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| April in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
| Dexter Bishop, President |
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| The month of April stands in history of the Commonwealth because of two events that took place on the same date but 86 years apart. Observances are usually held on the 19th of April at Lexington and Concord to commemorate the meeting of the Minutemen and the British troops April 19, 1775. The British troops did not enjoy their return to Boston via Menatisny (Arlington) along the "crude" road which is now called "Battle Road." |
| There is no observance, to my knowledge, on Pratt Street in Baltimore, Md. to commemorate the passage of the 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer (Infantry) Militia through that city to defend the nation's capitol on that same date in 1861. Four companies of the regiment had been transported by rail car through the city and four companies had been left behind at the northern terminal and had to march through the city. When the time came for these 4 companies, Co. C -- Mechanics Phalanx -- Lowell; Co. I --Lowell City Guards; Co. L -- Lawrence Light Infantry; Co. D -- Stoneham light Infantry, to proceed, more thean 10,000 inhabitants of the city had gathered. Barricades had been erected and the men had to go by foot through the angry throng. At one of the barricades, cannons had been arranged to sweep the street, but were not quite ready for service. The air was filled with missiles -- clubs, bricks, paving stones, followed closely by pistol and musket shots. There were cheers for Jeff Davis and South Caolina and the South. There was all sorts of insulting language hurled at the men from the commonwealth. Words such as "Dig your graves," and "You can pray but you can't fight," were hurled at them. |
| It is probable that had these four compaines been forced to stop at any one of the barricades, they would have been annihilated. |
| Pistols and muskets were fired at them from the windows and doors of the houses and stores. Every now and then one soldier would stop and fire back as they continued down Pratt Street, about a mile and a half to rejoin their regiment comrades. |
| Four men were killed or mortally wounded in the regiment and others were slightly wounded. Most of the wounded were taken with the troops to the southern terminal. As far as could be determined at the time about 100 of the mob were killed or wounded by the guns of the 6th Regiment. |
| So, on Friday April 19, 2002, should you be moved to honor the 4 men killed at Baltimore you may want to visit the Ladd-Whitney Memorial in Lowell erected by that city in memory of "Private Luther C. Ladd, Private Addison D. Whitney, Private James Taylor of Co. C Lowell City Guards." Or you may want to visit the cemetery in Lawrence where "Corporal Sumner H. Needham of Co. I Lawrence Light Infantry is buried. |
| We remember what happened 227 years ago on the 19th of April at Lexington and Concord, so also let us remember what happened 147 years ago at Baltimore. |
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| Report of the March Meeting |
| Nadine Mironchuck, Secretary |
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| The March 8, 2002 meeting of the Civil War Round Table of the North Shore opened with a Salute to the Flag, followed by announcements regarding the Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes Award Dinner. The dinner will honor Dr. Robert Pamplin, who has generously donated many millions of dollars saving the endagered Peterburg Battlefield in Virginia. Special guest for the dinner will be Will Green, the National Park Service Ranger who first enlisted Dr. Pamplin's aid in saving the battlefield from the encroachment of development. |
| Further information regarding the Four Days in May trip was given, and Al Smith reminded us that he has a treat in store for us if we attend his Walking Tour of Civil War Beacon Hill in June. The African-American Freedom Trail will point out some very interesting facts about free Blacks in Boston, as well as those who escaped enslavement and were sheltered by Boston abolitionists. A tour of the Hall of Flags at the Statehouse has also been arranged. There various battle flags will be pointed out. |
| Next Fall, an overnight trip to Newport, RI and Hartford, CT is being arranged. |
| Speaker for the evening, Atty. Carole Root engaged the audience with many interesting details about the Lincoln assassination plot, the ensuing capture of the participants in the conspiracy, and the later trials and executions of the perpetrators. |
| She made comparisons with today's proposed military tribunals for prisoners of the War on Terror, and noted that -- even for a day when certain rights had not develped through the addition of Constitutional amendments -- the trials of the Lincoln assassins was conspicuously devoid of defendants' rights. |
| Interestingly, according to Carole's research, Confederate president Jefferson Davis was considered to be an "unindicted co-conspirator," and the Confederacy was seen as having a more than speculative role in the assassination. |
| Dr. Mudd was not the innocent victim of the appearance of a stranger who needed his leg set, but was known to the conspirators, as well as John Wilkes Boothe before the plot was carried out and Boothe was injured in his leap from the balcony at Ford's Theater. |
| The swiftness of the capture, trial and execution of the conspirators was emphasized in Carole's talk. From the time of the assassination of Lincoln, his death coming on April 15th -- the trials that took place at the start of the summer, the verdict handed down on July 6th, and on July 7th, the conspirators were executed. In comparison, it took six years for Timothy McVeigh to be brought to trial for the Oklahoma City bombing and to be executed. |
| Carole recommended the latest book out on the topic -- "Blood on the Moon" -- by Edward Steers -- for those who would like to read the latest in research on the subject. Steers, also, has written a book exclusevely about Dr. Mudd. |
| The evening concluded with another whopper of a raffle for some very precious old books, donated by Al Smith to defray the cost of the Holmes Dinner. |
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| To the Editor |
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| Hearing Carole Root's great talk on the Lincoln assassination and subsequent conspiracy trials a the March meeting of the CWRT of the North Shore, I was inspired to share some additonal information about the presidential succession, and some of my thoughts about Lincoln, with your readers... |
| After intense discussion, the grief-stricken, haggard Lincoln cabinet met in the back parlor where Lincoln's lifeless body lay. One by one they affixed their signatures to a letter drafted by Edwin Stanton addressed to Andrew Johnson, informing him that he was now the head of the government. They next informed Chief Justice salmon P. Chase that he would administer the Oath of Office to Johnson. Chase looked up the procedure used to swear in Presidents Tyler and Fillmore (resulting from the deaths of Harrison and Taylor) and also found pertinent clauses in the Constitution which assured they were doing the right thing. So, in less than three hours' time after Lincoln's death, Johnson became our new president. |
| Carole was correct in stating that the deification of Lincoln began immediately after his death. In my opinion, it was earned. Even wartime critics such as Horace Greeley and William Lloyd Garrison admitted, "We were wrong to criticize Lincoln on the slavery issue -- for after extensively reviewing the battlefield record, we can clearly see that he pushed the issue as fast as Union victories allowed him." Added Garrison, "Lincoln deserves all the credit we give him, he preserved the Union and rid the country of the only thing that could destroy it." Added Frederick Douglass, "He knew the American people better than they knew themselves." |
| Jay Winik, historian and senior scholar at the University of Maryland states, " At the outbreak of the war the issue was no longer freedom in the territories and slavery, but the nation itself." And in answering this call, Lincoln was "second to none." Says Winik, "No man was more fervent in Union, no man North or South loved his country more, and was more concerned with how to keep it together once the war was won." It was Lincoln's beliefs that gave him the strength to persever. And in the crack of doom...even find himself. |
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| Robert A. Foster |
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| Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: The Man |
| Dexter Bishop, President |
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| Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the most famous Harvard man of the Twentieth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, was a towering figure in American jurisprudence, and one of the Twentieth Century's most influential figures. As a soldier he served with distinction, surviving three wounds and rising to the rank of captain in the Twentieth Regiment. |
| Do you want to learn more? BUY YOUR TICKET! |
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