USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Littleton > History of Littleton, New Hampshire, Vol. I > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79
In these campaigns Lieutenant Goodwin won the distinction conferred by Napoleon on Marshal Ney, of being " the bravest of the brave." He was wounded May 26, 1864, at North Anna River, and again at Bethesda Church. He was promoted First Lieu- tenant May 16, 1862, and Captain July 31, 1862. He was mus- tered out July 17, 1865. He was appointed Major United States Volunteers by brevet for gallant and meritorious services before Petersburg, to date from April 2, 1865, - a high honor conferred on no other son of Littleton who entered the service from the town.
At the close of the war Major Goodwin returned to Littleton. In 1866 he was appointed mail route agent on the route from Bos- ton to Littleton ; but the service was too arduous, and he resigned after having held the position little more than a year. Thereafter he was employed as a hotel clerk at Plymouth and Manchester. During his last years disease had fastened upon his powerful con- stitution, and he, who had feared no mortal foe, surrendered at the last command, April 24, 1875. " After life's fitful fever " his re- mains are at rest in Glenwood Cemetery, where repose all that is mortal of several of his comrades.1
1 The battles and skirmishes in which this regiment participated were : Camden, N. C., April 9, 1862; Bull Run, Va., August 29-30; Chantilly, Va., September 1;
C
-
CAPT. EZRA B. PARKER.
CAPT. HUGH R. RICHARDSON.
CAPT. MARSHAL SANDERS. COL. ALPHA B. FARR.
MAJ. SAMUEL G. GOODWIN.
OFFICERS, WAR FOR THE UNION.
457
War Annals.
These regiments quite absorbed the material then at hand out of which soldiers would naturally be drawn, and there was a dearth of recruiting during the winter months. In response to the calls of the President the loyal States had sent forth their sons without stint, and they were being equipped, drilled, and moulded into an instrument of destruction in the camps surrounding Washington.
The Seventh and Eighth regiments, recruited in the last months of 1861, and leaving for the field in January, 1862, contained no men credited to Littleton, though two born in the town were in the ranks of the Seventh. They were George F. Bidwell, then a resident of Goffstown, from whence he entered the service, and Alden Lewis, who, residing in Lancaster, enlisted from that town.
In the autumn of 1863, in order to fill the quota of the town, the Selectmen paid a considerable bounty to several recruits. Of these Joseph Kortowski, a Russian ; Thomas Jolinson, a Scotch- man ; Roswell Miller and William Anderson, Yankees, were as- signed to the Seventh Regiment. Bidwell was mustered out with a creditable record, July 10, 1865, and Lewis discharged for dis- ability, July 20, 1862, at Fort Jefferson, Florida. Of the others, the Russian was reported missing, August 16, 1864, at Deep Bottom, Va., and it is probable that he lost his life in the engage- ment at that place, which extended from the 14th to the 18th of the month ; the Scotchman's last record is that he was absent sick in July, 1865 ; Miller was taken prisoner at Olustee, Fla., Febru- ary 20, 1864, released April 6, 1865, and discharged at Concord, July 8, 1865. Anderson may have been a Yankee; of this there are doubts. He was a substitute, but seems to have been a fair soldier. He was wounded at Drewry's Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864, and while on furlough in September deserted.
All the men in the Eighth Regiment credited to this town were substitutes, and but one was in any other respect connected with Littleton. These were Dennis H. Morgan, George Welch, and William Weschery, all of whom died of disease while in the ser- vice ; Peter Alexander, Dennis Lundy, John Wheeler, and Ezra S. Nurse, all, within a few months, marked on the regimental rolls as deserters. Josiah Simms was the only one who served his time
South Mountain, Md., September 14; Antietam, Md., September 17; White Sul- phur Springs, Va., November 15; Fredericksburg, Va., December 13; Siege of Vicksburg, Miss., June 14, to July 4, 1863 ; Jackson, Miss., July 10-16; Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864 ; Spottsylvania, Va., May 23-26; Bethesda Church, Va., June 2, 3; Cold Harbor, Va., June 4-12 ; Siege of Petersburg, Va., June 13, 1864, to April 3, 1865 ; Mine explosion, Petersburg, Va. (assault), June 30, 1864; Weldon Railroad, Va., August 20-22; Poplar Springs Church, Va., September 30, October 1; Hutcher's Run, Va., October 27; Petersburg, Va., April 1, 2, 1865.
