For Union, Not for Glory: Memory and the Civil War Volunteers of Lancaster, Massachusetts

TitleFor Union, Not for Glory: Memory and the Civil War Volunteers of Lancaster, Massachusetts
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1994
AuthorsTeresa A. Thomas
JournalCivil War History
Volume40
Issue1
Pagination25-47
ISSN1533-6271
Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Teresa A. Thomas Teresa A. Thomas is visiting lecuturer of history at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts and is a Ph.D. candidate at Clark University in Worcester. Footnotes 1. Reminiscences of John Emerson Anderson, Civil War Papers, box 1, folder 7, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. 2. Col. Thomas Livermore, "The Union Soldier, Col. Livermore's Lowell Institute Lecture. The Makeup of the Northern Armies and the Spirit Which Animated Them—Anecdotes of the War Time," Daily Advertiser, Mar. 9, 1886 (newsclipping no. 292), in "Brief Memoranda of our Martyr Soldiers who fell during the Great Rebellion," Scrapbook by Henry I. Bowditch, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. 3. W. J. Rorabaugh, "Who Fought for the North in the Civil War? Concord, Massachusetts, Enlistment," Journal of American History (Dec. 1986); Gerald F. Linderman, Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War (New York: Free Press, 1987). Linderman's conclusions about the timing of soldier participation in the GAR and the combat experience have been borne out in the records I have studied. The Bowditch material was assembled about 1875; the Willard memorial was assembled in 1880 with material written prior to that date; the Washburn material was gathered after 1903. Henry S. Nourse wrote Soldiers in the Rebellion in 1880 (unpaginated bound manuscript found in Rare Book Room, Lancaster Town Library); Military Annals of Lancaster, Massachusetts (Lancaster: W. J. Coulter Press) was published in 1889; and the GAR Personal War Sketches was printed in 1895. 4. Nourse, Military Annals, 291-92. Nourse includes a militia list that has each soldier's occupation listed. According to my calculations of men from Lancaster who signed with the Clinton Light Infantry on July 6, 1861, there were thirteen mechanics, twelve farmers, two pumpmakers, two teachers, a shoemaker, a jeweller, a hostler, a sailor, a painter, a teamster, and a storekeeper. 5. GAR, Lancaster Post No. 175, Washburn Post Records in the Lancaster Town Library. For information on Memorial Day and the socials sponsored by the GAR post, see "GAR" file, cabinet 8, Lancaster Historical Commission Archive, Lancaster Town Hall. 6. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Annals of the Commandery of the State of Massachusetts From its Institution on March 4, 1868 to May 1, 1918, comp. Henry M. Rogers (Boston: Atlantic Printing Company, 1917), in the collection of the Worcester (Mass.) Public Library. See also, Address of Henry M. Rogers, Late Acting Asst. Paymaster U.S. Navy to the Commander of the State of Massachusetts MOLLUS, at its Meeting in Boston, November 3, 1915, "The Inspiration of the Loyal Legion," p. 2, Houghton Library, Harvard University. "It [MOLLUS] was conceived in the dark hour of grave doubt when no one knew how wide spread was the conspiracy which had murdered our great leader and stricken down high officers of his cabinet." The Legion was formed on April 15, 1865, in response to the assassination of President Lincoln. The MOLLUS Boston commandery was composed of what they referred to as "the great Library; the great Museum of Memorabilia of the Civil War" (ibid., 7). In 1938 the collection was split between the Houghton Library and the U.S. Army Military Historical Archive, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. 7. Record of Enlistments, Civil War, cabinet 1, Lancaster Historical Commission Archive. This record was necessary to provide evidence for the state and national recruiting quotas, as well to serve as a legal record for benefit claims. 8. It would not be until the twentieth century that enlistment was put on a nationwide level and the U.S. Army composed of regionally diverse fighting units. It is ironic that in Operation Desert Storm, with the all-volunteer army, the U.S. once again mobilized a force containing locally organized National Guard and reserve units. 9. Dr. J. L. S. Thompson's journal manuscript in the Rare Book Room, Lancaster Town Library (copy in Lancaster Historical Commission Archive); "Notes on the Rebellion," ibid., 1. 10. There is no wartime newspaper record for most of the war; the editor of the Clinton Courant, W. J. Coulter, closed his office in the fall of 1862 and enlisted for three years. 11. Abijah P. Marvin, History...

URLhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/civil_war_history/v040/40.1.thomas.html
DOI10.1353/cwh.1994.0008
Short TitleFor Union, Not for Glory
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