Reception of the returned soldiers of Weston, Mass., and memorial service in honor of the fallen

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REOEP^TIOISr

OF THE

RETURNED SOLDIERS,

OF-

^WESTOIST, 3V«d:-A.SS

AND

MEMORIAL SERVICE

IN HONOR OF THE FALLEN.

AUGUST 22, 1865.

PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SELECTMEN.

WALTHAM :

Hastings's sentinel office.
1865.

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PREFACE.

Tuesday, August 22d, was set apart by the citizens of Wes-
ton for a memorial service in honor of their gallant young
men who had fallen in battle, and died in the service of the
country, and at the same time to give a public reception to
the returned soldiers.

The exercises commenced in the Unitarian Church at about
one o'clock. The church was very appropriately trimmed for
the occasion, bearing upon the walls, upon either side of the
pulpit, the names and places of battle of the deceased soldiers,
trimmed in evergreen and black, surmounted with the stars
and stripes.

Upon the side walls were the following mottos :
" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends."

" My peace I give unto you."

" He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

"The noble army of martyrs praise thee."

" Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall
not fear."

" Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy pal-
aces."

The exercises in the church were opened by prayer by Rev.
Mr. Toplifif. This was followed by an address by Rev. E. H.
Sears. A closing hymn was sung by the choir, accompanied
by the organ finely played by F. F. Heard, Esq., of Wayland.

At the close ol the services at the church, the assembly
under the charge of the Chief Marshal Alonzo S. Fiske, Esq.,
and Assistants, repaired to the Town Hall, escorted by Gil-
more's Brass Band, of Boston. After a plentiful repast fur-
nished by the citizens of Weston, the President of the Day,
Edwin Hobbs, Esq., called upon R. F. Fuller, Esq., who
read the poem given in the following pages. This was fol-
lowed by short but very interesting remarks, as they were
called out by the President, a slight sketch of which we have
endeavored to preserve.

ADDRESS OF Rev. E. H. SEARS.

Fellow Citizens: — Scarcely three months have elapsed
since we passed from a state of war to a state of peace. We
should hardly know that we have just emerged from the most
gigantic struggle recorded in history, most terrible in its
experiences and most auspicious in its results, were it not for
the vacant places in our darkened homes, and the heroic men
who come back to us, some of them maimed and scarred in
the desperate conflict. Here the frame of society has not
been broken nor disturbed ; the face of nature has never
ceased to smile ; no blackened waste or bloody trail has passed
over her ; and yet it is morally certain that if these men had
not gone forth from among us, and met the shock afar oif
and rolled it back, it would have reached us and involved
us, till we ceased to have a country which we could honor and
love ; nay, till we ceased to have homes and firesides where
even a New England mother could rock her babes in safety.

You have appointed this day to welcome these defenders as
they come back to you, and to offer a tribute of grateful
sorrow to the memory of those who come not back but sleep
on the field where they fell, or who were brought home to you
shrouded in the flag which they could defend no more.

The events of these four years of sufiering, triumph, and
glory, will be written down as the most important chapter in

the history of human progress ; and the coming centuries will
date from them as the heroic age of the republic. They will
explore its records and monuments, and its names and inci-
dents will be held in the blaze of a clearer and broader light.
It is plainly the duty of every town to engrave deeply its own
record and preserve it ; and to see that not a single name
among the " Village Hampdens," whose breasts received the
death-wound aimed at the life of the country shall be obscured
or lost.

During these four years of struggle and sacrifice, of mingled
disaster and victory, 126 men have represented the town of
Weston in the Union army. Of these 6T enlisted here among
you ; all of them, except one, residents of the town, the flower
of your population — many of them the kith and kin of your
own families and households. They did not wait for large
bounties to be offered ; they went because the voice of country
and humanity had hushed all the suggestions of selfish pru-
dence and ease. They went under no blind impulse, but after
the terrible nature of the struggle had become well under-
stood, and mere impulse had subsided inio intelligent moral
earnestness, and fixed moral resolve, to do the duties of the
hour.