458
History of Littleton.
and was mustered out with the regiment. It should be added that Simms was not a bounty-jumper, but a faithful soldier, dis- charging every duty that fell to his lot.
In this regiment were three soldiers who have been connected with our history who were citizens of Lisbon at the time of their enlistment. Two, Edwin Neal and John C. Aldrich, were sons of Littleton, and did not live to return. Neal perished of disease at Baton Rouge, La. Aldrich was a son of Mason Aldrich, and a young man of quick irascible temper which, while it did not mili- tate against his fighting qualities, kept him in trouble much of the time. He had followed the fortunes of the regiment for more than three years, endured the hardships of the soldier's life, and escaped the dangers of battle to be shot down in an altercation with a citizen at Natchez, Miss., in March, 1865.
Benjamin Franklin Wells, then of Lisbon, but for more than twenty-five years since a respected citizen of Littleton, was ap- pointed First Lieutenant in the Eighth Regiment December 20, 1861, was promoted Captain September 30, 1862, and wounded at Labadieville, La., October 27, 1862, and resigned in the follow- ing December. He re-entered the army as First Lieutenant in the First Company, First Regiment Heavy Artillery in June, 1863, and soon after became Captain of the First Company in that regi- ment. He was mustered out with the regiment in September, 1865.
Thus passed the first year of the war. All the energies of the people had been devoted to putting troops in the field. The quota of the town had been filled, and in the accomplishment of this work she had sent forth the flower of her youth; nor had men in whose veins coursed the sluggish blood of age failed to feel the quickening thrill of the distant combat and hasten to the scene of action in the hour of need. The quota of the State was not quite filled, and in the spring of 1862 the Ninth Regiment was raised to supply the deficiency.
Of the men who, from first to last, were mustered in this regi- ment, twenty-six were credited to this town, and one other, Joseph Bradford, who went from Salem, was Littleton born, as were three others, Alvan Griggs, Milo Fulford, and Milo E. Wells. These men were undoubtedly actuated by patriotic motives in enter- ing the army ; but the truth of history compels us to accept the conclusion that the others were persuaded to do so by the bounty paid by the town at the time they enlisted, in December, 1863. Some of these men were excellent soldiers, and deserve well of the town they represented and the country for which they
459
War Annals.
fought. Belonging to this class were John Dehome, who was mortally wounded at the mine explosion before Petersburg July 30, 1864, and died on August 8 following. Frank R. Goodwin, William Johnson, 2d, and Jason Smith died of disease while in the service ; Peter Buchier, Leroy Shamony, and Milo E. Wells, who was wounded at Antietam, were discharged for disability, and Richard Duval and Joahquin Limo, both of whom were wounded in battle ; Peter Kerwin and Michael Riley, who suffered in rebel prisons, Bryan Dwyer, Francis Papaineau, Benjamin Triggs, Milo E. Fulvord, and Alvan Griggs were mustered out at the close of the war. The others, ten in number, deserted, - some while en route to regiment, the others at the first opportunity. It is not supposed any of these men enlisted under their correct names ; they belonged to a class, numerous at the time, known as bounty- jumpers. Enlisting for one bounty, they deserted to re-enlist for another, and so on until they were detected, when the game was up. One of these men deserted to the enemy and enlisted at Florence, S. C., in the Foreign Legion of the Confederate States Army. Who they were and what their fate may have been, no record tells. Perhaps they are still wanderers on earth, searching for their bap- tismal names.1
No men from the town enlisted in the Tenth, Eleventh, or Twelfth regiments. Capt. Evarts W. Farr was commissioned Major, and Lieut. George E. Pingree Captain in the Eleventh. The story of their services in that regiment will be told elsewhere.
