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Joseph Pierce: The Civil War Service of a Connecticut Chinese

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The American Civil War was first and foremost a clash between Americans in the North and the South. But it still attracted a large contingent of foreign nationals, fighting for both sides. German, Irish, English, Scots, Welsh, Polish, French, Italian, Scandinavian, Canadian, Mexicans, Hawaiians, Native Americans and even Chinese joined the fight. Most, but not all, fought for the Union. The names and stories of men like Joseph Pierce tend to get pushed aside in the narrative of a war fought, after all,  over the issue of slavery.

Joseph Pierce was born about 1842 in Guangdong, Qing Empire (modern China). However, both his real name, and the exact date of his birth are unknown. Pierce himself claimed his birth date as Nov. 16, 1842. What is known about his early life begins in 1853 when an American ship captain from Berlin, Conn., named Amos Peck somehow “acquired” him. He either paid the boy’s father $6 or the paid boy’s older brother considerably more.

The trade in “coolie” labor (literally “bitter labor”) had reached its height at the time. In 1855, the British and Chinese governments banned the trade. They left it, not surprisingly, to the slave-trading United States to dominate it. Probably the family viewed the boy as an added burden, and they saw a way to ease the burden and get some needed money.

Chinese indentured servant (“Coolie”) being whipped aboard ship. Harper’s Magazine, 1864.

Becoming Joseph Pierce

While the buying and selling of human beings is slavery, that was not to be the case for the young Chinese. Exactly why Captain Peck took the boy is not known. But what is clear is that the relationship was not one of master and slave or indentured servant.

Given Captain Peck’s future conduct, it is clear that he saw it his duty to “rescue” the boy and offer him a better life. The 9-10-year-old Chinese boy joined the ship’s crew – not all that unusual for a boy of that age. Probably because the crew could not pronounce his name, they took to calling him “Joe,” and by default that became his first name. His last name, “Pierce,” apparently evolved from the fact that Franklin Pierce served as president of the United States in 1853.

When Captain Peck and the now Joseph Pierce arrived back in Connecticut, the family treated Joseph not as a possession but as one of them. He attended school and went to church with the family.

The United States had no immigration laws during most of the 19th century in America, and the individual states mostly decided on citizenship status.

All in the Family

There is no indication that Pierce had any real problems integrating into the Connecticut society in Berlin. Peck, still a ship’s captain, left for long periods on voyages. If Pierce was to be accepted or rejected as a family member, these long absences offered an opportunity for either one. But Peck’s wife Eliza, took, Joseph into the fold. She taught him to read and write. Along with the rest of his new brothers and sisters, she sent him to school.

Interestingly, Peck’s voyages to China kept him involved in the coolie trade. However, he was swiftly becoming disgusted by its brutality. In fact, the only real difference between the African slave trade and the coolie trade was the color of the skin of the “cargo.”

Illustration of the port of Amoy, where many Chinese labourers were shipped to foreign lands.

Pvt. Joseph Pierce

When the Civil War began in 1861, Joseph Pierce was now about 19 years old and thoroughly Americanized. He undoubtedly would have followed the progress of the fighting. Most likely he would have seen at least a couple of the young men he knew enlist. Then on Aug. 23, 1862, the 14th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment mustered at Camp Foot near Hartford.  On Aug. 26, 1862, Joseph Pierce enlisted in the regiment at New Britain, in Company F, as a private for a three-year term. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as 5’ 5” tall, with dark hair, black eyes and, not surprisingly, a dark complexion. When Pierce enlisted, the 14th Connecticut had already left for Washington, D.C., and he would have joined them there.

It should be remembered that in 1862, Blacks were not allowed to fight for the Union. The Union Army was white. But since Pierce joined along with other men and friends from the Berlin area, he would have been already accepted as part of the community and his origin overlooked.

Antietam

Less than a month later, on Sept. 16-17, 1862, the largely untrained 14th Connecticut and Joseph Pierce fought in the bloodbath at Antietam in its baptism of fire. The regiment’s monument at Antietam describes the action:

Advanced to this point in a charge about 9:30 A.M., September 17th , 1862, then fell back eighty-eight yards to the cornfield fence and held position heavily engaged nearly two hour; then was sent to the support of the first brigade of its division at the Roulette Lane two hours; then was sent to the extreme left of the first division of this Corps to the support of Brooke’s Brigade and at 5 P. M. was placed in support between the Brigades of Caldwell and Meagher of that Division overlooking ‘Bloody Lane,’ holding position here until 10 A. M. of the 18th when relieved.

Confederate dead lie in the “Bloody Lane” after the Battle of Antietam, 1862

At Antietam, the regiment lost 38 killed, 88 wounded and 21 missing. Antietam saw the greatest loss of American lives in a single day in history. It was a rude awakening to Joseph and the men of the 14th Connecticut to the realities of war. During the battle, Joseph fell while climbing over a fence, injuring his back. Sent to a Union hospital in Alexandria, Va., he stayed there off and on. At some point he worked as a hospital orderly. Then in May 1863, he rejoined his regiment, probably in time to participate in the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 1-5, 1863.

From Chancellorsville, the Army of the Potomac, including Pierce and the 14th Connecticut, began the Gettysburg Campaign. They followed Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia north into Pennsylvania. The regiment arrived at Gettysburg on the evening of July 1, 1863 and went into line on Cemetery Ridge. Of the over 1,000 men who marched out of Connecticut in August 1862, only about 160 men were present for duty at Gettysburg less than a year later.

Gettysburg

About halfway between the Union line on Cemetery Ridge and the Confederate line on what is now Confederate Avenue, sat the 60-acre William & Adelina Bliss Farm. It did not take long for Confederate pickets to occupy the farmhouse and barn and begin serious sniping on the Union Line. The farm would change hands three times over the next day and a half as both sides tried to push the other back. Eventually, on the morning of July 3, the 14th Maine was ordered to take and hold the barn and house. But shortly after the order was given, it was modified, to allow them to burn the house and barn if it got too “hot.”

However the regiment had now charged several hundred yards under fire and had retaken the area, driving the Confederates back into the farm orchard. The first messenger with the new order was wounded. A second messenger, Sgt. Charles Hitchcock of the 11th New York, made his way through a gauntlet of fire with orders to torch everything. By now, the 14th Connecticut had discovered why it was so difficult to hold on to the buildings. The barn was poorly sited to take the house under effective fire with no firing ports facing the house, and the house itself was more a bullet sieve than a place of cover.

Getting the new order, the regiment put the house and the barn to the torch and fell back to their line on Cemetery Ridge under rifle and cannon fire, taking their 20 dead and wounded with them. The respite would be short lived since sometime after noon – no one knows the exact time – the Confederates started their bombardment of Cemetery Ridge in prelude to the grand charge.