In the summer of 1862, after the disastrous campaign which
left forty thousand graves upon the Peninsula, came the call
of the President for 300,000 more men to fill up the depleted
ranks of the Union armies. Some of your young men, the
earlier volunteers, were already in the field, and doing valiant
service. This call demanded seventeen more and they imme-
diately answered and came forth. They made part of the
Thirty-fifth Eegiment, whose record has been so bright, and
whose sacrifices have been so great. It was the darkest period
of the war ; it was when the hearts of men were failing
them ; when the Northern sentiment was becoming demoral-
ized and thick with treason, and the life of the nation seemed
to many to be trembling in the balance. The feeling of self-
confidence and exultation had disappeared, and a setr
tied anxiety and gloom was on the faces of men as they
walked the street, under the shadow of our great calamities.

McClellan had failed, Pope was retreating within the defences
of Washington on the eve of the second Bull Run disasters,
the foe, insolent and exultant was on his way to the Free
States, to execute the threat of Jeff Davis, and " carry the
sword and the torch into Northern cities." That was the time,
just three years ago this day, when the Thirty-fifth Regiment
entered the service. That was the time when your quota
of seventeen joined it ; not wnder the inspiration of victory
but of disaster.

They were not picked up at random, but they came from
homes of religious influence and social culture, where devo-
tion to God and love of country had been the daily lessons
of childhood, and where love of freedom had been the sacred
tradition of the Past. The Thirty-fifth was gathered largely
from the homes of Middlesex, so rich in Revolutionary mem-
ories— " where the first blood for freedom shed has made the
grass more green." Without drill, without any of that prep-
aration which hardens the recruit into the veteran, the Thirty-
fifth were plunged at once into the thickest of the fray. They
were marched immediately through Washington into Maryland
to meet the invaders. You had said your farewells to them
on the 22d of August ; September 14th they were at
South Mountain, doing excellent service in that first battle
which drove back Lee toward Richmond. Three days after-
wards, Sept. 17th, they were at Antietam. Orders came to
take and hold the bridge over Antietam creek at all hazards.
The hazards fell largely upon the Thirty-fifth, for they were
the second that went in and charged over the bridge and took
the heights beyond under slaughtering cross-fires. One of the
seventeen fell here ; and the Thirty-fifth in these two battles
alone lost two-thirds of its officers and nearly one-third of its
men, either killed or wounded. This in less than one month
after leaving New England.

Following Lee down the Rappahannock, the supply trains
were attacked by a strong force, where the Thirty-fifth under
Major Willard bore the brunt of the battle for four hours,
under artillery fire, and drove off the enemy. In the bloody
and disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, the Thirty-fifth were

again put among the most advanced troops in position, and
were the last but one to leave the city. Between the city and
the heights back of it held by the rebel army, was a plain one-
th^ird of a mile in width, over which they were marched under
a deadly fire ; and here sixty more of their number fell, killed
or Avounded. Another, one of the seventeen, was among the
fallen ; and it was on this fatal plain that the gallant Willard,
who led the Thirty-fifth, gave up his priceless and beautiful
life. These new recruits of the Thirty-fifth, says the Adjutant
General in his report, were steady as veterans, and their
service is extolled in the highest terms of eulogy.

After this they were ordered West in long marches through
mud and rain ; they were before Vicksburg protecting Grant's
rear against Johnston when the city surrendered ; they fol-
lowed Johnston to Jackson, the city of Jeff Davis ; they
helped capture the city, and were the first regiment that
marched in and hung the Stars and Stripes over the rebel
capital of Mississippi. Ordered East again, they came to
Knoxville, where Burnside, their old and favorite general, had
command, and here they helped essentially in the defeat of
Longstreet, driving his shattered columns out of the State,
and redeeming East Tennesee from the tyranny under which
so long she had lain groaning and bleeding. Here another
of your seventeen gave up his life. Then the regiment
joined Grant and helped him fight his bloody way to Rich-
mond, where two more of your quota were sacrificed. And
after all its weary marches and bloody battles the Thirty-fifth
was in at the death of the rebellion, as the huzzas of victory
ran through its thinned ranks at the surrender of Lee, and
the tidings spread through the loyal North went up to heaven
with the ringing of bells, — " The rebellion is crushed, the
nation is redeemed, and the country is saved ! "

You will hardly be surprised when I say that only four of
the seventeen stood in the thinned ranks at that glorious
finale ; all the rest having been discharged by reason of
wounds and sickness, or having received their final discharge
into that eternal peace where the wicked cease from troubling.

