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 II > Part 53
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Such were a part of the results of Mr. Burke's unrestrained invec- tive and bitterness. The Palmers were wholly " honest but wrong," as John B. Palmer candidly put it in talking in after years on the subject. The crowd in the street had assisted the assault within by heavily bombarding the windows with missiles, while the main share of those not actually participating gave their unreserved approval of proceedings in such words as seemed to them called for by the occa- sion. The Statesman deprecated the riotous acts, but with allusion to extenuating circumstances. The Independent Democrat spoke of the paper as having been " summarily abated."
Growing out of this act was a suit against the city, hotly contested through three trials, with a change of venue to Dover, and finally compromised, under the incumbency of John Kimball as mayor, for two thousand dollars. While this adjustment was at first without formal authority, it was to the general public approbation.
About noon, April 10, 1863, a serious demonstration was made on The Patriot office by some members of the returned Second regiment and other disorderly persons. This came to an end through the
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energy of Assistant Marshal Pickering and Lieutenant-Colonel Bail- ey, thus preventing a collision for which the friends of the paper were amply ready.
April 22, 1864, a fire broke out in the attic of Sanborn's block, by which the entire plant of The Patriot was consumed or ruined, at a loss of six thousand dollars. The fire destroyed a fine collection of natural history, minerals, historic relics, and other valuables, the Bible society's depository, and damaged several offices and all the stores on the ground floor of the building, then a great business center. The Patriot called the fire incendiary and said that " but for political hate it would have been extinguished without a loss of one thousand dol- lars to all concerned."
Among our young and energetic citizens in these stirring days was Joseph W. Robinson, a telegraph operator. In later years he extended the wires of the Northern telegraph into the heart of the mountains and was made superintendent. His office was on the east side of Main street, just north of the Eagle hotel. Mr. Robin- son was patriotic, public-spirited, and obliging, freely posting such news as he could gather. It occurred to him to put this news in a printed form. Accordingly he arranged with Parsons B. Cogswell, whose job office was in Rumford block, for the publication of The Telegraph Bulletin, whose first copy appeared April 24, 1861, and whose last issue was July 6, of the same year. A probably perfect file, preserved by Mr. Cogswell, shows a total of one hundred and thirty-one numbers, varying in size from six by nine inches to six by twelve. The paper was dated from the telegraph office, sold for one cent, and was distributed to private houses. It appeared twice each week day, at 7 a. m. and 5 p. m., with a Sunday edition at 3:30. It was printed on one side only, in long primer type, with gener- ous display heads, and was singularly free from any but the most scant allusion to local war items, while very good in telegraphic matter. The demand for this handbill-like sheet was variable, and it probably did not much profit its projector.
During 1862 Horace N. Rowell issued a news sheet of the same name from the telegraph office at the railroad depot. The dates of first and last publication are not known. It was printed by McFar- land & Jenks and sold for two cents. On eventful days, only, it . appeared more than once, and occasionally had matter on both sides. The only copy now accessible is nine by sixteen inches, and bears date of May 12.
As a sample of the means to inspire the public heart and promote enlistments, a war meeting may be mentioned, made in response to a well-signed call. The one alluded to was held in city hall July 22,
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1862, called to order by Mayor Humphrey, and, after prayer by Rev. Dr. Bouton, placed under the presidency of Joseph B. Walker. The vice-presidents from the several wards were H. H. Brown, John L. Tallant, Daniel Holden, Matthew Harvey, A. C. Pierce, Benjamin Grover, and Josiah Stevens, with William E. Chandler, John F. Brown, and Francis A. Fiske as secretaries. Vigorous speeches were made by Messrs. Lyman D. Stevens, Governor Berry, Edward H. Rollins, William L. Foster, Joseph A. Gilmore, Anson S. Mar- shall, Adjutant-General Colby, and Captains F. A. Baker and J. F. Littlefield of the Second regiment. For each man who would volun- teer on the spot twenty-five dollars was offered. Such meetings werc attended with fairly good success. The band was present and reso- lutions passed as follows :
Resolved, That with hearts overflowing with affection, we recall to-night the memory of Col. J. A. Gove, T. B. Leaver, and Horace Amnes. We mourn for our loss, but rejoice in their gain ; we grieve for the death of the martyrs, but glory in the beauty and holiness of their patriotic sacrifice, and while we tender to the widow, the fatherless, and the desolate, the care, the kindness, and the sympa- thy which is due from us to them, we pledge to the army and the country a battalion of avengers.