A Soldier of Commendable Bravery

An article written by Chenyu Zhang, entitled “’A Soldier of Commendable Bravery and Pluck:’ Joseph Pierce’s Struggle for Citizenship” describes his actions at Gettysburg as follows:

Pierce went out first on the skirmish line on July 2, and volunteered for the attack on the Bliss farm on July 3. Upon capturing the Bliss farm, Pierce and his men struggled to capture the house as the rear of the barn provided no openings to shoot from. ‘[The men] had received orders to capture the buildings ‘to stay’ and the faithful men know no other course than to obey commands’ The detail returned triumphant with the building set aflame behind them…The day was far from over and Pierce would help repulse Pickett’s Charge…

The Union Line under Confederate bombardment at Cemetery Ridge

For Pierce and the Union soldiers all along Cemetery Ridge, waiting for an attack that all knew was coming would have been a form of mental torture. Over 100 Confederate guns began a two-hour bombardment of the Union line, primarily aimed at Union gun positions. Fortunately for the Union, the Confederate artillery was badly manned and aimed. Most rounds were fired high. This, of course, was hindsight for the Union soldiers. So, at the time, the fear would have been very palpable when they had to sit for two hours listening to the deafening roar and crash of shells, unable to respond.

The 14th Connecticut

Joseph Pierce would have manned the low wall protecting the men of the 14th Connecticut as they huddled under the incessant Confederate cannon fire. It lifted as 12,000 Confederate troops began the mile-long charge wrongly referred to as Picket’s Charge. Picket’s Division was just one of several Confederate divisions involved, and the 14th Connecticut would fight on the right of the Union line. That included fighting elements of the 13th Alabama, 26th North Carolina and 14th Tennessee Regiments.

Zhang’s article goes on to say:

…Pierce ‘carefully stuffed his long queue down the back of his dirty uniform shirt and pulled lightly on the breech of his Sharp’s to double check its load.’ The breech-loading Sharp’s rifles allowed Pierce and his men to fire ‘so rapidly that the barrels became to hot to use, and they poured precious water from their canteens to cool the barrel.’ The Confederate lines broke quicker in front of Pierce’s regiment than anywhere else,…

Monuments to 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment (dedicated in 1884), 1st Massachusetts Sharp Shooters (dedicated 1886) and 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery (dedicated 1886) with other monuments in background on Hancock Avenue, at Gettysburg

The monument for the 14th Connecticut at Gettysburg states the following:

“The 1th C.V reached the vicinity of Gettysburg at evening July 1st, 1863, and held this position [on Cemetery Ridge] July 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The regt. took part in the repulse of Longstreet’s grand charge on the 3rd, capturing in their immediate front more than 200 prisoners and five battle-flags. They also, on the 3rd, captured from the enemy’s sharp-shooters the Bliss buildings in their far front, and held them until ordered to burn them. Men in action 160, killed and wounded 62.”

Cpl. Joseph Pierce

Fewer than 100 men were fit for duty on the morning of July 4 when the Confederates retreated. Joseph Pierce was one of the lucky ones.

When the fight ended, Pierce and other men were detailed to tend to the Confederate wounded lying in front of their position. The regiment held the position for one more night until it was evident that Lee had retreated. Then began a three-month movement following Lee back into Virginia. The 14th Connecticut saw minor action in the Bristoe Campaign on Oct. 9-22, 1863. It also saw some action in the Mine Run Campaign of Nov. 26-Dec. 2, 1863. Then the regiment went into winter quarters at Stoney Mountain, Va.

In the midst of all this, Joseph Pierce won promotion to corporal on Nov. 1, 1863.

Joseph Pierce, by William Hunt

When the war started, rank was generally more of a popular affair than one of skill and competence. By this stage of the war however, rank, particularly enlisted rank, almost always went to the ones most qualified to hold it. The rank of corporal is a leadership rank. Pierce’s promotion says much of his ability, leadership and courage under fire. It also clearly indicates racial prejudice was not an issue in the 14th Connecticut. It was the highest rank of any of the approximately 50 Chinese that served in the Civil War.

The Face of the Army

Then in February 1864, Corporal Pierce came down with acute rheumatism. The condition is described as: “…characterized by swelling, tenderness, and redness of many joints of the body. It is a part of rheumatic fever. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a similar condition that happens when the immune system attacks your own tissues and causes joint pain, swelling, and stiffness.” Sickness in various forms was a staple of Civil War camp life, and a greater killer and disabler than combat. Acute rheumatism would have made it almost impossible for Pierce to continue active campaigning. On Feb. 29, 1864, he was sent on recruiting duty, presumably back to Connecticut to refill the depleted ranks of the regiment. Again, Zhang notes: “On recruiting duty, Pierce became the face of the Union Army and the United States.”

Since by this time, the 14th Connecticut was in great need of new blood, the fact that Pierce was trusted as a recruiter speaks volumes for the regiments respect for his character over his color and origin.

Apparently, Pierce rejoined the 14th Connecticut in time to participate in Grant’s Overland Campaign. Pierce’s record is unclear after his return, but the 14th Connecticut fought in a series of fierce battles including the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Totopotomoy, and Cold Harbor. The regiment then went on to take part in the First Assault on Petersburg on June 15-18, 1864, and in many of the battles that evolved around the Siege of Petersburg until April 2, 1865, culminating in the assault and fall of Petersburg. Pierce and the 14th Connecticut took part in the Appomattox Campaign and were present on April 9, 1865 when Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.

The Grand Review

After the surrender, the regiment moved north, leading the 2nd Corps of the Army of the Potomac as it left Petersburg, marching through Richmond enroute to Washington, D.C. On May 23, 1865, Pierce and the 14th Connecticut took part in the Grand Review when 145,000 Union soldiers marched from the U.S. Capitol to the White House in celebration of their victory.

The Grand Review by Matthew Brady

Cpl. Joseph Pierce mustered out on either May 30 or 31, 1865. He then traveled with the regiment to Hartford, where the army formally released them from service.  A civilian once again, Joseph returned to the land and took up farming for a short time in New Britain. Sometime between 1865 and 1868 he became a naturalized citizen. Farming didn’t last long, and in 1868 he the New Britain Excise Tax List described him as a “peddler.” Another source indicates that he moved to Meriden and learned the trade of silver engraving over the next two years. He followed that profession for the rest of his life.

Joseph Pierce, civilian

Life for Joseph Pierce maintained a normal pace, unhindered by his race. Described by his friends and neighbors as very fashionable, a picture from the time shows a handsome young man immaculately dressed. He still had his distinctive pigtail. Keeping the pigtail clearly indicates that he did not attempt to hide his origins.

Sometime around 1875-early 1876, Pierce became acquainted with Martha A. Morgan, an 18-year-old American girl from Portland, Conn. And on Nov. 12, 1876, the Reverand R. S. Eldridge of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Branford married the couple. The union would produce two daughters and two sons.