The next quota from Weston was one of twenty-seven,
under the call of the President for 300,000 nine-months men,

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evidently supposing that nine months more would finish the
rebellion. They joined the Forty-third and Forty-fourth
regiments — most of them the latter — regiments which em-
braced in large proportions, young men of education and high
moral and social culture. They were ordered to North Caro-
lina to hold what was then deemed, and what ultimately
proved, one of the most important positions. They rendered
essential service in taking and holding important communica-
tions, in which they had not only rebels to meet, but the fatal
influence of the climate that filled the hospitals. One of the
twenty-seven fell a victim to the climate, and one was killed
in the battle of Kinston. The rest of the Weston boys who
make up her contribution of sixty-seven, were distributed
through different corps, some of them in the cavalry, and
they have had their full share of hardship, sacrifice, and suf-
fering. Scattered through other regiments, you read of them,
here and there. Some of them enlisted a second time, went
on weary marches, storming entrenchments, or fighting with
the cavalry ; sometimes lying disabled in hospitals, sometimes
finding their graves on the battle-field. They went from no
love of war and bloodshed, but because they saw clearly the
tremendous issue that was forced upon us. It was no sec-
tional conflict between North and South. It was a question
whether the whole country should be ruled by the slave-
despotism or by free government; whether a barbarism as
black and fetid as that of Dahomey ; the barbarism which has
since enacted the horrid cruelties of Libby and Anderson\'ille,
should seize Washington and roll the dark waves of its power
clean up to the lakes, where freedom and civilization should
go down under it, or ask leave of it to be, or whether this
horrible barbarism should be rolled back down to the Gulf,
and into it, and the light of the nineteenth century be let in
upon its dens and caverns, till the bats and the hyenas had
been scared out of them, and a new Christian civilization
covered our whole land with its beautiful mantle of light.

That is the great work, soldiers, to which you went forth,
and now you can come liomc and say, it is done. 1 almost
envy your feelings as you contemplate your work after your

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days and nights of suffering and toil. No men ever returned
from a mission so great and beneficent. We welcome you
back to the homes you have protected, with the highest regards
we can bring. The children, through a long posterity, will
have thrills of patriotism as they read the story of your
achievements ; and the most honorable heraldry of the coming
times will be that which signalizes your doings in the Union
army that saved the republic. Not only so. The day will
come, and is even close at hand, when the curses which now
come up sullenly on the Southern breezes will be turned to
blessings on your names and memory. Not only four millions
of human chattels have been turned into men and women,
but as many more white people have been brought to know
their prerogatives for the first time. Your swords have helped
hew the way for them out of the degradation of besotted
ignorahce to enlightenment and civilization. And for eight
millions of people your mission has given the schoolhouse for
the slave-pen, and a free pulpit for the auction-block.

Welcome then, soldiers, to the shades of home and peace
protected by you ! Welcome to the benedictions of a country
you have helped to save and redeem ! Welcome to the grate-
ful honors of your fellow-townsmen ; welcome to the place
you have earned in history, and to the smile of that Provi-
dence which has blessed your arms and crowned you with
victory !

Your work is thorough and complete.

Spenser has described the Great Red Dragon slain by the
Red Cross Knight, by which he means persecuting Rome
disabled by true Christianity. The monster is dragged out
and his ghastly bulk lies there in the sun, and covers many a
rood. The people go out and gaze in wonder, fearing to
approach too near lest there be some life left in him, or lest
some " hidden nest of dragonnettes " may lurk in him :

■ ' While some, more bold, to measure him nigh stand,
To prove how many acres he did spread of land."

The slave monster lies even thus stretched out, — slain by
your swords ; and the country fears him even dead ; not know-
ing how many " hidden dragonettes " may lurk in him. But

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an adorable Providence has led us and shaped our ends most
wonderfully, and will bury the slain monster fi-om the offended
light of heaven and the sight of men.

