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Volume 4, Number 1 Fall 2009 The South Danvers Observer “In These Imperiled Times” The South Danvers Observer have issued an Extra, is published quarterly. [regarding the conflicting ““““WWWWeeeerrrreeee iiiitttt lllleeeefffftttt ttttoooo mmmmeeee ttttoooo reports on whether or not war ddddeeeecccciiiiddddeeee wwwwhhhheeeetttthhhheeeerrrr wwwweeee sssshhhhoooouuuulllldddd hhhhaaaavvvveeee aaaa Written by had begun] but from the belief ggggoooovvvveeeerrrrnnnnmmmmeeeennnntttt wwwwiiiitttthhhhoooouuuutttt nnnneeeewwwwssssppppaaaappppeeeerrrrssss,,,, Nancy Barthelemy, Archivist that we should have to issue oooorrrr nnnneeeewwwwssssppppaaaappppeeeerrrrssss wwwwiiiitttthhhhoooouuuutttt aaaa another to contradict the first. ggggoooovvvveeeerrrrnnnnmmmmeeeennnntttt,,,, IIII sssshhhhoooouuuulllldddd nnnnooootttt Published by the hhhheeeessssiiiittttaaaatttteeee aaaa mmmmoooommmmeeeennnntttt ttttoooo In a very few days we shall be Peabody Institute Library pppprrrreeeeffffeeeerrrr tttthhhheeee llllaaaatttttttteeeerrrr....”””” able to get at the truth of the whole matter.” Inside this issue: TTTThhhhoooommmmaaaassss JJJJeeeeffffffffeeeerrrrssssoooonnnn,,,, 1111777788887777 Getting at the truth of the whole matter was, after all, the Dr. George Sterne 2 Osborne, 1839-1901 —-Newspapers weren’t responsible reason for any newspaper. for the American Revolution, but How to provide the Wizard’s Dr. George Sterne 3 they played a vital role in fanning subscribers with accurate Osborne, 1839-1901 the flames of rebellion. Though the information was soon solved. In (Continued) papers of the 18th century looked the following issue, on April 24, nothing like those of today, they 1861, a letter written by 17 “In These Imperiled 3 Times” (Continued) were still vital for the freedom of Charles D. Howard, publisher of year old Moses Shackley, a an emerging country. And yet, at the South Danvers Wizard private in the 8th the time of the Revolution, there Massachusetts Infantry, was The Unknown Soldiers 4 of South Danvers, were only 40 newspapers in the With the outbreak of the Civil War, published in the Wizard. Joseph Smith and colonies. though, the Wizard, like every other Written in haste, its few lines Thaddeus Allen As the Industrial Revolution small paper faced a crisis. How could hinted at the riot in Baltimore transformed American society, so, they give their readers what they which caused the deaths of too, it altered the methods for the hungered for? four soldiers from the 6th production of newspapers. By A glimmer of the difficulty facing Massachusetts Regiment on 1860, there were papers in every the people in towns like South April 19th. major city, as well as many smaller Danvers was revealed in the April During the next four years, towns. 17th, 1861 issue of the Wizard, in letters from a number of South Despite these changes, it was which the attack on Fort Sumter was Danvers soldiers were public demand for up-to-date and announced. published in the Wizard. And accurate information during the “Not a few regarded the though the men described Civil War that brought about the intelligence [referring to the everything from the endless greatest development in the press. telegrams which arrived in the town marches, to their boredom in Larger publications, such as on Sunday April 14th] as unreliable camp, to the terror of battle, The New York Times and Frank and refused to give credit to it. On the very act of agreeing to be Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Monday it became confirmed by later published seemed to cause could afford to pay field reporters intelligence, and all were reluctantly them to censor their words. and artists to follow the troops and forced to give it credence.” More often than not, Union send articles and illustrations of Both Fitch Poole, the editor of the losses were reported as the battles back home to their paper, and Charles D. Howard, its victories. Perhaps they wished subscribers. Not so small-town publisher, felt the weight of to conceal the truth of those papers like the South responsibility to provide their early losses. Perhaps they Danvers Wizard. Their articles, subscribers with timely reports. “The didn’t want to worry their written by the publisher and greatest anxiety,” Poole stated on families. Or maybe they were Fitch Poole, editor of editor, focused on local events of April 17, 1861, “has been . . . to following orders. the South Danvers Wizard interest to their readers. obtain the latest news, and we would (Continued on Page 3) Page 2 Dr. George Sterne Osborne 1838-1901 —-While Dr. George Sterne Osborne wasn’t young men he met that year. Not only he entered immediately after one of the Wizard’s earliest correspondents, was his class of 1860 the first from graduating from Harvard College. As nor its most frequent, his letters are among Harvard with more than one hundred part of his training, he volunteered in the most compelling. As an Assistant graduates, but well over half of his the hospitals for black refugees at Fort Surgeon with the 1st Massachusetts classmates entered the war. Out of Monroe and Mill Creek in Virginia as an Calvary, he was at the battles at the 110 who graduated with him in Acting Assistant Surgeon. It was during Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, 1860, 61 went on to enlist in the army. this time he penned his first letter as well as dozens of others throughout Of those, 14 were killed in battle. home, which his parents offered to the Virginia from 1863 to 1865. Among George’s classmates was Wizard. After he completed his medical It is uncertain whether Dr. Osborne Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded training in 1863, he immediately actually suggested that entries from his the first