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

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

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May 10th 1861 Letter Describing the Funeral Procession Home of “the 
First Union Soldier Killed in the Civil War”.  $250

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 
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 (b.1843) 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 buried in the Alexandria 
Village Cemetery, and was then re-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- "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]

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