Journal Opinion May 24, 2023
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Memorial or Decoration Day was first recognized in the period after the Civil War so that “the memory of the brave deeds and nobles sacrifices of our deceased soldiers be kept fresh in the minds of the people.” It was observed annually on May 30 in some states. In 1971, the observance became a national holiday and moved to the last Monday of May.
This column recalls the courage and dedication of 12 local
residents who served their country from the Civil War to Iraq. They are just a
sample of those who gave their lives
while serving in the nation’s armed services.
About 10,000 New Hampshire and Vermont soldiers died in the
Civil War, both from action and disease. Several hundred were from the local
area.
Amos B. Chase, age 38, was mustered into Union service on
Nov 20, 1863, and joined Co. H, 2nd Berdan’s Sharpshooters. Chase, a married
man with four daughters and a carpenter, had lived in Newbury and
Bradford. Snipers or sharpshooters got
their title using Christian Sharps’ long-range rifles. Their duty was very
hazardous, and their effectiveness had a demoralizing impact on the enemy.
Chase was with Company H at the Battle of the Wilderness and
the siege of Petersburg, VA, where they were on almost constant skirmishing and
picket duty. On June 18, 1864, Chase was killed in action. While his name is on
a headstone in Bradford’s Upper Plain Cemetery he is probably buried at the
national cemetery near Petersburg.
Nathaniel W. Westgate joined the First NH Calvary in March1864.
He was a 19-year-old from Haverhill. His
regiment saw action beginning in June. In early August1864, he was part of
several successful cavalry raids targeting Southern railroads. On August 14,
Westgate was taken prisoner near Winchester, VA.
He spent the next
five months in Confederate prisons under absolutely miserable conditions. The diary
he kept chronicled his declining health. On Jan 7, 1865 he died at Danville
Prison, VA. A comrade wrote of Westgate’s death, “thus another noble son of
freedom has been lain a sacrifice upon the altar of his country.”
In 1880, Haverhill-area veterans established the Nathaniel
Westgate Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. The post was active in
Decoration Day observances until at least 1912.
All area men who volunteered during the Spanish-American War
were in Co. G, 1st Vermont Regiment. They mustered into service on May 16,
1898. They never saw action during the few months of the war, but instead spent
a horrible summer at Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park, GA. They suffered from
heat, poor water, typhoid fever, dysentery, disgusting food and lack of medical
equipment. At times, 50% of the men were ill. Not one of the 27 members of the
regiment who died from those conditions were from the local area.
When the regiment returned to Vermont in Sept 1898, they
“were a skeleton of its former self.” Some of those who had contracted malaria
or typhoid suffered from it for the remainder of their lives.
The United States was involved in World War I from 1917 to
1918. Over 36,000 men and women from New Hampshire and Vermont were in the
military service. That included over 650
local individuals, of which 35 died in service.
Fred A. Cook of Post Mills graduated from West Point in
1906. By 1917, he had risen to the rank of major and assigned to the American
Expeditionary Force in France. In Oct, 1918, he was part of the Meuse-Argonne
Offensive as commander of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry.
He was said to be “an inspiration to his men, and they would
follow him in the face of murderous fire.” On Oct. 8 he was killed while
“directing an attack on a strongly entrenched machine gun.” He was awarded the
Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism
posthumously. He is buried in the American Cemetery near the battlefield where
he “fell face to the foe.”
In 1920, the Earl Brock Post 78 American Legion was formed
in Newbury to honor the only soldier from that town who died in World War I.
One of the first functions of the Post was to give military honors as Brock was
buried in the Newbury Center Town House Cemetery.
Brock grew up in South Newbury and was one of 58 men from
Newbury who joined the service. He enlisted in the Army in April 1917 at age
19. He was assigned to Co. E, 55th Telegraph Battalion of the Signal Corps, and
shipped to France with the American Expeditionary Force.
As with Major Cook, Private Brock was part of the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive in Oct 1918. On the 28th, while constructing telephone
wires under severe shell fire, he was struck by a shell. He died the following
day.
His commanding officer wrote a letter to his parents, remarking
on Brock’s “quiet and modest demeanor…efficient and effective in every duty he
was called upon to perform.”
Not all those who served were men or died from battle
wounds. Bradford’s Josephine G. Barrett was a member of the Army Nursing Corps.
The Corps required participants to be “unmarried, well-trained, respectable
women, between the age of 25 and 35 and be a graduate of a nursing
school.” Barrett, 28 met those
requirements.
She was assigned to
the U.S. Army Base at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, S.C. She was the first
Bradford woman known to have served in the nation’s armed forces.
In Oct 1918, the Spanish influenza epidemic hit the camp
hard. Inundated with sick soldiers, military nurses were overworked and
susceptible to the disease. Barret became ill, and on Oct. 13, she died. She is buried in Bradford’s Upper Plain
Cemetery.
Thousands of men and women from New Hampshire and Vermont
were involved in World War II (1941-1945) and 295 died.
Charles R. Pierce of Orford was a private in the U.S. Army
Air Corps. He grew up in Orford and described as “one of our most popular
boys.”
In Nov 1940, he
volunteered for service, and after training was shipped to the Philippines,
arriving before war broke out. In May 1942, after 120 days of intensive fighting,
the Americans at Corregidor surrendered to Japanese forces. Approximately 9,000
Americans were taken prisoner and forced on what was known as the Bataan Death
March. Pierce was among them.
The captives were imprisoned under appalling conditions and
many died from abuse or disease. On August 3, 1942, Pierce and 14 comrades,
died at the Cabanatuan Prison camp in the Philippines. They were buried in a
common grave.
