Captain Lebbeus Leach’s Company. [“L” in the Fourth Regiment, “L” of the Massachusetts Battalion, and “C” of the Twenty-ninth Regiment.]

This company, raised almost wholly in East Bridgewater, Plymouth County, was the direct outgrowth of a series of war meetings, the first of which was held April 20, 1861, the day after the Baltimore affair. At this meeting there was a very large attendance of the citizens of the town, who, after listening to several stirring speeches, adopted a resolution for the formation of a company of volunteers; an informal roll was prepared, and received the signatures of thirty-eight young men.

A second mass meeting was held on the evening of the 24th of April, and, like the first, was largely attended and enthusiastic, resulting in thirty-one additional enlistments.

In the meantime, a legal meeting of the voters of the town had been called for the afternoon of the 27th of April, to take formal action concerning the impending war, for at that time every town and city in the Commonwealth made the cause of the General Government its own, imitating the practice of the colonists in the days of the Revolution, by raising troops and providing for their equipment and payment.

There was never a more thoughtful or solemn assemblage than this meeting; party lines had been wiped away by the bloody events of the 19th of April; the political differences of the late campaign seemed by common consent to have been buried and forgotten, and every voter felt that a part of the responsibility of saving the then disrupted Union rested upon him. In this meeting, it was unanimously resolved, “That this town will raise what money is necessary to uniform a volunteer company, and to properly provide for the family of each member.” The sum of $4,000 was appropriated, and it was voted to pay each volunteer of the proposed company $10 each month while in active service, it being supposed at the time that the soldiers were to serve a term of three months.5

There were but few citizens of the town who possessed even the slightest knowledge of military matters, and these were mostly old men who had served in the war of 1812, or had trained at old-fashioned musters. At a time like this, they were naturally looked to for advice; but they had little to give, for their experience as soldiers had been a bloodless one. Wisely estimating, however, the importance of their new position, they furbished up all their well-worn yarns of camp-life at the “Gurnet” and “South Boston Flats,” and told them over again with scarcely enough of exaggeration to make them interesting.

The majority of these old worthies had forgotten the most of their drill, and had they remembered it, it would have been of little value to the volunteers of 1861, for the tactics of Steuben had been replaced by those of the gallant old Scott.

The volunteers were compelled, therefore, to depend upon themselves, and in order to prepare as much as possible for active service, held nightly drill-meetings at the town-house, using muskets that had been procured from the State Arsenal.

The company had not been accepted by the State as a part of the militia, and the selectmen of the town for a while were compelled to act as quartermasters-general and commanders-in-chief. As quartermasters, they provided the uniform under the vote of the town, and fixed upon its style, which was very odd, being a sort of cross between the dress of an artilleryman and a common sailor, but not having the comforts or beauty of either. This uniform consisted of gray hip trousers trimmed with red, a blue shirt with a rolling collar ornamented with red braid, and a gray fatigue-cap; shoes, stockings, and underclothing were also furnished, while the patriotic women of the town provided each soldier with a neatly-arranged case of thread, needles, yarn, pins, towels, and other articles of use.

On the first day of May, a meeting of the company was held for the election of commissioned officers (in the building now occupied by the Catholics as a church), presided over by Captain William C. Lovering of the State militia.

At this meeting, Thomas Bates was elected Captain;6 Nathan D. Whitman, First Lieutenant; Josiah E. Richmond, Second Lieutenant; Elisha S. Holbrook, Third Lieutenant; and Lucius D. Burbeck, Fourth Lieutenant.

Eight days after this, Captain Bates received an order from the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, directing him to proceed to Boston with his company on the following morning. The news that the company had been ordered away spread over the town in the course of a few hours, so that when it took up its march for the depot on the morning of the 9th, nearly the entire population gathered to witness this novel sight, for the like had not been seen in the old town since the year 1814, a period of nearly fifty years.

