Gloucester in Massachusetts was a major port in the 19th Century. During the Civil War, it was active in the recruitment and training of men for both the Army and Navy. There are six Civil War monuments in the city. There are so many because smaller towns nearby were later incorporated into Gloucester. The town of Gloucester was formally incorporated in 1642. The city had grown from 7,786 residents in 1850 to 10,904 in 1860, a large growth of 40% during the ten years before the Civil War. Gloucester was in the middle of the industrial revolution by the outbreak of the war. In addition to fishing, the area was a major supplier of granite, an important port, and a railroad had been built connecting it to Rockport.
Before the late 1840s, there were few immigrants in the area. Only a few dozen Irish people lived in Gloucester before then, but following the Famine, many refugees began to settle there. The foreign-born population had swelled to 1,500 by 1855. While the Irish made up most of the immigrant population, there were people who came from other countries, including Portugal and Canada.
When Fort Sumter was fired on, many of the men joined Company G of the 8th Massachusetts Regiment and it set out on April 16, 1861 for the front. In June, many more men were recruited by the 12th Massachusetts Regiment.
On April 24, 1861 the town held a meeting in which resolutions were passed on the war. The resolutions said that the town was “utterly and unalterably opposed to oppression in all forms and circumstances, and especially the holding human beings in bondage…” However, the resolve said that when the Constitution was ratified there was protection for slavery in the South and that this right was in the Constitution.
The resolutions also said that “those states which have adopted ordinances of secession have violated their plighted faith in the Union, and in making war upon the Federal Government, and by armed force…they have exhibited all their meanness and cowardice, without any of the better qualities of the REBEL, the TRAITOR, and the PIRATE.”
By the beginning of 1862, approximately 800 of the town’s men were in either the army or the navy. Strangely to observe, while the recruiting for the army went smoothly, for the navy it went slowly, in spite of the fact that may recruits had served at sea in civilian life. 1,026 men from Gloucester enlisted in the army and 476 enlisted in the navy by the war’s end.
In June of 1863, Confederate commerce raiders tried to cripple Gloucester’s fishing fleet by raiding it at the Georges Bank, a prime fishing area between New England and Nova Scotia. The state decided to build a fort to protect the harbor at Eastern Point. There were six to ten pieces of artillery at the fort and it was manned by the Massachusetts militia.
The monument is on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on Langsford Street. There are two sections to the cemetery. The monument is in the western section with the historical sign.
Lanesville had been established for farming and fishing, but by the 1830s the quarrying of granite became a big operation. When you visit the area today, it looks like the most rural part of the city, but by the Civil War it was an industrial mining site.
After the war, the area was also used as a summer retreat for well-to-do people from Boston. Civil War General Ben Butler built a house in the area, using locally mined granite in the construction. He set up the Cape Ann Granite Company to profit off of this stone.
This was an early monument, erected just twenty years after the war. Behind it is the Atlantic Ocean.
Local historian James Pringle wrote in 1892 that “The Lanesville soldiers’ monument was erected with impressive ceremonies September 29, 1885. It was designed by Comrade William Williams…and stands in the village cemetery.”
The monument displays the Corps badges of several units of the Union Army. Below are the VIII and XIX Corps.
The VII Corps is in the middle below.
The XVIII Corps and the XXIII Corps.
The II Corps Badge is partially disfigured.
There are also the names of the local men who died in the service along with the unit they served in.
The top of the monument contains its dedication: “In memory of out honored dead, who fought for the preservation of the Union 1861-1865.” At the base it says; “Erected by the Lanesville Soldiers’ Monument Association, A.D. 1885.”
The names of a dozen men who died are carved on the monument.
Note: All color photos of buildings in this post were taken by Patrick Young except as noted.
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