USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 52
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On Tuesday, the 16th of April, Governor Ichabod Goodwin, in accordance with the requisition of the war department, issued his order to Adjutant-General Joseph C. Abbott, " to make proclamation calling for volunteers to the number required . . . for a regiment of militia, consisting of ten companies of infantry to be held in readiness to be mustered into the service of the United States, for the purpose of quelling insurrection and supporting the government." The order was complied with on the same day, and forthwith twenty- eight recruiting officers were appointed and enlisting papers issued for as many recruiting stations in different parts of the state. Edward
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THE CIVIL WAR.
E. Sturtevant, having been appointed recruiting officer at the Concord station, and having been supplied with the requisite papers, was ready at noon of Wednesday, the 17th of April, and with the assistance of Leonard Drown, regularly to continue and complete the work already well begun. Within a week, his rolls showed the names of one hun- dred seventy-three volunteers from all the counties of the state save Cheshire, Carroll, and Coos. To these Concord, including Fisher- ville, contributed seventy.1 The succeeding week the total number was increased by fifty more ; though, before the 24th of April, the enlistments throughout the state were more than sufficient to fill the regiment, and by the 30th, reached two thousand.
Enthusiastic war meetings stimulated enlisting. Two days after the formal opening of recruiting service in Concord, and on the even- ing of Friday, the 19th of April, a large meeting was held in city hall in response to a call issued by citizens " without distinction of party." Thomas P. Treadwell, a prominent Democrat, and a former secretary of state, presided, and made a patriotic speech, casting aside all partisan- ship. At the conclusion of the president's speech, nine hearty cheers were given for the Constitution and the Union. Francis N. Fiske, Samuel Coffin, Josiah Stevens, and Lewis Downing were appointed vice-presidents ; Jonathan E. Lang, William E. Chandler, and Joseph W. Robinson, secretaries. Judge Ira Perley offered a resolution, " framed in general terms," and with "no allusion made to former party ties."
Almost without exception, the explicitly patriotic utterances of the president touched the keynote of remarks made at the meeting by gentlemen of the same party faith as he ; only once was " coercion " declared to be "a mistaken idea," while Republican speech, on the occasion, was entirely above the partisan plane. The true war spirit of the North breathed in these inspiring words of the Rever- end Henry E. Parker, who was about to enter upon service in the tented field : "I thank you from my heart for calling me out, that I may speak for my country. Many times during the past win- ter have I anticipated what is now upon us; but I knew then what would be our duty, and I am now ready to take that duty upon mc. There is much to animate us. We ought to rejoice that we are per- mitted to live in this country, to strive, and fight, and die, if nced be, for the great principle that underlies this government. The great crime that is sought to be committed is the destruction of our repub- liean form of government. We must defend this principle, and per- petuate it. We must prove our title to our patriotie ancestry by fighting on the battle-field in defence of the blessings which they
1 See list in note at close of'chapter.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
have left us. 'It is sweet to die for one's country.' Let us to-night take on the true spirit of liberty, and always be found ready for our eountry's defence."
On the 18th of April, The Independent Democrat had said, "Con- cord is full of the war spirit; "-this meeting verified the asser- tion, and intensified that spirit. From the opening prayer offered by Dr. Bouton, to the closing song of the "Star Spangled Ban- ner " rendered by George Wood, and chorused by the full audience, the occasion was one of inspiring conseeration to the country's holy eause. Nor was immediate praetieal aetion forgotten amid the exer- cises of prayer, speech, and song; for a resolution, presented by Joseph B. Walker, to appoint a committee of nine " to take measures in concert with the city government, or otherwise, for rendering aid to the families" of enlisted men, was adopted, and a committee aeeordingly selected, consisting of Joseph B. Walker, Josiah Stevens, John L. Tallant, Nathaniel White, Woodbridge Odlin, George IIutchins, Moses T. Willard, Daniel Holden, and John V. Barron. Thus the eighty-sixth anniversary of Lexington, with its first blood of the American Revolution, found virtual and worthy celebration in Concord, on this evening of the 19th of April, 1861, while the first blood of the American Rebellion was yet fresh in the streets of Baltimore.