Your work is thorough and complete, and will go down to
the next age celebrated in heroic songs. Alas ! that we miss
those to-day who come not home again, or wiio only come
home that we might weep around their wasted and stricken
forms, or lay them to rest where the blessed peace which
their lives earned and brought back to us only pours its light
over their graves ! 0 ! that they could have seen this day, to
rejoice in its large victories, and know the fruits of their
sacrifice ! Rather, shall we not say, they do see it, and
rejoice in it, where the chimes of heaven celebrate with a more
chastened joy the triumphs of justice and humanity.

Attend, while we read over their names, and call up to our
memories their familiar forms and faces, that we may be
reminded how dear and costly is the purchase of liberty and
peace.

There are twelve of them.

Ralph Jones was the first who fell ; — a good boy, of gentle
manners, fresh from the teachings of the Sunday School ; who
had seen only seventeen summers, but who felt the urgency
of an ardent patriotism. Ralph appeared before sunrise at
the house of the recruiting agent. " Do give me a chance to
enlist ! " said he, fearing that the number was already full.
He fell at Antietam ; storming the heights over the bridge ;
giving his young life in one of the most decisive battles. He
is the honored proto-martyr of Weston in the war that saved
the republic.

Frederick Hews went out with the Thirty-fifth ; strong in
his patriotic zeal, but not strong in physical frame. He died
in the hospital at Washington, where sickness had arrested
him and held him back. His letters home from the camp
breathe the very fragrance of filial and brotherly affection,
and show plainly how the atrocities and hardships of war
grated upon his gentle nature, and how much he was sacri-
ficing to a stern sense of duty. Idolized in the domestic and
social circle for his unstained conscientiousness and purity

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of character : — " none ever knew him but to love him, none
ever named liim but to praise."

William Henzye, eighteen years of age, liad been only for
a twelvemonth a resident of the town, but had acquired a
reputation for probity and uprightness. He was killed on
picket-duty before Knoxville — shot through the head and
dying within an hour after. His body was there put in a
coffin, and buried by his comrades. " A good soldier, and a
very fine fellow," said one of the Thirty-fifth to me, who knew
him well, and dwelt lovingly upon his memory.

George T. Tucker, about twenty years of age, one of three
brothers — all in the service — one of whom has lived through
the cruelties of rebel prisons. George was a young man of
fair promise^ and was killed by a sharpshooter in the trenches
before Petersburg.

Wm. Cutter Stimpson, Jr., was w^ounded in the Battle of
Fredericksburg, crossing the fatal plain between the city and
the heights ; was a year afterwards in the hospital, but rejoined
the army, and was killed in the battle near Poplar Spring
Church, where Grant was trying to extend his lines and
capture tlie South Side Railroad. He fell beside Lieut. Lloyd,
in whose arms he died upon the field. He was about twenty-
seven years of ago, and leaves a family, whose darkened home
sorrows in the loss of the son, the husband, and the father.
His officers, in letters to the bereaved family, praise his sol-
dierly and manly qualities. " A brave and noble soldier,"
says his captain, " who knew his duty and always did it."

John Robinson was active in organizing the drill-club, and
enlisted early in the war in the Twenty-fourth Regiment. He
was in fourteen battles, — never shrinking from duty in any
of them. Among these were the battle of Newbern, the storm-
ing of Fort Wagner, where he helped take the rifle-pits in
gallant style, and the fierce night attack upon Fort Sumter.
He re-enlisted in Jan., 18(34, and joined the Army of the
James, under Gen. Butler, fought with it in their way up the
river, and was instantly killed os they were destroying the
Petersburg Railroad. He was a good son and a brave soldier,
and poured out his young life in ardent love of the old flag.

IS

tinder which he fought and fell. His remains recently came
home, and you followed them last Sunday to an honored grave.

Edmund L. Cutter was one of the nine-months men of the
Forty-fourth Regiment. Gentle, affectionate, disinterested,
and beloved, his tastes were all peaceful, and he had no
delight in battle scenes. " I don't want to go," he said, " but
somebody must go, and I have no family dependant upon me —
count me in when wanted." He was wanted. He made his
last will, and went ; and was brought back from the hospital
at Newborn, where he had died, to rest amid the quiet home-
scenery he had loved so well.

