Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1907-07-05
ROCKINGHAM IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Town Expended Sst,4so In Support Of
the War and Had 243 Men Who Enlisted
or Furnished Substitutes.

makes OF interest a portion OF the Cndp-
ert upon the civil war from the history
of Rockingham, now i'm the press and to
be distributed within a few weeks
The years covered by the civil war were
exciting and full of incidents of the deep
est interest to every citizen of this town.
Throughout them all, its residents and
voters were, by large majority, thor
oughly loyal to the Federal government.
There were, however few prominent
citizens having much influence who hon
estlY believed our government was wrong
i'm waging war against secession, and
were loud in their denunciations of its
course. Prominent among these was Hi
ram Atkins, editor of the Bellows
Falls Argus, ana number of others who
were interested in the newspaper and
assisted i'm its conduct This paper had
an influence antagOnisuc to the govern
ment and its open and extreme express
sions had the influence of creating "a
strong impression elsewhere that Bellows
Falls and Rockingham were hotbeds of
secession. The number of local sympa-
thizers with secession was comparatively
small, but from their bold utterances peo-
pie were led to judge that the movement
was much more general than was the fact.
\ notable case, Illustrating the strong
feeling entertained by a few, is that Of
EleaZur Allbee whose story is told in his
family history later in this volume. He
was one of the leading men of the town,
had held many officers of trust, and cit
liens looked to him for advice and coun-
sell He was a broad minded, honest man
and carried out his convictions by selling
his property here at auction leaving his
native country and writing an unique
epitaph, telling of his sentiment, and this
epitaph now interests visitors to the pref
ty cemetery at Stanstead. Que.
"A few other similar instances occurred
here, but in every vote Of the town in
support of the cause Of freedom the ma
jority was large upon the right side.
THE various actions OF the town. as
shown by the interesting records of the
town clerks office, were uniformly those
of liberality towards its citizens who en-
listed. or those from other towns who
enrolled themselves to the credit
of this towns quota. Early
in the war a vote was passed binding the
town always TO care for the families of
its soldiers. \ bounty was given by the
town, increasing in amount as the war
progressed. and as il became harder To
find the men At one time the town voted
a tax Of four hundred cents on the dollar
Of its grand list to pay bounties to sol
dicrs. The records of the adjutant gen
eral of Vermont show that I'm February,
1866. the selectmen certified that Rock
ingham had expended $Sl4S0.72 in sup
port of the war
Following is list OF the taxable in
comes Of the nfty-four citizens Of Rock
ingham whose income in the year 1863
was large enough SO that they were
taxed under what was known as the
Special Income Tax The joint resolu-
ton Of Congress imposing this special
war tax required that it should embrace
income from all sources including salary
or pay Of government officials. incomes
from bank and insurance stock in excess
of 5000 and all other national and state
taxes and insurance. Only eight Of the
tifty-four are now living
Adams Lucius W. 5000; Albee, Lewis,
1915; Albee, Lewis L., $205; Aldrich Niles
$75; Alexander, John F., 1920; Alexander,
Mary =, 5000 Arms Aaron, $751;; Arms
cts b, $1,000; Atchcrson, Alex, 5000
Bahbitt. George H., 500; Barber, L. c..
Sac: Bowtcn Josiah. S3l1; Bowten
George, $40; Bridgman, J. D., S2O0 Camp
bell, Daniel $3.50; Clark. John, S475;
Earle. Ira l.. Slli; Eddy. G. b $50; Edes.
Peter $lS17; Farnsworth. John A, spas;
Fleming Samuel c., S1lS. Flint Wyman,
$4,000; Goddard, George, $50; Green, Henry
F., $3.50; Holt, Thcophius, SPAS; Hub
bard, L. C.. $500; Hurd, l. D.. $500;
Johnson, w, IL. S27l7; Lake. Clark 5.
$l6i; Olcott. Lewis. $15S Nichols Samuel,
5000; Phelps, James H. $1,000; Perry
Sidney, 1896; Perry, Hannah r.. S405:
Perry, Scion. $500; Rollins. James NJ
1896; Sabin, f. 5. Jr, 5000; Saker John
F, $50; Scofeld Benjamin, $1,000; Simons,
l.. e, $500; Smith, Ransom E, $500;
Sloat, Madison $500 Stoddard Jacob,
Sl19; Stone, II. Il, 5000; Stoughton, II L.
$500; Taylor, Walter, 5000. Watts. Fred
erck, $50; White, Luke, 500; White Will
liam, Sl35: Wiley, H. c., $500; Wiley. II.
j. SOS; Williams James H., S4261; Will
son, f. NJ. $7S7; Wilson, Joseph. 1874.
For many years previous TO the civil
war the citizens of Bellows Falls had
owned a cannon Of some size which had
done duty upon Fourth of July Celebra-
tons and in celebrating important events
During the war IL was often used to eX-
press the joy of the people over any i'm
portant Union victory. II was last used
in celebrating the Gettysburg victory, and
the next day its whereabouts became
mystery 1t was not found until August
241S6S, when workmen in dredging the
canal brought 1t to the surface from the
bottom. 1t was generally understood that
some of the local sympathisers with the
southern cause threw II into the canal
during the night following the victory
During the last years of the war much
fear was entertained locally that raids
similar to the St. Adams raid might eN-
tend as far as Bellows Falls, and for some
months an organized body of local men,
numbering seventy guarded the streets
by night in squads Of seven men each.
They had a headquarters room in the
north store of Fairs block between Rock
ingham and Canal streets. using it for an
arsenal also, and for a time there We're
1000 Belgian musiIets stored there.
The only arrest made was that of n luna
tic who one night escaped from his keep
er on one of the night trains He
Jumped into the canal and disappeared
but some hours later was discovered by
the patrol clinging to some bushes under
a stump that was in the canal about OPP
posite what was then known as the old
organ factory" A few men are still
living who took part in this patrol and
they tell interesting anecdotes of the
laughable errors made in apprehending
belated business men, and many rights
occasioned by rumors of the coming of
the enemy.
During the progress of the war Rock
ingham was credited with two hundred
and forty-three men who enlisted or fur
nished substitutes, as shown by the Yer
mont adjutant generals records. of these
the following compilation is valuable as
local record:
Whole number furnished, 243 Killed in
action, 8; died of wounds, z; died of dis
ease, 9; died in confederate prisons, 3;
total deaths, "a. Wounded in battle, 2S;
taken prisoners, 10; drafted men who
went, 3; substitutes furnished, 25
Rockingham was represented in the
different military organizations Of this
state by the following number OF men:
list Vermont regiment, l. End regi-
ment 2; Sd regiment, %; 4th regiment, SO;
bth regiment, s. 9Th regiment, 4; 18th regi-
ment, 2; Sth regiment 10, 9th repiunant