Chinese Exclusion Act

Reflecting more current times, anti-immigration and racism again raised its ugly head in 1882. Congress that year passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Coolie Prohibition Act had been passed in 1862, meant at the time as an adjunct to anti-slavery acts since coolies were seen as forced labor. But it had not stopped Chinese from freely immigrating after the war. This large influx of Chinese now was seen as a problem. Up to 1882, the federal government did not control immigration, leaving it up to the states.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was the real start of a federal immigration system. The act was callously effective and basically stopped Chinese from entering the country for decades. In 1892 the act was broadened to require “certificates of residency,” the precursor to green cards, that required all Chinese, including naturalized Chinese, to register. For Joseph Pierce, it set a dangerous precedent, and a pretense reflected in modern times. Zhang’s article notes: “In 1894, four newspapers, including one from as far as Arizona territory, reported on Pierce’s fear of deportation. The New York Tribune states the following:

Joseph Piece, and American citizen of Meriden, Conn., has been in this country since he was 10 years old, served through the Civil War, and is now on the pension rolls, but as he was born in Canton, China, he has been ordered by the Internal Revenue Collector of Meriden to register as a Chinaman, under the Geray Act. Jospeh naturally objects, as he fears his registration may lead to deportation after May 1.”

Unlike modern times, however, Joseph’s adopted community rallied behind him and supported him. By 1900, the Meriden residents had convinced the federal government that Joseph was actually Japanese. The 1900 and 1910 census records reflect that, and list all his family as “white.”

Joseph Pierce, Proud Veteran

Joseph Pierce remained proud of his Civil War service for the rest of his life, attending several veterans’ reunions. Zhang’s paper states regarding one veteran’s reunion: “‘Joe’ was a great favorite with us, as was evident from the hearty, vociferous round of applause with which he was greeted by the boys as he entered the hall at our recent meeting, his bright eyes snapping and sparkling in his honest face as they were wont to years ago.”

Illness plagued Joseph’s last years. So, in 1907, he petitioned to increase his 1890 Civil War Service pension due to his medical problems. He died on Jan. 3, 1916, from influenza compounded by chronic bronchitis and the arteriosclerosis that had troubled him since 1864. He was buried in the Walnut Grove Cemetery in Meriden, Conn.

Joseph’s wife, Martha Morgan Pierce, died in 1926. The couple’s son Franklin Norris Pierce was born in 1882 and died in 1952. Their second son, Howard Benjamin Pierce, was born in 1884 and died in 1959. Their daughter Lula Edna Pierce’s birthdate in unknown but she died very young in 1895. Little is known about a fourth daughter, Edna Berta Pierce. It would appear that neither of the sons married.

Images: Monuments Mumper & Co, photographer. Monuments to 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment dedicated in , 1st Massachusetts Sharp Shooters dedicated 1886 and 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery dedicated 1886 with other monuments in background on Hancock Avenue, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania / Mumper & Co., Gettysburg, Pa. Gettysburg United States Pennsylvania, None. [Gettysburg, pa.: mumper & co., between 1886 and 1900] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2024640868/.

Union Line on Cemetery Ridge:(ca. 1887) Battle of Gettysburg. , ca. 1887. May 16. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003663828/.

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The Tragedy of Hartford’s Exploding Schoolhouse

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A celebration of the repeal of the despised Stamp Act turned tragic in Hartford, Conn., when six men died and dozens hurt in an exploding schoolhouse.

They were “young and newly married men” preparing a huge fireworks display to cap off the town’s big party. Church bells tolled, ships on the Connecticut River flew flags and cannons roared. A “general illumination” was to end the happy day.

Instead, some thoughtless boys, some scattered gunpowder and a little bit of fire resulted in catastrophe.

Stamp Act Repeal

Parliament had passed the Stamp Act in 1765 to help pay for the French and Indian Wars. The onerous tax – the equivalent of a day’s wage for most – met with violent protest. Riots and street protests broke out, and stamp collectors found themselves hanged in effigy or confronted by angry mobs. In Boston, rioters trashed the home of Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson.

Repeal of the tax in 1766 led to huge celebrations.

Rhode Island declared a day of Thanksgiving, Philadelphia illuminated houses and gave out free beer and New York shot off cannons and rang church bells. Boston erected an obelisk under the Liberty Tree with painted transparencies portraying allegories of different phases of the struggle against the Stamp Act.

In Connecticut, the General Assembly declared May 23, 1766, a day of rejoicing. Hartford, then a town of a few thousand people, decided a huge fireworks display would comprise the “general illumination.”

The Exploding Schoolhouse

A history of Hartford published in 1886 tells the story of the exploding schoolhouse.

A number of young gentlemen had come together to make sky-rockets in an upper chamber of the brick school-house, while the powder stored in the room below was being distributed to the militia. Two companies of soldiers had just received a pound for each man, when the powder scattered by this delivery was thoughtlessly set on fire by boys, and in an instant the building was reduced to a heap of ashes, and twenty-eight persons were buried in its ruins, six of whom died after being taken out of the crumbling mass, and the others were more or less injured.

Two hundred men rushed to the scene to search the rubble for the dead and injured. According to a report, “Many were so much burnt and disfigured that their relatives did not know them. In short the scene of joy was immediately changed to the most gloomy ever known in this place.”

Hadstone in Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground: “In Memory of Mr. Richard Bernham, Killed by ye Bloing up of ye School house June 1766 Aged 18 Years & 3 Months. Son to Mr. Elisha & Mrs. Sarah Bernham.”

It could have been worse. A minister reported that the men inside the schoolhouse had turned away a “considerable number of children” just before the explosion.

J.L. Bell, in his blog Boston 1775, published a list of the casualties from the 1836 book Connecticut Historical Collections, which in turn cited  the Connecticut Gazette of May 31, 1766.

Casualties

  • Levi Jones, John Knowles, (an apprentice to Mr. Thomas Sloan, blacksmith,) and Richard Lord, (second son to Mr. John H. Lord,) died of their wounds, soon after they were taken from under the ruins of the building.
  • William Gardiner, merchant, had both his thighs broken. [He died soon after.]
  • Samuel Talcott, Jun., very much burnt in his face and arms.
  • James Tiley, goldsmith, had one of his shoulders dislocated, and some bruises in the other parts of his body.
  • John Cook, Jun., had his back and neck hurt much.
  • Ephraim Perry, slightly wounded.
  • Thomas Forbes, wounded in his head.
  • Daniel Butler, (the tavern-keeper’s son,) had one of his ancles put out of joint.
  • Richard Burnham, son to Mr. Elisha Burnham, had his thigh, leg and ancle broke. [He was nineteen years old, and later died of his injuries.]
  • Eli Wadsworth, (Capt. Samuel’s son,) is much wounded and burnt, in his face, hands, and other parts of his body.
  • John Bunce, Jun., (an apprentice to Mr. Church, Hatter,) wounded in the head.
  • Normand Morrison, (a lad that lives with Capt. Tiley,) a good deal burnt and bruised.
  • Roderick Lawrence, (Capt. Lawrence’s son,) slightly wounded.
  • William Skinner, (Capt. Daniel’s son,) had both his thighs broke.
  • Timothy Phelps, (son to Mr. Timothy Phelps, shop-joiner,) had the calf torn off from one of his legs.
  • Valentine Vaughn, (son of Mr. Vaughn, baker,) had his skull terribly broken.
  • Horace Seymour, (son of Mr. Jonathan Seymour, Jun.,) two sons of Mr. John Goodwin, a son of Mr. John Watson, and a son of Mr. Kellogg, hatter, were slightly wounded.
  • Two molatto and two negro boys were also wounded.

