History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 17

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124

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SCENERY, ATTRACTIONS, TRADITIONS AND LEGENDS.

and cloisters of her most seeluded retreats. The mountains fall back before the flood of the Saco, which comes pouring down from the summit of the Notch, and is joined by the Swift river, which, having just escaped from its mountain fastness, comes rollieking and leaping over its stony bed. Here the valley between the gentle slopes of the Kearsarge and the abrupt deelivities of Mote enelose a verdant and fertile spot of land enchanting to the beholder. It is skirted on one side by thick woods, behind which precipices one thousand feet high rise black and threatening; overlooked on the other by a high terrace, along which the village stretches itself." And here, at the village, one can see the White Mountains in all their grand and beautiful metamor- phoses.

Echo Lake (Conway) lies in front of "The Cathedral." It covers but a few acres, and has a bright, sandy shore. The water is elear, and the reflection of White Horse Ledge shows beautiful tints, and the echoes float back from the purple glens like fairy bugles.

Diana's Bath. - Not far from "The Cathedral " is a cascade falling down a long, irregular staircase of broken roek. One of these steps, a solid mass of granite, extends for more than a hundred feet across the bed of the stream, and is twenty feet high. Unless the brook is full, we see a score or more crystal streams gushing or spurting from the grooves they have channeled in the hard granite, and falling into basins they have hollowed out. It is these stone cavities, out of which flows the purest and clearest water constantly, that give to the cascade the name of Diana's Bath.

Artist's Brook has furnished abundant and exquisite material for the land- seape painter ; and, as we linger near it or wander on its banks, it sings to us from that sweet song of Tennyson : --

I chatter over stony ways In little sharps and trebles ; I bubble into eddying bays, I babble on the pebbles.

Thomas Starr King, in his " White Hills," first appealed to the great eirele of the lovers of nature in her grandest and most beautiful ereations, and they have come from near and far, in answer to his cheery call, to enjoy the marvels he has described in language as purely elassie as ever Homer sung.

The poet Whittier has done a wonderful work for all this section. Under his pen of witchery Lake Winnipiseogee and Squam, Bear Camp and Saco, Chocorua and Kearsarge, glowing in fairy light and coloring, draw nearer to the great pulsating hearts of humanity, and the craggy, solemn mountains gleam in purple and gold and erimson, while oldtime legends, revivified, speak to us of sorrow, suffering, and the tender sympathies evoked by that unerring touch of nature which "makes the whole world kin." Thousands

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

on thousands of visitors bring their wealth hither and scatter it freely all along the fascinating pilgrimages that have been so ably described, and drawn rich reward for their time and money expended in the lake and mountain region. The number of visitors will steadily increase, so long as Chocorua's " horn of shadow " pierces the water, so long as the "smile of the Great Spirit " sends its witching dimples toward the sunlight, so long as the awful majesty of Mt Washington and kindred peaks look over the border with their eternal watchfulness, or the Saco brails with its rippling melody through the mighty valley of the Notch, or the magic colors on Red Hill steal splendor from the morning sunlight to add new charms to their already perfect loveliness.

Never will the fields or mills of Carroll county bring in a greater revenue than is brought annually as an offering to the bare rocks, towering mountains, silvery lakes, and dreamy valleys with which nature has so richly endowed her. The siek and wornout children of men who fly to these healthful lake and mountain sides, gain fresh inspiration from the balmy pine-scented breezes and pure waters gushing from fountains stored beneath the bases of the mighty granite mountains.

CHAPTER XVII.

MILITARY AFFAIRS IN CARROLL COUNTY PRIOR TO 1861 .- SOLDIERS IN THIE REBELLION 1861 TO 1865.

BY COLONEL ENOCHI QUIMBY FELLOWS.

Faint the din of battle bray'd, Distant down the hollow wind, War and terror lled before, Wounds and death remained behind. - Penrose.

And loving words shall tell the world Their noble deeds, who 'gainst the wrong The flag of freedom first unfurled, And suffering made the nation strong.

And glistening eyes shall throb with tears At names that, stamped on history's page, Shall aye go ringing down the years, The heroes of this patriot age.

T is with great diffidence that I attempt to compile the following chapter and do so only at the urgent request of the publishers and others. My authorities will be " Old Militia Records," "Adjutant-General's Reports - 1865 and 1866," " New Hampshire in the Rebellion," Colonel Henry O. Kent

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in "History of Coos County," and all other reliable records that may come to hand.

