The Republican journal., 1886-05-20
"reminiscences of the War for the Union.

rlble suspense, penetrating even to the remote
and quiet spot in the old Pine Tree State where
l was born and reared. Although the merest
slip of a girl at that time, yet to-day my pull
ses thrill when / think of the dark shadow
which brooded over the country, and whose
black pail of sorrow settled down so heavily
on our own little home.
Twenty-Five years with their mingled lights
and shades have rolled away into eternity, and
men and women who were babes in arms at
that period are plotting their barks toward
the shores of mature activity, yet the lessons
which we learned then cannot now be too
forcibly impressed on the rising generation,
who realize in vague manner that there was
war, but who can, after all, understand little
of it, and nothing of the slceplcss nights and
anxious days passed by those who had near
and dear ones at the front.
l remember that all the previous winter
after Lincoln's election in the fall, the air had
been thick with the first mutterings 'of grim
vsaged war;" | remember attending ly-
ceum about tw miles away, in January, and
of a man whom we called the ''drunkcn shoe
maker" standing up on the floor of the hall
and making a rambling speech. | remember
nothing of his remarks save what be said in
relation to the coming conflict. lie said: BE
fore many months pass away these young
men here tonight will be called on to take
their guns and go south and tght,-yes, and
fight, and it won't be any boys play either
The conflict will be long and bitter, and blood
will flow like the streams from the mountains"
| distinctly remember how his words i'm
pressed me, and the next day l told my father
of it, and asked him seriously if he supposed
there was any truth in what old X said.
remember he told me in reply, that undoubtct-
ly there would be bitter war, for the south
was strong and bitter and fully determined to
fight for their pet institution, slavery.
Then in a grave manner he told me that his
father used to prophecy this away back in the
early part of this century when he, my father,
Il mere boy. The old man would say,
''L-, it won't come in my day, and perhaps
not in yours, but it'll come sooner or later"
But my father lived to the end of the
bloody struggle, and to give up his we'll below
ed son, sacrifice on the altar of his bleeding
NNoh1 y AOOhihS bt'NN VII biioHN utN lioiil
the present time, it seems as though we reaIiz-
ed little of the stir and excitement of the larg-
er towns, but when the news came to us of the
cowardly attack OH the Massachusetts sixth,
by the plug-ugles of Baltimore, then all the
patriotic blood of the North was at fever heat.
Probably the older people ofBelfast and vicin-
ity are familiar with the history of the youth
f,,I I
and trampled to death on that evcntful 10Th of
April, 1861. Addison Otis Whitney was ma
tive of Thorndke, Maine, and enlisted from
Lowell. He was a noble fellow "A years old,
and in the full vigor of youth and strength.
Sumner Henry Ncedham was about the same
age, and enlisted from Lawrence. He also
was "a years of age, of irreproachablc habits,
and had thus early in life established happy
home of his own. Chas. A. Taylor enlisted
from Boston and seems to have been one of
those waits on the ocean of life who have no
home or friends. He was about % years of
age, and was buried in Baltimore. No friends
or relatives ever rose up to claim his body, and
bury it in a hcro's grave.
Poor Needham seems to have had a prcmoni-
llOH VI HIS utdll. lbI nc Stlu " lIltHt
morning, eve shall have trouble to-day, and I
shall never come out of it alive. Promise me
if l fall that my body shall be sent homc.''
Luther Crawford Ladd was only Il boy of II
years, and when he fell his last words Were,
f'All hail to the stars and stripes" The three
bodies were tenderly conveyed to Massachu-
sctts. and those of Whitney and Ladd laid in
state in Huntington Hall in Lowell, and now
rest beneath noble monument reared by the
city and commonwealth. Nce,ham was buried
with great honors by the city of Lawrence and
a beautiful monument to his memory stands in
Bellevue Cemetery in that city. There is also
Needham Hall, and Post SO &. A. II. is named
for him.
They reaped the first honors of the brave,
and while we cherish and reverence the mem
ory of all who fell, we think first of those poor
victims of an infuriated mob. The attack on
the Sixth acted with electric force all through
the North and more especially in MassachU-
scttS In Lawrence, one man left his ladder
against house, his paint pot on the staging,
and started with his brush in his hand and his
paint bcdaubed overals on for the recruiting
office. 1t is told of a Marblehead butcher that
when the news came to him, he was butchering
a hog. He looked an instant at the half butch
cred hog, then said, ''Dum the hog" and started
for Boston.
Were all the stirring incidents of that time
collected together they would make a volume,
but darker cloud was rising, and when the
disastrous Bull Run battle was fought, vail
of horror went up over all the land. July 2lst
was one of the hottest days of the season. y
deathly silence and calm seemed to brood over
the fair old town of my birth. We knew not
what was transpiring at the front, but pre-
sentiment of evil was in the very air, and the
soft southern winds seemed to be laden with
the dews of suffering and death. There was a
wonderful unanimity in the good towa on the
question of the war, and the sneak who dared
to sympathize with the south was rudely dealt
with. 1t was considered necessary in one or
two cities not far away from us. to destroy one
or two printing offices for the southern senti-
mentS expressed in their papers, but that was
only due to the patriotic instincts of the loyal
men of the Pine Tree state. Nothing that
sayorcd of copperheadiSm could be tolerated
for an instant, and | well remember how a
Stalwart cousin of mine jumped on and near
~ killed a man in the neighboring town of
II because the coWardiy traitor had the
assurance to say in his presence that he hoped
every Northern soldier who went out to fight
the south would lay their bones there. Brown
was sitting on the counter of the little country
store surrounded by an atlmiring group of men
anu DONS Ills ullllOI Ill was new anu So W
his commission, and furlough had been grant
ed him for his brave conduct in Il certain battle.
The man i'll question was an intense southern
sympathizer, and in a spirit of hravado made
the horrible remark 'Do you mean ii p said
Brown. "Yes | do' suenly replied the S. S.
Brown gave one bound from the counter,
aIighted on the mans back, and thrashed him
numerically. When the bystandcrs thought
he had been sufficiently pommelled, they pulled
off the boy in blue, and let the wretch hobble
away to his home. Such instances were not
uncommon even in the quiet towns of the far
north.
Well, long years have passed since then. The
graves in the south have blosSOmed with flowers
twenty times. A new south has sprung up,
and the feeling of bitterness is fast being OBJ
liberated by the soft fingers of time. When the
army of the Potomac met at Baltimore last
year, it was rumored that camp Lee of Rich
mond was in town. They We're sent for, and
when the commander reached the platform he
said ''Boys, give them the old rebel YELL" and
they gave it with a vengeance. In the talk
which followed they said they accepted the
situation, acknowledged they were wrong, and
vowed to be first and foremost to defend the
old flag, should it ever be asSailed.
In another TWENTY-FIVE years, very few old
soldiers will be here to rehearse the wonderful
stories of the civil war. In the land beyond
the river the veterans will have found rest. We
cannot penetrate the vail that hides from us the
next quarter century. Other evils as gigantic
as the curse of slavery may be even now slow
ly undermining the foundations of our free in
stitutions. But this we know, that if clouds
| arise, the spirit of patriotism and the love of
country are qualities inherent in the American
heart, and the boys of 1911 will not be found
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