Finding the Exploding Schoolhouse

The story of the exploding schoolhouse had been pretty much forgotten until Connecticut Explored ran a story by Shawn R. Dagle about it in the Summer 2025 issue.

“This is probably one of the most tragic accidents in the history of Hartford,” Dagle said in a press release. “At the time it was essentially a ‘national’ story, covered by newspapers from here to Virginia, yet today it is virtually unknown.”

Kathy Hermes publilsher of Connecticut Explored, and Shawn Dagle, with the tombstone of William Gardiner, a victim of Hartford’s exploding schoolhouse

Connecticut Explored and the Grating the Nutmeg podcast tell the fascinating, often untold, stories of Connecticut’s people, places and events. Click here for more information.

Images courtesy of Connecticut Explored, except for the teapot. 

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7 Fun Facts About April 19, 1775

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The date April 19, 1775 has been etched in the New England mind since it happened.

The storied events of the day started on April 18, 1775, around 9:30 p.m., when Paul Revere rode from Boston to Lexington, Mass., to warn John Hancock and Sam Adams the British were on their way to arrest them. He supposedly shouted “The British are coming,” only he didn’t, because he was British himself. Redcoats marched to Lexington, where patriot minute men lined up on the green. Someone fired a shot, setting off the American Revolution.

Then the redcoats marched to Concord, Mass., where they fought more patriots at Old North Bridge. The Lexington Alarm went out, and militia from neighboring towns shot up the retreating redcoats from behind stone walls.

Sort of.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Grant Wood

1. Paul Revere’s ride wasn’t that big a deal.

His obituary didn’t even mention it. The death notice featured his subsequent success as a businessman with many friends. The ride didn’t become famous until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about it many years later.

Revere, of course, had a lot of help. Not just Billy Dawes or Samuel Prescott, either. Approximately 40 riders set out that night to warn that “the regulars are out!”

The battle at the Old North Bridge in Concord

2. Concord and Lexington.

The question, “Where was the shot heard round the world fired?” surfaced in 1824. Then the Marquis de Lafayette visited all 24 states to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence. When he arrived in Lexington, people told him he’d reached the “birthplace of American liberty.” But then he went to Concord, where people told him the patriots made the “first forcible resistance” there.

That infuriated Lexington, having been deprived of “the honour of having raised the first standard of an armed opposition to the unjust and tyrannical measures of the mother country.”

So in 1825, the Lexington Town Meeting appointed a committee to publish a statement of facts about the April 19, 1775 affair, “as may be supported by undoubted testimony.”

From that testimony, Elias Phinney compiled a book. In it, he explained the confusion. Shortly after the battles, British Gen. Thomas Gage claimed the patriots fired the first shot. To refute that claim, witnesses in Lexington said the patriots hadn’t even fired.

But in the opening days of the war, Phinney wrote, no one wanted to admit that Lexington patriots had shot at British regulars. The outcome of the war was then far from certain, and militiamen identified as shooters could wind up on the gallows.

The argument went on for years. President Ulysses S. Grant in 1875 considered not showing up to the centennial celebration of April 19, 1775 because of the animosity between the two towns.

In 1894, Lexington petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature to proclaim April 19 as “Lexington Day.” Concord countered with a petition to call it “Concord Day.” Gov. Frederic T. Greenhalge came up with a compromise to honor the shot heard round the world: Patriots’ Day.

quarter-minute-man

The Minute Man

3. The “Shot Heard Round the World” wasn’t uttered until 1837.

The anonymous first shot fired in anger or fear on April 19, 1775 may be best described as the shot heard round the world, but no one described it as such for more than 60 years after it was fired.
A poet came up with that graceful turn of phrase.
In the days after the hostilities broke out in Massachusetts, the incident was just another dustup between a group of uppity Americans and the British soldiers tasked with keeping order in the North American colonies. Then, as the scale of the hostilities became more apparent, the skirmishes of Lexington and Concord were eclipsed by pitched battles that stretched from Boston and Saratoga to Trenton and Yorktown.

The news account of the Battle of Lexington and Concord reprinted in newspapers around the colonies was prosaic and perfunctory: A general battle ensued which, from what we can learn, was supported with great Spirit on both sides, and continued until the King’s Troops reversed to Charlestown, which was after sunset. Numbers are kill’d and wounded on both Sides.

The reports concerning this unhappy affair and the causes that concurred to bring on an engagement, are so various that we are not able to collect anything confident or regular, and cannot therefore with certainty give our readers any further account of this shocking introduction to all the miseries of a civil war.

The poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson considered the enormity of the day’s events. His grandfather had watched the fight at Old North Bridge from a second-story window at The Old Manse. His grandson lived in the house. That may be why he gave the world the phrase, “the shot heard round the world,” part of “The Concord Hymn.” A chorus sung the words at the official unveiling of a The Minute Man statue by Daniel Chester French on July 4, 1837 (President Grant did come after all). It was set to the tune of “The Old Hundred,” a French melody dating to the 1500s.

Emerson clearly sided with Concord as the birthplace of the American Revolution.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

thompson-maxwell-british-entering-concord

The British Entering Concord, by Amos Doolittle

4. The Weaponry Was So Lousy It’s Amazing Anyone Got Shot.

Some rudimentary math shows the unreliability of 18th century guns. The patriots, all told, started out with 77 men in Lexington and 400 in Concord. Then, when the Lexington Alarm sounded, their numbers swelled to 3,763, give or take. The British began with 700 regulars, but reinforcements brought their strength to 1,500.

Add in casualties: 49 patriots killed, 39 injured and five missing. The British suffered far worse casualties, mostly on the retreat: 73 killed, 174 wounded, 53 missing.

Historian Harry Schenawolf estimates the average patriot warrior fired off 18 rounds. That means, he wrote, that about 75,000 bullets were fired (making the battlefield a good spot for a metal detector). “Though weapons were fired at extremely close range, only one in fifteen patriots even nicked the shoulder of a redcoat,” wrote Schenawolf.

Jeremiah Lee, caught cold in a cornfield

5. Not all the deaths were caused by bullets.

Jeremiah Lee was one of the great lost leaders of the American Revolution. Lee, a Marblehead, Mass., shipping merchant, accumulated an enormous fortune. He owned a warehouse and wharf, a fleet of trading ships and fishing vessels, and he employed a great many sailors and tradesmen.

Lee believed British rule would soon ruin him and his fellow Marblehead merchants. So, he became a representative to the rebel Congress and began preparing for war. He imported cannons, powder and shot from Europe, and he established connections in Maryland and Virginia to buy war materiel. Lee also raised an interracial regiment of mariners and fishermen, and he would have led it had he lived. Instead, Col. John Glover took charge, and the Marbleheaders famously ferried Washington across the Delaware on Christmas Eve, 1776.