Those April days were indeed days of patriotic awakening in Coneord; days of hurried but cheerful preparation fitly to answer the country's eall to arms, and of renewed intensity of devotion to the country's flag. The impulse to volunteer for military service was strong upon those of suitable age and strength, and, as already seen, was promptly obeyed; while the patriotic, helpful liberality shown on every hand promoted enlistment. The general desire to aid the families of enlisted men, voiced in the resolution of the citizens' meeting, was practically manifested in liberal individual con- tributions of money, and in the unanimous appropriation of ten thousand dollars by the eity council. Physicians tendered gratuitous services in the same direction. To procure means in aid of volun- teers, the musical talent of the city cheerfully lent itself. Two con- eerts of patriotic and miscellaneous music, in the exercises of which more than fifty ladies and gentlemen participated, were given before large audiences, netting a handsome sum.1 The women of Concord were not remiss in efforts for the good cause. As early as the after- noon of Monday, the 22d of April, ladies of the several religious societies met in the ladies' room of the South Congregational church, to make arrangements for supplying soldiers with articles necessary
1 See note at close of chapter.
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PATRIOTIC AWAKENING.
to their comfort while in the field. Having raised about two hun- dred dollars, they expended three quarters of the sum at once for flannel, which, within three days, they were making into shirts for members of the First regiment ; while also busily getting handker- chiefs, bandages, and other useful articles, in readiness. And so were begun by the women of Concord those patriotic labors, which, during the war, should deservedly characterize as blessed the Sol- diers' Aid societies of the North.
When, moreover, the money needed by the state to meet heavy expenses incurred by the sudden military call was lacking, and Gov- ernor Goodwin applied to banking institutions for relief, the applica- tion was generously answered by those of Concord; the Union bank tendering a loan of twenty thousand dollars, and the State Capital bank, one of thirty thousand.
Loyalty to the country's cause found also manifestation in the profuse display of the stars and stripes. Over the capitol, over the city hall, over the depot, over the machine shops of the Concord and Northern railroads and upon all their locomotives, over newspaper offices, and other establishments, mercantile and mechanical, over numerous private residences, and across streets at many points, the flag of the republic proudly floated. The star spangled banner was never dearer to the hearts of the people than in those early days of war. Its three colors, too, combined in tasteful arrangement of goods in shop windows along the main street of the city, or in rosettes, freely worn, gracefully attested patriotic feeling.
Almost all the newspapers of the city truly reflected in their columns the earnest, loyal sentiment of the community, and strove to promote it. As no daily newspaper was then regularly issued in Concord, the eager desire of the people for war news was somewhat gratified by Joseph W. Robinson, telegraph manager and operator, who issued, twice daily, a small fly-sheet for general circulation, called the "Telegraphic Bulletin." The pulpit, too, was generally true to the religion of patriotism, and by argument and appeal, edi- fied heart-burdened congregations. Speaking of Sunday, the 21st of April, the New Hampshire Statesman said : "In the churches, the Union, its perils and its destiny, with the duty of all to labor in the strength of God, for its rescue, were the themes of devout contem- plation-made so by prayer or discourse, or both. The pastor of the South Congregational church, Rev. Henry E. Parker, closed his forenoon discourse by an appeal to the young men who had then enlisted at the recruiting station, and who marched into church in double file in charge of Capt. E. E. Sturtevant. . Tears have here often flowed over bereavements that touched other hearts than
486
HISTORY OF CONCORD.
those in the household most nearly afflicted, and sadness without tears has occasionally brooded over congregations here, because of some local circumstance of painful description ; but on Sunday, they fell like rain from many eyes, because of emotions the like of which were never felt here until then."