William Henry Carter was one of the early volunteers of
the Twenty-sixth Regiment. He served out his time, and
came home. " But I cannot stay at home," said he, "so
long as this war is in unfinished." He re-enlisted, and was
plunged into the fierce conflicts of the Shenandoah Valley.
He fell at Winchester, Va., September 19th, 18(54, mortally
wounded. He was taken by the rebels, and had full experi-
ence of their cruelties, but was retaken by his comrades and
placed in the hospital, where he sent his last loving message
to his mother ; — " Tell her I died fighting for the glorious
Stars and Stripes."

William Banyea was not a native of Weston, and we have
no account of him, except that he fell in the Wilderness, when
Grant was cutting his way to Richmond.

Lucius A. Hill fell also in the Wilderness ; was not a
native of Weston, l)ut leaves a good name behind him where
best he was known.

Fuller Morton had been two years a resident of the town,
an upright and worthy young man, who enlisted in the Forty*
third Regiment. He was mortally wounded in the battle of
Kinston, N. C, and died afterwards at the hospital, at New-
born, N. C.

James N. Fairfield had been for two yeai^ a resident of
the town. He fell in the first murderous assault upon the
defences of Fort Hudson, ordered by General Banks, and lies
buried, doubtless, in what the soldiers there called " the
slaughter field," near the Fort.

u

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There is another name linked inseparably with those of your
own martyrs, which Harvard University will claim to preserve
and honor. Your quota of nineteen of the gloiious Thirty-
fifth went forth under Capt. Willard, and even declined going
unless he might lead them. The letters of the boys show with
what fond admiration they clung to him. He had organized
and drilled them here at home, inspired them with confidence
in his humane and heroic qualities, and breathed into them
his own lofty and self-sacrificing patriotism. After so many
officers had fallen at South Mountain and Antietam, he was
called to the command of the Thirty-fifth, and was cheering
them on over that fatal plain before the heights of Fredericks-
burg, when he received his mortal wound. They lost his
inspiring presence and leadership, but the example of a man-
hood of such blending strength and beauty, as makes it diffi-
cult to imagine a sweet or noble quality that entered not into
it, was not lost, but will live more than ever to inforce the sub-
lime lessons of self-sacrifice.

Such, fellow-citizens of Weston, is the roll of your martyrs.
No words of eulogy can honor them so much as the simple
recital of their deeds, and the times and places in which they
gave up their young lives as a holy offering on their country's
altar. They were not mercenaries, but most of them the
fruits of the best culture in your schools and churches ; bone
of your bone and flesh of your flesh ; on some of whose
cheeks the bloom of youth had scarcely gone. They loved
peace and home, and they hated bloodshed and strife. But
they loved, too, the glorious traditions of freedom ; its institu-
tions had nursed them and inspired their youthful dreams ; the
spirit of its morning hour and its golden age was upon them —
" These institutions must live," said they, " though we should
perish. Somebody must go, and here we are." Though
only twelve in number, you see by our brief recital that their
blood has baptized the soil over the whole extent of the
Union, east and west, from Newbern to Port Hudson. Most
of them were brought back shrouded in the flag which they
loved, to rest in New England soil, that father and mother,
brother and sister may sleep beside them in the last repose.

15

Some of them lie in graves where they fell, and consecrate the
soil to freedom. The names of all of them you will chisel in
enduring marble, placing their monument where the next
generation may come and read, while they say : — " These are
the ' village Hampdens ' who withstood the Richmond tyranny,
who held their country dearer than life, and died to save it."
Do not mourn over them as you mourn over common dust.
Though they died in the glorious prime of manhood, yet they
lived longer than most of us will live, if life is to be measured
not by calendar months, but by the grand results wrought out
for humanity. To live through the long future in the affections
of men, to have the hearts of a coming generation for one's
burial-place, there to inspire its noblest enthusiasms, help
mould the character of its youth, and fire all its generous and
unselfish aims ; to live so, is to live the longest and most suc-
cessfully ; — and this is to be the life of our martyrs. The
places where they sleep, or where their deeds are immortal-
ized, we will not call " graveyards," but shrines for pilgrims.
Raise their monument, and write their names upon it, not
for their sakes, but for the sake of the children that are to
come after and enjoy the fruits of their achievements. There,
as often as the children pass the village green, let them be
reminded how much it cost to have a country which they can
honor and love. Let them learn there the great Christian
lesson, that there is something better than this earthly life,
and that this has been, and may be, given up joyfully to God's
supreme and all-beautiful justice, and to hasten the coming
of its reign.