Carroll county is peopled by a set of hardy yeomanry. Their ancestors fought the Indians and British ere emigrating hither ; and ever since there has been a sharp contest, not only with savage beasts and more savage Indians at first, but all the time with the stubborn soil and severe climate. In the very nature of things, therefore, the people may be somewhat conservative, perhaps, and "go slow," but they are hardy and rugged as the White Mountains at whose base they dwell and whose invigorating air they breathe.

Carroll county had been too recently settled to furnish a great many soldiers for the war of the Revolution (see Revolution), but quite a number of the survivors of that war settled here afterwards, and thus the military spirit was fostered and became embodied in the "Old Militia," from which a reasonable quota enlisted in the War of 1812-15.

In fact, during a period of about forty years, from 1810 to 1850, the militia was a great institution in New Hampshire.

Every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, except Quakers and a few others specified in the statute, was obliged to do military duty ; so that the whole military force of the state, if mustered altogether at one time and place, would have made a display as formidable, in appearance at least, and much more picturesque, as the whole army of the Potomac at its first great review at Washington in September, 1861, under General Mcclellan, consisting of 42 regiments in 8 brigades and 4 divisions, in all about 30,000 men.

The dress and uniforms were about as various as the tastes of the wearers, and many of the Toe-nail and String-bean companies, or Bare-foot Rangers and Barn-yard Cadets (as they were often called by the profane), could give points to the hosts of Gibeon when they went to meet Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, and then " take the cake; " while many of them, as well as a large majority of the uniformed companies, would bear favorable comparison with the crack companies of to-day.

The old regiments were composed of all arms - artillery, cavalry, infantry, and rifle (like a miniature army corps) -and consisted of at least eight com- panies of infantry, and one each of the others.

The cavalry (or troop, as it was called), in its palmiest days, with their neat gray uniforms and bright buttons, black glazed caps with tall white plumes, and prancing horses covered with gay trappings, would rival in appearance an equal number of the soldiers of the cross, under Prince Conrad or Richard Cœur-de-Lion ; and although they might not be as formidable in the field, yet no doubt they fulfilled their destiny just as well.

Farewell, old troop, farewell ! "We ne'er shall see thy like again."

The artillery, with their blue swallowtail coats and brass bell-buttons, white pants with a wide red band near the bottom, large flat chapeaux with tall black

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

plumes tipped with red, and each armed with a sword, numbered about as many men as an infantry company, and cherished and nursed their little four or six pounder brass cannon with a truly fatherly care. They manœuvred the piece with two long drag-ropes, the platoons respectively hold of each ; so they never marched much by the flank, but in single file, with the whole broadside - to the front, and it took about as much space for them to manœuvre as it would for the " Great Eastern." It fulfilled its day, however, and was a wonder to the small boys, while the old fieldpiece is chiefly remembered for its Fourth of July salutes, and the astonishing feats of agility it caused some of the horses and their riders to perform on the muster field.

The rifle companies were composed of officers and men who took great pride in their appearance and wore neat and jaunty uniforms.

There was also now and then a company of "light infantry," neatly uniformed, which added much to the gay appearance of the regiment.

It could be easily told where a regimental muster was to be held, for as you observe clouds of all sizes and directions move toward the body of a thunderstorm, so, muster morning, every road from every direction was more or less filled with soldiers and spectators wending their way to the muster field. The soldiers were generally astir long before the break of day, ready to call upon their officers and give them a good heavy salute with their guns, and were usually called in and "given something" to warm them up before starting for the field.

The first sight that greeted the eye on entering the muster field was tents for various purposes, side-shows, such as the striped pig, fat man, man with no legs, or something else to catch money. There were also peddlers of all kinds, singing, fiddling, etc., to attraet attention. One particular person, who attended these musters every year, was a deaf man who sold gingerbread ; and he always said it was " baked last night after two o'clock." It was a perfect gala day for old and young. There was always liquor to be had, and occasionally a soldier perhaps fell a victim to this all-powerful foe, and at night would get scattered all along the road with his accoutrements until he found a resting-place and went to sleep under the lee of some friendly wall, reminding one, on a small scale, of the appearance of the highway between Manassas Junction and Washington after the disastrous defeat of Bull Run. Many of us, I think, would be glad to see some of those old muster days again, with the rum and cider left out.