The ardor of the volunteers was destined to encounter a severe check. Arriving in Boston, they were met by Colonel Horace Binney Sargent of the Governor’s staff, who ordered them to repair to the hall in the depot-building of the Old Colony Railroad Company, where was assembled Captain Chipman’s company from Sandwich. Here the men of both commands were addressed by Colonel Sargent, who told them that the Governor had received instructions from the War Department that no more militia troops would be accepted by the United States Government, and that unless they were prepared to re-enlist for the term of three years, they must give up their arms and go home.

There was no doubt about the patriotic intentions of these men; but many of them had families, and none had made, before leaving their homes, suitable preparations for so long a period of absence, and accordingly both companies voted not to enlist at that time for the long term of three years.

This action made it necessary for them to endure the humiliation of returning home, from whence they had marched in pride only a few hours before, where they had been wept over by the kind-hearted women, and hundreds of their neighbors had bidden them affectionate adieus.

But to return disarmed was to their minds a great disgrace, and not being willing to endure it, the volunteers from East Bridgewater appealed to their stanch friend, Hon. Benjamin W. Harris, who had accompanied them to Boston, to interpose his influence to obtain a reversal of the latter order.

This was accomplished, and when the time arrived to take the returning train, each man seized his musket, and one of them took two, as a partial offset to what he considered unfair treatment toward him and his comrades; and, to the great amusement of those who were present, the indignant volunteer, who was of gigantic stature, stalked sullenly through the hall, down several flights of stairs, along the platform to the cars, grasping the muzzle of a gun in each hand and dragging the pieces after him, his face plainly indicating extreme rage and a feeling of bitter disappointment.

In the course of a few days after the return of the company to East Bridgewater, a reorganization of it was effected upon the basis of three years’ service.

On Sunday, May 12, the company attended, in uniform, divine service, at the Unitarian Church, where a sermon was preached by the Rev. Timothy O. Paine, from the text: “He loveth our nation, and he built us a synagogue.” Luke vii. 5.7

May 14, the company held a second meeting for the election of officers, and chose Lebbeus Leach of Boston for Captain, reaffirmed their choice of Nathan D. Whitman as First Lieutenant, and elected Elisha S. Holbrook as Second Lieutenant. Captain Leach was born in Bridgewater, and belonged to one of the oldest families of the ancient township, being a lineal descendant of Giles Leach of Weymouth, who settled in the West Precinct as early as 1665; and one of his paternal ancestors lost his life in the French and Indian war. Captain Leach was fifty-nine years old at the time of his election, and had seen some service in the militia.

Lieutenant Whitman was likewise of a very old and respectable Colonial family, from whence have sprung a long line of able and distinguished men. His first ancestor in this country was John Whitman of Weymouth, the first military officer of that town, and his ancestor Thomas (son of John) came to East Bridgewater in 1662.

Lieutenant Holbrook was a native of Braintree, Mass., had resided several years in East Bridgewater, and was very active in the formation of the company.

A large majority of the members of the company were also natives of Plymouth County, whose ancestors were among the early or first settlers of the Old Colony. We speak of these things, not from a feeling of boastfulness, but to show to the reader how purely American was this command, and how directly allied with the history and traditions of the ancient colony were these volunteers.

On the afternoon of the 17th of May, the company received orders to proceed to Boston on the day following. Night messengers were despatched to all parts of the town and adjoining towns where the members resided, and at an early hour the next morning every man reported for duty at the town-house.

Though it was barely six o’clock in the morning when the company reached the flagstaff (then standing in front of J. Folsom’s house), from which the Stars and Stripes were flying, and where they were addressed by Mr. Harris, yet a large majority of the inhabitants of the town had assembled there; and so intense was the war spirit that pervaded the community, that many of the male spectators freely offered the volunteers considerable sums of money for their chance to serve as soldiers.

Upon reaching Boston, the company proceeded to Faneuil Hall, where the members signed a formal enlistment-roll for a term of three years’ service; from Faneuil Hall, they marched to the State House, receiving here canteens, haversacks, and other equipments; and here, also, they met Governor Andrew, who seemed to take a deep personal interest in each one of them.