" Then, in our noble dead,
Ye give us precious dower ;

Their graves undying life shall breed !
Sprouted in blood, the buried seed

Shall yield the richest flower."

POEM BY R. F. FULLER, Esq,

When Treason raised a parricidal band,
And Sumter's gun reechoed through the land
The signal of a dire, rebellious strife,
And struggle of the nation for its life,
Hosts sprang forth armed^at'liberty's behest,
As if by magic, in the North and West.
New England her beloved peace resigned ;
The sons of pilgrims left their homes behind ;
And Massachusetts, foremost of her peers,
Resounded with the tramp of volunteers :
Her sword, long sheathed, compelled again to draw,
And seek for peacejn sanguinary war.
Then Weston formed, among her quiet hills,
The rifie-corps, — accomplished Willard drills.
The town was filled with notes of preparation,
Waiting events in anxious expectation.

First, Lamson, from his home of affluence went.
Commissioned in the Sixteenth Regiment,
The weary hardships of' the camp to bear,
And countless dangers of the battle dare.
In the Peninsular campaign.
And Pope's retreat, with many slain-
Promoted through the perils he has passed,
Lamson commands the Regiment, at last.

Now, thick reverses on the prospect lower,

17

And our republic sees her darkest hour ;
With armies lost she bleeds at every pore,
And calls for men, — three hundred thousand more.
The foe of their advantage seize occasion
On Northern soil to make a swift invasion.
The capital is threatened ; all is lost
Unless the North supply another host.
Shall liberty forever lose her crown,
' And pilgrim-children see her sun go down ?
" It shall not 6e .' " shout all the loyal North.
From dear New England homes they hurry forth.
Weston, prompt, through the war, to furnish men,
The flower of her youth afforded then.
Brave Willard leads them, with devoted mind ;
And few had more than he to leave behind.
With Christian courage, nobly fortified,
He leaves his brilliant prospects and his bride.
Inspired by his example, Jones and Hews,
And others would not duty's call refuse.
The list was quickly full : though hearts were riven,
The best that Weston had was freely given.
The mother, forcing back the drops of woe,
Consented that her darling boy should go.
The wife her jewel gave of highest worth, —
The husband, she holds dearest of the earth.
Strong love of country swayed the sister's heart.
Who, weeping, bade her brother to depart.
The father gave, (what could he more ? ) his son ;
And home, the hopcfullest and noblest one.
Thus, Weston had a part in all the war.
Its worst Aceldamas her children saw.
While those at home, in faithful duty, bear
A no less useful, though a humbler, share.
Her absent sons has Weston ne'er forgot,
And home is busy to relieve their lot.
The men give money, and the ladies toil
To send home-comforts to the Southern soil.
The well, in camp, the sick and wounded, there,
The friend and stranger bless her constant care.
Thus, woman's hand unseen, and tender heart,
Bore, in our battles, an important part ;

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And victors in the field, if trutb were known,
Were nerved to courage by her tender tone.
Man's strength, by woman fostered, conquered then ;
And woman's hand gave victory to men.

The war is ended. And, to-day, we meet
Our soldiers, with a welcome here to greet.
Their battles have been fought ; their hardships o'er
Of march and prison, they are home once more.
Bronzed are their features, which, few years ago.
Were mantled with a fresh and youthful glow ;
Experiencing, in this narrow span.
Much more than longest lives of common man.
Their sacrifices not in vain, they come
In triumph to their once more peaceful home.