In the summer of 1862 George Farr assumed the task of enlist- ing a company in town for the Thirteenth Regiment, and was suc- cessful in his efforts. Forty-seven of the men in this company were credited to Littleton, while six others were sons of the town by birth, but at the time of enlistment resident in other towns. These men, without exception, were good citizens, closely identi- fied with the town, and some of the number were engaged in a pros- perous business or bound to happy homes with ties that were hard to sever. But the perilous state of affairs in the country and the
1 The engagements in which the regiment participated were : South Moun- tain, Md., September 14, 1862; Antietam, Md., September 17; White Sulphur Springs, Va., November 15; Fredericksburg, Va., December 13; Siege of Vicks- burg, Miss., June 14, 1862, to July, 1865; Jackson, Miss., July 10-16; Wilderness, Va., May 6, 7, 1864; Spottsylvania, Va., May 10-18 ; North Anna River, Va, May 24-26; Totopotomoy, Va., May 31, June 1; Bethesda Church, June 2, 3 ; Cold Har- bor, Va., June 5-12; Siege of Petersburg, Va., July 16, 1864, to April 3, 1865 ; Petersburg, Va. (assault at the Shand House), July 17; Mine explosion, Petersburg, Va. (assault), July 30; Weldon Railroad, Va., August 20, 21; Poplar Springs Church, Va., September 30, October 1; Hutcher's Run, Va., October 27; Peters- burg, Va., April 1, 2, 1865.
460
History of Littleton.
call of the President of July 2 of that year summoned them to the field, and they abandoned home and shop, mill and farm, to obey the demands of patriotic duty. When the regiment left the State for the front, the officers of this company were Capt. George Farr, First Lieutenant Edward Kilburn, and Second Lieutenant Marshal Sanders. It was the only company that left the State with a full complement of commissioned officers who were citizens of the town.
The regiment joined the Ninth Army Corps, and was engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg, where it behaved with the gallan- try of veterans. Of the men in its ranks from this town Jonathan Place and Lovren S. Gilman were the only ones to sacrifice their lives on the field of battle. Both fell in the sanguinary action of June 1, 1864, at Cold Harbor. Elanson Farr Closson was mor- tally wounded in the engagement on the 3d of May at Providence Church Road, and died on the 11th of the month.
While in the field the company lost six men from the town by death from disease. These were Norman Town, Andrew M. Wal- lace, David B. Moffett, Anthony Nutting, George W. Nurse, and James M. Streeter.
Eleven of our men were wounded. Capt. George Farr at Cold Harbor was hit in the shoulder by a rifle ball. The historian of the regiment says: he " spins around several times when the bullet strikes him, hitting Lieutenant Thompson as he does so; but soon steadying himself, he asks Lieutenant Thompson to take com- mand of Company D ... and disappears in the rear."1 Captain Farr's wound was severe, and after he retired from the service, at the close of the war, he underwent several operations before he obtained final relief from the effects of that bullet. Capt. Mar- shal Sanders was wounded, September 29, 1864, at the capture of Fort Harrison. Soon after enlistment he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, made First Lieutenant in 1863, and Captain in July, 1864. Before entering the service Captain Sanders was a millwright, and for a few years a partner, of Philip H. Paddle- ford at South Littleton. He was a faithful soldier and popular with his men. He was mustered out June 21, 1865, and died April 4, 1866. When the Grand Army Post was established in town, the men who were in his company constituted a large pro- portion of the organization, and honored his memory by bestow- ing his name upon it. Lieut. Augustine C. Gaskill was born in Charlestown, Vt., but had been a resident of this town for some years prior to his entering the army. For soldierly conduct he
1 History of the Thirteenth N. H. Volunteers, p. 343.
43
ELLERY H. CURRIER. 2d and 11th N. H. Inf.
