My thanks to Kathie Gow for the encouragement to jump back into this blog ! I'd be thrilled to hear from anyone else in and around Hatfield, or anywhere else, who can shed some light on the history of Hatfield in the Civil War.
By the fall of 1861 Edwin Graves's immediate family was not yet in the fight, but a number of Hatfield men certainly were. Members of militia units throughout the state had responded to the first call to arms after the firing on Fort Sumter. Hatfield volunteers were quickly incorporated into the 10th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment: the recruits included several familiar Hatfield and Hampshire County names, including two Warners and one Abbott, Bardwell, Evans, Harris, and Morton. A special town meeting was convened on May 6th "to act on matters relating to the war" (according to William Schouler's 1871 "History of Massachusetts in the Civil War"), mostly to raise support for the members of the Massachusetts 10th.
A committee of seven was appointed to arrange the financing of support for Hatfield soldiers and their families. The committee included George W. Hubbard, well on his way from youth as a Hatfield farmer, to attorney, to founding treasurer of Smith College and president of the Smith Charities, to founder of the Hampshire Mutual Life Insurance Company. The committee was "authorized to borrow on behalf of the town not exceeding five thousand dollars, to be expended by them as they might deem expedient 'on such soldiers from this town and their families as shall be mustered into the United States service, during the continuance of the present war.' It was also voted to furnish each volunteer with a uniform, if necessary, and a sufficient amount of money to make his monthly pay twenty-six dollars. 'Voted that the town will provide liberally for the families as such that volunteer.' "
"After giving three cheers for the star-spangled banner the meeting adjourned for two weeks. "
Two weeks later, on May 20th the town instructed the committee to pay each volunteer in the Tenth regiment for time spent in drilling - presumably time spent in drilling locally, before the regiment was formally organized. The regiment would be organized in Springfield in June, and later shipped off to Washington to the accompaniment of the Hatfield Brass Band.
As time permits I continue to do some research into the local militias and their absorption into the Civil War U.S. Army. As it happens the Edwin Graves family had something of a distinguished history with the Hatfield militia, although I have no evidence as yet to suggest how active Edwin himself was in the militia. Edwin's great-grandfather Perez Graves had been a captain of the Hatfield militia and had led a group of Hatfield militiamen in response to the Lexington and Concord Alarm in April 1775. (Perez and the troop got as far as Ware before learning that the British had been repulsed and there was no need to go further.) Perez also served as a member of the Board of Selectmen and of the Hatfield Committee of Correspondence during the Revolution. Edwin's father Thaddeus apparently also served as a captain of the militia in Hatfield, and was known as Captain Thaddeus before he died in 1831 at the age of 37 when Edwin was seven.
Hatfield selectmen would continue to raise funds for Hatfield soldiers and their families throughout the war. Much of the expense was reimbursed by the state at various points, but it is clear from the historical sources that raising and distributing support to soldiers and families was a major preoccupation for the town's leaders. These days many Massachusetts towns have held police, firefighter and other municipal jobs open for service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, as they are required to do,and local veterans agents serve returning veterans. But it is difficult to imagine any town officials being drawn into the war effort in quite the way that Hatfield's leaders were beginning in the spring of 1861.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Firing on Fort Sumter: Hatfield's First Casualty
Today was the anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter. Fanny Graves Hubbard remembered how the news was greeted in Hatfield, and another foreshadowing of what was to come.
"When news came of firing on Fort Sumter, S.C., because the government would not give it over to the South, it caused great excitement and they, our people, decided to raise a new flag staff on the Hill near the school with a new flag.
" A great crowd assembled and there was firing of a cannon to celebrate. There was an accident, the cannon burst and Erastus Billings was hit on his leg. He was carried into a nearby house and a doctor summoned. Everyone was sobered, it all came so unexpected. The leg had to be amputated. It was below the knee and he had a false leg, but always walked a little lame. He was young, in his early twenties, but it prevented his taking part in the activities or later going to the war with his brother."
"When news came of firing on Fort Sumter, S.C., because the government would not give it over to the South, it caused great excitement and they, our people, decided to raise a new flag staff on the Hill near the school with a new flag.