With a proud welcome and a grateful grasp,
The hands of these young veterans we clasp.
Lamson, we greet, to-day, our host and guest.
And Captain Patch is here, among the rest, —
God bless his hand, that first our colors planted
Where traitor Davis has so often vaunted !
The nation, too, has given him her thanks,
Promoted to be captain from the ranks.
And Tucker, here, as if from death arisen.
Or worse than death, eight months of Southern prison ;
And Adams, too, we greet with right good-will.
And Smith, whom traitor-bullet could not kill ;
And others, here, known not the less to fame,
Whom time will not allow me, now, to name.
God bless them all with length of honored days.
To hear America's and Weston's praise !

And there were martial forms, who went away
And bade farewell, — but greet us not, to-day !
And yet, the muse has not a heart to weep
For heroes who so nobly fell on sleep.
Weston, with tenderness, her fallen brave
Has brought, and made, at home, their martyr-grave,
Where bloom their laurels of immortal sheen.
And tears shall keep the sod forever green
With kindred care ; — and who is not akin
With those who died, their country's cause to win ?
That country is their mother ; all the free.

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While time endures, are their posterity.

Sleep where they may ; — in green earth's quiet breast

Unknown, or in the churchyard here at rest ;

Or in Mount Auburn's consecrated shade, —

To them, through time, be grateful honor paid !

Their fitting epitaph a poet wrote :

" The brave," — these are his touching words, I quote, —

" Die never. Being deathless, they depart

To change their country's arms for more, — their country's heart.

Thus Willard died. His Regiment he led,
And waved his sword above his falling head ;
And Jones, upon Antietam's bloody field ;
And Hews, to harder sickness forced to yield,
Yet, to the last, rejoicing he had come.
To die for country, far away from home ;
And all the beadroU Weston keeps for fame.
Where lines of light inscribe the hero's name.
Say not, they die, whose influence survives,
More useful than a thousand common lives ;
Nor, of their early death and few days tell, —
For they live long — they only — who live well ;
Since fame perpetuates their manly feats.
And memory their worthy words repeats.

Such, too, were Cutter, at his country's call,
To fill up Weston's quota, leaving all ;
Stimpson, who parents, wife and children left,
And comes no more to his loved ones bereft :
Banyea and Hill, which make from Weston four
Slain in the Wilderness, with many more ;
And Robinson, a manly youth and brave, —
Their only son his willing parents gave ;
And Carter, with a mortal wound who lay.
Robbed by the foe, as lapsed his life away.
" 0 ! what would mother think," — the loved son said,
" If she knew I were on this dying-bed ? "
But no one told her, till his struggles o'er,
Carter had gone where sorrow comes no more.
And such was Tucker, — one of brothers three
Enlisted from a single family.
Still two survive, from many fields fought well,
But George, at Petersburg, devoted, fell.

20

And Weston, too, her contribution made

Toward the price to take Port Hudson paid,

In Fairfield's death. Thus making twelve who fall ;

While Weston sent six score and six, in all.

May those, who have returned, live long to see
Unbroken peace, and pure prosperity, —
Caste and oppression swept away by war,
And equal rights made fundamental law ;
Our Constitution's vital truth sustained.
And never more by slavery profaned ;
While Christian freedom, as the right of birth,
Extends from us to every land on earth !

Rev. C. J. BowEN, for four years Chaplain of the Camden
Street Hospital, and at one time Chaplain of the Thirty-fifth
Regiment, made an interesting and eloquent speech. He par-
ticularly urged upon the people the erection of a monument
to the deceased soldiers of Weston, either upon the cemetery
in which they are buried, or in some other locality. His
remarks were to the point and were well received. We learn
that Mr. Bowen has just accepted a call to become the pastor
of the Mt. Pleasant Church, Roxbury.

Col. Hudson was then introduced. He was attached to
the Thirty-fifth Raiment during the whole period of its ser-
vice. He gave a highly interesting and very favorable account
of the soldiers from Weston. He knew them all. They were
under his eye, and he would vouch for it that on no occasion
had any one of them ever skulked his duty. He particularly
complimented Capt. Patch, of Weston, who at his instance,
was promoted to the rank of Captain.

Capt. Lathrop was next introduced. He had, at one time,
been connected with the Thirty-fifth Regiment, and said that
he could confirm everything that had been said by Col. Hud-

21

son in commendation of the soldiers of Weston. He paid a
high compliment to the ladies of the town for their valuable
services in providing for the wants of the soldiers while in the
field.