African American regiment volunteered with the 1st journal should be published in the Wizard. from this state. Massachusetts Calvary. More likely, it was his parents who allowed It’s impossible to discover how well Though the letter sent home during portions of the diary he mailed home to be George knew Shaw, but there is no his medical training and the journal printed in the newspaper. These were doubt they were acquainted. Robert entries published in the Wizard hint at published under the title, Life in the Saddle. Gould Shaw’s parents were among the the extent of his work with the Dr. George S. Osborne was the youngest most prominent families in Boston. wounded, Osborne, like most of the child of Dr. George and Sarah Waters Included in their friends were Senator Wizard’s correspondents, maintained (Whittredge) Osborne. He graduated from Charles Sumner, William Lloyd an optimistic attitude. Perhaps his Peabody High School in 1855, the first class Garrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne and parents edited portions of his journal to be awarded the Peabody Medal. When he Ralph Waldo Emerson. before they allowed them to be left for Harvard College in 1856, it is While the Osbornes of South published. More likely, though, doubtful he, or anyone else, could have Danvers weren’t as wealthy or Osborne edited his own entries, imagined what lay in the future for the prominent as the Shaws of Boston, especially if he gave permission for his neither were they unknown. Dr. parents to read them. It is doubtful he Osborne Sr. served as the president of would wish to worry his parents or the Warren Bank, the Treasurer of the friends by revealing the enormous Peabody Institute and was twice number of casualties or the struggle of nominated in the race for Lieutenant the surgeons to maintain sanitary Governor for the state. conditions in the hospitals. George might have come from a According to Dr. Thomas A. less lofty position in society than McParlin, Medical Director for the Army Robert Shaw, but they were the same of the Potomac, the conditions at the in one vital way. In the actions they hospital at City Point, Virginia, where took for the cause of African Osborne worked for part of the war, Americans. Their paths toward that were horrific. cause, however, were as different as “The inmates of the hospitals they were. experienced great annoyance from Robert Gould Shaw couldn’t wait dust, and from the swarms of flies for the war to begin before enlisting. which seemed to spring up Having always been something of a everywhere. For the first evil there rebel, he decided to join the 7th could be but little remedy. A large Regiment of the New York Militia in number of mosquito bars procured early April 1861. As he and many and distributed served to abate the others suspected, the war began soon latter. . ..the capacity of the hospital after. At his parents’ urging, he tents when properly filled amounting to accepted a commission as a 4,500 beds, while 6,000 men were Lieutenant for the 2nd Massachusetts present. . .” Infantry on May 11, 1861. After During Osborne’s service with the Part of the African American Civil War surviving the battles of Cedar 1st Massachusetts Calvary, he Memorial, where Dr. George S. Osborne’s Mountain, Bull Run and Antietam, he witnessed the battles of name is inscribed. was offered his own command. That of Chancellorsville, Rapidan Station, (Photo from Flickr.com) the first African American regiment Gettysburg, Williamsport and many from Massachusetts, the 54th others. And though it is unlikely he Massachusetts Infantry. could have known they were there, two George’s path into the war took him of his classmates from Harvard were through Harvard Medical School, which (Continued on Page 3) Page 3 Dr. George Sterne Osborne, 1838-1901 (Continued) (Continued from Page 2) “I could see two lines of skirmishers about a killed at Gettysburg. hundred yards in front of me, firing at each George rose quickly from Assistant Surgeon to full other, and could distinctly with my glass see Surgeon. But when Massachusetts formed the 5th the rebels running a gun up the side of a hill Massachusetts Calvary (Colored), the state’s first and putting it into position. This opened very and only African American Calvary, Osborne quickly, and my position proving too good a volunteered. mark—as several shells burst near, and solid Massachusetts was an Abolitionist state, but not shot struck into the ground on both sides of all viewed those who offered to serve in colored me—I moved back toward a house in the rear, regiments with favor. As one of Osborne’s and just as I was nearing it word was brought classmates, William Eliot Furness, stated, there were to me that Sergeant Reed, Co. E was wounded. many who believed “commanding negroes was an I immediately returned and found him with his insult [which should be] repudiated with scorn.” right leg completely shattered by a round shot. Furness knew this attitude better than most. He . . .He was taken back to the house, and I himself had volunteered to serve with the 3rd U.S. returned with him, as quite a number of men of Colored Infantry. other regiments had been wounded and taken While serving as Surgeon for the 5th there. . . The sergeant’s leg was amputated by Massachusetts Calvary (Colored), George Osborne the flap operation. . . . At Cedar Mountain, I aided in the transfer of thousands of sick and caught up with the regiment. . . When the first wounded from City Point, Virginia to the north. He three guns opened I was standing on the side finished out his service in September 1865. of the road. . . watching the skirmishing taking The toll upon him was severe and he needed time place about a 100 yards in front, and for his own recuperation. After returning home for a happened to look