[Rarebooks] FS: First Union Soldier Killed in the Civil War Funeral related 1861 Letter

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

 From our new Recent Acquisitions catalog
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog385.pdf>

May 10th 1861 Letter Describing the Funeral Procession Home of “the 
First Union Soldier Killed in the Civil War”.

A letter written on “Through Baltimore” patriotic stationary featuring a 
brightly clad Zouave lunging forward with a bayonet. Dated Nashua, May 
10th, G.H. Stowell writes to her cousins, “Nancy, S & B”; after spending 
a page going on about the high price of bonnets she was trying to buy 
for them, she turns to the new war- “There was a company from Milford 
passed through here last Monday, in which was one of Aunt Mary’s sons in 
law. If you have noticed the papers you have perhaps seen that of the 
company that went from Lowell there was a man by the name of Ladd killed 
at Baltimore. He passed through here for his home in the North part of 
the state in the train in which the company from Milford went. He was 
accompanied by the two men who marched beside him. His remains were 
covered with a large flag. They are organizing an artillery company 
here. People are learning martial music.”

Luther Crawford Ladd (1843-1861) was born in Bristol, NH and in 1860 
moved to Lowell, Massachusetts to work in a machine shop. In April 1861, 
at age 17, he was one of the initial muster of 75,000 men who answered 
President’s Lincoln’s call for volunteers, enlisting for three months in 
Co. D, 6th Massachusetts Militia. On April 19, 1861 while the unit of 
about 240 men was marching from one train station to another through 
Baltimore they were attacked by an angry pro-Southern mob. It is 
recorded by some that Luther C. Ladd was the first man to fall, 
suffering a fractured skull and a bullet wound that severed an artery in 
his thigh and proved fatal. Ladd's body was initially buried in the 
Alexandria Village Cemetery, and was then removed and buried in Lowell. 
Ladd is often named as the first Union soldier killed in action during 
the American Civil War (a tragic distinction he shares wth one or two 
other claimants). Baltimore mayor George W. Brown later wrote that the 
Baltimore riot was the final blow that made the Civil War inevitable- 
"because then was shed the first blood in a conflict between the North 
and the South; then a step was taken which made compromise or retreat 
almost impossible; then passions on both sides were aroused which could 
not be controlled".  Folded letter sheet, 5”x8”. Folds, minor soil, 
light wear.  [44299]  $750

Pictures of this and many other new additions to
our stock are in our new Recent Acquisitions catalog-

<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog385.pdf>



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