on Fort Magruder during the advance on Williamsburg. The regiment lost in the battle eighteen killed, sixty-six wounded, and twenty-three missing. Captain Leonard Drown was killed. Captain Evarts W. Farr lost an arm, and Captain Edward L. Bailey and Lieutenant Samuel O. Burnham were wounded. At the battle of Fair Oaks, one company of the Second lost twenty- two killed and wounded out of forty-two taken into the fight. The Second took part in the Seven Days' Fight and in the retreat to the James River, and in nearly all the actions of the famous Peninsular Campaign.
Having joined Pope's army, the Second formed a part of the
616
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1861
Union army at the second battle of Bull Run in August, 1862, and lost sixteen killed, eighty-seven wounded, and twenty-nine missing, out of three hundred and thirty-two men engaged.
In the spring of 1863 the regiment returned on a furlough to Concord. Colonel Marston was appointed brigadier-general, and Edward L. Bailey, colonel of the Second. In May they returned to the front, having received into their ranks the recruits of the Seventeenth, and took part in the battle of Gettysburg, fighting in the Peach Orchard. Of the twenty-four officers and three hundred and thirty men taken into the fight, nineteen had been shot dead, one hundred and thirty-six were wounded, and thirty- eight were missing, dead or wounded on the field or prisoners in the hands of the enemy -three-fifths of the whole number engaged.
Early in August, 1863, the Second, in a brigade commanded by General Marston, were stationed at Point Lookout to guard a depot for prisoners of war, and remained at that post until the spring of 1864.
In the latter part of April the regiment joined the army of the Potomac, and took part in the battle of Cold Harbor, losing seventy in killed and wounded. This was the last battle of the original Second, the men who had not re-enlisted soon after de- parting for New Hampshire, where they were mustered out June 21, 1864. There remained two hundred and fifty men, veterans and recruits, under command of Captain J. N. Patterson. In the army of the James and in the army of the Potomac for the next year, the Second did good service in battle and siege, and were mustered out in November, 1865.
To the Second belonged Corporal Thomas E. Barker, after- ward colonel of the Twelfth; Adjutant S. G. Langley, lieuten- ant-colonel of the Fourth; Captain T. A. Barker, lieutenant- colonel of the Fourteenth; Lieutenant H. B. Titus, colonel of the Ninth ; Captain S. G. Griffin, brevet major-general ; Lieuten- ant A. B. Thompson, captain U. S. army and secretary of state; Lieutenant W .. H. Prescott; Captain W. O. Sides, the first volunteer of New Hampshire ; Private Orrin N. Head, ad- jutant of the Eighth ; Sergeant Welcome A. Crafts, colonel of
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.