H. B. BURNHAM. 13th N. H. Inf.
CHESTER SIMPSON. 13th N. H. Inf. THOS. M. FLETCHER. 39th Mass. Inf. S. L. SIMONDS. 8th Vt. Inf.
WARREN W. LOVEJOY. Ist N. E. and ist N. H. Cav.
GEO. W. CLEASBY. 13th N. H. Inf.
PAST COMMANDERS, MARSHAL SANDERS POST.
461
War Annals.
won his promotion through the grades of the service from that of a private to Second Lieutenant. The last promotion came too late to enable him to be mustered under his commission. He was wounded in the slaughter at Cold Harbor, July 1, 1864, but was soon in the ranks again to win another promotion. He was mus- tered out with the regiment in June, 1865.
The Littleton men in the ranks of Company D who were wounded in action numbered eight. Of these John E. Prescott was twice notified that death was very near, once at Proctor's and Kingsland's creeks, and again at Fort Harrison on the 30th of September, 1864. Jesse W. Place, a brother of Jonathan, who lost his life at Cold Harbor fifteen days before, sacrificed an arm in the successful assault on Battery Five near Petersburg, where a dozen officers and men of the Thirteenth captured the battery with two hundred prisoners. Elmer C. Moulton and Charles R. Coburn were comrades of Captain Sanders and John E. Prescott in the capture of Fort Harrison, and both were severely wounded in that action. Marcus A. Taylor and James J. Young were among the wounded at Fredericksburg in the first engagement in which the regiment participated. Albert Carpenter was wounded at Cold Harbor, and Austin Gilman at Drewry's Bluff on the 14th of May, 1864.
Zadock B. Remick, David G. Hatch, Robert L. Merrill, Levi W. Sanborn, Thomas E. Russell, Alba B. Carter, William W. Scott, and Calvin P. Crouch were discharged on account of being dis- abled, and returned before the term of their enlistment had expired.
The men who passed through the conflict practically unscathed and were mustered out with the regiment at Concord on June 21, 1865, were: Francis W. Fitzgerald, Charles H. Applebee, Stephen Webster Atwood, Edwin Bowman, Josiah Brown, Henry B. Burn- ham, Nathan Burns, George W. Cleasby, Daniel M. Clough, Cor- poral Samuel J. Clough, Horace Palmer, Francis W. Sanborn, John W. Palmer, Corporal Charles H. Russell, Sergeant Chester Simpson, Riley S. Simpson, Silas Wheeler, Theodore F. Wooster, and George W. Williams.
Lieut. Edward Kilburn resigned from the service on account of ill-health soon after the battle of Fredericksburg, and Benjamin W. Kilburn was discharged February 19, 1863, a substitute having been furnished without his knowledge.
There were several sons of the town who, owing to a residence elsewhere, were credited to the town from which they were en- listed. These were : James W. Eaton, of Antrim, George O. W.
462
History of Littleton.
Hatch and Charles Burt, Jr., of Bethlehem, Jonathan M. Rix, of Dalton, and Charles A. Austin, of Monroe.
Cyrus R. Blodgett, then of Stratford, and Isaac F. Dodge, of Lyman, have for a long period since the close of the war been residents of Littleton. Captain Blodgett was discharged from the regiment to accept a commission in a regiment of colored troops in which he finally attained the rank of Captain.
It is probable that fewer men in the rank and file of Company D received commissions as a reward for meritorious and often heroic services, than did those of any other company in the regi- ment. The wound Captain Farr received at Cold Harbor incapa- citated him for further duty with the regiment, but he continued on detached service until the close of the war. This effectually barred the way to the highest company promotion, and it was henceforth commanded by a First Lieutenant.
After the close of the battle of Fredericksburg, when it was found that Lorenzo Phillips was among the missing, Mr. Kilburn and his comrade Batchellor, under cover of the darkness of night, explored the scene of the day's action in front of their company, and found their missing comrade with a mortal bayonet wound in the abdomen, and succeeded in bringing him from the field.