The recruiting station at Concord had, within a week, its large body of volunteers daily drilling under the instruction of Leonard Drown and others. Within a week, too, reports from other stations showed more than a full regiment enlisted, so that, on the 24th of April, the adjutant-general issued orders for volunteers to rendez- vous at Concord, an arrangement having been made whereby the Merrimack County Agricultural society's fair ground upon the plains east of the river and about a mile distant from the state house, might be used for the encampment. There, on the very day on which the orders were dated, the first volunteers went into camp ; being a com- pany of seventy-seven from Manchester, who, with Dignam's Cornet Band, were, upon their arrival in the city, escorted by the Cornet and Serenade bands of Concord to the state house, where they were received by the Concord recruits, and thence accompanied by them to the city hall, before going into barracks on the plains. A week later, nearly one thousand enlisted men had gathered at the rendez- vous, which had received the name of Camp Union, and enlisted men were still coming. The state authorities, therefore, determined to organize, arm, equip, and make ready for the field, two regiments of seven hundred eighty officers and men each. Between the 29th of April and the 7th of May, the First regiment was completely organized in ten companies, and mustered into the service of the United States by Major Seth Eastman of the regular army, detached for the purpose.1 Its colonel was Mason W. Tappan, of Bradford, serving, in the Thirty-sixth congress, his third term. Company I was the Concord company of the regiment. Of its seventy-seven officers and men thirty-four were Concord volunteers; while, of its ten officers-commissioned and non-commissioned-seven were from Concord, which supplied its captain, Edward E. Sturtevant; its first lieutenant, Henry W. Fuller; and its second lieutenant, Enoch W. Goss.
Upon the organization of the First regiment, the men left in sur- plus at Camp Union were transferred to a new rendezvous in Ports- mouth named Camp Constitution, where, with others, they were to be organized into the Second regiment, with Thomas P. Pierce of Manchester, who had seen service in the Mexican War, for colonel. On the 3d day of May, President Lincoln, by proclamation, called
1 See note as to Major Eastman, at close of chapter.
.
487
FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT.
into service forty-two thousand thirty-four volunteers for three years. The Second regiment, already in process of organization, would fill the quota of the state under the new requisition, could its term of enlistment be changed from three months to three years, and its numbers increased from seven hundred eighty to ten hundred forty- six. The change and increase were readily wrought. Five hundred three months' men were at once re-enlisted for three years, and these were eagerly joined by fresh recruits, so that the entire regiment was made up anew before June, with Gilman Marston, of Exeter, a mem- ber of congress, as its colonel in place of Pierce, resigned.
The order discontinuing the acceptance of three months' volunteers did not apply to the First regiment already mustered into the United States service, which remained in Camp Union until the last week of May under strict military drill and discipline, while preparations were making to send it to the front with all requisite appointments. The camp thus occupied was the center of much popular interest, and its tented grounds never lacked visitors-sometimes in throngs-especi- ally on the afternoons of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the days for general parade and drill. There the process of moulding civilians into soldiers was well begun; there the state, with liberal intent, and with its best available means, uniformed,1 armed, and equipped its incipient heroes ; while not far away, over the river, two manufactur- ing establishments contributed skilled handiwork towards supplying adequate field transportation; the Abbot carriage manufactory, once Downing & Abbot's, promptly furnishing sixteen four-horse baggage wagons and a two-horse ambulance ; and the harness shop of James R. Hill, as promptly, the sixty-six harnesses for the handsome and ser- viceable horses of the imposing train. And this train was as useful as imposing, carrying, as it did, with other freight, medical stores, surgical instruments, and provisions of varied kinds sufficient to enable the regiment to support itself for weeks.2 Indeed, it has been claimed-and, doubtless, truthfully -- that the first regiment of volun- teers to go to the front in 1861, from any state, fully equipped with uniforms, arms, accoutrements, baggage, hospital, and supply train, was the First New Hampshire.3
While thus prepared to depart for the seat of war, and eagerly awaiting from Washington the order so to do, the regiment lost one of its number by the first of four deaths that befell it during its term of service. On the 17th of May, died, at the age of nineteen, Private Arthur Cline of Lyme, a soldier of promise, who had bravely said, as he lay in fever upon his hospital cot, that he would rather die than
1 History of First N. H. Regiment, 111.
2 Waite's " New Hampshire in the Rebellion," 63
3 History of First N. H. Regiment, 181.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
not march with his regiment. At sunset of that day, the regiment being formed in funeral procession, with Major Seth Eastman in charge, and Colonel Tappan at head of column following the hearse, marched from the camp to the city, the streets of which it solemnly paced to the dirge by Baldwin's regimental band until the North cemetery was reached. There, in a receiving tomb, with regiment drawn up in circle around, and with committal prayer offered by Chaplain Abbott, the dead soldier was tenderly left.
