THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Ex libris Katharine F. Richmond 'and Henry C. Fall e^ - '^i- THE FIRST REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEERS GREAT REBELLION: CONTAINING THE STORY OF THE CAMPAIGN; AN ACCOUNT OF THE " GREAT UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE," AND OTHER ARTICLES UPON SUBJECTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EARLY WAR PERIOD; MAP OF THE ROUTE OF THE REGIMENT; TABLES; BIOGRAPHIES; PORTRAITS AND ILL US TRA TIONS. BY REV. STEPHEN G. ABBOTT, A. M., Chaplain of the Regiment. KEENE : SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1890. COPYRIGHTED, 1890, BY S. G. ABBOTT. TO THE SURVIVING VETERANS OF THE FIRST REGIMENT IN THE GREAT REBELLION, TO THE MEMORY OF THEIR COMRADES WHO SLEEP IN SOLDIERS' GRAVES, AND TO THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF BOTH, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. As the author of this volume I have aimed to pre- serve, for future reference, a truthful account of the position New Hampshire occupied in the early period of the Great Rebellion. As to my success, I invoke the charitable criticism of those who were contempora- neous with those times. The following historical errors should be corrected. Owing to a similarity of names the word Senator is found in connection with Edward Ashton Rollins, on page 261. On page 269 Lafayette should be substi- tuted for Washington a mistake of a correspondent. An examination of the papers of Miss Dorothea Dix, mentioned on page 268, proves that she was born in New Hampshire. By the advice of judicious friends, I have secured various articles from able writers on subjects germane to the early period of the war, which, it is believed, will add interest to the book and do honor to the State. These writers have been left to treat their subjects, respectively, from their own stand-points, as to matter and manner, without interference by the author. I have secured as many portraits as practicable, of the officers of the regiment, and of New Hampshire men who were prominent actors at home and in Con- gress during the service of the First Regiment, and of those whose names receive special mention in the work. 8 PREFACE. To such of these as are living and to the friends of those deceased, I wish to express sincere thanks for their contributions. I have, by permission, made free use of "New Hampshire in the Rebellion," by Maj. Otis F. R. Waite, and also of Capt. Ira McL. Barton's sketch in the Adjutant General's Report. Both these articles were, however, originally taken, principally, from my manuscript. It would be impracticable to mention by name the many comrades and others who have cheerfully given me aid and encouragement in preparing this history. I have met only with kind responses to all appeals for help. Besides those whose names appear at the head of various articles, Gen. A. D. Ayling is entitled to many thanks for copies of records and other services ; and Col. William H. D. Cochrane for assistance on the tables. I desire especially and gratefully to acknowl- edge the untiring and enthusiastic interest taken in this work by Hon. A. S. Batchellor of Littleton. To all who have rendered me assistance, I desire to express my profound gratitude. With all its imperfections I commit this unpretending volume to the public, hoping it may, at least, rescue from oblivion the memory of the heroic services of our brave New Hampshire boys who first sprang to the front when our liberties were assailed. S. G. A. CONTENTS. I NEW HAMPSHIRE 13 II THE RELATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE MEN TO THE EVENTS WHICH CULMINATED IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION 20 III THE POLITICAL SITUATION AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR 38 IV THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE 43 V THE STORY OF THE CAMPAIGN 100 VI THE WAGON TRAIN 181 VII THE EMINENT SONS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN THE REBELLION 191 VIII THE IRISH OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN THE CIVIL WAR 225 IX THE WOMEN OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN THE REBELLION 256 X THE CLERGY AND CHURCHES OF NEW HAMP- SHIRE IN THE REBELLION 290 XI THE REGIMENTAL BAND 295 XII BIOGRAPHIES 297 XIII THE MATERIAL PROSPERITY OF THE NORTH DURING THE WAR PERIOD 357 POEM 371 XIV STATISTICAL TABLES 374 TABLE I ORIGINAL ROSTER . . 375 II SURVIVING VETERANS . 419 III DECEASED VETERANS . 438 IV SERVICES IN OTHER OR- GANIZATIONS .... 452 PORTRAITS. CHAPLAIN STEPHEN G. ABBOTT Frontispiece. PAGE. Gov. ICHABOD GOODWIN Facing 13 Gov. NATHANIEL S. BERRY " 28 Gov. FREDERICK SMYTH " 46 COL. MASON W. TAPPAN " 60 LIEUT. -CoL. THOMAS J. WHIPPLE ...... " 84 PRESIDENT LINCOLN ... * 101 MAJ. AARON F. STEVENS Facing 108 COL. W. H. D. COCHRANE 119 COL. CHARLES P. STONE 128 SURGEON ALPHEUS B. CROSBY Facing 132 ADJT. ENOCH Q. FELLOWS " 156 GEN. N. P. BANKS 164 PAYMASTER MOSES K. HAZELTON Facing 180 LUTHER CRAWFORD LADD 194 CAPT. IRA McL. BARTON Facing 204 HON. JOHN P. HALE " 228 HON. EDWARD H. ROLLINS " 252 GEN. JOHN A. Dix " 276 GEN. JOHN G. FOSTER " 300 COL. HENRY O. KENT " 324 EDWIN T. BALDWIN " 348 ILLUSTRATIONS. THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE . . ^ 44 FORT SUMTER BEFORE BOMBARDMENT 52 FORT SUMTER AFTER BOMBARDMENT 62 OFF FOR THE WAR 112 MASSACHUSETTS SIXTH IN BALTIMORE 121 CHAPLAIN PREACHING TO SOLDIERS 125 ROUTE OF THE FIRST REGIMENT (Map) 130 CHAPLAIN'S TENT 136 ON PICKET 144 CONFEDERATE FLAG 147 HARPER'S FERRY 171 THE LADD MONUMENT 196 <^s x* ^ &--+ ^ S ^~ Q (D Kl ^ [B E) (S(S) f* JVEW flAMFSSHRS 2859' 6O- CHAPTER I. NEW HAMPSHIRE. The remark attributed to Daniel Webster that " New Hampshire is a good State to emigrate from " contains the highest compliment he could have given to his native State, as nuggets of gold successively taken from the mine indicate its value. The highest encomium we can give New Hampshire is that she makes men for the world. While fulsome praise of one's own State would be in bad taste, it is well that generations to come should find in the records of history reminders of their inheritance from the fathers. New Hampshire is but a little one among her sister States, but the history of her men and deeds is interwoven with that of the Nation. Her diversified surface, her rugged soil, her rigorous climate, her mineral resources, her rivers and lakes, her facilities for the pursuit of the various indus- tries, together with her institutions for mental, moral 1 4 FIR S T NE W HA MP SHIRE. and religious training, demand in her population men and women of stalwart character. This standard she has honored in the past, maintains in the present, and will perpetuate in the future. The mature manhood of the present requires but like emergencies to develop the patriotism and power which have so grandly char- acterized the sons of New Hampshire in the past history of the Nation ; and the children of our schools give ample assurance that these qualities are not in the process of decay. In every emergency of the Nation, New Hampshire has done her whole duty. In the first battles for freedom from the British yoke many of her sons stood and fell. At the bloody battle of Bunker Hill, 1444 of the American troops were from New Hampshire, besides 325 in the Massachusetts Regiments from the same State, enough certainly to entitle her to recog- nition on the tablets and in the memorials instituted to perpetuate the memory of that occasion, although " the American troops were mainly from Massachusetts ! New Hampshire was conspicuous on land and water in the War of 1812. She responded nobly in the persons of her prominent citizens in the War with Mexico, and, as will hereafter appear, she did not go back on her previous record in the stormy times of the 44 Great Rebellion." She was represented by her soldiers in a large percentage^ of the ^2^8^engagementS by land and water during the war, and it is safe to say that no battle in which New Hampshire veterans were engaged, was lost by default of their bravery. NE W HAMPSHIRE. 