USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > Historical sketches of Peterborough, New Hampshire : portraying events and data contributing to the history of the town > Part 31
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form of government could endure and could stand the hardest strain to which any country can be subjected, that of Civil War.
Every trace of opposition to the union had been completely crushed out, and an intelligent, proud and military people entirely subdued. So thoroughly had the Union armies done their work that at the end of the struggle, over a territory almost as large as the whole of Europe, every industry save agriculture was com- pletely ruined, every mill and manu- facturing establishment made idle or wholly destroyed over the whole field of military operations; the brave armies of the confederacy were broken in spirit and substantially destroyed, their courage gone, and poverty and destitution stood at the door of every Southern home. Taking the issues and the outcome of the war together I hazard the opinion that in its nearer and remoter results the union victory was more hopeful for humanity, and yielded a greater and richer harvest for the good of mankind than the Allied victory of 1918, even if every hope of our modern idealists in its fruitful results are fully attained. It is no doubtful question that if the Allies had not received the armed and financial support of this country, made so rich and powerful by the Union victory of '65, Germany would certainly have won in that terrific struggle. Its defeat was directly due to the Union's triumph of the Civil War.
How the people of the North met the great questions thus presented, and maintained the struggle for four long years, will always have the closest study of the historical student, and of every intelligent, patriotic Amer- ican. This town, nestled among the hills of New Hampshire, was in a general way typical of every town throughout the North in those memo-
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rable years. As a matter of local history the record of how this people faced the crisis, the burdens they carried, the sacrifices they made, and their patience and their unflagging courage to the very end is a most important and intensely dramatic chapter in its local history. At this distance of sixty years it can only be told in outline. These statements are necessary as a background for the story herinafter told.
Party spirit had always run high in this town. All the men, most of the boys and nearly all the women were ranged in one party or the other, and had debated for years with a good deal of heat the questions out of which the war grew. During that gloomy and anxious winter of 1860 and 1861 sentiment was divided, not only as to what the outcome of the controversy would be, but as to what should be done in the premises. Many believed that the South would not fight; others that the North would not; still others held that the quarrel would end in some sort of a compromise. A few of the more in- telligent and thoughtful men fully expected there would be war, but none in their wildest dreams ever imagined that if it did come it could continue the length of time, or take on the character and proportions the conflict finally assumed.
As in every other town and hamlet of the state, and throughout the North, there was a state of total un- preparedness for a military struggle. There had not been a military com- pany in town for ten years. Several attempts to organize one had been made, but had failed. Perhaps there were a few who could give intelligently an order to "right face" or "shoulder arms," and possibly there were some who knew the difference between an order to present arms and one to charge bayonets. No one was think-
ing of the situation in military terms. The martial spirit seemed dead, and it was the golden age of pacificism. The next four years were to witness the inevitable results of such idealism, just as we did in the World War.
It was under such conditions that the war came, like a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky. The news that civil war was upon us, and the call of President Lincoln for troops, which reached town on April 15th, hushed all party differences and strife, and the people's inborn spirit of loyalty to the Union, and its institutions triumphantly asserted. itself. Every house, shop and office that could find a flag, spread it to the breeze. No words of sympathy for the South or hope for her success were tolerated from anybody. One man did venture to express them and a crowd of angry citizens immediately visited him, com- pelled him to pull down his dis-union colors, broke his windows, defaced and injured his buildings and did other damage. Either the same crowd or another visited one of the churches and defaced its doors, for what reason is not now known. These acts were strongly condemned by the citi- zens, and at the first town meeting thereafter they were unsparingly re- buked by the voters, and resolutions were passed that the town should pay all the damages thus caused.
After a few days of exciting dis- cussion a meeting of the citizens was called for April 27th, to see what they could do to help the Union cause. All the voters were present without regard to party affiliations and their action was unanimous. James G. White, Esquire, one of the foremost Democratic leaders, presided. The speeches made have not been pre- served, but there were no discordant notes in the meeting. It was the unanimous sentiment, and the people present by their actions pledged
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themselves to see to it, that all volun- teers should have a suitable outfit and that their families should be cared for while in the military service. A committee of fifteen was appointed to carry the vote into effect. Eighteen men then and there pledged them- selves as ready to enlist under the flag.