We believe the foregoing names comprise those of all the men in the Thirteenth Regiment who earned a right to be mentioned in these pages as citizens of the town.1
The record of the town in connection with the Fourteenth Regi- ment is not brilliant. We furnished but one man for that organi- zation, who, at the time of his enlistment, gave the name of John Stevens, and Scotland as his native country, and both were apocry- phal. Stevens enlisted August 2, 1864, and was in the service just twenty-one days, when he deserted. This blot on our escutcheon was more than atoned for by the services of two excellent soldiers who served in this regiment from other towns, one of whom, Frank T. Moffett, was a son of Littleton by birth ;
1 The Thirteenth Regiment left the State for the scene of action in October, 1862 and was engaged in the following actions : Fredericksburg, Va., December 11-16, 1862; Getty's Night Assault, December 13, 1862; Siege of Suffolk, April 10 to May 4, 1863 ; Providence Church Road, May 3; Fort Walthall, May 6 and 7, 1864; Swift . Creek, May 9 and 10; Proctor's and Kingsland's creeks, May 12 and 13; Drewry's Bluff, May 14-16; Bermuda Hundred, May 16-17, August 27 to September 28; Cold Harbor, June 1-12; Battery Five, Petersburg, June 15; Siege of Petersburg, June 15 to August 27; Mine explosion, July 30; Capture of Fort Harrison, Sep- tember 29; Defence of Fort Harrison, September 30; Fair Oaks, October 27; and the occupation of Richmond, April 3, 1865. The regiment furnished the first troops, and its colors were the first to enter the city. ( Register of N. II. Soldiers and Sail- ors, Ayling, p. 665.)
463
War Annals.
the other, Benjamin F. Elliott, by adoption ; both, when the war closed, passed their lives here, and here they are buried. Frank T. Moffett while in the army was for a long time connected with the hospital service, and there developed the bent which determined his life work. Elliott enlisted January 4, 1864, was wounded and captured at the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, and passed nearly eight months in rebel prisons. He was paroled June 8, 1865, and mustered from the service July 8, 1865.1
The Fifteenth was a nine months' regiment, enlisted in the summer and autumn of 1862. Six men from Littleton entered its ranks, four of whom appeared on the regimental rolls to the credit of the town ; these were Lewis O. and George W. Place, Ransom S. Day, and Austin Morse. Charles S. Hazeltine and Alonzo Place were credited to the town of Bath. The Places, Lewis O. and his sons, were connected with the town nearly all their lives. Day was born in Dalton, but was a resident of the town when enlisted. Austin Morse, a son of Samuel Taylor Morse, was the only one of the six who did not serve out the term of enlistment, he was discharged for disability at Carrollton, La., March 27, 1863. He now resides in Arizona. Charles S. Hazel- tine was a nephew of Enoch Hazeltine, the old-time abolitionist.
This regiment was raised for special duty and was in but one engagement, that of the siege of Port Hudson, La., from May 27 to July 9, 1863.
Cyrus E. Burnham and Henry H. Lovejoy enlisted in the Seven- teenth Regiment November 12, 1862, were transferred to the Second Regiment, April 16, 1863, and mustered out October 9, 1863.
This regiment was raised as a Third Congressional District Regiment at the same time that the Fifteenth, representing the First District, and the Sixteenth the Second District, were being formed. Henry O. Kent was commissioned Colonel of the Seven- teenth, but never took the field, owing to the fact that the exi- gencies of the service required the State to forward men to the front without delay, and the Seventeenth when nearly filled was stripped of its men to furnish those that were weaker in numbers but its elders by seniority. When those regiments were filled and equipped, the surplus men were transferred to the Second Regi- ment, and saw some hard fighting before they were discharged.
1 The Fourteenth was engaged in the following battles : Deep Bottom, July 27- 28; Winchester, August 17; Halltown, August 26; Berryville, September 3 ; Lock's Ford, September 13; Opequan, September 19; Fisher's Hill, September 22; Tom's Brook, October 9; Reconnoissance to Strasburg and Cedar Creek. All in Virginia, and all in 1864. (Record of N. H. Soldiers and Sailors, Ayling, p. 695.)