There was generally a sham fight in the afternoon of muster day between more or less of the independent companies, beginning and ending in noise and smoke. I don't think they tried to imitate any battle like Bunker Hill, as I have seen done in Massachusetts, but, if your fancy was lively enough, you might imagine yourself at the skirmish of London Hill, where a promiscuous rabble, armed with all sorts of weapons, defeated some of the best troops of

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England under Colonel Grahame of Claverhouse. But with the Scotch Covenanters it was no sham fight. Though using carnal weapons, they yet relied on a higher power; and after hearing exhortations from such men as Peter Pound - text, Gabriel Kettle - drummle, Habakkuk Mucklewrath, and Ephraim Macbriar, and all joining in singing the Seventy-sixth Psalm, -

In Judah's land God is well known, His name's in Israel great ; In Salem is his tabernacle, In Zion is his seat,

they rushed upon the foe and gained a complete victory at the time; but in the next skirmish, at Bothwell Bridge, they were themselves completely overwhelmed by the Duke of Monmouth.

The arms and accoutrements of the old militia would, no doubt, compare favorably with those of the volunteer troops at the commencement of the Rebellion - all raw militia at first. Probably some muskets had flint-locks, and some percussion ; and possibly, now and then, one with no lock at all ; and there might be an occasional bayonet lacking. An old militia veteran told me not long ago that a captain of the company in North Sandwich at one time ordered his men to all appear the next muster day with bayonets, so it appears that previous to that time they had not all had them. Bayonets did n't lay round loose then, and the few lacking them went to Mr Thrasher, the blacksmith, to get them made. So he made their bayonets all right except the shank ; he could n't make a socket very well to fit on the muzzle, but, instead, made them so as to fit inside. When muster day came they all had bayonets fixed, and when the inspector inspected the new-fangled arrangements, he asked the soldier if there were any more bayonets like that in the company. The man stuttered badly, and in attempting to answer, began to stamp and catch hold of his hat rim, and finally got out, " Ye-ye-ye- yes, and the man that made 'em."

For a generation prior to 1850 Carroll virtually contained within its limits the Nineteenth, Twenty-seventh, and Thirty-sixth Regiments, Seventh Brigade, Second Division: Brookfield, to be sure, belonged to the Thirty-third in another county, but Centre Harbor, in Belknap, belonged to the nineteenth in Carroll. Of course Carroll furnished (except Centre Harbor's proportion) the officers for its own regiments, about forty colonels in all, with those of lesser grade in proportion ; and also a fair share of brigadier and major generals, whose com- mands extended far beyond the county limits. Some of the latter likewise held high civil offices and were well known throughout the state. Especially is this true of Major-General Johnson D. Quimby and Brigadier-General Daniel Hoit, both of Sandwich, whose earliest commissions date back to 1810, and who went through all the grades up from fourth corporal. Following these

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

were Major-General George P. Meserve, of Jackson; Gen. Henry Hyde, of Ossipee ; Gen. George W. Hersey, of Wolfeborough : Gen. Samuel Knox, of Conway : Gen. Nathaniel B. Hoit, of Moultonborough ; Gen. Cyrus K. Drake, of Effingham ; and Gen. Enoch Q. Fellows, of Sandwich.

The militia laws were changed somewhat in 1847 or 1848, and again in 1851, when training and regimental musters ceased. The laws were again modified in 1857 by dividing the state into six brigades and three divisions. Carroll, Belknap, and Strafford counties constituted the Second Brigade, First Division, of which Enoch Q. Fellows was commissioned brigadier-general May 14, 1858. No active service was required, however, except by volunteer companies, which could be organized and formed into regiments anywhere within the limits of the brigade. Before much, if any, progress had been made under that statute, the Rebellion of 1861 broke out, and then every energy was put forth to send troops into the field.

To be sure there were a few old military organizations still in existence, namely, Governor's Horse Guards, Amoskeag Veterans, the Lyndeborough Artillery, and a very few volunteer companies besides. These different com- mands went into camp at Nashua, by invitation, for a three days' muster, in the autumn of 1860. This might be called the last expiring spark of the old state militia (which had virtually been dead for the last ten years), and when the emergency came the next spring, the state had no organization whatever ready to take the field. It was fortunate for New Hampshire that she had a governor at that time (Ichabod Goodwin, of Portsmouth, elected March, 1860, term expired June, 1861) of such executive ability, energy, wealth, lofty patriotism, high character, and perseverance as to enable him to procure all the needed assistance from the banks; by which means he met the first call of the President, and inaugurated the splendid system by which the state was enabled to send the succeeding commands to the field with such complete outfits as to elicit the admiration of those from other states.