In view of a possible draft an enrollment was begun in 1862. At the examinations which followed, a most lamentable state of health, among the citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, was developed. Many hitherto supposed to be rugged were found to be in a precarious condition, and the able-bodied were apparently lim- ited in number. The frec granting of exemption certificates pro- duced irregularity, injustice, and dissatisfaction all over the state, and was called a farce by the entire press.
August 19, 1863, a draft was made, in charge of Adjutant-Gen- eral Colby, Dr. Robert B. Carswell, and Henry F. Richmond. The place was representatives' hall, where a detachment of soldiers was present. Concord had nine hundred odd names in the box, from which three hundred and forty were drawn by Charles Morrill, a blind man. Each town had at least one witness to the fairness of the proceedings. The space allotted spectators was occupied by a bois- terously good-natured crowd, which showed a keen appreciation of the humors of the occasion. Men who had been pronounced exempt, as well as some in the active service, drew prizes. The serenity of those conscripted was sufficient to admit of a formal parade in the carly evening, headed by a band, and marshaled by Josialı B. Sanborn.
At this time the three hundred dollar commutation, exempting from service on one draft only, had been abolished, but two hundred
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dollars was allowed drafted men as bounty. The sum was soon raised to three hundred dollars.
The draft riots in New York and Boston about this time eoun- seled preventive measures in the shape of a hundred or more revol- vers. A hundred more " specials " were commissioned and their equipment deposited, pending emergeney, in the city hall. These weapons were never needed, and were finally disposed of at a hand- some discount upon eost.
The original bounty of the state was ten dollars, and the Third regiment was the first organization which received it. In 1862 twenty-five dollars was generally given those enlisting, though this sum was drawn, at least in part, from other than public sources. The legislature of 1863 voted fifty dollars to each man who went to the front. In November, 1863, the government offered three hun- dred and two dollars (with one hundred dollars additional for veter- ans), the state adding a further one hundred dollars. In 1864 the state bounty rose to three hundred dollars, for three years' men, and one hundred dollars for each year of shorter terms. In the meantime town bounties had been elimbing at rapid rates until as high as eight hundred dollars and somewhat upwards had been reached. The gross sum received by a recruit was as high as one thousand five hundred dollars, and substitutes got as much as one thousand dollars from their principals. Long before this, eity and town officers bestirred themselves to seeure anything in the shape of a man which could eount upon the quota. The government bounty was paid in instalments-sixty-two dollars upon muster, and forty dollars at dates of six months thereafter. In the rush to fill quotas loeal officers took assignments of the government bounty and paid the lump sum in advance. If the recruit deserted the assignments were not honored, and the discounting towns were out of poeket. Thus many places added large sums to their war debts, but some few settled their entire obligations in the days of flush money. These debts were finally assumed by the state, the legislature of 1871 having authorized the issuing of bonds to the amount of two million two hundred six thousand one hundred dollars, to mature from 1892 to 1905, at the rate of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. Coneord's share of this municipal war reimburse- ment was seventy-six thousand nine hundred seventy-two dollars and twenty-two eents.
In the early part of the war men enlisted from worthy motives, but now, under such large money indueements, things were sadly ehanged. New Hampshire beeame an easy mark for undesirable men. The worst element of the permanent population floeked to
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share the spoils and gain what was to each one a fortune. But the main supply came from a thoroughly organized and powerful syndi- cate, whose operations extended up to Montreal, as far south as Bal- timore, and west to Cincinnati. Privateering had discouraged ship- ping interests, and there were many sailors idle. Foreigners were enticed by generous offers. Funds for debauch attracted others. The courts in some instances were moved to mercy, would the offender bear arms. It is fair to say that some of these saw their chance, redeemed themselves, and made good soldiers. It is said that some of Morgan's band of cavalry raiders, captured in Ohio, were brought here and "put through." Desertion was compara- tively easy, and not so serious as might appear, except in the face of the enemy. Various motives combined to create a lively interest in filling out the figures of the calls for men. The brokers contracted with towns for all demands at so much per head. The examining surgeons were more than considerate, and it was a pretty sick man who could not pass. In short, substitute brokerage was a more than thriving industry.