The consequence of this action was that a town meeting was called for May 9th, the first one after the be- ginning of the war. The doings of the citizens' meeting were approved and its recommendations were unani- mously adopted. We get a glimpse of the solemnity of that meeting and the sense of the gravity of the situa- tion weighing on the minds of the voters, when we find in the records that it was opened with prayer for the first time in sixty years, a formal- ity that has not been repeated since. It was voted without dissent to equip the men who entered service, and purchase revolvers for them. It also decided to furnish aid to the families of the men who should enlist for three months, and later in the war, when the same men had enlisted for three years, it was subsequently voted to continue such aid. It was also voted to buy a revolver, a rubber blanket, two woolen shirts, two pairs of cotton stockings, two towels, two cotton handkerchiefs and one small bag for thread, buttons, etc., for all enlisted men. The equipment thus decreed and actually. furnished cost the town $664.59.
Of the eighteen men who had ex- pressed willingness to enlist, ten actually entered service, but for three years instead of three months. Only one of the men enrolled for the short term. When the call came for three years' men, early in May, sixteen, afterwards increased to twenty-one, entered service in the Second Regi- ment for three years. Before these
men left for camp the citizens gave them a supper at which the soldiers were congratulated for their patriotic action in speeches by the different citizens, Horace Morison making the principal address. The men were given ditty bags, or "housewives," as we used to call them. The Evan- gelical Church presented each man a testament, and some ladies, as the men were to serve in a hot climate, gave them havelocks. Miss Putnam also presented them little rolls con- taining needles and other small, useful articles. On the 26th of May the men left for camp at Concord. Crowds followed them on both sides of the road as they marched down Main and Concord Streets. The faces of the wives, mothers and sis- ters, and of many of the men, were wet with tears as they waved their handkerchiefs and bade each other good-bye. It was a typical war scene. If the veil had been drawn aside and they could have seen what was to come and what these men were to endure and suffer for the next four years, it would have been sadder still.
During the summer sixteen more entered the Third, Fourth and Fifth Regiments, and still the calls came for more men. In August, John A. Cummings, a law student, young, handsome, popular and patriotic, opened a recruiting office and appealed to his friends and school-mates to enroll, and they freely did. Twenty- one enlisted under him for the Sixth Regiment. The feature of this squad was its extreme youth, many of them being school boys. Their average age was not more than nineteen years. Several were not above sixteen or seventeen, and none were over twen- ty-three. A citizen watching them drill in the public street laughed at the idea of such striplings going to war. "Why," said he, "I could whip a barnful of them alone."
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Maybe so, but if he had tried it on this squad he would have found he had taken a large contract. Of this company of twenty-one, three were killed in action, six wounded and five died of disease, more than half their number. A month or two later Charles L. Fuller and Charles D. Winch also recruited sixteen men from the town, who with Colonel Scott made thirty-eight men, the town's contribution to this Regiment.
The boys came home on their last furlough in the middle of December. The chief incident of their leave was a reception given to them by Miss Putnam, which most of us attended. Nothing could exceed the genial hospitality with which that saintly woman welcomed and entertained her guests, nor her kindly apprecia- tion, expressed in fitting terms, at our enlistment. In bidding us fare- well she took us individually by the hand, expressing her loyalty to the cause and saying how earnestly she hoped for our safe return, quietly slipped into the hands of each one a five dollar gold piece. It was an incident of the war that was never forgotten by those who shared in it.