Dinner had been prepared for the company at the Hancock House, Court Square, at the expense of the town of East Bridgewater, under the direction of Mr. George Bryant and Hon. B. W. Harris, both of whom were present and dined with the soldiers at two o’clock in the afternoon. At the conclusion of the dinner, the company marched to Federal Street, where each man received a knapsack, one of the gray overcoats, a rubber and woollen blanket, tin cup, plate, spoon, knife, and fork; and when these articles had been distributed, marched to Commercial Wharf, where it went on board the “Cambridge,” a screw steamer, then in the service of the State. This was about four o’clock in the afternoon; and here assembled Captain Barnes’s company of East Boston, Captain Doten’s company from Plymouth, Captain Chipman’s company from Sandwich, and a body of recruits for the Fourth Regiment,—all to take passage in the same steamer for Fortress Monroe, Va.

At about five o’clock, the steamer hauled out of the dock and passed down the harbor, receiving and returning a salute from Fort Warren. By the time Provincetown was reached, it was quite dark, and the air becoming cold, the soldiers sought shelter below, where they passed the night in much discomfort; for crowded between-decks were nearly five hundred men, and with no adequate means of ventilation, the air soon became overheated and foul.

Sunday the 19th of May was very fine; but as the sun went down, threatening clouds gathered in the east. Soon after dark, the storm burst upon the vessel, then off the coast of Delaware, with great fury. She was ill-adapted to ocean navigation, and being heavily loaded, labored greatly with the sea. Before the storm began, the men had been singing, telling funny stories, and bandying jokes; but a few rolling motions of the steamer made the large majority of them less mirthful, and gulps and groans were heard in every quarter of the dark apartment.

The steamer was armed with two heavy guns, mounted between-decks. At about midnight, one of these pieces broke away from its fastening and began plunging against the side of the vessel. Every soldier not utterly prostrated by sea-sickness sprang to his feet, manned the gun-ropes, and by hard work brought the gun into position and secured it;—not a moment too soon, for perhaps another blow against the side would have made a ragged hole, through which the merciless sea would have rushed unchecked, engulfing boat and passengers.

The storm continued till the noon of the 21st, during which time the steamer had passed south of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay and reached a point in dangerous proximity to the sunken reefs off Hatteras Inlet, on the coast of North Carolina. The “Quaker City,” a United States steamer cruising in that vicinity, hailed the “Cambridge,” just in season, it is confidently believed, to save her from being stranded upon the then inhospitable coast of that region.

Fortress Monroe was reached about noon of the 21st, and with but slight delay the volunteers were landed, those not wholly disabled by the voyage bounding ashore with the glee of escaped prisoners. When the men left their homes, the grass there had scarcely put off its seared and gray coating of winter; here nature had all the vernal appearance of mid-summer, the trees were in full leaf, and the air laden with the rich perfume of roses that bloomed about the officers’ quarters in the fort and the many attractive residences outside the walls. Captain Leach’s company and the East Boston men were assigned camping-ground in the midst of a group of beautiful live-oaks, in the southerly part of the fortress, and were furnished new and commodious tents and a liberal supply of clean fresh straw.

On the day after the arrival, May 22, the company was examined by the Surgeon of the Post, and Privates Francis C. Bryant, Oliver H. Wade, Henry B. Rogers, Edmund Reed, and R. H. Quinley were rejected; the others being sworn into the service for three years, and the company assigned to duty with the Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Militia.

The arms of the men, which had been furnished by the State, were old smooth-bores, altered from flint-lock to percussion; but no ammunition was supplied by the State, nor was any issued to them by the United States Government till late in the summer of 1861.

This chapter being designed to trace the history of the company from its organization to its entrance into the service, it is only necessary to add, that it took the letter “L” in the Fourth Regiment, served in it till July 16, 1861, then became a part of the Massachusetts Battalion (still retaining the letter “L”), and on the 13th of December, 1861, of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, in which it was designated as “C” company.