These recruits were first sent to the camp on the Plains. But more heroic means of constraint were soon found necessary. Besides, men who had taken service with an honest purpose desired to be distinguished from such persons. Hence, a field of forty or more acres, at the extreme South end, owned by B. F. Dunklee and J. S. Noyes, was secured and named Camp Gilmore. The less official titles, far better known, were "the substitute camp " and " slave pen." This lot had been used for the New England fair some years before and had several good buildings on it. Other buildings and a twelve-foot board fence were added. One of these buildings is now used for woodwork in the rear of the carriage shop of C. A. Davis, on the north corner of Main and Chandler streets. The grounds extended, to make an approximate location, described by present bounds, from near the Cogswell schoolhouse on the north, well towards Rollins park on the south, with an eastern boundary at Dunklee street and a western limit fairly close to South street. Broadway runs almost through the center. Driven wells supplied water for cooking and washing, while a noble spring in a little run to the castward provided drinking water.
In October, 1863, Brigadier-General E. W. Hinks, once second in command of the Massachusetts Eighth and colonel of the famous Nineteenth, was put in charge. General Hinks was a most gallant soldier, twice badly wounded, a strict disciplinarian, and a born gen- tleman. His headquarters were in a two-story dwelling now stand- ing south of the corner of Pillsbury and Dunklee streets. General
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Hinks combined the offices of superintendent of the volunteer re- cruiting service, chief mustering officer, commandant of the draft rendezvous, and assistant provost-marshal general. Among his aides was Captain Solon A. Carter, Fourteenth regiment, now state treas- urer. The military force used for police and guard duty consisted of several companies of the Invalid corps, later known as the Veteran Reserve. Urban A. Woodbury, since governor of Vermont, was a lieutenant in this corps and wore well the empty sleeve of another kind of service.
Probably no man in Camp Gilmore had received less than one thousand dollars, the contract difference having been assimilated by the bank accounts of promoters of enlistments. Those whose honor- able spirit had led them to accept the simple pay of a soldier had already put on the blue. Men attracted by modest or moderately large offers had joined later regiments. Many liable to draft had taken advantage of still larger offers, thinking of the relatively small bounty paid to conscripts, and had gone forward to do valiant duty. Good men had been contributed by exempts who wished to be repre- sented in the war. But now, in 1864, came the era of the class known as "bounty jumpers; " men who sought places which paid the most, with the intention of deserting. These desertions were mainly effected from Camp Gilmore. Military clothing was often found among the dense pines south of the camp. Escapes were made from the trains. With the aid of roughs, a grand bolt was once made in Haymarket square, Boston, thirty odd escaping. Two men were shot in the water, near the transport Constitution, on that day. An attempt was made to set this vessel on fire on the voyage.
Such was the aggregation penned up in Camp Gilmore. Liquor was the one thing supremely desired in those precincts, and held at fabulous prices when it could be smuggled. If a man disappeared it was supposed that he had deserted. But bones found in later years have suggested that this was not so always. One man was caught chloroforming, and five thousand dollars found upon his per- son. Considerable rolls of money have sometimes been dug up. barely recognizable as greenbacks.
The Fifth regiment returned August 3, 1863, in command of Lieu- tenant-Colonel Hapgood, with about one hundred and seventy men. In the spring a good part of the Seventeenth had been incorporated with it and its total membership had been more than fourteen hundred. As its advent was a surprise, there was no formal reception. The men were fed at the hotels.
August 8, the Fifteenth arrived. A salute had announced its approach and the usual crowd was out. The regiment came without
.