1 5 Familiarity with the representatives of the learned professions, with the literature of the Commonwealth, and with the prevalence of general information, will remove all fear that the ability and patriotism of the State died with the fathers, or that their children will not be equal to any emergencies that may arise in the future. Notwithstanding the incessant draft that has been made by other States upon the able men of New Hampshire, she has retained enough to maintain a noble record of uninterrupted prosperity and progress. God save the Commonwealth of New Hampshire. Appended to this brief sketch is a list of the honored men who have ably represented all the interests of the State as her chief magistrates, and to whose wise and patriotic administration the perpetuity and prosperity of the State are largely indebted. Presidents and Governors of the Province of New Hampshire, and Commanders-in-Chief of the Military Forces from 1680 to the retirement of Governor John Wentworth and the commencement of the Revolution : John Cutt, President, 1680 Richard Waldron, President, 1681 Edward Cranfield, Lieut. Governor, 1682 Walter Barefoote, Deputy Governor, 1685 Joseph Dudley, President, 1686 Edmund Andrews, Governor, 1687 Simon Bradstreet, Governor, 1689 John Usher, Lieut. Governor, 1692 1 6 FIRST NE H* HAMPSHIRE. William Partridge, Lieut. Governor, 1697 Samuel Allen, Governor, 1698 Earl of Bellemont, Governor, r ^99 William Partridge, Lieut. Governor, 1699 Joseph Dudley, Governor, 1702 John Usher, Lieut. Governor, 1702 George Vaughan, Lieut. Governor, I 7 I 5 Samuel Shute, Governor, 1716 John Wentvvorth, Lieut. Governor, I 7 I 7 William Burnet, Governor, 1728 Jonathan Belcher, Governor, David Dunbar, Lieut. Governor, Benning Wentworth, Governor, J74 1 John Wentworth, Governor, Presidents and Commanders-in-Chief of the Militia of the State, from 1784 to the formation of the Constitu- tion of 1792 : Meshech Weare, John Langdon, John Sullivan, 1786 John Langdon, 1788 John Sullivan, I 7^9 Josiah Bartlett, I 79 Governors of New Hampshire and Commanders-in- Chief of the Army and Navy of the same, from the adoption of the Constitution in 1792, to the present time : Josiah Bartlett, 1792-94 John T. Gilman, 1794-1805 FIR S T NE W HA MPSPIIRE. 1 7 John Langdon, 1805-09 Jeremiah Smith, ' 1809-10 John Langdon, 1810-12 William Plummer, 1812-13 John T. Oilman, 1813-16 William Plummer, 1816-19 Samuel Bell, 1819-23 Levi Woodbury, 1823-24 David L. Morrill, 1824-27 Benjamin Pierce, 1827-29 John Bell, 1829-30 Matthew Harvey, 1830-31 Joseph M. Harper, 1831 Samuel Dinsmoor, 1831-34 William Badger, 1834-36 Isaac Hill, 1836-39 John Page, 1839-42 Henry Hubbard, 1842-44 John H. Steele, 1844-46 Anthony Colby, 1846-47 Jared W. Williams, 1847-49 Samuel. Dinsmoor, 1849-52 Noah Martin, 1852-54 Nathaniel B. Baker, 1854-55 Ralph Metcalf, 1855-57 William Haile, 1857-59 Ichabod Goodwin, 1859-61 Nathaniel S. Berry, 1861-63 Joseph A. Gilmore, 1863-65 Frederick Smyth, 1865-67 1 8 FIRS T NE W HA MPSHIHE. Walter Harriman, 1867-69 Onslow Stearns, 1869-71 James A. Weston, 1871-72 Ezekiel Straw, ' 1872-74 James A. Weston, 1874-75 Person C. Cheney, 1875-77 Benjamin F. Prescott, 1877-79 Natt Head, 1879-81 Charles H. Bell, 1881-83 Samuel W. Hale, 1883-85 Moody Currier, 1885-87 Charles H. Sawyer, 1887-89 David H. Goodell, 1889- The following were the Commander-in-Chief and O Officers of the Military Staff of the State at the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion : GOVERNOR : Ichabod Goodwin. GOVERNOR'S AIDES-DE-CAMP WITH RANK OF COLONEL : Clement March, Portsmouth, Albert L. Jones, Portsmouth, Bradbury P. Nilley, Manchester, Joseph W. Robinson, Concord, Abiel Rolfe, Penacook, Henry W. Rowell, Littleton, A. Herbert Bellows, Concord. ADJUTANT-GENERAL : Joseph C. Abbott, Manchester. ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL : Henry O. Kent, Lancaster. FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 1 9 AIDS. Otis Wright, Nashua, Gilbert Hills, Amherst, Isaac W. Farmer, Manchester. COMMISSARY GENERAL : William O. Sides, Portsmouth. CHAPTKR II. BY WILLIAM F. WHITCHER. THE RELATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE MEN TO THE EVENTS WHICH CULMINATED IN THE WAR OF THE REBEL- LION. In any just consideration of the relation sustained by New Hampshire to the political events which culminated in the war of the Rebellion, the fact that there are two New Hampshires must not be left out of the account. There is the smaller New Hampshire, that triangular geographical division of Northern New England lying between Maine and Vermont, that political entity which, as one of the members of the American Union, never faltered in its loyalty or allegiance when that Union was threatened, and which in the quarter century preceeding the great military struggle that broke out in 1861, ) sent to the councils of the Nation such men as Isaac Hill, Levi Woodbury, Henry Hubbard. Franklin Pierce, Charles G. Atherton, Edmund Burke, Ira A. Eastman, John P. Hale, Harry Hibbard, James Bell, Mason W. Tappan and Daniel Clark. There is the larger New Hampshire which knows no state lines, but extends to every section of the country where men of New Hamp- shire blood and birth and training have found fields of FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 2 1 honorable activity and exalted usefulness, and which has furnished the nation' with men, among whom Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, Amos Kendall, John A. Dix, Nathan Clifford, Salmon P. Chase, Horace Gre'eley, John Wentworth, James W. Grimes, Henry Wilson, Zachariah Chandler and William Pitt Fessenden stand out with marked .prominence. During the twenty-five or thirty years previous to the firing on Fort Sumpter the attitude of New Hampshire was at no time unimportant, as the very mention of these names abundantly proves, and the attitude of her sons was in more than one instance the dominant influence and determining factor in great political crises. An illustration of this is fur- nished by the great nullification contest of 1832 with which the period in question opens. That contest between union and disunion was the logical outcome of two conflicting theories of constitutional interpretation which had long before borne fruit in the Alien and Sedition laws, and in the famous Virginia and Kentucky resolutions which were the protest against these laws, just as the secession in 1860 and 1861 was the logical outcome of the acceptance of the nullification theories which were propounded and defended with such match- less skill by South Carolina's greatest son. It was a great victory which was won by Andrew Jackson over John C. Calhoun, yet it was hardly decisive. It was a truce that followed, not peace. The disunion snake was ''scotch'd" not "killed." In estimating the value of Jackson's victory, the influence of the men associated with him in the conflict is not to be left out of the 2 2 FIRS T NE W HA MPSHIRE. account. Among his "constitutional advisers" were Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, Secretary of the Navy, and Lewis Cass of Ohio, afterwards of Michigan, Secretary of War. The great career of Woodbury is a household story in New Hampshire and that of Lewis Oass should be no less so. A native of Exeter, where he received his academic education, at the age of seven- teen he made his way on foot in 1800 over the Allegha- nies into the just opening West, to become one of the dominant figures in American history, filling almost every position of trust and honor ,in the power of his country to bestow upon him, except the presidency, which he missed that Martin Van Buren might be re- venged, and retired to private life in his honored old age, laying down the portfolio of State rather than to seem non-resistant to the treason and rebellion he was power- less to avert. It is doubtful if any man in either branch of Congress had more entirely the confidence of Andrew Jackson, when the storm of nullification broke, than did Isaac Hill, then New Hampshire's junior Senator, who more than any other man had been influential in changing his state from a strong hold of Federalism into a strong hold of Democracy, and who in a Senate where Webster, Clay and Calhoun held seats, was a member of marked influence and power. Hill had come to Washington in March, 1829, to witness the triumphal inauguration of the man for whose success he had worked with persist- ent zeal, though he had failed to secure him New Hamp- shire's vote, and Jackson had insisted on his remaining, FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 2 3 as the Second Comptroller of the Treasury. The Senate rejected his nomination and Isaac Hill went home to New Hampshire, a martyr to his devotion to Jackson, only to be returned to the same Senate that had rejected him, a member. He was closer to Jackson doubtless than any member of his Cabinet, sharing with Major William B. Lewis" and Amos Kendall the intimacy of personal relations with the president that gave them the chief places in that inner circle of advisers and friends which was known as the " Kitchen Cabinet." And Amos Kendall, who with the incoming >of the Jackson administration began as fourth auditor of the Treasury his long official career, was also a New Hampshire man, a native of Dunstable and a graduate of Dartmouth. Those who have declared that Kendall was the master-spirit of the Jackson administration, have not been guilty of great exaggeration. Harriet Marti- neau in her visit to the United States in 1836 gave expression to the opinion prevalent in Washington when she wrote of him : " He is supposed to be the moving spring of the whole administration, the thinker, planner, and doer ; but it is all in the dark. Documents are issued of an excellence which prevents their being attributed to persons who take the responsibility of them ; a correspondence is kept up all over the country for which no one seems to be answerable. Work is done of goblin extent and with goblin speed, which makes men look about them w r ith a superstitious wonder : and the invisible Amos Kendall has the credit of it all * * * He