464
History of Littleton.
The record does not indicate that any men of Littleton birth or residence became members of the Eighteenth, the last infantry regiment raised by the State for the Civil War.
In the closing months of 1861 the State raised a battalion (four companies) of cavalry which became Companies I, K, L, and M , of the First Regiment New England Cavalry, the other eight com- panies being raised by the State of Rhode Island. The regiment, as its name implies, was the first cavalry regiment sent out from New England. When the battalion was recruited, eight men en- listed from this town. They were, Ezra B. Parker, Thomas W. Harrington, Andrew Jackson, Levi Ward Cobleigh, Hugh J. Ricli- ardson,1 in December, 1861, and Warren W. Lovejoy, January 1, Charles W. Lovejoy and Leonard Taylor, January 2, 1862, and George W. Corey, who enlisted in March, 1862.
In the spring and early summer of 1864 the State undertook successfully to set a full regiment of cavalry in the field. It did this by making the companies in the First New England a nucleus. These companies were permanently detached from their old regi- ment and were joined by eight additional companies, and the or- ganization was completed July 20, 1864, and was known as the First Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Cavalry. In the new companies were Henry A. Clough, Cyrus Harris, John B. McIn- tire, and Isaac H. Kingsbury, - all Littleton men, but Kingsbury was credited to Cornish. Besides these was one, George Stevens, who enlisted August 17, and deserted in less than two weeks. He was never a resident of the town.
Ezra B. Parker, son of Ezra and Hannah (Burleigh) Parker, was born in Littleton August 25, 1838. He fitted for college at St. Johnsbury Academy, and entered Dartmouth in September, 1856, and was graduated in 1860. He soon became a student in the office of Woods & Binghams at Bath, and there pursued the study of law until his enlistment in the army, December 6, 1861. He was mustered into the service as Orderly Sergeant of Troop L, First New England Cavalry. Faithful and intelligent, his promo- tion was assured, and he was commissioned Second Lieutenant August 4, 1862, appointed Adjutant of the regiment in December following, and Captain of Troop D March 31, 1864. This battalion saw hard service during the campaigns in Virginia in 1862 and 1863. Adjutant Parker was with his regiment in the unfortunate affair at Middleburg on June 18, 1863, when with not more than four hundred men, and surrounded by twenty times its numbers, the regiment cut its way through the ranks of the enemy, with a loss of half its numbers in killed, wounded, or captured. Lieuten-
1 Father of Capt. Hugh R. of the Second Regiment.
465
War Annals.
ant Parker was among those who fell into the hands of the Con- federates, and passed the subsequent nine months in Libby Prison. He was released in May, 1864, and soon after rejoined his regi- ment. When the battalion became a part of the First New Hamp- shire Cavalry, he continued to act as Adjutant until assigned to Troop D, as Captain. He was mustered out with the regiment July 15, 1865.
Captain Parker was an ideal cavalryman; alert, clear-eyed, strong, and enduring he brought to the work all its physical re- quirements, while his mental equipment, enthusiasm, patriotic devotion, and undaunted courage combined to render him the equal of any soldier who went out from our town.
At the close of tlie contest he did not resume his legal studies, but engaged in business, and lias since been connected with some of the most prominent wholesale clothing-houses of Boston. Like his progenitors, he has lad no ambition to mix in public affairs beyond tlie discharge of the duties demanded by good citizenship.
When we consider the number of times these men met tlie enemy in combat,1 it is somewhat remarkable that their record of fatalities is so small. Not one was killed in action ; but one was seriously wounded ; two died of disease, one of these in a Confed- erate prison ; two were discharged disabled, two on account of wounds; eiglit were captured by the confederates. Five of the original recruits re-enlisted at the expiration of their term of ser- vice, and seven were mustered out at the close of the war.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.