On the night of April 18, 1775, Lee met with his neighbor Elbridge Gerry, Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington. The men were plotting against the British. When Paul Revere warned the regulars were comng to arrest them (they weren’t), the men hid in a field overnight. New England weather being what it is, Lee developed pneumonia and died soon afterward – an early victim of the war.

shot-heard-round-the-world-reenactors

Reenactors on the march to Lexington to commemorate the shot heard round the world.

6. The U.S. Army Got Started at David Brown’s Farm.

Officially, the Army recognizes June 14, 1775 as its birthday. The Continental Congress that day authorized one-year enlistments of riflemen to form the Continental Army.

However, just west of the Old North Bridge, minute men and militia gathered at David Brown’s farm.  Together, in combat formation, they marched under orders toward the battle at the bridge. Today, the Stars and Stripes flies over what is now called the Muster Field. As an FYI, Minute men were highly mobile volunteers who trained more frequently; militia men were required by law to serve.

7. The Real Battle Took Place in Menotomy.

After the little skirmishes in Concord and Lexington, thousands of men from Eastern Massachusetts flocked to Menotomy, now Arlington. From behind trees and stone walls they shot at British troops. That battle resulted in 25 patriots and 40 British captured. Historian A. Michael Ruderman called Lexington an “accident,” Concord Bridge a “skirmish,” but Menotomy the “most brutal and deadly warfare of April 19, 1775.”

It took 230 years for Massachusetts to acknowledge one of the heroes of that battle–the oldest, bravest and craziest revolutionary.

Samuel Whittemore left his field in Menotomy, gathered his old weapons and positioned himself behind his stonewall.

When the regiment passed by, 78-year-old Samuel Whittemore stood and shot point-blank at a British regular with his musket. Then he took out his dueling pistols and shot two more soldiers to death.

The old farmer then grabbed his ornamental sword to fend off the British soldiers who swarmed over him. It didn’t go so well. The British shot him in the cheek, bayoneted him and beat him with the butts of their rifles.

When his family found him, they thought he was dead. But a doctor patched up Samuel Whittemore and he lived for another 18 years.

The Massachusetts Legislature declared him the official state hero in 2005.

* * *

Revolutionary War Sites in New England

 

Learn more Revolutionary history in this complete guide to Revolutionary War Sites in New England. Brought to you by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy in paperback, here to order an ebook.

 

 

 

 

Images: Reenactors By Jrcovert – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19639046. Minute_Man_Statue_Lexington_Massachusetts.jpg: w:User:Daderot derivative work: Hohum (talk) – Minute_Man_Statue_Lexington_Massachusetts.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9425447.

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WWII War Brides Invade America

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A year and a half after U.S. and British troops invaded Normandy on D-Day, another invasion took place. Tens of thousands of war brides from Britain and Europe rejoined their husbands in cities and towns throughout the United States. Herded onto ocean liners, they disembarked in New York City, hundreds at a time, and then, if they were lucky, their husbands met them and took them to their new home.

Within 11 months, 30 ships carried 100,000 European war brides to the United States.  Many led happy and fulfilling lives. But sometimes husbands didn’t show up in New York and their war brides had to take the return voyage. Sometimes that handsome GI in uniform turned out to be a drunk who lived in an unpainted shack and the marriage didn’t last.

The S.S. Argentina, a World War II bride ship

The military did its best to discourage wartime marriages. The brass thought fraternization would result in the spread of venereal disease, undermine discipline and cause bad PR if too many GIs abandoned their wives and babies.

But the military was fighting a losing battle. Millions of GIs, mostly young, single men, served for an average of 33 months in Europe, Africa and Asia. Love, marriage and war brides needing transportation were the inevitable outcome.

World War I Brides

The U.S. military had struggled with the problem of war brides during World War I. Though the American Expeditionary Force tried mightily to prevent soldiers from having sex and dating local women, it failed miserably. According to one estimate, 71 percent of doughboys had sex, and 10,000 got married. Three-fifths married French women.

Gen. John Pershing realized the military had to do something to bring war brides to their new homes. To leave them stranded in Europe, many with newborns, would reflect badly on the American fighting forces. And so, the brides and their children were sent to camps, examined, processed and lectured.  Then they boarded ocean liners and sailed to U.S. ports.

World War II War Brides

During World War II, the military first tried to prevent fraternizing just as it did in World War I. Newspapers and chaplains sermonized against getting involved with loose women. GIs stationed in Britain were given a 38-page handbook on getting along with the British people. The guide tried to dissuade the men from “special relationships” and especially marriage.

The U.S. War Department put obstacles in the way of wedding-bound GIs. A wartime regulation required overseas troops to get their commanding officer’s permission to wed. The groom-to-be had to fill out as many as 15 forms. It could take a couple a year to find out if they could or could not get married. At least one commanding officer refused to give permission to one GI, telling him to wait for an American girl.

Life Is Hard, America Is Rich

But American girls were an ocean away, and it was easy to meet local girls. Plus there were so many of them – an estimated four women for every man. War had decimated husband material.

American GIs dancing with British women

Life was hard in Europe, and Americans were rich. The English endured bombings, blackouts and rationing, eight ounces of meat and four ounces of butter a week. The French lived through the German occupation and most of them went hungry. There was no coal for heating, no fabric for sewing clothes, no leather for shoes. Gas was rationed, and only pregnant women and babies got milk.

The average GI earned $50 a month, nearly five times the British soldier’s $12 monthly pay. The British girls used to say American soldiers were oversexed, overpaid and over here. {Americans replied the British were undersexed, underpaid and under Eisenhower.}

Jacqueline Olive, a Parisienne, met her husband Charles Xindaris while he was stationed with the U.S. Army in France. He stopped on a street in Paris and asked her for directions. They fell in love and married at Paris City Hall.

Ronald Clark saw the beautiful Nell Louisa while playing the piano at a serviceman’s club in England. Their whirlwind romance culminated in 65 years of marriage.

Red With Kisses

The French people viewed the GIs as liberators, and chic French girls showered them with hugs and kisses. They seemed friendlier than the German occupiers, giving out chewing gum and candy and playing with the children. After D-Day, Norman French welcomed them into their homes.

French patriots enthusiastically greet U.S. troops

Because Marie Therese Mennechet spoke English, she was invited to a dance to honor the Allies who’d liberated her town, Quessy, from the Germans. There she met her future husband, Anthony J. Curcio. They soon married and she followed him to Hartford on a bride ship in 1946.

Some French women pursued American GIs. Amalio “Gio” Giovanniello, who belonged to Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army, met Paulette Limousin during the liberation of France. His company knocked on the door of her family home and asked if they could use the roof as a lookout. Paulette wrote Gio hundreds of letters from then on. They reunited and married.

Other French girls were taught to say “Peut-être après la guerre.” (“Maybe after the War…”)

Many couples married after a courtship that lasted a few weeks or months. In the bloodiest conflict in human history, young men and women didn’t know if they’d be alive the next day – or the next hour. That, plus the extreme passions aroused by war thrust many young couples together quickly. Dating carried the risk that one of them wouldn’t make it. Sylvlia Bradley, who worked in a London department store, fell in love with a well-to-do Bostonian named Carl Russell. He was killed in the D-Day invasion.

