George Luther Stearns George Luther Stearns ( January 8 , 1809 – April 9 , 1867 ) was an American industrialist and merchant , as well as a noted recruiter of blacks for the Union Army during the American Civil War . Biography . George L . Stearns was born in Medford , Massachusettson January 8 , 1809 , the eldest son and second child of Luther and Mary Hall Stearns . He was a member of the early Stearns family , whose ancestor , Isaac Sterne , arrived in Salem on June 12 , 1630 from Suffolk County , England , crossing the ocean with Governor Winthrop and Sir Richard Saltonstall . Isaac moved to Watertown on the Charles River where he died in 1671 . The American Stearns family grew , moving northward and westward , working as farmers , teachers and clergymen . George Luther Stearns ' father , Dr . Luther Stearns , was born in February 17 , 1770 , the eldest of five children born to Captain Josiah Stearns , a soldier in the war of American Independence who commanded a company of 50 men from Lunenburg , MA . Luther Stearns entered Dartmouth College at age seventeen but graduated from Harvard in 1791 . He worked as a tutor at Harvard and eventually studied medicine , becoming an obstetrician after receiving an honorary degree from Harvard in 1811 . Luther married Mary Hall of Brattleboro , VT when she was 16 on December 29 , 1799 . They moved to Medford , MA to be nearer her relatives , eventually having three children : Elizabeth Hall Stearns , George Luther Stearns and Henry Laurens Stearns ( named after the American Ambassador of that name who was distantly related to the family ) . Dr . Stearns later opened a celebrated preparatory school for boys with students from the South and West Indies . Dr . Stearns died of pneumonia on April 27 , 1820 , when his son George Luther was just nine years old . In order to earn money , young George sometimes tended the locks on the Middlesex Canal in town . At the age of 15 , he entered the work force to support his family . In early life he engaged in the business of ship - chandlery , and after a prosperous career undertook the manufacture of sheet and pipe - lead , doing business in Boston and residing in Medford . He was married to Mary Elizabeth Preston on October 12 , 1843 , by Rev . Frederick H . Hedge . They met through acquaintances which included her father Warren Preston , a probate judge in Norridgewock , Maine and Mrs . Lydia Maria Child an American abolitionist , women ' s rights activist , opponent of American expansionism , Indian rights activist , novelist , and journalist and Unitarian . Stearns was one of the chief financiers of the Emigrant Aid Company which facilitated the settlement of Kansas by antislavery homesteaders . He identified himself with the antislavery cause , became a Free - soiler in 1848 , and established the Medford station of the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves reach freedom . Stearns was one of the " Secret Six " who aided John Brown in Kansas , and financially supported him until Brown ' s execution after the ill - fated raid on Harpers Ferry . Stearns physically owned the pikes and 200 Sharps rifle s brought to Harpers Ferry by Brown and his followers . Following Brown ' s arrest , Stearns briefly fled to Canada , but returned to Medford to face inquiry following Brown ' s death . Soon after the opening of the Civil War , Stearns advocated the enlistment of African - Americans in the Union Army . Massachusetts Governor John Andrew asked Stearns to recruit the first two Northern state - sponsored black infantry regiment s . The 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments and the 5th cavalry were largely recruited through his instrumentality . He was commissioned Major through the recommendation of Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton , and was later of great service to the national cause by enlisting blacks for the volunteer service in Pennsylvania , Maryland , and Tennessee to serve in the U . S . Colored Troops . He recruited over 13 , 000 African - Americans , established schools for their children , and found work for their families while they served in the army . He was the founder of the " Nation " , " Commonwealth " , and " Right of Way " newspapers for the dissemination of his ideas . After President Abraham Lincoln ' s Emancipation Proclamation , Stearns worked tirelessly for the civil rights of blacks . Among his many admirers and friends were Louisa May Alcott , Henry David Thoreau , Charles Sumner , Frederick Douglass , and President Andrew Johnson . He helped found the Freedmen ' s Bureau to support emancipated blacks . Stearns died of pneumonia in New York City , New York on April 9 , 1867 . Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the eulogy at his funeral at the First Parish Church in Medford ( Unitarian ) . John G . Whittier published a poem in honor of Stearns in the May 1867 edition of the " Atlantic Monthly " entitled " G . L . S " ( pg 385 , The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns ) . Of him Whittier wrote : " No duty could overtask him ; Or ever our lips could ask him ; " A man who asked not to be great ; In 1897 , a monument was erected on Boston Common to the memory of col . Shaw , commander of the 54th Massachusetts regiment and who was killed at Ft . Wagner . At the celebration of that occasion , Booker T . Washington , President of Tuskegee College , made an address where he attributed the credit of organizing the colored regiments where it " properly belonged , to George L . Stearns . " ( Life and Public Services . . . page 388 ) . Following this , Joseph H . Smith , a veteran of the 54th started a movement to have a commemorative tablet placed in the State house at Boston , commemorating Major Stearns ' services and sacrifices for the republic . The resolution was passed in 1897 to place a table in Memorial Hall or other establishment in Boston and signed by Governor Wolcott . However , it was never enacted then , requiring a second resolution by the Massachusetts legislature in 1901 . The tablet is entitled : In Memorium George Luther Stearns and says , in part : A merchant of Boston Who illustrated in his life and character The nobility and generosity of " Citizenship " Giving his life and fortune for the Overthrow of slavery and the Preservation of " free " institutions To his unresting devotion and unfailing hope Massachusetts owes The fifty - fourth and fifty - fifth regiments of colored infantry , And the federal government ten thousand colored troops , At a critical moment in the great war . In the darkest hour of the republic His faith in the " people " never wavered .