is undoubtedly a great genius. He 24 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. unites with his great talent for silence a splendid audacity." The imperious, selfwilled Andrew Jackson, who never knew fear, and who never submitted to defeat, was by no means impervious to the influence of those whom he trusted. What his course might have been in this nullification controversy, had not he and Calhoun been political enemies, and had his trusted advisers been sons of South Carolina instead of New Hampshire, it is idle to conjecture. It must be remembered that Jackson was a South Carolinian, a Southerner, a rigid strict construc- tionist, a partisan. Calhoun raised the issue ; this was fortunate. Woodbury, Cass, Hill and Kendall were among Jackson's most trusted advisers. This again was fortunate : and may it not be said that it was still more fortunate that two years previously, New Hampshire's greatest son, Daniel Webster, in his famous debate with Hayne, had indicated and laid down the only line of policy, following which, Calhoun could be met? It is worth the while of the student to read Jackson's justly famous nullification proclamation in the light of Web- ster's immortal reply to Hayne. A single thought runs through both, the supreme worth of the Union. Webster demonstrated this, and Jackson accepting the demon- stration vowed that the Union should be preserved. Webster was in the opposition, but when Jackson made Webster's sentiment his own, the great anti-Jackson Senator became in the Senate the oratorical champion of the Jackson administration, the defender par excellence of the constitution and the Union. FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. 25 The apparent outcome of the nullification controversy was a compromise, at least so far as Jackson and Calhoun were concerned. Whatever real victory was won, it is not too much to say, was Webster's instead of Jackson's. The four distinct propositions for which Webster con- tended he condensed as follows : 1. " That the constitution of the United States is not a league, confederacy, or compact, between the "people of the several States in their sovereign capacities : but a government proper, founded on the adoption of the people and creating direct relations between itself and individuals." 2. "That no State authority has power to dissolve these relations : that nothing can dissolve them but revolution : and that consequently, there can be no such thing as secession without revolution." 3. "That there is a supreme law, consisting of the Constitution of the United States, acts of Congress passed in pursuance of it, and treaties : and that in cases not capable of assuming the character of a suit in law or equity, Congress must judge of, and finally interpret this supreme law r , so often as it has occasion to pass acts of legislation: and in cases capable of assum- ing, and actually assuming, the character of a suit, the Supreme Court of the United States is the final inter- preter." 4. "That an attempt by a State to abrogate, annul, or nullify, an act of Congress, or to arrest its operation within her limits, on the ground that, in her opinion, such law is unconstitutional, is a direct usurpation on 26 FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. \ the just powers of the general government and on the equal rights of other states : a plain violation of the constitution and a proceeding essentially revolutionary in its character and tendency." When the nullification controversy ended it could not be said that these four propositions had found universal acceptance, but they had made their impression on the country, an impression that deepened and strengthened as the years went on. It was worth all the nullification contest cost to have called forth the enunciation of these propositions, and to have secured their acceptance throughout the North. These furnished a substantial basis for the growth and development of a Union sentiment, and as the champion and exponent of union and nationality, Daniel Webster stands without a peer. It is too much to say that he invented the Union or discovered the doctrine of nationality, but finding the great fact and the great principle ready to his hand, he devoted himself to the great cause of nationality with a fidelity which never faltered. Nothing appealed so strongly to his great nature as the thought of the Union. His biographer most pertinently and truthfully says : "The vision of future empire, the dream of the destiny of an unbroken Union touched and kindled his imagination. He could hardly speak in public without an allusion to the grandeur of American nationality, and a fervent appeal to keep it sacred and intact. For fifty years with reiteration ever more frequent, some- times with rich elaboration, sometimes with brief and simple allusion, he poured this message into the ears of FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. 27 a listening people. His words passed into the text books and became the first declamations of school-boys. They were in every one's mouth. They sank into the hearts of the people, and became unconsciously a part of their life and daily thoughts. When the hour came, it was love for the Union and the sentiment of nation- ality which nerved- the arm of the North and sustained her courage. That love had been fostered and that sentiment had been verified by the life and words of Webster. No one had done so much or had so large a share in the momentous task." The nullification contest arose over the issue of the Tariff; later, slavery became the issue. The two issues, however, were not wholly disconnected. The North demanded for the building up of its diversified indus- tries a protective tariff. The South, depending on slave labor for the prosecution of its single industry of agriculture, demanded free trade. The North was growing more rapidly than the South and the latter was growing jealous of her loss of power. This loss was the more threatening because of a growing anti-slavery agitation at the North. If the South must give up her right to leave the Union, she must find the means to maintain Jier prestige in the Union. The Missouri Compromise line gave the North the advantage in the matter of future growth. The necessity of the South for the protection of her tk peculiar institution" jwas more slave territory. This necessity led to the formu- lation of the scheme for the annexation of Texas, and to the controversy over the extension of the institution 28 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. of slavery, which grew up around annexation, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas and Nebraska legislation, and which raged with almost unbroken activity in the two decades following 1840. In this controversy, on the one side or the other, the sons of New Hampshire bore distinguished part. Texas, a part of Mexico, had declared her independ- ence of the mother country, and had successfully resisted attempts to reduce her to subjection. On the declara- tion of her independence, Texas had established slavery, but had prohibited the importation of negroes from all parts of the world excepting the United States. During the closing months of Mr. Tyler's administration Mr. Calhoun, as his Secretary of State, negotiated a treaty of annexation. This was done as he frankly avowed in the interests of the slave-holding South and for the preservation and perpetuation of the institution of slavery. The great mass of the people of the North, condemned and reprobated the agitation of the aboli- tionists as destructive to the peace and harmony of the country, but there was a growing feeling of repugnance on the part of this mass to the extension of slavery. The Tyler administration was just on the eve of retire- ment. The Democratic president-elect, Polk, was understood to be committed to the policy of annexation, the feeling of party allegiance was strong, and support of annexation in the Winter of 1844-45 becam'e the test of party loyalty. Here began the fateful Free-soil movement. The vote in the House of Representatives on the passage of the resolutions providing for annexa- N A r HAN 1 E C S . B E R P.Y Governor of New Hampshire 186! 62 FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. 