The town of Wayland in the civil war of 1861-1865, as represented in the army and navy of the American union ...

Front matter

WAYLAND IN THE CIVIL WAR.

THE

TOWN OF WAYLAND

Preface

A FTER some ineffectual attempts to secure the erection of a monument commemorative of the Wayland soldiers who fell in the late war, it occurred to some one that a much better memorial, in many respects, would be obtained by securing the personal narratives of each, and preserving them in suitable form for transmission to posterity.

The suggestion was cordially met and acted on by the town in the choice of a Committee, to whom the whole subject was intrusted.

In prosecuting their duties, unexpected delays occurred, which, by permitting a lapse in the memory of some of the soldiers, and the loss of documents (particularly letters from the army) that would have been available at an earlier day, have rendered the results of their efforts less satisfactory than could have been desired.

Added to this, the greater willingness of some to communicate their army-experiences, and the facilities of others to supply information by means of diaries and sketches previously

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prepared, may be regarded as reasons for differences in the extent of surface covered, and the value of details embraced, in the several narratives.

It should be noticed that the narratives (with two exceptions) are confined to the soldiers who enlisted from Wayland as their residence, and were officially accredited to fill its required quotas. The two exceptional cases were of men who were natives of Wayland.

In the movements of such large bodies of men as occurred in this gigantic war, — often by tens, and sometimes by hundreds, of thousands, — the doings of a single soldier are often indistinguishable from the mass. His experience is identified with the organization to which he chanced to be attached. Hence it has been found convenient, in tracing a soldier's course (except when on detached service or in extraordinary positions), to make the regiment to which he belonged the general basis on which his experience rests ; affording thus a little freer scope for reference to army-movements. But, as historical completeness forms no part of the plan of the book, the reader will look in vain for any comprehensive views of the " great conflict," or for a full description of the campaigns, battles, and movements touched upon in the narratives.

In arranging the material furnished by men whose experience was frequently coincident, in consequence of their belonging to the same military organizations, considerable effort has been

PREFACE. 9

required to counteract the effect of tiresome repetitions. The editorial Hberty, sometimes pretty freely exercised, of curtailing statements in some of the narratives, and their more liberal extension in others, when treating the same occurrence, must be referred to a desire for attaining this object. Complete success, however, was found to lie beyond the power of achievement, without sacrificing too much that is justly due to each soldier.

The work is submitted with some degree of confidence that to the soldiers and their friends of the present generation it will prove a not unworthy tribute to the patriotism and valor displayed in the eventful times of " The War of the Great Rebellion," and will pass with increasing value to the hands of their descendants in remote periods of the future.

EDMUND H. SEARS, "

LAFAYETTE DUDLEY, \ Coiinnittee.

JAMES S. DRAPER,

Wayland, July 4, 1870. 2