directly at the position of the while, he later traveled to Europe, both to study in battery. . .and almost instantaneous a shell Vienna and Paris, but also to rest. Upon his return, passed 20 feet over my head to the left. . .. I he married Sarah Pollard Vanbrunt from Dedham. therefore rapidly retired from that position. But They lived with his parents at 19 Main Street, even after going about a quarter of a mile I where he practiced medicine with his father. George found I could not get out of range without going and Sarah had four children, Elizabeth, Henry, Agnes so far as to be out of range of the regiment, and George Ralph. He served on the school board therefore halted at the reserve post . . .Here I and as a director of the Warren National Bank. After remained but a short time as I was soon called his wife’s death in 1894, George went to live with his back to see a man who had been hit in the daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Francis A. head by a shell. While visiting him in the woods, Doggett on Lynde Street in Salem, until his death in the firing was very sharp, the shot striking all 1901. around my position, one shell bursting In 1999, George S. Osborne’s name was vertically over my head but providentially, I added to the African American Civil War Memorial in received no injury.” Washington, D.C. From September 16, 1863 letter from Dr. George S. Osborne “In These Imperiled Times” (Continued) (Continued from Page 1) What these men couldn’t conceal, however, were their own beliefs regarding race. South Danvers had long been known as a staunch supporter of Abolition. While a good number of the men who volunteered to fight in the war echoed those sentiments, many others did not. And it is in the pages of a local newspaper, such as the South Danvers Wizard, that a mirror is found which reflects a typical Massachusetts town’s conflicted and contradictory beliefs regarding race during the Civil War. The Unknown Soldiers of South Danvers, Joseph Smith and Thaddeus Allen —-When the Civil War began, few, if any, of those in South Danvers looked to slavery as the primary cause of the war. Volunteers served because they believed the south had betrayed the Union. Until the early part of the 20th century, it had been referred to the War of the Rebellion for a good reason. Emancipation, when it was discussed, “We have so frequently stated that, continued to be controversial. Especially when it came to in our view, the sole object of this the subject of accepting African Americans into the war is to quell the existing rebellion, and not to emancipate the slaves, military. Just weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation, the that it is wholly unnecessary to first regiment of African Americans was formed, the 1st repeat it except to anticipate the Kansas Colored Volunteers. By the end of the war, there occurrence of events which may were 161 United States Regiments of African Americans, compel the government to favor as well as dozens other state regiments. One tenth of all emancipation. . . If the rebels choose the troops who served in the Civil War were African still to continue the war, emancipation may come as an American. South Danvers census records from 1860 indicate a incident of it. It will then become nearly 100% white town. The only two African Americans their act and not ours. . .We can living here were Emily and Martha Lewis who worked for wholly wash our hands of the effects Sylvester Osborn. However, by 1864 two African of the act. . .we do not look for American men, Joseph Smith and Thaddeus Allen, immediate peace but for a long and bloody struggle. . . yet it will be a arrived looking for work. Thaddeus Allen was born about 1847 in Mississippi. shorter one . . . if the government is His father was born in Maryland and his mother in required to carry on the war and Virginia. The only evidence of Thaddeus Allen’s time in protect slavery at the same time.” South Danvers is found from his enlistment record, when he joined the 58th Infantry, United States Colored Troops South Danvers Wizard June 11, 1862 on March 11, 1865 at the age of 18. Though it must have been a grueling journey from Mississippi to Massachusetts, it isn’t hard to imagine why Thaddeus would travel so far to enlist in the fight against slavery. Most of his service was spent on guard duty in Natchez, Works consulted for this Mississippi. After the war, he returned to Mississippi newsletter: where he worked as a preacher. He and his wife Lorrette, —-South Danvers Wizard, had a son Elijah in 1879. 1859-1868. Joseph Smith was born about 1830 in Missouri. He —Harvard University in the arrived in town sometime between 1863 and 1864 and War of 1861-1865 by is listed in the 1864 South Danvers tax records as Francis H. Brown, 1886. —Israel on the owning $600 in property. In Missouri, he had worked as Appomattox by Melvin a farmer and when he arrived here, he hired himself out Patrick Ely, 2004. as a laborer. On March 8, 1865, he volunteered for the —Record of the 6th Regiment, United Stated Colored Heavy Artillery. The Massachusetts unit served primarily in Mississippi and Louisiana. The Volunteers, 1861-1865. regiment fought in several skirmishes, but most of their Volumes I and II, 1870. service was spent in garrison duty in Natchez and —Military Essays and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Not long after Joseph’s Recollections, 1891 enlistment, he died in a Vicksburg, Mississippi hospital —War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the on May 17, 1865. Union and Confederate Both Thaddeus Allen’s and Joseph Smith’s names Armies. Vol. 36. 1891. were inscribed on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1999. For more articles and information, go to: www.peabodylibrary.org/history/index.html