Joseph C. Abbott, of Manchester, was at this time adjutant and quarter- master general, having been appointed in 1855.

Nathaniel S. Berry, of Hebron, elected in March, 1861, was inaugurated governor in June of that year, and the legislature at that session ratified the previous action of Governor Goodwin. Governor Berry was succeeded in June, 1863. by Joseph A. Gilmore, who in turn was succeeded in June, 1865, by Frederick Smyth. Throughout the war these chief magistrates devoted nearly their whole time while in office to the state, exercising the great power entrusted to them generally with a wise discretion, and were held in high esteem by her solliers.

Adjutant-General Abbott was confronted by an appalling emergency, with- ont arms or equipments. He was active and zealons, and entitled to great credit for his labors in fitting out the earlier regiments, which went to the

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front exceptionally well provided. He resigned in the summer of 1861, and by authority of the War Department raised the Seventh Infantry, going out as its lieutenant-colonel. He became colonel on the death of Colonel Putnam (killed at Fort Wagner), was promoted to brigadier-general, was commandant of the city and district of Wilmington, N. C., and, after the war, a senator from North Carolina at Washington. He subsequently engaged in business in North Carolina, where he died.

General Abbott was succeeded as adjutant-general of the state by ex- Governor Anthony Colby, of New London, who, in turn, was followed by his son, Daniel E. Colby, who held the office until the accession of Governor Gilmore in 1864, when Natt Head, afterwards governor, was appointed, hold- ing the place until his accession to the chief magistracy, when Mayor Cross, of Manchester, was appointed. He was succeeded about 1877 or '78 by the present incumbent, Gen. A. D. Ayling, of Massachusetts.

The Colbys, father and son, were reliable, earnest men, who brought to their duties devotion and painstaking care. General Head became at once favorably and widely known, and his excellent administration of the office had much to do with his advancement to the executive chair. It is but an act of justice to say that the present adjutant-general himself, a veteran of the war, by his zeal in perfecting the invaluable records of the soldiers of the state and his ability in their preparation, as well as by his general efficiency, merits recognition from New Hampshire soldiers among the executive officers who organized, equipped, and forwarded our troops.

The "boys " who, during the process of organization and muster, became familiar with the State House and its officials, will remember Hon. Thomas L. Tullock, Hon. Allen Tenney, and Hon. Benjamin Gerrish, consecutively secre- taries of state. Mr. Tullock died in Washington, after having long held important offices there ; Mr. Gerrish died in Boston in 1885, after having been consul at Nantes and Bordeaux, France ; while Mr. Tenney is a successful lawyer at Norwich, Conn. Neither will they forget their enthusiastic friend, Hon. Peter Sanborn, the state treasurer, nor his flights of rhetoric, perhaps, in the course of his remarks to the different regiments as they were drawn up in the State House yard to receive their colors. I will just remark here that if Colonel Sanborn's eloquence sometimes reached the gilt eagle on the cupola, probably that of some colonels in responding didn't get much higher than those perched on their flagstaffs.

I am aware that the duties of etiquette must be performed, but I know of at least one colonel who considered such ceremonies, of which there were several, as among the most embarrassing ordeals of the service (I mean the responding part). Colonel Sanborn, having long ago retired from public life, still survives on the paternal farm at Hampton, enjoying a vigorous and honored old age.

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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

On the reception of the proclamation of the President, issued April 15, 1861, calling for 75,000 men for three months, recruiting offices were opened in twenty-eight different stations in the state, including Conway in Carroll (Joshua Chapman, enlisting officer).

The enthusiasm didn't appear as great in Carroll at first, perhaps, as in the lower part of the state, consequently comparatively few went in the earlier regiments ; but as the war progressed she became fully aware of the gravity of the situation, and proceeded accordingly to fill her required quota.