2p tion without recourse to the treaty making power of the government, which was had on the 25th of January, 1845, was 1 20 yeas to 98 nays. Of the 120 yeas, 112 were Democratic, 53 from free and 59 from slave states. Of the 98 nays but 28 were Democratic, all from free states, and one-half of them were furnished by the State of New York alone. Among those voting in the negative was John P. Hale of New Hampshire, then serving his first term in Con- gress. He was in his 39th year, and at the time of his vote on the annexation resolutions had been nominated for re-election. Previous to the vote he had proposed a suspension of the rules in order that he might offer an amendment providing for the division of Texas, before any portion of it was admitted to the Union, into two Territories,, in one of which slavery or involuntary servitude was prohibited. When the annexation reso- lutions were passed, annexation became the party shibboleth of the Democracy and the party leaders in New Hampshire determined to discipline Hale. A more fatal party mistake was never made. The application of party discipline for opinion's sake is never safe. Hale was denounced as a traitor to his party, a new convention was called, and another candidate nominated, the result of the election being that there was no choice, and for the next two years the district was unrepresented in Congress. The next year, 1846, Hale was elected by his Dover friends to the New Hampshire Legislature, was elected Speaker, and then United States Senator for the full term of six years, as an anti-slavery man, and 30 FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. when the Thirtieth Congress met in December 1847, he entered the Senate, the first pronounced anti-slavery Senator, to be joined two years later by Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, another son of New Hampshire, these two Senators becoming the nucleus around which the radical anti-slavery party in the Senate gathered, and to which New Hampshire in the persons of HenryJWilson, James W. Grimes, William Pitt Fessenden, Zachariah Chandler and Daniel Clark furnished certainly her full quota. Hale became the recognized leader of the Free-Soilers throughout the country. He would doubtless have been their standard bearer in the presidential campaign of 1848, had not the party decided to take advantage of the Barn-burner thirst for revenge on Lewis Cass, and so placed Van Buren at the head of its ticket, but in 1852 the Free-Soilers turned to him as their natural leader. The New Hampshire Democracy blundered when it attempted to discipline John Parker Hale. In the Senate the annexation resolution passed by a vote of 27 to 25, but this slight majority was secured only by the adoption of an amendment making negoti- ation by treaty alternative with annexation, the method to be left to the discretion of the President. John A. Dix and Thomas H. Benton were hostile to the resolu- tions, and this amendment secured their votes. Their change of attitude was brought about by private assur- ances of the President-elect Polk, made to Senator Dix, that he would pursue the policy of negotiation by treaty. Before, however, James K, Polk became President, FIRST NE W HA MPSHIRE. 3 1 annexation was an accomplished fact. With annex- ation came the inevitable war, the result of which was not only the acquisition of Texas, but of nearly a third of the Republic of Mexico including California. Mex- ico had abolished slavery so that at the time of this acquisition, the acquired territory was free. The South clamored for more slave territory : the North, Demo- cratic and Whig, objected, and as the war progressed and it became evident that the acquisition of an Empire was to be the result, the anti-slavery feeling grew. When in 1846 President Polk asked for an appro- priation to enable him to acquire territory by treaty, and the appropriation bill- was on the point of pas- sage through all the stages, David Wilmot, an anti- slavery Democrat of Pennsylvania, offered a proviso, to the effect that an express and fundamental condition of the use of the money appropriated should be that slavery should never exist in the territory thus acquired. This proviso the House adopted by a nearly sectional vote, but the bill failed in the Senate. The Wilmot proviso was thenceforward an issue in politics. Other questions quickly sprang out of it, especially the power of Congress to legislate concerning the question of slavery in the Territories. To avoid the force of the Wilmot proviso, this right of Congress began to be denied. A hint at this denial is found in a letter written by General Cass, December 4th, 1847, in reply to certain interrogations in view of his prominence as a candidate for the Democratic nomination to the Presi- dency. In this so-called Nicholson letter, he said that 32 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. the discussion of the Wilmot proviso had convinced him that "the principle it involves should be kept out of the National Legislature and left to the people of the Con- federacy in their respective local governments." Thus it was Lewis Cass, not Stephen A. Douglas, who was the author of the famous Popular or "Squatter" Sov- ereignty Doctrine. Following the war came the organization of the terri- torial governments of Oregon and New Mexico with the inevitable question of free or slave territory. The South would have been satisfied with the extension of the Missouri Compromise line of 36 degrees 30 minutes through the newly acquired territory to the Pacific, and this might, for a time at least, have settled the slavery question. The Senate adopted a provision to this effect in the bill creating a Territorial government for Oregon in the Summer of 1848, but it was defeated in the House by a vote of 121 to 82, but three members from the free States voting with the minority. This was a giving notice on the part of the North that it would consent to no division with slavery of the hitherto free territories which had been acquired from Mexico. But the giving to the Territories recently acquired from Mexico civil instead of military government was a matter of necessity. This was all the more imperative since the discovery of gold in California rendered its speedy colonization inevitable. The slave power was determined that a portion, at least, of this new Territory should be open to slavery : the Free-Soilers equally determined that it should all remain free. The whole FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 3 3 slavery controversy was opened, threats of disunion were rife, California, with a constitution expressly prohibiting slavery, was knocking at the doors of Congress for admission to the Union, and in January 1850, Mr. Clay proposed a series of resolutions suggesting a basis of compromise of all differences relating to the Territories and to slavery. This embraced the admission of Cali- fornia ; the organization of Territorial governments for the remainder of the recent Mexican Territory with- out any restriction or condition on the subject of slavery ; the declaration that it was inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and that it was expedient to abolish the slave trade in that district ; the enactment of a more stringent fugitive slave law, and the declara- tion that Congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves between the slaveholding States. These compromise propositions opened the flood gates of debate. Webster joined with Clay in his efforts to secure compromise and on the 7th of March made the famous speech which aroused such indignation on the part of the Free-Soilers throughout the North, but which subsequent events proved to have been inspired not only by a devotion to the Union, but by a wise and far sighted statesmanship. On the i pth of April the whole subject was referred to a select committee of thirteen of which Clay was chairman, and of which Webster and Cass were mem- bers. The outcome was the enactment by Congress of a series of measures known as the Compromise Measures of 1850. California was admitted a free 34 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. State, after an effort had been defeated to cut off all her territory South of 36 degrees 30 minutes ; territorial governments were given Utah and New Mexico, with the Wilmot proviso omitted ; the Northern boundary of Texas was defined ; a stringent fugitive slave-law was - enacted, and the slave trade in the District of Columbia was prohibited under heavy penalties. Democrats and Whigs united at the last in pressing these measures to a conclusion, but they were vigorously resisted by the Free-Soil element, of which John P. Hale and Salmon P. Chase were the recognized leaders. The compromise measures passed, the country breathed freer. The slavery question was at last settled. In the presidential campaign of 1852 both Democratic and Whig National Conventions insisted that the compromise measures were a finality, and that the slavery question must not be opened. New Hamp- shire this year furnished two of the presidential candi- dates, Franklin Pierce and John P. Hale. The result was the over-whelming election of Pierce, and a most emphatic popular verdict against slavery agitation and in favor of the maintenance of the compromise of 1850. The quiet that followed the enactment of these meas- ures was only the lull before a more furious storm. In his inaugural, President Pierce was emphatic in his com- mendation of the compromise, and in his annual mes- sage in December 1853, alluding to the acquiescence of the country in these measures and the repose from strife which such acquiescence had brought, he said : "That this repose is to suffer no shock during my official term, FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. 