What To Do With the War Brides

When the war ended on Sept. 2, 1945, the military’s priority was to bring the 8 million GIs and war workers home quickly from four continents. The Roosevelt Administration launched Operation Magic Carpet with the motto, “Home Alive By ’45.”

GIs returning home from the Pacific aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise

Where that left war brides was anyone’s guess. Could they even enter the United States without visas? They weren’t citizens, and Congress had set immigration quotas from foreign countries.

Many war brides hadn’t seen their new husbands in a year, and they were told it might be another year before they saw them again.

In London, 500 war brides visited the U.S. Embassy every day, wanting answers. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited London in November 1945, a mob of brides protested outside her hotel, carrying signs reading “We Demand Ships” and “We Want Our Dads.”

Frustration

Husbands were frustrated by the delays as well. In December 1945, an American sailor named Herbert Lamoureux jumped off the USS Argentina in Plymouth Sound. He tried to swim 5 miles in icy waters to shore to see his English wife, Veronica, and their new baby. He nearly died.

Lamoureux, an ex-sergeant, was being sent home, but his wife couldn’t find a way to join him. When he heard she was pregnant, he applied for a visa to return to England, but he was denied.

So Lamoureux signed on as a messman on Argentina, hoping it would dock in Liverpool, his wife’s home. When the vessel docked in Plymouth, he tried to get off by posing as a passenger. He failed, and so after the ocean liner left for Le Havre he dived overboard, fully dressed.

After nearly drowning he managed to climb onto rocks near a lighthouse. He shouted for help and another vessel rescued him. Ten house later, police deposited the “vehemently protesting” Lamoureux aboard another vessel returning to the United States.

By January, Eleanor Roosevelt reported in her newspaper column, “I think the end of the confusion is in sight.” The Army was making arrangements for the war brides to sail to the United States.

On Dec. 28, 1945, Congress passed the War Brides Act, which allowed foreign women, except Indians and southeast Asians, to enter the US as non-quota immigrants. The military paid for the newlyweds and their children to sail to their new homes aboard converted troop transports known as Bride Ships.

War Bride Camps

But first, British war brides were sent to the Tidworth Camp in Salisbury Plain for processing. One group was told, “You may not like the conditions here, but remember, no one asked you to come.” They slept in large, cold dormitories and ate meals prepared by surly German and Italian prisoners of war. They had to line up, take off their clothes and let a doctor shine a light between their legs.  The war brides received lectures on life in the U.S. and instructions on travel.

Barracks at Tidworth Camp

Good Housekeeping magazine published a guide called “A Bride’s Guide to the U.S.A.” for British brides. It informed them that “apartment house” meant “block of flats,” “faucet” meant “tap,” “washcloth” meant “face flannel” and “drug store” meant “chemist.”

French war brides, along with some from other European countries, were sent to former army barracks called Bridal Camps. Staffed by the American Red Cross, YMCA, and YWCA, the camp secretaries were called Bridal Camp Commanders. The brides were processed, examined and instructed in American ways.

Most put up with it. In January, the SS Argentina set off with 452 war brides aboard, the first to take a group to the United States.

Hundreds at a time would disembark in New York to waiting husbands (they hoped) and news photographers.

In 1946, as many as 70,000 war brides arrived from the United Kingdom. Another 6,000 came from France.

Life in the USA

War brides weren’t always welcomed in their community. They carried stigmas, as adventuresses, carriers of venereal disease, threats to the American woman or gold diggers who got their claws into an American man to escape poverty-stricken Europe.

Americans frowned on French women after news photos showed French women kissing GIs when the 4th Armored Division drove into Paris. ”GI faces soon became red with lipstick,” the New York Herald Tribune had reported.

To cope with their strange new home, war brides formed War Bride Clubs. They helped each other find work and child care, consoled each other during bouts of homesickness and planned reunions in their home countries. The national War Brides Club estimates as many as 1 million war brides from 50 countries came to the United States between 1942 and 1952.

The Transatlantic Brides & Parents Association also formed to charter flights to take British war brides home to see their families. Still active throughout New England, it’s now open to anyone with British citizenship.

Happily Ever After

Jacqueline Olive, who met her husband when he asked directions in Paris, joined the local War Brides Club. She came to the States on the SS General George W. Goethals. The couple lived in Peabody, Mass., had two sons and worked together at Charles’ CPA firm in Salem.

Herbert Lamoureaux, the American sailor who jumped off the ocean liner to see his wife, ended up reuniting with her. They settled in Gardner, Mass., and had four more children.

Gio Giovanniello brought Paulette Limousin home to Brockton, Mass., where he became an architect who worked on the Jimmy Fund building. They had a long and happy marriage, a son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Many of the GIs who brought home foreign wives were themselves immigrants or the sons of immigrants.

Luisa Mauriello met the love of her life, Carmen Solomito, in Naples. When the war ended, they married, and she followed Carmen to Waterbury, Conn. They had three children and brought the rest of her family to America.

Dina Filippi was born in Italy but grew up in Paris. During the war she got a job as a secretary for the French government. She met an airman of Italian descent, Albert Catanio, near Orly Airport. They dated for a year and got married in France. Shortly after Albert was shipped home, Dina took a bride ship with 300 other newlyweds to New York. She and Albert lived happily in East Greenwich, R.I., for 69 years with two daughters.

Not All Worked Out

Some of the war brides were penniless and married soldiers who couldn’t afford to support them once they landed in America.

Sometimes the marriages just didn’t work out. In those cases, the war brides often didn’t come to the United States. Their husbands didn’t think they needed to support them.

Victor Mahair’s wife complained from England that she hadn’t heard from him since he’d returned to the United States six months after their marriage. Consular officials tracked him down in New Hampshire. He said he’d sent her money to join him, but she said she couldn’t leave her mother and sister. Mahair was Catholic and didn’t want a divorce, but he wouldn’t support her if she wouldn’t live with him.

One Happy Ending

The war forced Trix Whalen to give up her competitive swimming career, but she found it again in America.

As a young teenager, Beatrice Wolstenholme swam for England’s national team and won four gold medals at the Irish Taliteann Games and a bronze in the European Games. At 12 years old she qualified for the 1932 Olympics, but she was considered too young to participate.

She married Sgt. William H. Whalen at St. Cuthbert’s Church in Withington, England, in 1945. They made their home in New Bedford, Mass., where they had five children. She still swam, though, winning medals in New Bedford’s annual long-distance free-style swim events, beating out much younger male competitors.

She also ran the aquatics program and taught swimming at the YWCA for 25 years, where she belonged to the War Brides Club. Her former students often recognized her in the grocery store.

“It’s all to do with life, that. Isn’t it? It’s about unknown possibilities. Goals. Perseverance,” she told the Standard Times in 2002.