The First Infantry was raised for three months' service, and although twenty-three men enlisted at Conway, none of them appear to have gone in the First, but twenty of them served in some other command. So far as I have been able to learn seven men only went in the First Regiment from this county, namely, Enoch Q. Fellows, Daniel R. Kenney, Johnson D. Quimby, William H. Emery, Samuel Webster, John B. Waldron, and Abner S. Towle; the five first named being residents of Sandwich. E. Q. Fellows was first lieutenant and adjutant, afterward colonel of the Third and Ninth ; D. R. Kenney was captain of Company B, afterward sergeant in the Eighth, and subsequently promoted to captain in the Second Louisiana Volunteer Infantry. J. D. Quimby was a private in the First, reported as residence "unknown ; " he was afterward corporal in the First New England Cavalry, also first sergeant in the Eighteenth New Hampshire Infantry, and credited to Sandwich, where he was born. Samuel Webster, who died February 3, 1864, was a sergeant in the First, recorded residence " unknown," afterward credited to Dover as first lieutenant First New Hampshire Heavy Artillery, but his native place was Sandwich. William H. Emery was a private in the First, credited as residence " unknown," after- ward a sergeant in the Third, credited to Sandwich, where he belonged. John B. Waldron was a sergeant in the First, recorded as " unknown ; " afterward credited to Dover as first sergeant, Company H, Sixth New Hampshire, now of Tuftonborough, and so I give this county the credit for him. Abner S. Towle was a private, of Effingham,

The regiment was organized and mustered at Concord; was entertained magnificently at Worcester, Mass., in Mechanics' Hall, by the citizens ; received an ovation and was presented with a beautiful silk flag in New York, May 26, by the sons of New Hampshire resident in that city. This was the day of Colonel Ellsworth's funeral, and the streets were so crowded as to cause a delay of several hours, during which all who could viewed the colonel's remains as they lay in state in the mayor's office in the city hall. At length the regiment proceeded on its way to Washington, where it arrived the next day, and after a few days was sent to the Upper Potomac, where it formed a part of General Patterson's command during its period of enlistment. It was composed of the finest material, and was admirably officered and drilled. It wore gray uniforms, as did the Second and Third at first, and was ordered to

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wear a strip of white factory cloth round the arm, in order to be distinguished from the enemy, who also wore gray. Its field officers were : Colonel Mason W. Tappan, of Bradford, who afterwards declined the coloneley of one of the later regiments ; Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas J. Whipple, a veteran of the Mexican war, subsequently colonel of the Fourth, and now an eminent lawyer of Laconia; Major Aaron F. Stevens, of Nashua, subsequently colonel of the Thirteenth, brevet-brigadier-general, and member of Congress. Colonel Tappan, then attorney-general of the state, died early in 1887, at his home in Bradford.

The Second Infantry. - About double the number required having enlisted under the call for three months, the balance were ordered to Portsmouth, where the most of them enlisted for three years, and formed the main body of the Second ; a few, refusing to enlist for three years, were sent as a garrison to Fort Constitution at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor, from which they were dis- charged the ensuing summer. Thomas P. Pierce, of Nashua, a veteran of the Mexican war, had been commissioned colonel. Declining to serve for three years, he resigned, and Gilman Marston, of Exeter, was appointed colonel ; Frank S. Fiske, of Keene, lieutenant-colonel, and Josiah Stevens, Jr, of Con- cord, major. Colonel Marston served through the war with distinction, was promoted brigadier-general, and is now, in his hale old age, an active and eminent lawyer at Exeter, and has recently been United States Senator, appointed by Governor Sawyer. Lieutenant-Colonel Fiske resigned after a year's service, and is now clerk of the United States district court in Boston. Major Stevens subsequently resigned, and died at Manchester about 1875.

On its way to the front, the regiment, in passing through Boston, received a magnificent welcome at the hands of the sons of New Hampshire resident in that city. It was reviewed by Governor Andrew from the State House, dined in Music Hall, and paraded on the Common. The record of this famous regi- ment would constitute the record of the army of the Potomac, in which it served through the war, reenlisting at the expiration of its three years of duty. It was a nursery, like several other of the early regiments, from which came many accomplished officers for other regiments ; it received and assimilated the Seventeenth Regiment in 1863, and a great number of recruits, and during its entire service was conspicuous for bravery, soldierly conduct, and untiring devotion to the cause. It was mustered out at City Point, Va, November 18, and paid off at Concord November 26, 1865.

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 17

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co. Number of Pages: 1124

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124