A History and Roster, Revised Edition
Tom A.C. Ellis, Jr., Author
Jonathan K. Cohen, Editor
Lisa Breslow Thompson, Cover Designer
Years ago, Tom A.C. Ellis Jr. realized Framingham’s Civil War history had never been chronicled. Framingham’s tercentennial approached so he researched and wrote “Civil War Service of the Men and Women of Framingham, Massachusetts 1861 – 1865 a Memorial History” That book sold out in a two-week period, but remained in demand. His revised edition titled “Framingham’s Civil War Service, A History And Roster” concisely details, with relevant illustrations and a comprehensive index, the plight of the town of Framingham during that national cataclysm.
Ellis records when the town created a militia, long before Fort Sumter was attacked. It details how the town called its first meeting in May of 1861, and organized its War Committee of nine citizens. He provides information regarding the States’ quota of 407 men from Framingham, how that quota would be reduced to 386 men through exemptions, and that Framingham provided 530 men for the war effort.
Ellis explains the stroke of luck Framingham experienced when Governor Andrew disbanded the militia it had created that dispersed those men to many different regiments the governor was organizing. The result was that no one company from Framingham was decimated in a single battle. Other towns had lost scores of their able body, healthy men in one battle.
The book details how Framingham men served in over 77% of Military Units created by the Commonwealth. It describes how Framingham men were active in over 85% of the major battles of the Civil War, how twenty-eight men would be killed in action, and how another nine were wounded and died from those wounds. It details how fifteen would die from diseases, and how another eighty-two would become so disabled, that they would be discharged because of those afflictions.
Ellis explains how Framingham provided black men to serve in all three black regiments organized by the Commonwealth and details how Framingham women created three distinct Auxiliary Associations for the United States Sanitary Commission. He provides a biographical sketch of all 530 men that served, as well as cemetery records.
Hardcover, 7 × 10”, 370 pages, $39.95, ISBN 9780988229525, published 2013. Available from Silver Street Media.