In .July, 1862, another call came for men and a town meeting was held August 12th to see what should be done in the premises. It was voted to give every man enlisting for three years a bounty of One Hundred Dollars, in addition to those offered by the State and Nation. A commit- tee of three, consisting of Dr. E. M. Tubbs, Revs. C. B. Ferry and George Dustan, were chosen to gather and preserve all statistics relating to the town's soldiers. When the call was issued, Nathan D. Stoodley, who for several years had conducted a shoe business in a portion of the rooms now occupied by the TRANSCRIPT, closed his store and opened a recruiting office. This year (1862) was the sad-
dest one of the war in the loss of life to the people of Peterborough. In August the wives of Colonel Scott and Captain Cummings visited their husbands at Newport News, where the Sixth Regiment was stationed. They started to return home by the steamer West Point going up the Potomac River to Washington. On the voyage, on the 13th of August, there was a collision, and the two ladies, among the most popular and lovable women of the town, were drowned under the most tragic and appalling circumstances, together with one of the town's soldiers of the Sixth, Philemon W. Cross. We cannot now appreciate the wave of grief and pain that swept through the community at the news of this tragedy. The bodies of both the ladies were re- covered and their funerals were held in the Unitarian Church, Mrs. Scott's on August 31st, and Mrs. Cummings' on September 13th. The church was crowded on both occasions by sorrow- ing friends and relatives, and no sadder funerals were ever held in that or any other church during the war. On the 27th of September, less than one month from the funeral of Mrs. Scott, a funeral service was held in the same church over Lieutenant Charles L. Fuller, making three military funerals from that one church in less than a month. In the midst of it all was the disastrous battle of Second Bull Run, in which many Peterborough boys were killed or wounded. And yet when the terrors of war thus hung like a pall on the hearts of the people, when five of its sons lay dead on the battle-field and five more were wounded and in the hospital, forty-one young men of the town marched into the recruiting office and enlisted for three years, a striking illustration of the loyalty of Peterborough to the Union.
There were several town meetings
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in 1863 at which action was taken in regard to filling quotas. At the an- nual meeting the town voted to pay all enlisted men who had not hitherto received it, One Hundred Dollars bounty. The most important meet- ing to consider the subject was held . on the 25th of August. I was present at that meeting and vividly recall its spirit and temper. It was a very sober gathering, and gloom and anxie- ty sat upon the face of every voter. A call had just come for 500,000 men. No sooner had it been called to order and its object stated by the Moder- ator, than the venerable Timothy K. Ames, leaning heavily on his cane, made his way into the area in front of the moderator's desk, and with a voice shaking with emotion said, "I have given two grand-sons to this war who were as dear to me as my own life; but I am for fighting to the end and I am ready to give the last dollar I have to crush this wicked and un- natural rebellion." Soon as he had taken his seat Albert S. Scott stepped into the area and in his most earnest and impressive tones which he knew so well how to command, said, "I cannot, Mr. Moderator, go to war on account of physical disability; but all I have in this world I am ready to sacrifice to my country to the end that the Union may besaved and this in- famous rebellion beutterly destroyed."
These burning words, with similar expressions from other citizens, were the key-note of the meeting's action. A committee of five were appointed to consider and report upon the best method of raising money for drafted men. On the recommendation of this committee it was voted to raise $1500. to pay drafted men or their substitutes who should enter service, no man to receive more than Three Hundred Dollars. This call was under the National Conscription Act passed on the 3rd of the previous
March. The draft was had and forty- four names were drawn. I have a copy of the official records of the War Department and they show that out of the forty-four drawn fourteen were accepted and the rest rejected. Of this fourteen, eleven furnished substitutes, one paid his commutation, and but two of the fourteen actually entered service. One of these men was Charles D. French. He was a good deal of a wit as well as a stout Democrat. On the way home from the examination a neighbor asked him, "Well, Mr. French, are you going to serve or will you pay your Three Hundred Dollars?" With a very long face he replied, "It was just my luck to pass. I knew I should, and I am going to serve my three years. I told my wife that I should get a ticket and that I should not live to get out, and that I wanted her to put up a stone for me in the cemetery and have carved on it, 'Died for a nigger.' " When he got home at the end of the war his father, Colonel Whitcomb French, said to him, "Well, Charles I am glad you returned safely, and that you have killed no person." "But father," he replied, "I did kill a rebel. I ran him to death chasing me." In his last illness he sent for a gravestone manu- facturer and asked him to carve on his tombstone the words:
"I was drafted by God to live"
"I was drafted by Uncle Sam to fight" "I was drafted by death to die" "I volunteered for none"
But the gravestone man did not comply with his dying request.