Images: S.S. Argentina By Boston Public Library Fred J Hoertz & Harry H Baumann – The Good Neighbor liners Argentina and Brazil, operated by Moore-McCormack Lines, sailing from New York to the East Coast of South America, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26243707

Bibb: Babcock, Robert O, Gary W Swanson, George R Bibb, and Inc Americans Remembered. George R. Bibb Collection. 1942. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.05683/.Tidworth

Lucknow Barracks By Andrew Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13009048.

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WHEN JUDGE CRATER WENT MISSING, ALL EYES TURNED TO MAINE

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On the evening of Aug. 2, 1930, New York Judge Joseph Crater and his wife, Stella, and their niece drove from their cabin on Great Pond for a night on the town at Belgrade, Maine.  Great Pond was one of the Belgrade Lakes, a chain of seven lakes in central Maine north of Augusta, where  the Craters were long-time seasonal residents.  That evening they went bowling and saw a film at the movie theater.

At one point, Crater excused himself to make a phone call, most likely from the public telephone in town.  When he returned to his wife and niece, he said something had come up, requiring him to make a quick trip to New York City.

Stella was surprised to hear this because he had just returned from the city that very morning, and he had planned to spend the next three weeks in Maine.

The next day, Crater took the overnight train to New York from Belgrade Lakes station. He promised to return to Maine by the following week in time for Stella’s birthday.

Belgrade railroad station, circa 1940

Stella never saw him again.

His sudden disappearance dominated the news for weeks and became part of the national folklore.  “To do a Crater,” was slang for disappearing.

The Mercurial Rise of Judge Crater

Joseph Crater was only 41 years old when he went missing, after a meteoric rise in New York politics.  Early in his law career he cast his lot with Tammany Hall, the corrupt Democratic political machine that controlled politics and the courts in New York City. The Tammany machine provided lawyers like Crater with lucrative public offices and influential clients. He caught the attention of political leaders in New York, including Gov. Franklin Roosevelt, who nominated him to fill a vacant position on the New York Supreme Court in 1930.  The New York State Senate unanimously agreed.  [Note: the New York Supreme Court is not the state’s highest judicial body, it is actually a trial court].

New York County Courthouse

He and Stella met while he was still in law school at Columbia; they married in 1917.  As her husband’s career blossomed, and his association with Tammany Hall deepened, the couple enjoyed the spoils of his success: a maid, a chauffeur, a Cadillac, an apartment on Fifth Avenue and the cottage in Maine.

Judge Crater’s Fifth Avenue apartment building

But there was something else.  Crater was a notorious womanizer.  He enjoyed the nightlife of Manhattan, often visiting nightclubs and speakeasys in the company of show girls and actresses. He was known around Broadway as “Good Time Joe.”  And he also had a longtime mistress, Connie Marcus, to whom he sent support checks since 1924.  In fact, he sent her a check from Belgrade Lakes on Aug. 2, 1930, the day before he left Maine to return to New York.

Return to New York

Once in New York, Crater seemed to carry on as usual.  He told his maid that he wouldn’t need her services at the Fifth Avenue apartment until Thursday, August 7, the day after he planned to return to Maine. He went to work in his office on Monday, lunched near his office building, and visited his doctor.  That evening he went to a play, followed by a night on the town at a club frequented by gangsters.  He lunched with colleagues on Tuesday, and later that night he played poker at a friend’s house.

By Wednesday, the August 6, Judge Crater’s behavior changed.  His law clerks described him as taciturn, unlike his gregarious self. He spent part of the morning riffling through papers in his office and removing two briefcases of documents, which he transported to his apartment.  He also asked one of his law clerks to cash two personal checks for him for substantial amounts.  Oddly, he told one clerk he was heading to Westchester to swim.

That night, he ate at one of his favorite restaurants, where friends later told police that he seemed “nervous,” “disturbed” and “depressed.”

Judge Crater Last Seen

Crater was last seen getting into a cab in Manhattan after eating dinner on the night of August 6, 1930. As the days went by with no word, Stella back in Maine grew increasingly worried about her husband. Her birthday came and went, but still no Joe.

Incredibly, for the next month, nobody reported Judge Crater missing!  Stella called several of her husband’s associates, and although nobody had seen Crater since August 6, they all assured her everything was fine and Joe would eventually show up. Most likely, they were worried that reporting him missing might affect his election campaign for a full term on the New York Supreme Court coming up in November.  That is, assuming he turned up alive.

Neither the police nor the public learned of Crater’s disappearance until September 3, when newspapers got wind of the story, a month after he left Maine to return to New York.  That’s one month of the trail turning cold.

Newspaper from around the country followed the missing Judge Crater story

On September 6, Stella, still in Maine, filed a missing person’s report with the New York Police Department (NYPD), and was visited the following day by a detective from the NYPD for informal questioning.  Stella during this time was distraught and bedridden.

Focus on Maine

By now, Crater’s disappearance became a national craze.  Sightings of the judge were reported in upstate New York, Vermont, Quebec, Maine, California and Arizona.  Many of these sightings were followed up by detectives from the NYPD, and all proved fruitless.

Maine, of course, was a logical search site, given Crater’s long-standing association with the state as a summer visitor.  Also, several witnesses who interacted with Crater in New York City between August 4 and August 6 later testified that he told them he would return to Maine after his business in New York was complete.  And there was his promise to Stella that he would return to Maine in time for her birthday on August 9.

The Portland Press-Herald reported on September 5 that Crater was suspected to be hiding at a cottage on Long Pond, one of the Belgrade Lakes chain, but that proved unfounded.

Later, reporters staked out the Craters’ cottage, based on a rumor that he would make an appearance there, but reported no sighting of the jurist.

The Kennebec County Attorney launched a grand jury investigation, and dispatched Capt. Joseph F. Young, Jr., the deputy chief of the Maine State Police, to Belgrade Lakes on September 19 to search phone records and to interview neighbors.  When Young appeared at the Crater cottage, two NYPD detectives had already arrived, conducting an unannounced interview with Mrs. Crater.  This rankled the Mainers, who apparently resented this intrusion on their turf.

Kennebec County, Maine. Great Pond is upper left.

The Judge Crater Case Closed

By September 23, the county attorney closed the case, as it pertained to Maine, pointedly telling the district attorney in New York that the still distraught Mrs. Crater was in no state for interviews. He also said the New York detectives sent earlier to interview Mrs. Crater should provide any information the New York DA might need.

Stella was clearly an uncooperative witness.  Her refusal to appear before the New York grand jury so irritated the DA there that he accused her of impeding the investigation.  But there was little he could do but complain.

An Enduring Mystery

Stella remained in Maine for the rest of the year, leaving the cottage in October for a hotel in Portland. The case and public attention now centered in New York.

By Jan. 9, 1931, a grand jury in New York issued a final inconclusive report about Crater’s disappearance and dismissed the jurors.  Crater would never be found, his disappearance a forever mystery.

Three years later, newspapers were still covering the story.