Capt. Patch, of Weston, was called upon. He was received
with great enthusiasm as a Weston man and a Weston soldier.
He returned his thanks to the ladies of the town for the inter-
est they had manifested in their behalf while in the camp and
upon the field. He had often had occasion to feel proud that
he was from a town whose citizens showed so much zeal for
the welfare of the soldier. It had nerved them for the battle,
and had helped them to gain the victory.

Mr. Levi Warren, of Salem, but a native of Weston, made
a good speech. He said it was predicted that, after the wars
of Cromwell, in England, the return of so^many soldiers edu-
cated to battle might demoralize the community. But the
prediction was not verified. He trusted it would not be veri-
fied with us. We have to regret that some of those who went
out to join our armies return not to their friends. But if
none had been lost, our four years of war would have been
one long gala-day, of no importance in the history of the
world, and lost to all of romance or of intensity of interest
with us.

J. F. B. Marshall, the Chairman of the' Committee of
Arrangements, was called upon. He said that since he had
seen Gen. Grant, who did not make speeches, he had|made up
his mind that he would not. But instead" of that he would
read a letter from the Hon. A. H. Bullock :

Worcester," August 18, 1865.

My Dear Sir: — I greatly thank you for the kind invitation to be
present at the memorial service in Weston on the 22(1 instant.

Nothing could give me greater pleasure than to attend, but unfortun-
ately I must that very day go up to Royalston, — my native town. — to
deliver an address on the next day on the centennial anniversary of the
town.

I pray you, my dear sir, to cxpres.s^to the citizens of "Weston, and
especially tho gallant survivors who have returned from the war, my sym-
pathy with the occasion and with the exercises.

22

Middlesex, in the first and last war of Liberty, holds a pre-eminent
place in the public annals ; and there is no part of the noble county that
has been mote prompt or patriotic than your own town. The memory
of the Thirty-fifth Regiment is rendered doubly endeared by the fall of
Major Willard and so many of his comrades in one of the bloodiest
engagements of the service.

I regret that I cannot meet with you, and remain

Most Truly Yours,

Alex. H. Bullock.
Col. J. F. B. Marshall.

JosiAH RuTTER, EsQ., of Waltham, then being introduced,
made the following remarks. He referred to Frederick Hews,
as one of the Weston soldiers whom he knew as a high-
minded, noble, patriotic young man. He went to the war
from a sense of duty, and died in the service of his country.
More fortunate than many of his comrades, his remains now
rest beneath the sod of his native village.

He also spoke of Major Willard, with whom Weston was his
adopted soldier home. He was possessed of abilities which, in
a professional or literary career, might have made him conspic-
uous. Fortunate in his social relations, connected by marriage
with a family and name which will long be remembered by
the inhabitants of Weston and of our county, with a brilliant
present and a still more brilliant future before him, he 'left all
for the uncertain chances of the battle. He lost ; he won ;
he fell ; he rose, — to take his place with the many times ten
thousand martyrs by whose blood has been purchased the fair
heritage of freedom left to us and our posterity.

Alonzo S. Fiske, Chief Marshal of the Day, was introduced
and made some interesting remarks in reference to the enlist-
ing of the soldiers on the different calls from the President.
Many times the authorities of the town had desponded. But
they had persevered, and, aided by the encouragement af-
forded them by the citizens, they had succeeded in meeting
the demands of the Government.

Capt. Draper, of Wayland, was called upon, but said that
so many good things had been said he did not like to add to
them.

23

At the close of the speaking, a motion was made that three
rousing cheers be given for the Rev. Mr. Topliff for his
valuable services during the war. Upon this the reverend
gentleman rose and begged of the audience to delay their
cheers until he had completed his work ; whereupon, the
motion was made and carried to give him three cheers now
and nine when his work was done.

Others were called upon to speak, but the hour had arrived
to separate, and the Exercises were brouglit to a close, having
enjoyed one of the most pleasant occasions that ever took
place in the town, saddened, however, by the memory of the
martyrs beloved and brave whom their friends and townsmen
were permitted to meet no more.

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