In October it was voted to raise and appropriate Four Thousand Dol- lars for drafted men or their sub- stitutes. This action was supple- mentary to that of the meeting of August 25th. In the same month came another call for 500,000 men,
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and on November 20th it was voted to raise and appropriate Eighty-Four Hundred Dollars to advance the government bounty of Three Hundred Dollars and the State bounty of One Hundred Dollars to every man who should voluntarily enlist to the credit of the town under the call of October 17th for 500,000 men. The meeting was adjourned to December 21st and then to December 24th, when it appeared that the town had entered upon a new policy for filling its quotas, by employing substitute brokers. On the latter date it was voted that if Stewart & Appledore would fill the quotas of the town under the call of October 17th, according to their bond, the town would pay them three-fifths of what the men cost over and above Four Hundred and Seven- teen Dollars, provided said Stewart & Appledore received nothing for brokerage or their services and the town have the recruiting fees. It was also voted to appropriate Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars to assist Stewart & Appledore in filling the quotas; but at a further adjourn- ment on January 2nd, 1864, it was voted to give up the bond of Stewart & Appledore and to pay them Two Hundred Dollars over and above two- fifths of the loss on substitutes. The reason for this action does not appear. This policy of procuring substitutes through brokers was pursued during the remainder of the war, but these broker vampires did not procure all the men to fill the different quotas. It was a custom generally adopted by the towns of this and other states. Dr. Tubbs, in his speech at the dedi- cation of the Soldiers' Monument, said that this policy resulted in buy- ing first and last fifty-two men who went as hired recruits, substitutes and representative recruits. "I have," he says, "looked through the list in my records of these men to find
something to commend. I found one died of disease and one was slightly wounded. A large portion of all the rest, either deserted to the enemy, or deserted to sell themselves again." And he adds, "Had we begun the substitute business earlier in the war, and pursued it as we did for a time, I firmly believe that the banner of the Southern Confederacy would be floating to-day over our National Capitol."
I think this is strictly true. It was a wicked way to fill the quotas, and was positively cruel to the sons of the town who were in the army, and had volunteered to fight for the Union.
Except at the March election the meetings in 1864 were largely de- voted to raising men under the differ- ent calls, and the bounties offered were increased. In April the Select- men were authorized to pay a bounty of Three Hundred Dollars "to all who have or may enlist under the last call for men." In September, under the call of July 18th, it was voted to pay a bounty of Five Hun- dred Dollars to all who enlisted for three years; Four Hundred Dollars to all two years' men; and Three Hundred Dollars for one year men. To those who furnished substitutes under the same call One .Hundred Dollars were voted for all who fur- nished a substitute for one year; Two Hundred Dollars for two years' sub- stitute; and Three Hundred Dollars for a three years' substitute. For every man drafted and serving .one year Two Hundred Dollars was to be given. This was the highest sum a town was allowed to pay a drafted man.
In 1865 there was but one meeting in which the subject was considered, namely on February 16th. At that meeting the town agreed to pay Four Hundred and Fifty Dollars to a one year man; Five Hundred Dollars to
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a two years' man; and Seven Hundred Dollars to a three years' man. The meeting also agreed to pay those furnishing substitutes the same boun- ties heretofore paid, and to drafted men the highest sum allowed by law. And the town also voted to pay the same bounties that day offered to all future soldiers.
During the war there had been eight calls for men, two in 1861, two in 1862, one in 1863, and three in 1864. One of the calls in 1864 was for 500,000 men. We can well imagine how persistently and impressively these demands for men kept the issues and exigencies of the struggle before the people; but the town answered to the full all requirements and filled every quota to the last man. In his address before spoken of, Dr. Tubbs stated that the town had furnished 225 men, ten per cent of its popula- tion, and this was undoubtedly cor- rect. He was an accurate, painstaking man, took great pride in his adopted town; and his whole heart was in the war. Dr. Smith in his history names but two hundred and ten different men, but some of those whose names he gives enlisted twice, and he counts both enlistments as those of one man. The history does not include sons of the town temporarily residing else- where and enlisting from other places, and this may account for the dis- crepancy. Forty-three men of the town gave their lives to the cause, be- sides the two ladies mentioned, who were as truly a sacrifice to the war as any of the forty-three named on the monument.