Stella stayed at the cottage at Belgrade Lakes throughout the summer of 1931, and the following year got a job as a telephone operator.  Strapped for cash, she was evicted from the Fifth Avenue apartment, but was able to hold on to the Maine cottage.  She eventually remarried in 1938, a year before Judge Crater was officially declared dead.  She and her new husband spent summers in Belgrade Lakes and winters in Waterville, before going their separate ways.  Leaving Maine forever, Stella moved to Brooklyn in 1950, and died in upstate New York in 1969.

End Notes

James F. Lee, the author of this story, is a freelance writer and blogger whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, and AAA Tidewater Traveler Magazine. He can be reached at www.jamesflee.com.

Sources:

Finding Judge Crater, Stephen J. Riegel, Syracuse University Press, 2022, accessed via Hoopla, 2/18/2025; Vanishing Point: the Disappearance of Judge Crater and the New York He Left Behind, Richard J. Tofel, Ivan R. Dee Publishing, 1957, accessed via Internet Archive, 3/2/2025; Portland Press Herald, (Portland, Maine), Sept. 5, 20, 24, 1930, and Biddeford-Saco Journal,  (Biddeford, Maine), Sept 11, 1930, accessed via Newspapers.com, Feb. 16, 2025.

Images:

Judge Joe Crater, half-length portrait, seated, facing front. , 1930. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2001695145/.

40 Fifth Ave., Crater’s home. New York Fifth Avenue, 1930. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004670149/.

Crater photo, circa. 1925, Anonymous from https://news.lafayette.edu/2011/04/14/looking-back-new-novel-suggests-fate-of-judge-joe-crater-class-of-1910/ {{PD-US}}; “Mystery Still Veils,” Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.), 02 Nov. 1930. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063730/1930-11-02/ed-1/seq-12/>;

“Link Mystery,” Lewiston Evening Journal, Nov. 15, 1933, p.1.  (Courtesy of Belgrade Historical Society, Belgrade, Maine); Belgrade Depot, (Courtesy of Belgrade Historical Society, Belgrade, Maine); Kennebec County map, (2025) Kennebec County Map, Maine – US County Maps.

New York County Courthouse By wallyg – Flickr.com, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1222205.

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Massachusetts Bay Militia Regiments, Forerunners of the Army National Guard

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On Dec. 13, 1636, the Massachusetts Bay Colony created four militia regiments.  This marked the birth of the Army National Guard.

Both Plymouth Colony (1620-1691) and Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-1691) immediately had small, part-time militia units (train bands) for their defense against indigenous tribes . Both militias relied on the English system, traceable to the Assize of Arms (1181), the Statute of Winchester (1285) and the Instructions for General Musters (1572).   Originally, each militia company consisted of all able-bodied men between 16 and 60 years, with some exceptions.  Someone with military experience controlled each company. For example, Myles Standish took charge in Plymouth in 1620 and John Endecott in Massachusetts at Salem in 1629.

Henry II issued the Assize of Arms requiring all freemen to bear arms in the service of the king

The First Militia Regiments

The colonies equipped the militias with  weaponry that included firearms (fowling pieces, matchlocks and flintlocks), swords, pikes, and small cannon. Upper-body armor (corselets) offered the men some protection in combat.  Originally, the Plymouth militia held formal training drills (musters) six times a year.  By 1632 the required militias in newly organized towns could determine their own training days and select their officers subject to Plymouth approval.

In 1631 in Massachusetts Bay, the General Court required each town to raise a local militia. By 1634, it required training once a month under appointed officers. These companies comprised anywhere from 65 to 200 men. Sometimes, however, several towns had to contribute for a town to reach the minimum of 65 members.  Local militias in both colonies came to rely on property taxes, tariffs, fines, and donations to finance expenses.

First Muster, a National Guard Heritage Painting by Don Troiani

From 1631-36, the number of towns in Massachusetts Bay with their militia companies greatly expanded.  Thus, the General Court decided to establish a new regimental structure on Dec. 13, 1636, initially under the overall command of the governor.  This legislation created the  North, South, and East Regiments.  The North Regiment included local militias from Charlestown, Cambridge, Concord, Medford and Watertown; the South Regiment had companies from Boston, Dorchester, Hingham, Roxbury and Weymouth;  and the East Regiment comprised militias from Ipswich, Newbury, Saugus and Salem.  The first regimental muster occurred in 1637 (April?) in Salem.  A colonel and lieutenant colonel commanded each regiment, accompanied by a paid mustermaster.  Each regiment and local militia elected its officers. By July 1637 volunteer militiamen from Massachusetts and Connecticut were urgently needed against the Pequot tribe in Connecticut.

Meanwhile, Plymouth Colony did not establish a regiment until 1658 under a civilian Council of War.  In 1691 the colonial governments of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth merged, including their militias.

Militia Regiments Redesignated

The three Massachusetts Bay regiments were redesignated on Sept. 7, 1643, after the General Court had created three counties the previous May. The North became the Middlesex Regiment, the South became the Suffolk Regiment and the East became the Essex Regiment.  Members of these military units saw action against the Niantic and Narragansett tribes in 1645. They also fought in King’s Phillip’s War (1675-76), and the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

Engraving depicting colonial militia regiments’ assault on the Narragansetts’ fort in the Great Swamp Massacre during King Philip’s War

From the 17th through the 20th century, the three regiments experienced a succession of expansions, reorganizations and “call-ups” as a part of the U.S. Army.  For example, the 2nd (Upper) Middlesex Regiment (formed in October 1680) fought at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  On Jan. 1, 1776, previously reorganized regiments became redesignated as the 13th Massachusetts Regiment and the 6th and 23rd Continental Regiments.  Realizing a need for more resources for national defense, Congress enacted the Militia Act of 1792. It gave the president the right to call up a militia “whenever the United States shall be invaded or be in imminent danger of invasion.”

shot-heard-round-the-world-reenactors

Reenactors on the march to Lexington to commemorate the shot heard round the world.

The  phrase “national guard,” as a synonym for a state militia,  appeared in 1824 when the Marquis de Lafayette visited the U.S.  By 1878 further recognition came with the creation of the National Guard Association of the United States, a lobbying group.  Finally, the National Defense Act of 1916 mandated that state militias be referred to as the “National Guard.”  In 1933 an amendment to the National Defense Act stated that the National Guard was a reserve part of the U.S. Army.

Army National Guard

After almost four centuries of historical evolution, four components of the Massachusetts Army National Guard can trace their ancestry to the three original Massachusetts Bay militias.

Massachusetts Army National Guard

Both the 181st and 182nd Infantry Regiments have descended from the North Regiment; the 181st Field Artillery Regiment from the South Regiment;  and the 101st Engineer Battalion  from the East Regiment.

Edward T. Howe, Ph.D., is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Siena College near Albany, N.Y.

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Revolutionary War Sites in New England

 

Learn more Revolutionary history in this complete guide to Revolutionary War sites in New England. Brought to you by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy in paperback, here to order an ebook.

 

 

 

 

Images: First muster and Massachusetts National Guard, courtesy Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. Public Domain Dedication. Public Use Notice of Limitations: https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. Reenactors (featured image) courtesy National Parks Gallery, public domain dedication. Reenactors on march to Lexington By Jrcovert – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19639046.

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