35 if I have power to avert it, those who placed me here may be assured." In less than one month, however, the fire-brand was introduced in the shape of a bill "to organize the Territory of Nebraska," favorably reported by the Senate Committee on Territories of which Mr. Douglas was chairman, which report affirmed that the Compromise measures of 1850 rested upon the following, among other propositions : " That all questions pertain- ing to slavery in the territories, and the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate repre- sentatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose." This was a hint of w r hat was to follow, viz., the repeal of the Missouri Compromise act of 1820, by which all terri- tory North of 36 degrees 30 minutes was consecrated to freedom. On the 24th of May 1854 tnat repeal was accomplished, in spite of the opposition of the Free- Soilers and Northern Whigs and Democrats who w r ere opposed to the extension of Slavery. Of the fourteen votes cast against the repeal in the Senate two were given by sons of New Hampshire, William Pitt Fessen- den of Maine, and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio ; both the New Hampshire Senators, Messrs. Norris and Williams and Lewis Cass of Michigan were among the thirty- seven voting in its favor, and the signature of Franklin Pierce made it the law of the land. The struggle for the possession of Kansas began, and the battle which was to be fought to a finish between freedom and slavery now began with a vigor intensified by the brief truce that had been won by the compromise 3 6 FIR S T NE W HA MP SHIRE. measures of 1850. The Kansas struggle, the crystali- zation of the anti-slavery sentiment, the formation of the Republican party, the breaking up of the Whig organization, the Anti-Nebraska secession from the ranks of the Democracy, the Dred Scott decision, the breaking up of the Democratic National Convention at Charleston in 1860, were only features of a single cam- paign which culminated in November, 1860, in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, the secession ordinances of the Winter of 1860-61, the firing on Sumpter, and war. It is difficult to over-estimate the influence of the larg- O er New Hampshire during this troubulous and fateful six years. On the bench of the Supreme Court during the latter portion of the period was Nathan Clifford of Maine, a native of Rumney. In the Senate were Wil- liam Pitt Fessenden, a native of Boscawen ; Salmon P. Chase, a native of Cornish and a graduate of Dartmouth ; Henry Wilson, a native of Farmington ; James W. Grimes, a native of Deering and a son of Dartmouth ; Zachariah Chandler, a native of Bedford. At the head of the Department of State for the four last of these years was Lewis Cass, while in the House of Representatives New Hampshire made her influence felt not only in the persons of her more prominent members like Harry Hibbard, George W. Morrison, Aaron H. Cragin, Ma- son W. Tappan and Gilman Marston, but in the person of her sons whom other States had honored with seats in the National Legislature. John P. Hale returned to the Senate with James Bell for a colleague, who was FIRS T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 3 7 succeeded at his death by Daniel Clark. It is no dis- paragement to succeeding Senators to say, that at no period since has New Hampshire influence in the Senate been greater than when Hale and Clark occupied her seats. During all this period Horace Greeley, a native of Amherst, was making the New York Tribune such a political factor throughout the North, as Isaac Hill had made years before of the 'New Hampshire Patriot in the politics of that State. No list of the eminent sons of the Granite State would be complete in which the name of Horace Greeley did not find honorable place. That he aspired to the Presidency, if a weakness, was the weakness of a great man. In the list of names found in this chapter, that of one President and one Vice-President of the United States ap- pear. Cass and Greeley were each made the National Democratic standard bearers in notable Presidential cam- paigns. Hale led the Free-Soil forlorn hope in 1852. Chase was Chief Justice, as were Woodbury and Clifford Associate Justices, of the Supreme Court, and of the great triumvirate of American statesmen, Webster was chief. In the heat of partisan strife bitter things have been said of all these distinguished sons of New Hampshire, who were in the fore-front during the three decades from 1831 to 1861 , but it can never be truthfully said of any one of them that he failed in patriotism or in devotion to the right as he saw the right. The country owes Ne\v Hampshire a debt for the distinguished, patriotic, statesmanlike service of her sons, a service which, without exaggeration it may be said, no other Commonwealth can successfully rival. III. THE POLITICAL SITUATION AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR. . The history of the early period of the War of the Rebellion would be incomplete and misleading, without some explanation of the attitude of the people towards the war policy of the administration from a political stand-point. The country had just passed through one of the most heated presidential campaigns in its history. The Democratic National Convention assembled at Charles- ton, S. C., the cradle of the Rebellion. A boisterous session resulted in the irreconcilable division of the delegates on sectional issues which no compromise could suppress. The extreme element among the Southern delegations withdrew. Those remaining in the Convention from both sections were a majority of it and adjourned to Baltimore. The seceeding party subsequently organized a Conven- tion at Richmond, Va., which nominated Breckenridge and Lane, while the other part held the Baltimore Con- vention, which placed Douglas and Johnson in nom- ination. Still another Convention, held at Baltimore, nom- inated John Bell for President and Edward Everett for FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 3 9 Vice President. This was styled the Constitutional Union Party, and it eventually carried the electoral vote of the three States of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. All party lines were thus sharply drawn. Intense and often acrimonious feelings prevailed. The election of Abraham Lincoln was a result that the South must have foreseen would follow from the division of the Democracy. The popular vote of Lincoln's presidential antago- nists would be in about the proportion of 14, 9 and 6, for Douglas, Breckenridge and Bell, respectively. United, this would have been a large popular majority. In the nine strictly Southern States, beginning with North Carolina, Breckenridge had the fullest support ; in the Border States, Bell, and in the Northern States, Douglas, with the exception that Breckenridge carried Maryland and Delaware, and Douglas, Missouri. The heavy vote for Bell in the Southern and Border States demonstrates that the people were far from solid for the Democracy, as represented by Breckenridge and his leading supporters. That element, though regarded by many authorities as representing only a minority, nevertheless succeeded in controlling events and wheeled eleven States into the slough of secession, in the supposed interest of the institution of slavery. For all this they had no substantial cause in fact, and for a pretext for actual disunion they could only point to what they assumed to fear might result from the accession of the Lincoln administration, and the ascendency of his party. They had been defiant and 40 FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. successful in the disruption of the Democratic party. This sort of success, however, would be their own destruction unless they could also dissever the union of the States. To this end all their skill and energies were turned as they became assured of the inevitable result of the general election of 1860. Party ties are not easily sundered, but neither the Douglas nor the Bell Democracy was now under any political obligation to the South as a sectional force controllecf by the so-called " fire eaters." The sentiment of the Republican party had naturally become intense for the Union, although some very wild theories, tending in the opposite direction, had been proclaimed by agitators who were brought into the party by the logic of events. Under the lead of Douglas the great mass of the Northern Democracy, smarting under the disappointment of political defeat, for which the extremists of the South were avowedly responsible, gave such adhesion to the common cause that the eventual triumph of a united North was assured. This, as was to be expected, was not accom- plished without occasional manifestations of secession sympathies, even as far north as New Hampshire. Happily such unpatriotic ebullitions of political dis- appointment or actual disloyalty were the exceptions, and, in the period of the beginning of the War, were not sufficient materially to disturb the enthusiastic and practically unanimous determination of the people to maintain the Union of the fathers. As compared with the Tory sentiment of the Revolution and the wide- FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. 