It was a costly sacrifice and the attendant expense was very great. By the Treasurer's report for the year ending February 1st, 1862, the Town expended for the preceding year in bounties and state aid, $1,872.10. For the year ending February 1st, 1863, the Town paid
in bounties $4,100. and for state aid $3,158. For the year ending February 1st, 1864, it paid in boun- ties $13,818, and for state aid $4,134.50. £ For the year ending February 1st, 1865, for bounties $17,301.50, for state aid $3,465; and for the year ending February 1st, 1866, there was paid in bounties $3,900, and for state aid $1,958.85. The total paid for bounties during the war, including the expenses of the first year, was $40,991.10; for state aid $12,716.75. The state aid so furnished was, I believe, refunded by the State. There were other significant figures connected with the struggle. The town net debt Febru- ary 1st, 1861, besides the expense on the new Town Hall, was $5,168.23. On February 1st, 1866, it was $46,293.46. The tax rate had jumped from 85c. per hundred in 1861 to $1.52 per hundred in 1865. The tax assessed for the year beginning April, 1861, was $8,591.07. In 1865 they were $15,988.62. The figures do not seem large to-day, but
we must remember that it was then the day of small things. In 1863 there were only three men in town who paid a tax of over $100. and each one of these paid a tax of less than $150.
The prices of farm produce during the war did not keep up to the rise in commodities, nor did the cost of labor, yet the crops were generally good, and at least in some years there was much building and many im- provements made in real estate. There was always enough to eat and wear and there were no limita- tions on either. The price of cur- rency went down and in the summer of 1864 was worth only about forty cents on the dollar in gold, and yet the people did not suffer materially, and found no unusual difficulty in making the two ends meet. Between
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April and August 1861, the mills ran only four days in the week, and in the latter month shut down en- tirely. In the following February they resumed for awhile, but soon closed down again. In 1864 the Union Company and the old Bell factory again started up and for anything that appears, ran regularly until the end of the war. The same was true of the Phoenix. The stop- page of the mills was the most serious industrial disturbance during the war and was severely felt in the village, but it did not seriously affect the farming population. The latter readi- ly found a market for their surplus crops at advanced prices. That the people financially were in a measure prosperous is shown by the returns of the Savings Bank. January 1st, 1861 the amount of deposits was $49,241. January 1st, 1865 the deposits had increased to $151,791.74. This indicates that the people as a whole were saving money. At the outbreak of the struggle all silver coins disappeared from circulation, and the want of small change was severely felt. To get round the difficulty, two of our merchants, George T. Wheeler, who kept a store in the basement of the old Town Hall, and The Union Company, located where W. A. Bryer & Co. now are, issued small paper change inscribing thereon "Good for three, five, ten and up to fifty cents in merchandise at the store issuing them, on presentation." Later in the war the Government began issuing frac- tional currency and then all these individual promises to pay were called in and redeemed. There was no loss in any case to the holders.
While at the outbreak of the war all party lines were extinguished, by the following spring they were re- drawn and it so continued to the end. Every spring election was a
pitched political battle, and was fought to a finish with all the heat and bitterness of former days. Both parties brought in outside speakers to instruct the voters, canvassed the town and got their men to the ballot box. The March election of 1864 was the most hotly contested. It was Presidential year. The Re- publicans organized their followers into a secret society. This body had its signs, grips, and pass-words, and its doors were guarded by a sentinel sword in hand. Its neophytes had to take an iron clad oath. I do not remember all its terms, but I do recollect that the candidates had to swear loyalty to the Union and to support the administration in its measures to crush the rebellion. It met in a hall in the old McGilvary store, then standing on the site of the present Library. People coming to church on Sunday morning, for weeks before the election, would find the trees, and other public places covered with signs and notices of its meetings printed in cryptic letters and figures supposed to be intelligible to the initiated, and unintelligible to every one else. Both parties increased their vote on election day, the admin- istration party much more than the other. At the November election Lincoln received 370 votes to 174 for McClellan.
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