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arms and was in a most lamentable condition. It had suffered heavy losses at Port Hudson, and the low land of that region had had its power on those accustomed to cool altitudes. The trip to Cairo, Ill., had been made in a crowded steamer, and the journey by rail, via Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, Springfield. and Wor- cester, had been even more exhausting. Some had died and many been left on the way. No such sad and wholesale object lesson of the ills of war had been seen here. Some were able to go into camp upon the Plains. Some were sent to their homes. Some officers took quarters at hotels. But the worn-out and desperately ill, the whole town was at their service. Conveyances, with mattresses, were secured and the city hall thrown open. Beds were set up, and a hospital extemporized. Every physician volunteered. Benevo- lent men and kindly women gave their help in ministering service. Broths and gruel, tea and coffee, were prepared at once in adjoining houses, almost to the exclusion of domestic work. There was no service too humble or repugnant for the chiefest citizen or the most queenly matron to attend. It was thus day and night, until perma- nent plans could be made and carried out. Stores of wines, jellies, and delicacies, and the purses of each and every one were tendered and drawn on freely. As never before in our history, the community was one. These wrecks of men were served as if kinsmen, their smallest wants cared for with complete self-renunciation, their pass- ing souls sent on with prayer and their poor bodies prepared for burial fitly.
The Sixteenth arrived on August 14, with about four hundred men able to bear arms. It was in a sad condition, far exceeding that of its recent predecessors. It had had no fighting, but had been on duty in a most unhealthy region. But seventy-two men had been reported fit for duty on at least one day. Its hardships on the home- ward route had been much more than severe. Forty-nine men had been left at Vicksburg, and thirty-six at Cairo. Malaria and other diseases had cut a wide swath through the ranks. This time the Soldiers' Aid society was on hand with cans of milk, beef tea, etc. The improvised hospital at the city hall had been well equipped, and soon an annex arose behind the hall, bearing an aspect of ade- quate permanence. Once more the hearts of the community were moved, stirred even more deeply than a week before. No means of attention, relief, comfort, or healing was there which head could think out, heart suggest, or hand perform, but that was given promptly. The plight of the Fifteenth had not been lost sight of in making preparations for the Sixteenth. Sixty beds were now occupied at the hospital and, in all, some two hundred were properly fed, cared for, and nursed, as necessary.
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In spite of all this seene of ill, there really was carried out some- thing of a reception. A detachment of veterans, under Adjutant- General Natt Head, aided by City Marshal Pickering, eame out, with the thin-ranked Fifth performing eseort duty. Some few of the Fifteenth, under Captain Hubbard, got together, with a number of heavy artillery from Fort Warren, under Captain Little, and these put on a brave front for something like a parade. The brigade band furnished musie. A luneh was served in Phenix hall, and speeches were made by the governor, Colonel Pike, and others.
On August 11 a reception was given to the Fifth and Fifteenth, or sueh of the latter foree as could be present. Most had gone home,-not a few to die of injudieious eating. The day was perfeet. Flags were everywhere and deeorations brilliant and abundant. The Nashua and Strafford Guards and Amoskeag Veterans added them- selves to the Horse Guards and a few regulars in town, while the governor and staff, General E. W. Hinks and staff, the executive eouneil, eity government, veterans in earriages, and distinguished visitors swelled the procession, which went over a eonsiderable route, with Nehemiah G. Ordway as chief marshal. A collation was served in the state house yard, and speeehes by eivil and military offieers extended over two hours' time, under the presideney of Edward H. Rollins.
The November eleetions of 1862 had resulted in the election of Horatio Seymour as governor of New York and Republiean disaster in every state exeept Massachusetts. So New Hampshire became a veritable battle-ground in its spring eanvass. This eampaign of 1863 was the hottest, heaviest, and most fiereely contested of any purely state eleetion in the half century just eoneluded. It was fought for all there was in it, most literally. Distinguished men of both parties were brought into the state to take part in the canvass. There was not a hamlet with a loeation and a name which was not enlightened by the spellbinders. The publie halls were thronged with exeited men and no small delegations of women, equally intense and no less in earnest. The press teemed with hot editorials, barbed paragraphs, and double-edged allusions. The mails were eongested with docu- ments, spceehes, and eirculars, and franked letters poured in on the humblest voter. The state committee rooms were seenes of activity from the morning hour to the time when strategy boards held grave council. Extra trains were run, swarming with free passengers. Joint debates were held. No device of practical polities was neglected. Absentees were exhorted to be on hand Mareh 10. And, between the two parties, no man who had ever lived in the state and left the semblanee of a claim to residenee therein on his departure, need go without a ballot in New Hampshire.