4! spread opposition to the War of 1812, and the War with Mexico, the Northern disloyalists at this period, while no more rancorous in sentiment, were numerically far more insignificant. The position taken in this crisis by most of the great men of the Democracy, if opposed to party tradition and the precedents of history, was the more commend- able. It was certainly timely and indispensable. General Garfield once remarked that Kentucky, which cast less than fourteen hundred votes for Lincoln in 1860, contributed more men to the Union Army than Wellington commanded at Waterloo. o Without treating in detail of later conditions which resulted from changes in party leadership, new allign- ments of parties, the development of inevitable, but, at the outset, unexpected policies with reference to the negro question, the necessities of the government in men, money and material and the general conduct of the War in this retrospect of the history of its beginning as it was manifested in the opinion of the people of New Hampshire, we may well permit the ebullition of the unspent passions of other conflicts to sink into oblivion. Without questioning the patriotism or sincer- ity of motives, the facts must be admitted that a com- parative few maintained an open opposition to the policy of the administration throughout the War, and that a much larger number, by the pressure of public senti- ment, suppressed convictions opposed to the War and rendered much efficient aid in its prosecution ; so that a rational and patriotic judgment prevailed. 4 2 FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIPE. Thus, with the exceptions named, the great mass of the Democracy, with an intelligent view of the dangers that threatened the government, came up grandly to the support of the administration in its war policy. Their views of the policy of the Republican party, which they considered the responsible cause of the War, were not relinquished, but reserved for settlement in a more peaceful manner. They acted on the principle that the most imminent danger must first be averted. The government, by whatever party represented, must be preserved, and they rallied around the old flag with an enthusiasm unsurpassed by any class of citizens. It was the sublimest victory of true patriotism over party spirit and prejudice on the records of history. It was a demonstration of the fact that " true patriotism never dies." Either at home or in the field, under the "straps" or in the ranks, these men won golden opinions for their patriotic devotion and bravery. Today a grateful nation is proud of those men who are known as " war democrats." The noble and unselfish position which was taken early in the conflict by such men as Stephen A. Doug- las and Benjamin F. Butler did much to allay passion, quiet opposition and harmonize differences. . Two of the Field and Staff of the First Regiment, Lieutenant- Colonel Thomas J. Whipple and Paymaster Moses K. Hazelton were pronounced Democrats, and many officers from New Hampshire, who distinguished them- selves on the field, and a very generous percentage of the rank and file, were of the same party. CHAPTER IV. THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE. " If the shot fired at Fort Sumpter was heard around the world, the call of the President for 75,000 men was heard throughout the Northern States. There was not a State in the North of a million of inhabitants that would not have furnished the entire number faster than arms could have been supplied to them if it had been necessary." Gen. U. S. Grant. This statement from one so well qualified to judge," expresses the sentiment that so mightily thrilled the heart of the North when the tidings from Sumpter flew on the wings of electricity to every extreme of the Nation. It was in marked contrast with that of Lord John Russell, who, on hearing the tidings, walked haughtily into the House of Commons, and looking around for a moment upon his compeers, exclaimed : " Well, gentlemen, the American bubble has burst at last." Having paid our compliments to the greatest General of the age and the great British Lord, it is well to present a brief resume of the great conflict through which the country so successfully passed. This conflict was not one of arms or political sentiment or sectional interest alone. It turned indeed upon the point of 44 FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. American Slavery. That, however, was only the accident of the grand underlying principles. The diversity of character, temperament, education, habits and aims of the colonies that settled the South and the North, with the difference of climate and sur- roundings, necessarily developed different theories of social order and civil government the one tending to aristocracy, the other to the largest liberty. Hence the THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE. one sought to make' slavery the corner stone of the^civil and social compact, while the other sought to build upon the broad foundation that "All men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The one perpetuated and fortified the institution ; the other let it fall into decay and at an early day, abolished it entirely. FIRS T NEW HA MPSHIRE. 45 These two fundamental principles, diametrically opposed, utterly irreconcilable, growing up under the same national flag, must sooner or later come in conflict and the issue reveal the victor. The impending crisis was seen from afar and the mightiest intellects of the nation, of all parties, gener- ously threw themselves into the breach with noble endeavor, by overtures and compromises, which, at times, involved even principle, to avert the catastrophe. All in vain. They found their political graves where they made their offerings. The breach was widened by every effort at reconciliation. Such is the natural history of every compromise of truth and right and justice laid upon the altar of peace. "First, pure, then, peaceable" is not only the law of the gospel, but, as well, the unchangeable law that underlies the univer- sal government of God. For the greater part of the blood and treasure sacrificed in America's great civil conflict, are the previous compromises with slavery responsible. Had there been at every stage of our history a General Jackson to swear by the Great Eternal that he would hang every traitor as high as Haman, America's great woe might have been averted. The result of all these compromises in the past was only a question of time, and that time was filled up with preparation. Every political measure, every conflict for Territory, every general and local election developed on either side the spirit of the contestants and consoli- dated the parties. Such men as Calhoun and Mason and Butler of South Carolina, personated the one, 46 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. Sumner and Giddings and Wilson and John Quincy Adams, the other. Around these stalwart me.n were gathered their retainers and through them were taught and trained the masses educated to the sublime sacri- fice yet to be demanded by the love of State and country. More The almost fabulous march of invention released the hands of the young men, enabled them to respond to their country's call without detriment to the nation's industries and rendered the deft fingers of our noble women God bless them ! the magic wand at whose touch fibers sprang into fabrics and fabrics into garments for millions 6f soldiers. Discovery made lightning the bearer of despatches and steam the bearer of burdens, thus bringing our vast domain within the limits of a single battle-field. Simultaneously with these our American Ophir opened her boundless treasures and furnished the sinews of war. The preparations were complete. The fullness of time had come. The first gun fired on Sumpter dissi- pated the last hope of averting the calamity and aroused the people to a just appreciation of the struggle before them. For a brief space they were bewildered and terror- stricken. Painful suspense prevailed. Will the pat- riotism of the people which, for a long time, has had no crucial test, meet the emergency? awakened intense solicitude. This was followed by another question no less important. Will party prejudices be subservient to GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 1865-66. FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. 