The very next day afforded an illustration of the contrasts inci- dent to human experience in peace or in war. Yesterday the regi- ment had marched in sorrow; to-day it marched in gladness. On the forenoon of Saturday, the 18th of May, Colonel Tappan, in com- pliance with the requests of Concord friends of his regiment, led it in full parade through the streets of the city. This display of a regi- ment of New Hampshire's vigorous sons, completely uniformed and equipped for war, and already showing, in bearing, step, and move- ment, strong aptitude for military art and discipline, delighted " the citizens, who "-as the regimental chaplain has truthfully written- " thronged on either side of the column with cheers and huzzas. It was to them an inspiring sight. They were proud of the regiment, and the regiment was proud of them, from whom it had received no little kindness during these days of preparation." 1
At length came the welcome order to proceed to the seat of war, and the start was made on Saturday, the 25th of May. Early on the rainy morning of that day, the regiment was massed about the grand- stand on the camp-ground, and a parting address was made by the Rev. Dr. Bouton, followed by prayer and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner by the thoughtful assemblage. At eight o'clock the regiment was brought into line, and had soon left Camp Union, marching under an escort consisting of Company A of the Governor's Horse Guards, -Captain John H. George commanding,-with the Fisherville Cornet Band, mounted, and of Fire Engine Company, No. 2, with the Con- cord Cornet Band. The advance of the column was accompanied by lively strains of music, emphasized, as the city proper was neared, by cannon peals from the interval. At the junction of Bridge and Main streets, the column met a mass of spectators; and thence all the way through a cheering multitude, down the wide but crowded thorough- fares, with ladies at every window waving handkerchiefs in parting salute, it moved to the railway station. There thousands were assem- bled; the station and the grounds about it were densely packed. Ac- quaintances, friends, and relatives were there to say good-by. After a half hour spent in affectionate leave taking, a train of eighteen pas-
1 History of First N. H. Regiment, 112.
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SECOND NEW HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT.
senger and twenty freight cars steamed out of the station amid hearty farewell cheers, bearing away the First New Hampshire regiment of volunteer militia towards its destination. Ovations marked its three days' journey to Washington, two miles from which it pitched its tents at Kalorama, proud of the encomium of President Lincoln, who had pronounced it the best appointed regiment that had yet arrived.1
Meanwhile the work of filling and organizing the Second regiment upon the three years' basis was successfully going on. Concord had, upon the roster of field and staff officers, Josiah Stevens, Jr., as major, and Henry E. Parker, as chaplain. Leonard Drown, of Fish- erville, was captain of Company E, with Ai B. Thompson, recently of Holderness, as second lieutenant. The company contained many men from Concord, including Fisherville. William H. Prescott, one of Concord's earliest volunteers, was second lieutenant of Company H, commanded by Captain Ichabod Pearl, of Great Falls. Company B was more exclusively a Concord organization than any other in the regiment. Its captain was Simon G. Griffin, with Charles W. Walker and Abiel W. Colby, lieutenants-all of Concord. Captain Griffin had just entered upon the practice of the law when the war commenced. Throwing aside his law books, he took up the study of military tactics, and joined a company of young men forming under the first call for troops. He became captain, and finding that the quota of New Hampshire under that call was full, volunteered, with a large number of his men, for three years under the second call. The offer of the volunteers to serve as riflemen was accepted ; and soon the "Goodwin Rifles "-as the company was called in honor of the governor, with whom it was a favorite-numbered eighty. For some time the headquarters at the city hall witnessed daily drills ; the captain sparing no pains to make his command a model of mili- tary excellence. The strong desire of himself and of his men to be provided with Sharpe's breech-loading, sword-bayoneted rifles, where- with the better to do skirmish duty, was gratified; the expense be- ing guaranteed in subscription by citizens of Concord and members of the company themselves, if the state would not-as it did, how- ever,-assume it. The ladies of Concord also expressed their appre- ciation of the promising body of young men of high character and sobriety-as characterized by Governor Goodwin-by the presenta- tion of a beautiful banner.