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Joseph A. Gilmore, superintendent of the Concord Railroad, was the Republican candidate for governor, while Ira A. Eastman, also resident in Coneord, was the Democratic standard-bearer. Walter Harriman of Warner, as a " war Democrat," " unconditional Union man," " untrammeled by party ties," ete., had been named to make it easy for those of Democratic antecedents, and such as would not vote for Gilmore, to refrain from favoring Eastman. The result was long in doubt, but the official vote was Eastman, 32,833 ; Gilmore, 29,035 ; Harriman, 4,372; scattering, 302. Daniel Marcy of Ports- mouth, Democrat, was chosen congressman by a majority of about 80. Gilmore was elected by the legislature by a vote of 192 to 133. The next year's campaign was fierce, and also the presidential figlit of the fall, but it was devoid of the momentousness of this one.
The return of the Second regiment, March 4, 1863, was announced by the voice of cannon and the clang of bells. A large committee of citizens, of all shades of thought, had the event in charge. And our people, re-enforced from the country and adjoining railroad towns, assembled in Railroad square, where the fire department, with deco- rated engines, had likewise met. The welcoming address was by William L. Foster, after which a procession was formed, headed by the state offieers, the Amoskeag Veterans constituting the regimental escort. The buildings on the route were handsomely decorated. At the Eagle hotel addresses were made by Governor Berry and Major- General John E. Wool, Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey, commanding the regiment, responding briefly. The soldiers were dined at the hotels in bounteous fashion.
Among side events which should not be forgotten was a controversy in The Patriot between George W. Stevens of Laconia, who signed himself X, and Rev. Dr. S. M. Vail. The latter had preached a ser- mon against slavery. Mr. Stevens had joined in pungent comments on it, and Dr. Vail replied. Under the head of " The Bible and Slavery," a debate of a biting nature was waged from about the mid- dle of 1863 to the spring of 1864. Dr. Vail was professor of Hebrew at the Methodist institute, and Mr. Stevens was a man of real ac- quirements and high literary tastes, but not known to be erudite in Hebrew, though well learned in the unfailing source of English liter- ature, the Holy Scriptures. In the nicetics of the ancient tongue, in verbal analysis and sacred lore, cach made a most creditable show- ing, and in the offensive and defensive display of logic and wit the series was more than interesting. The authorship of the incognito end of the discussion was laid at the doors of two clergymen of the city, but the name of the actual writer was for years a secret. At the close the matter might well be called quits. Dr. Vail embodied his views in a pamphlet.
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The controversy revolved mainly around the Old Testament, where in God's evolution of various moral matters, the " peculiar institu- tion " seems to have been suffered, like some other evils, in the hard- ness of the human heart, till a fitting era. The Patriot accused Dr. Vail of ingenious exegesis and disingenuous reservations. Decem- ber 2, 1862, it said : " The subject has become of considerable politi- cal importance from the fact that, in order to justify the prosecution of the war for the purpose of abolishing slavery, the abolition leaders, orators, writers, and preachers seek to convince the people that sla- very is a sin and receives no countenance from the Bible."
Indeed, the slavery subject was a mighty factor in our local situa- tion as a question of expediency, property, and morals. It held in place such men as Thomas P. Treadwell and Josiah Stevens, who supported the war and always stood by the Democratic ticket ; and John M. Hill, who declined a high place of honor and profit, but was the soul of all financing for the relief of the soldier at the front when ill from wounds or other causes. It had no mean power on men who bore arms and gave blood, limbs, and life freely. Lincoln's first inaugural had disavowed any purpose to interfere with slavery. In reply to accusations, the Congregational Journal, Rev. Dr. B. P. Stone, editor, urged that the administration should be credited in its official utterances. The keenest arrow of opprobrium had its guiding feather in terms connected with the black man. It divided the Republican party itself into wings. And when the proclamation came, many regarded it as either dubiously wise or wholly suicidal.
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