47 patriotic harmony? It was but natural that the sym- pathies of the Democratic party, which had ever been in harmony with the South in political struggles, should go with the South in the approaching conflict. The suspense, however, was brief, true patriotism never dies, and it needed but a single assault upon the Old Flag to arouse its spirit to white heat. The flag must be re- spected and defended. All other questions were nobly reserved for settlement in a more peaceful manner. Virtually it was a solid North against a solid South. The obdurate element was awed to comparative silence, and over the hill-tops, along the valleys and across the broad prairies, echoed with loyal huzzas the battle-cry of Marsailaise : "To arms, to arms ye brave, The patriot's sword unsheath ! March on ! march on ! all hearts resolved Oh victory or death." Never in the annals of the past has the uprising of the people been excelled if equaled. Never a more sublime illustration of the historic fact that no valuable end is attained without corresponding sacrifice. The countless blessings of a free government perpet- uated to generations yet unborn, but approximates the measure of the sacrifice the people laid upon the altar. The treasure involved, though great, is unworthy of comment. Figures tell the startling facts that 2,688,523 were enlisted into the national service during the war. O Of this number about 1,500,000 participated in the various conflicts. Of this number 56,000 fell dead upon 48 FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. the field of battle. Add to these the 35,000 who died in hospitals of wounds, and 184,000 who died of disease and who perished in rebel prisons, and we have the grand aggregate of about 300,000 whose lives were given as the price of victory. But figures are inadequate testimony. Had this great hecatomb been made up of the mercenary and worthless alone, the sacrifice would have been less painful. The atonement was incomplete until victims were taken from among the brightest ornaments of society, and the altar smoked with the blood of him whose name is a synonym for all those virtues which loyal people love and revere in their Chief Executive Abraham Lincoln. Nor yet have we compassed the magnitude of this sublime sacrifice. To know all we must witness the parting struggles all over the land, the mother, the wife, the sister or the betrothed leaning heavily upon the neck of the soldier, equipped for the "fray see the scalding tears, hear the groans of anguish, feel the throbbing of hearts and then follow each as they sepa- rate, the one to days and nights of fearful suspense and anxiety ; the other to pine for the tender care of former days to the rebel prisons to endure worse than a hun- dred deaths, to an unknown grave, or tg be borne back in his coffin to the loved ones at home to consummate the grief of broken hearts. We must visit the cities of the dead at Washington, at Arlington, at Gettysburg. We must walk amidst the dead and dying on the field of battle look into the trenches where our soldiers were buried gaze upon the FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. 49 horrors of Anderson ville and Salsbury and Libby. We must count up the empty sleeves and the mangled forms which have not even yet disappeared from the walks of men. We must visit the homes made desolate by the red hand of war, and commune w r ith hearts more desolute than their homes. We must search out the once full and joyous family circles, now narrowed, per- haps annihilated, leaving wife and mother in her soli- tary grief or to die of a broken heart. The greatest sacrifice of all is beyond the power of computation the invisible, unuttered, unutterable agony of soul, the pain that shoots like a barbed arrow through the heart at every thought of the lost ones. Such is the stupendous price that has been paid for the peerless liberties enjoyed today. 'Such was the emergency the loyal people of the North were called upon to meet, and the alacrity and zeal with which they met it will ever remain as one of the brightest pages in American history. New Hampshire, though she may not have responded to the call as quickly as some of her sister States, has a record in this epoch of which she need not be ashamed. Her commissioned officers during the war numbered 1601 ; the enlisted men, recruits and substi- tutes numbered 31,149 making a grand total of 32,750 out of a population of less than 330,000, or about ten per cent, of the entire population. The ready response of New Hampshire to the Presi- dent's first call for troops is indicated by the fact that though she had no organized militia, like Massachu- 5O FIRST NE W HAMPSHIRE. setts, which could be placed immediately under the orders of the War Department, enlisted, between April 17 and April 30, no less than 2004, the balance of whom, after organizing the ist Regiment of three months' troops, were sent to Portsmouth, where 496 of the number immediately re-enlisted for three years, or during the war. The patriotic sentiment of New Hampshire is " evinced by such facts as that she sent two regiments to the front two months before the Legislature could meet, with funds offered by banks and citizens." It would be very naturally the case that this number of the first enlistments should contain some of the undesirable ele- ments of society, but the percentage of this class was much smaller than one would suppose. In large pre- ponderance the First Regiment was made up of the stalwart, steady-going and industrious young men of New Hampshire the farmers and mechanics, the mer- chants and clerks, and the common laborers. The average age of the Field and Staff officers of the First Regiment was 36. That of the ranks was 24. To- gether they averaged 30. This, though not exact, is very nearly correct. Among them there was a gener- ous sprinkling of educated and professional men. All class distinctions were ignored. At the call of the country all implements of industry were dropped where they were used, urider the conviction that the blessings of home and society and business were secure only as the Government was sustained, and common cause was made against the common enemy. FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. 5 1 There were very few localities where these senti- ments did not enthuse all classes, men, women and children. Processions promenaded the streets singing patriotic songs ; mass meetings assembled, speeches were made, resolutions passed, badges and flags were seen everywhere, banks opened their vaults for the immediate wants of Government, bells rang, ministers preached and Christians prayed ; enlistments were solicited, challenged and made. The women gathered together to make articles of utility and comfort for the boys. So unanimous in favor of armed resistance, was the sentiment of the people in this crisis, that those who had alw r ays been strenuous advocates of peace and non- resistance, embracing even the Quakers, held in abey- ance, for the time being, their peculiar sentiments and either joined actively in the preparations for war, or maintained a significant silence. This fact was very pleasantly illustrated when the Chaplain made his fare- well visit to his brother who had always been a very enthusiastic 'peace man,' and who said to him, as they parted, ' now brother don't you shoot anybody !' ' Shoot anybody !' the Chaplain replied, 'what would you do if you had a good bead on JefF Davis?' ' O,' he replied, ' I wouldn't hurt a hair of his head, but if you want to shoot I'll hold your hat.' But there were scenes of sadness connected with this wonderful uprising of the people. The generation that has grown up since peace was declared can have but the faintest conception of the domestic scenes that 5 2 FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. occurred in a large proportion of New Hampshire homes the wife with her dependent flock of little ones bidding what seemed a final farewell to the husband and father, Spartan mothers with tearful eyes and trembling lips saying, "Go, my son and return with your shield or on your shield," sisters reluctantly yield- FORT SUMPTER BEFORE BOMBARDMENT. ing the last affectionate embrace, fair maidens pledging affectionate fidelity to their betrothed, or perhaps sealing love's pledges before the hymeneal altar every where was witnessed that strange mingling of cheerful yet painful emotions which evinces the highest type of patriotic sentiment. FIR S T NE W HA MP SHIRE. 