Concord contributed to the Second regiment not only heroes for the battle-field, but also a true heroine for the hospital. When Miss Harriet Patience Dame received into her house the sick soldiers left in hospital by the First regiment on its departure, and when by
1 See note at close of chapter.
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HISTORY OF CONCORD.
judicious care and nursing she had enabled them to go to the front, the experience became for her an inspiration thither also to go, and there do what she might to alleviate the miseries of war by self- sacrificing ministrations of mercy. At the age of forty-six the con- scientious, patriotic woman offered her services as an army nurse, and on the 6th of June was enrolled as hospital matron of the Sec- ond New Hampshire regiment, to retain that connection for nearly five years, without one day's furlough or one day's sick leave ; en- during hardships almost beyond the endurance of strong men with whom she shared them; undaunted by the roar of battle, or the crash of shell through her tent, as she tenderly dressed gaping wounds fresh from the battle-line; 1 and occasionally doing service in a wider range, until her name was familiar, and her praise was sounded throughout the entire Army of the Potomac.
The Second regiment was uniformed, and, in general, armed and equipped, as the First had been ; and its transportation train of twenty wagons, and the harnesses of the eighty horses that drew it, were products of the same Concord manufactories that furnished those of the First. It remained in Camp Constitution until the 20th of June. Starting for Washington on that day, it reached its desti- nation on the 23d, and encamped at Kalorama, as the First had done nearly a month before.
The Second while it journeyed had been the object of much ad- miring attention, especially in Boston and New York. In the latter city the "Sons of New Hampshire " resident there, who, less than a month before, had presented the First with a beautiful silken flag, now gave the Second another as beautiful, under the folds of which many a great battle was to be fought.
But death early beset the journey ; for, in the night of its second day, Lieutenant Charles W. Walker, of the Goodwin Rifles, suffered fatal injuries in a precipitate fall from a lurching platform-car, while the regiment was passing through New Jersey, and expired in a few hours. The body of this favorite among men wherever he might be, so sadly come to his death in the vigor of his thirty-eight years of life, was brought home to Concord, and committed to the grave with extraordinary civil and military honors.
The raising and equipping of these two regiments had been ac- complished without a special legislative session. And now, on the 5th of June, the legislature which had been elected in March came together in regular session, having a Republican majority of more than sixty in the house, and ten of the twelve members of the sen- ate. Of the ten representatives of Concord in this first war legis-
1 History of Second N. H. Regiment, 297.
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FIRST WAR LEGISLATURE.
lature, nine were Republicans. These were David A. Brown, Ira Rowell, Samuel Coffin, Charles H. Herbert, Henry S. Shattuck, Enos Blake, Lyman D. Stevens, David J. Abbott, and Benjamin Green. The one Democrat was John L. Tallant. The inauguration of the new governor, Nathaniel S. Berry, on the next, or Election, day, was made the occasion of more than ordinary display of military escort, music, procession, banquet, and post-prandial eloquence; while in- terest was enhanced by an Election sermon, in revival of an ancient custom, but disused for nearly thirty years. That feature of Elec- tion day was on this occasion restored at the instance of prominent citizens of Concord, who saw, in that period of peril, a propriety in recurring to what the fathers declared to be "the best and greatest security to government-morality and piety propagated by the insti- tution of the public worship of the Deity, and of public instruction in morality and religion." By appointment of Governor Goodwin the Reverend Henry E. Parker, chaplain of the Second regiment, preached the Election sermon before the governor and council and both houses of the legislature assembled in the South church,-the last observance of its kind in New Hampshire.
The legislature of 1861 was at once reminded by Governor Berry, in his inaugural, of the pressing necessity for immediate attention to those measures that should aid the general government in resisting the rebellion. "No Northern state," added he, " has placed less than a million of dollars at the command of the general government, in view of the present emergency of the country, and I trust New Hampshire will not be behind her sister states in this respect, and that whatever we do may be done with perfect unanimity." A measure consonant with the governor's suggestion was soon before the lower house of the legislature. It was entitled, " An act to aid in the defence of the country," and authorized the issue of state six per cent. bonds or certificates of debt to an amount not exceeding one million dollars, to meet present and future liabilities in the existing war to save the nation's life. This bill passed the house on the 28th of June, by one hundred sixty-nine yeas to ninety-four nays. Seven members classed as Democrats voted with the Republicans in the affirmative-one of them being John L. Tallant, of Concord, who thus made the delegation of his city unanimous in support of the important act. In the senate the bill was also passed by the strict party vote of ten to two.
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