Massachusetts in the American Civil War
In terms of war materiel, Massachusetts, as a leading center of industry and manufacturing, was poised to become a major producer of munitions and supplies.
Massachusetts played a major role in the causes of the American Civil War, particularly with regard to the political ramifications of the antislavery abolitionist movement.
[4] Antislavery activists in Massachusetts sought to influence public opinion and applied moral and political pressure on the United States Congress to abolish slavery.
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879), of Boston began publishing the antislavery newspaper The Liberator and founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831, becoming one of the nation's most influential editors and abolitionists.
In 1856, Sumner delivered a scathing speech in the United States Senate at the criticizing and insulting pro-slavery southern Democrat politicians.
While passing through Baltimore on April 19, 1861, the 6th Massachusetts was attacked by a pro-secession mob and became the first volunteer troops to suffer casualties in the war.
[15] As the initial rush of enthusiasm subsided, the state government faced the ongoing task of recruiting tens of thousands of soldiers to fill federal quotas.
The men of the 28th Massachusetts saw action in most of the Union Army's major eastern theater engagements, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the Siege of Petersburg.
With the Emancipation Proclamation in effect as of January 1, 1863, Andrew saw the opportunity for Massachusetts to lead the way in recruiting African-American soldiers.
[18] After securing permission from President Lincoln, Andrew, black abolitionist Frederick Douglass and others recruited two regiments of African American soldiers, the 54th and the 55th Massachusetts Infantries.
He gained the endorsement of Boston's elite by offering the regiment's command to Robert Gould Shaw, son of prominent Bostonians.
The 54th Massachusetts won fame in their assault on Battery Wagner on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor, during which Col. Shaw was killed.
Born in Hadley, Massachusetts and a graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, he served in the Regular Army during the Mexican–American War.
[20] Transferred to the Department of the Cumberland, he commanded the XI and XII Corps during several western campaigns and distinguished himself during the Battle of Lookout Mountain.
In this capacity, Banks led the successful and strategically important Siege of Port Hudson in the summer of 1863, but also the disastrous Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864, which he commanded under protest.
[25] Other important generals from Massachusetts included Maj. Gen. Darius Couch, who commanded the II Corps and the Department of the Susquehanna, Maj. Gen. John G. Barnard, who organized the defenses of Washington, DC and became Chief Engineer of the Union Armies in the field, and Maj. Gen. Isaac Stevens, who had graduated first in his class at West Point and commanded a division of the IX Corps.
[28] Another key source of war materiel was the Watertown Arsenal, which produced ammunition, gun carriages and leather military accouterments.
The few Massachusetts shipbuilders who received government contracts for the construction of iron-clad, steam powered warships were those who had invested in iron and machine technology before the war.
[32] Although army officials were dubious about the use of female nurses, Dix proceeded to recruit many women who had previously been serving as unorganized volunteers.
An influential minister, born and raised in Boston, Bellows went to Washington in May 1861 as head of a delegation of physicians representing the Women's Central Relief Association of New York and other organizations.
The Sanitary Commission, established by President Lincoln on June 13, 1861, provided nurses (mostly female) with medical supplies and organized hospital ships and soldiers' homes.
[35] Clara Barton, a former teacher from Oxford, Massachusetts and clerk in the U.S. Patent Office, created a one-woman relief effort.
In the summer of 1861, in response to a shortage of food and medicine in the growing Union army, she began personally purchasing and distributing supplies to wounded soldiers in Washington.
[43] After the war, senators Sumner and Wilson would transform their pre-war antislavery views into vehement support for so-called "Radical Reconstruction" of the South.
As early as 1867, however, a national backlash against Radical Republicans and their sweeping civil rights programs made them increasingly unpopular, even in Massachusetts.
[46] When Sumner attempted in 1867 to propose dramatic reforms, including integrated schools in the South and re-distribution of land to former slaves, even Wilson refused to support him.
Conceived by composer Patrick Gilmore, who had served in an army band, the celebration was held in a colossal arena in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood designed to hold 100,000 attendees and specifically built for the occasion.