5 3 Though more noticeable in the cities and villages, there were but few communities in the State where demonstrations and scenes like these were not enacted. Carefully prepared reports from a few localities of the State will aid the reader in conceiving the enthu- siasm that every where prevailed. y The following is from the pen of John R. Ham, M. ; D., Dover : "Intelligence of the surrender of Fort Sumpter to the rebel guns of South Carolina was received in Dover on Sunday, Apr. 14, 1861, by telegraphic despatches, and full details of the capitulation on Monday, the i5th, with a proclamation from President Lincoln calling for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the insurrection, and maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence of our National Union." On Monday evening, the citizens of Dover, without distinction of party, and almost without notice, assem- bled at the City Hall, to take action in relation to the condition of the country and make the necessary arrangements for responding to the call of the Chief Magistrate of the Nation. The meeting was organized by the choice of the fol- lowing officers : President, Hon. Alphonso Bickford, Mayor; Vice Presidents, Joseph H. Smith, Daniel M. Christie, Sam- uel M. Wheeler, Thomas J. Smith, Jeremiah Home, Thomas E. Sawyer, Charles W. Woodman, Daniel 54 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. Osborne, George D. Vittum, S. Wallingford ; Secre- taries, Andrew C. Chesley, Hiram Rollins. Mayor Bickford, on taking the chair, stated the object of the meeting, and Charles W. Woodman, after a few pertinent remarks, offered the following resolu- tions : Whereas, the authority of the Federal Government of the United States has been denied, the flag of the country fired upon, and the forts, arsenals, and other public property seized, and a series of outrages, and wrongs perpetrated for months upon the government, whose forbearance has been received as a proof of pusillanimity, till open war has been wantonly and causelessly waged upon the government and people of the United States, and the President has been forced to appeal to the people to maintain by force, the honor, dignity and continued existence of the government they have established ; therefore Resolved, In answer to such an appeal of the Presi- dent, that we, the citizens of Dover, feeling that our country is above party, hereby pledge ourselves to sus- tain the Administration of the General Government in the manly and patriotic position assumed by the Presi- dent in his recent proclamation, and that we cheerfully and readily tender to the Governor of this State, and through him to the President of the United States, our full proportion of such volunteer force as may be required of this State. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed at this meeting to obtain the names of, at least, one hun- 5 5 FIR S T NE W HA MPSHIRE. dred men, who will hold themselves in readiness, at the shortest notice, to march wherever the demands of the country and the orders of the government shall require. Resolved. That these proceedings be signed by the Chairman and Secretary and a certified copy thereof be sent to the Governor of this State and the President of the United States. John P. Hale addressed the meeting in an able and eloquent speech in support of the resolutions, and was followed by Dr. J. H. Smith, Dr. Home, Hon. Oliver Wyatt and others, when the resolutions were unani- mously adopted. John D. Devin, George W. Colbath and A. W. Rol- lins w r ere appointed the committee to obtain the names of volunteers, with instructions to correspond with the Governor in relation to their doings ; and the meeting was adjourned, with three cheers for the Union and three for Major Robert Anderson. At a subsequent meeting of the City Councils on the i8th of April, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : Whereas, Civil War has been inaugurated, our glorious Union assailed, and our institutions endan- gered, and : Whereas, Our fellow citizens promptly and cheerfully answ r er to the call of the Government for aid in this its hour of peril, therefore, Resolved, By the City Councils of Dover, that the sum often thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may 5 6 FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. be needed, be and hereby is appropriated for the benefit and wants of the families of those who have responded, or shall respond' to the call of their country, for the sup- port of its Constitution and Laws ; and the Mayor with such as the Common Council may join be a Committee to properly distribute the same. The City Hall was assigned for the use of the sol- diers enlisted, for a drill room, and the Mayor was authorized to cause the National Flag to be displayed on the City Hall building, and from the flag staffs on Franklin Square, the expense thereof to be paid from money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Pursuant to orders from the Governor of the State, a recruiting office was opened for the enlistment of sol- diers on Wednesday, April 17, 1861. A full company was enlisted in the space of three days, when further orders were received for the enlistment of a second company, the ranks of which were immediately filled. In the mean time the utmost enthusiasm existed among all classes of citizens. Union flags were dis- played on every street and from almost every workshop and dwelling. The Sabbath also was consecrated to the service of the Union ; the clergymen in the several churches delivered patriotic and appropriate discourses, the pul- pits and galleries where they officiated being draped with the American flag. The Directors of the Strafford Bank, voted to loan the State the sum of $20,000, to aid in the equipment of volunteers, and the Trustees of the Savings Bank FIRST NEW HAMPSHIRE. 57 for the County of Strafford, and the Dover Five Cents Savings Bank, also tendered a loan of $15,000 each. The members of the Strafford District N. H. Medi- cal Society, residing in Dover, voted to tender their professional services gratuitously to the families of vol- unteers for the war. The women of Dover, to the number of one hundred or more, met at the chapel of the First Church, Rev. E. H. Richardson, pastor, armed and equipped with needles, sewing machines, etc., and made up four hun- dred shirts for the volunteers. They also furnished socks, handkerchiefs, and other necessary articles not supplied by the State. The two companies enlisted in Dover, received orders to rendevous at Concord, on Monday, April 29 ; and in obedience thereto they left the city that day one hun- dred and forty-five men in all. The companies fell in at their respective headquarters at seven o'clock a. m., and at ten o'clock were formed upon Central Square, in front of the City Hall, where, prayer having been offered by the Rev. Mr. Salter of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Mr. Clapp of the Franklin Street Baptist Church, made appropriate remarks, and Mayor Bickford closed the pro- ceedings with an address, reminding the soldiers of the. cause in which they had enlisted, and the report which was expected of them. The number of men enlisted in . Dover at this date was two hundred and twenty, a part only of whom was required for the two com- panies formed here. These were known as Com- panies A and B in the First Regiment. 5 8 FIR S T NE W HA MP SHIRE. The following account of the uprising of the people in Keene was prepared by Mr. T. C. Rand, of the New Hampshire Sentinel : On consulting the usual authorities, it is surprising to find how few data appear relating to that eventful epoch. It would seem that our people were too busy with making history then to spare much time for reg- istering their patriotic acts as if, in the tempest of rebellion, all hands being required to man the ship of State, they neglected to keep a log of the voyage. On the i pth of April, 1861, the first citizens' meeting was held in Keene to devise means of raising troops, and to make provisions for soldiers' families. Ex-Gov- ernor Samuel Dinsmoor presided, and brief addresses were made by General James Wilson, H. B. Titus, and others, to an audience whose stillness was so profound that the dropping of a handkerchief could have been heard. As a result of the meeting a recruiting office was opened, and within forty-eight hours a full com- pany was enlisted. Young men seemed to vie with each other for the honor of being first to subscribe their names to the muster-rolls. From our work-shops and mills, from our schools and up-land farms, came the best specimens of Cheshire's stalwart and intrepid man- hood to take up arms in defence of the old flag and all that it symbolized. In the ranks of the volunteers were representatives of every trade, profession and calling. Of the non-combatants, almost every man appeared in our streets wearing a rosette of red, white and blue, on the lapel of his coat. FIR S T NE W HA MP SHIRE. 5 9 The Cheshire, the Ashuelot and the Cheshire County Banks each tendered the loan of $10,000 for war pur- poses, and every citizen seemed ready to contribute all needed supplies for the maintenance of soldiers' fam- ilies. Women organized societies to aid the cause, and " scraping lint" was the employment of many of them up to the hour of "the soldiers' departure. When the company, whose organization I have described, left Keene to form a part of the First Regi- ment, an immense crowd assembled at the railroad station to see them off. The Rev. Z. S. Barstow, D. D., offered prayer, and Mr. George H. Richards distributed pocket bibles among the soldiers. The scene was one of almost sacramental solemnity and impressiveness. When the First Regiment reached New York, the Tribune said of it " The men are not above the ordi- nary height, but are all young, hardy and active. The Regiment is composed principally of mechanics who are not afraid of work, and accustomed to exposure. They are, in fact, the bone and sinew of New Hamp- shire." It was remarked by Goethe, that "mental power is developed best in solitude ; character, in the storms of life." When the cyclone of civil war struck this Nation, and the government at Washington staggered like a blinded giant under the first blows of rebellion, the temper of our people was subjected to a crucial test ; and often in unexpected quarters the qualities of a rare manhood were suddenly developed. Youths 6