In 1950, the bodies of men from that grave were retrieved.
The Pierce family travelled to the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Mo.to
attend his burial in the local national cemetery. A headstone with his name is
in Orford’s West Cemetery.
On Dec 30, 1942, 24-year-old Raymond S. Wood of Woodsville
was killed fighting the Japanese at Guadalcanal in the Pacific. Lt. Wood had
been stationed there with the 182nd Infantry Regiment as an intelligence
officer.
The battle at Guadalcanal was the first major land offensive
against the Japanese forces. Wood and his men were involved in the battle for
Sea Horse on the island’s north coast. He was mortally wounded leading a combat
patrol against the enemy. In a letter to his family, his commanding officer
wrote, “after being hit, he survived for about five minutes during which the
men in his patrol opened themselves to heavy enemy fire to render aid.”
In the announcement of his death, The Groton Times described
him as “a boy of good disposition, honest, frank, enthusiastic to better
himself, most devoted to his family and scores of friends.”
Wood’s remains were not recovered from the battle site until
2008. At that time, he was memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery.
Sixty-five men from
Topsham enlisted in World War II. King F. Dexter was one of two killed. In Oct
1942, at age 20, he was inducted into the Army.
He saw action in North Africa, Sicily and Tunisia before being
transferred to England to train for the invasion of France.
In June, 1944 his company was part of the Normandy D-Day
invasion. In July, his family received a letter from him saying that he had
been taken prisoner by the Germans but escaped the next day to return to his
company.
On July 16, Dexter was killed in action. He left behind his
wife Norma and a son he never saw. In March 1949, his body was shipped by rail
back to Bradford and met by a local American Legion post honor guard. He is
buried in the East Corinth cemetery.
In 1950, the United States was supporting South Korea in its
fight against North Korean and Chinese troops. Before this conflict ended in
1953, over 190 service members from New Hampshire and Vermont lost their lives.
Lyme resident and Thetford Academy graduate Guy O. Chesley
was among the first to give his life. At 19, he was an infantryman in Company
L, 9th Infantry Regiment.
In February 1951, his
company was engaged in bitter fighting against Chinese forces at Chaum-Ni. In
an attempt to control supply lines, the Americans were taking heavy casualties.
On the morning of Feb
14, 68 Company L soldiers were found murdered in their sleep. That is the
recorded day of Private Chesley’s death, but I could not determine if he was
one of the 68 or if he died during the fighting.
Chesley’s body was shipped back to the States in August 1951
and after a memorial service, he was buried in the Lyme’s Highland Cemetery.
In the Spring of 1953, A similar memorial service for
another member of the 9th Infantry was held in Orford. Being memorialized was Cp1 Clayton Huckins, a
20-year-old who had joined the Infantry in July, 1950.
His sister, Helen Huckins Marsh of Fairlee, recently spoke
of her brother as “the go-to guy for things out of doors.” As a youngster he
fished along Orford’s Jacobs Brook, “always investigating.” He was known as the
type of “buddy who watch others’ backs.”
On March 12, 1953, Huckins was constructing tactical wire
around the company’s position near a mountain
known as “Little Gibraltar” north of the Imjin River. There had been heavy
fighting against Chinese troops. He was recently awarded the Bronze Star for
historic achievement and was scheduled to come home for his 20th birthday.
He received what was a mortal injury, but continued his
hazardous work until unable to do so no longer.
His body returned by train to Fairlee and a memorial service was held in
the Orfordville church on the banks of the Jacobs. He is buried in the Orford’s
West Cemetery.
With improvements in medical care, the number of soldiers
who survived even major wounds increased. However, during the Vietnam war, 197
New Hampshire and Vermont service personnel lost their lives.
On April 14, 1969, David W. Hildreth, a 19-year-old soldier
from Warren, NH, died at Quang Tri Province. Hildreth had enlisted in the Army
in February, 1968.
He succumbed to injuries from a mortar attack on the base
camp of Company D, 27th Engineering Battalion. He never got to see his daughter
born eight days following his death.
In a recent letter Hildreth’s cousin Gloria Bumford of
Warren, wrote, “he was a typical country boy…who made the decision in later
life to serve his country.”
A memorial service was held in Warren, and he was buried in
Glencliff’s High Street Cemetery. A 15-man contingent from Fort Devens
conducted the full military rites.
On July 4, 1970, by Legislative decree, the local Baker
River flood control dam was renamed the David Wayne Hildreth Dam.
Specialist Alan J. Burgess joined the Woodsville unit of the
NH National Guard in 2002. He had grown up in Lisbon, Bradford and Landaff and
graduated from Oxbow and River Bend. It was said that he was one who could
easily bring a smile to others.
His unit was deployed
to Iraq as part of the 197th Field Artillery Brigade. On Oct 12, 2004. while on
patrol as a vehicle gunner in Mosul, Iraq, he was killed by a car bomb. He was
one of 65 from the two states who died in the post 9/11 wars.
In an Associated Press release at the time, his mother Karen
Moore of Bradford, said “He had a love for his family and for his country. His
needs were always last, everybody else came first…they were all there because
they had to go.”
He was buried in the Landaff Central Cemetery on Oct 25.
2004. In 2010, by Legislative action, the Salmon Hole Bridge on Rt 302 in
Lisbon was renamed the Specialist Alan J. Burgess Memorial Bridge.
Burgess joined the hundreds of local residents who gave
their lives in the military service. On Memorial Day, pause as you drive by a
local cemetery. Notice the flags placed on the graves of fallen service members
and remember their sacrifice.
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