" A great crowd assembled and there was firing of a cannon to celebrate. There was an accident, the cannon burst and Erastus Billings was hit on his leg. He was carried into a nearby house and a doctor summoned. Everyone was sobered, it all came so unexpected. The leg had to be amputated. It was below the knee and he had a false leg, but always walked a little lame. He was young, in his early twenties, but it prevented his taking part in the activities or later going to the war with his brother."
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Hatfield On The Eve of Civil War
This is a blog inspired by the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and the experience of my great-great-grandparents, Edwin and Ursula Graves, and their family and neighbors in Hatfield, Massachusetts.
Some time in the late 1920s or early 1930s my great-grandmother, Fanny Louisa Graves Hubbard, sat down at her kitchen table to write a short memoir. Grammy Hubbard, as she was known to her grandchildren, had been inspired by "Grandmother Brown's 100 Year History," the memoir of an Ohio woman of Yankee descent who became a pioneer settler in Iowa. "After reading Grandmother Brown's hundred years story, I thought my grandchildren would like to have a little of my history," wrote Fanny.
Fanny's memoir looked back over 80 years but her most vivid memories were of the years when she was a young girl, the years leading up to and including the Civil War. Fanny was only 9 years old in the spring of 1861, but her memories remained strong decades later, more than likely because much of what happened in those years would be told and retold by family members in years to come.
Fanny's memory of home, on the eve of Fort Sumter:
" The Connecticut River at its yearly over flow, waters the adjacent meadows and does damage if it comes too high. Its waters have washed away many acres of good land on the Hatfield side and let not a few on the Hadley side. Of late years some of the bank has been 'rip rapped' and a dyke built for the protection of Hatfield street.
" When I was a girl nothing could stop it's rise. A heavy rain with melting snow was apt to start the water rising.
"The high water mark each spring was an excitement to us children, but it must have been in 1861 that the big flood came. We watched the water come up the meadow road, running in often to tell how far or how near it is now. The cow and pig had been taken to Uncle Rufus because their barn stood a little higher. The cellar had to be cleared, as water was pouring in from the soaked ground. When it was time to milk, father came with a boat and we children stepped off the stone step at the front door into the boat. I held baby George[Fanny's younger brother] in my lap and so we went for the milk, but the water came no higher.
" That flood did lots of damage, the current was swift and as the water subsided, it sheared two great holes in the street near our house. Those were the days of dirt roads, it couldn't do so now with the macadam."
Some time in the late 1920s or early 1930s my great-grandmother, Fanny Louisa Graves Hubbard, sat down at her kitchen table to write a short memoir. Grammy Hubbard, as she was known to her grandchildren, had been inspired by "Grandmother Brown's 100 Year History," the memoir of an Ohio woman of Yankee descent who became a pioneer settler in Iowa. "After reading Grandmother Brown's hundred years story, I thought my grandchildren would like to have a little of my history," wrote Fanny.
Fanny's memoir looked back over 80 years but her most vivid memories were of the years when she was a young girl, the years leading up to and including the Civil War. Fanny was only 9 years old in the spring of 1861, but her memories remained strong decades later, more than likely because much of what happened in those years would be told and retold by family members in years to come.
Fanny's memory of home, on the eve of Fort Sumter:
" The Connecticut River at its yearly over flow, waters the adjacent meadows and does damage if it comes too high. Its waters have washed away many acres of good land on the Hatfield side and let not a few on the Hadley side. Of late years some of the bank has been 'rip rapped' and a dyke built for the protection of Hatfield street.
" When I was a girl nothing could stop it's rise. A heavy rain with melting snow was apt to start the water rising.
"The high water mark each spring was an excitement to us children, but it must have been in 1861 that the big flood came. We watched the water come up the meadow road, running in often to tell how far or how near it is now. The cow and pig had been taken to Uncle Rufus because their barn stood a little higher. The cellar had to be cleared, as water was pouring in from the soaked ground. When it was time to milk, father came with a boat and we children stepped off the stone step at the front door into the boat. I held baby George[Fanny's younger brother] in my lap and so we went for the milk, but the water came no higher.
" That flood did lots of damage, the current was swift and as the water subsided, it sheared two great holes in the street near our house. Those were the days of dirt roads, it couldn't do so now with the macadam."
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