Rev. Samuel Wolcott's Civil War Letter

"I have just returned from the front line, having really no business there..."

Early last fall, the Longmeadow Historical Society received a message from the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth, in Yarmouth Port, Mass. They had discovered a letter from Samuel Wolcott to Lucius Mellen. There was no apparent connection to their archives or to the Cape Cod area, but the letter's author did have ties to Longmeadow. The Historic Society of Old Yarmouth generously donated the letter to the Longmeadow Historical Society. The letter gives a fascinating peek into a period of time in Wolcott's life after he left the area to serve another congregation as minister, and before his return to our community for his retirement. 

After some research, it became evident that on August 3, 1864, Rev. Samuel Wolcott wrote a letter to his friend Lucius Mellen in Cleveland, Ohio. Mellen, from Prescott, Massachusetts (one of the four towns taken to form Quabbin Reservoir), was the Superintendent of the City Missionary and Tract Society at the church and oversaw the local efforts to collect goods, supplies, medicine and clothing to send to the front lines during the Civil War.

On August 3rd, 1843, 30-year-old Samuel L. Wolcott was installed as the minister in First Congregational Church of Longmeadow. It was his first assignment after returning from missionary work in the Mideast. When he completed his term of service in 1847 he left Longmeadow for Belchertown, MA; followed by service in Providence, RI and Chicago, IL. Samuel was a descendant of Oliver Wolcott, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Unlike his ancestor, he was a staunch abolitionist. 

He arrived at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1862 in the midst of the Civil War. The church became known as “Plymouth” in 1852 at the suggestion of nationally-known abolitionist, Henry Ward Beecher, whose New York City church had the same name. The New York Plymouth Church was founded in 1847 by transplanted New Englanders who wanted a Congregational Church like those in which they had been raised, with a simple order of worship, governed by the congregation. 

The Rev. Samuel Wolcott regularly gave public speeches on the progress of the Civil War. When the YMCA and Protestant ministers formed the United States Christian Commission (USCC), one of the forerunners of the American Red Cross, Wolcott was among its more than five thousand volunteers.

In 1864, his 16-year-old son, Edward, enlisted in the Union Army. While still the pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church, Rev. Wolcott volunteered as a USCC civilian. This meant he did not carry a weapon, but instead brought goods and supplies to the battlefield. As an abolitionist and a minister, he supported the Union soldiers, comforted the injured and, at times, buried the dead. He often received dictated letters from the soldiers and sent those on USCC stationary to families back home.

Headquarters of Christian Commission, Germantown, Va - © 2025 The National Museum of Civil War Medicine - CivilWarMed.org

Written on U.S. Christian Commission letterhead, Wolcott's letter to Lucius Mullen gives a unique insight to this former Longmeadow pastor's experience near the front lines of the battlefield. It reads as follows:

Near Atlanta, Ga.,

3 Aug 1864

Dear Bro. Mullen,

I have reported to you, as being of the Commission ,from time to time, my arrival at different points, & for a fortnight I have been waiting in these forests, about three miles from the city, hoping to be able to drop this ... from the above address and announce my entrance with the army into “The Gate City”.  That work is delayed. The enemy has made three assaults and met with three bloody repulses. He seems now to be waiting for an assault within his own strong entrenchments. If defended, they cannot be carried by storm without immense loss of life.

On my first visit to the front, our troops were resting behind the breastwork some miles distant from the foe, and I had a pleasant visit to the friends whom I wish to see. Lines invading Atlanta, the whole army has been in battle-line with constant firing between the pickets and the batteries occasionally deepening into general volleys. I have just returned from the front line, having really no business there, but have remained in the war area, its hospitals, among which a shell or shot occasionally falls. I cannot describe the scenes of battle & of bloodshed, of splendid bravery and awful agony, which have fallen upon my eye; if spared, I shall be able to give an imperfect report of my return. I have lodged most of the time by invitation with officers at headquarters. A part of the army is now moving to a new position & I am stopping in the tent of the Christian Commission. With kind regards to all, as ever

Yours truly, S. Wolcott 

Written four weeks before the final assault and evacuation of Atlanta on September 1st, 1864, this letter is a firsthand account of what was happening behind the Union “pickets” and “breastworks” during the Siege of Atlanta. Wolcott refers to Atlanta by its nickname, “The Gate City,” in quotes. He provides a vivid description of what the soldiers were experiencing and promises to give “an imperfect report” when he returns. He also refers to an “invitation with officers at headquarters.” His diary and biography later reveal the officer he refers to is General Joseph Hooker from Hadley, Massachusetts.

Rev. Samuel Wolcott returned to Cleveland after the war and remained pastor for another ten years until 1874, before ultimately retiring back in Longmeadow in 1882.

An important part of Wolcott's career was music. He wrote more than two hundred hymns including 1869's Christ For The World We Sing. Within two decades, the hymn was appearing in most protestant denominational hymnals in the U.S. and by the 1920s, it was included in hymnals in Great Britain. It remains popular today.

In 1884, back in Longmeadow, two of Reverend Wolcott’s sons, Henry and Edward Wolcott, had a house built for him within view of the “church on the green.” In 1883 he was one of the honored guests at the Longmeadow Centennial Celebration. In his address to the gathering he shared why he had such affection for Longmeadow and wanted to return here: “My own pastorate in this parish commenced forty years ago this autumn. If those were not the palmy days of the place, it certainly is not less true then than now, that it was the best specimen extant of preserved Puritanism. It is conspicuous in their deference toward their minister, whom they treated with thoughtful respect and courtesy.”

He lived in the house at 734 Longmeadow Street until his death on February 24, 1886.  His widow lived there until 1901 when it was sold to Edward Brewer in 1901, and later purchased by Ida Young. Young was known for throwing lavish social events at the estate, which she named Meadowview Farms. There are those who still refer to it as the Wolcott-Brewer-Young Mansion. Today, the former Wolcott home has been beautifully restored and renovated as rentable offices and workspaces. 

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Special thanks to Nancy Mumford and the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth for their generous donation of Rev. Samuel Wolcott’s Civil War letter to the Longmeadow Historical Society.

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Sources:

Hymnary.org https://hymnary.org/hymn/SoC1892/255

Longmeadow Historical Society archives

Lost New England - Derek Strahan

https://lostnewengland.com/2019/06/brewer-young-mansion-longmeadow-mass/

Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Proceedings_at_the_Centennial_Celebratio/1mGEiuq3P4EC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%22Richard+Salter+Storrs%22&printsec=frontcover

May Ignorance no Longer Reign

This history note represents a bit of a mystery. The small pearlware child's plate, measuring only 4.5" across, has a transfer printed message that would have likely been immediately recognizable to anyone in the early 19th century: "May ignorance no longer reign/Henceforth the Heathen shall proclaim His Makers love--and bless the name of Billy."  Who was Billy?

Some internet sleuthing found similar examples in the British Museum, Winterthur Museum, and in a private collection. Funny thing is, the other examples have "My Bible" in place of "My Billy."  All of the extant examples feature a dark-skinned figure, kneeling on one knee with a group of people behind him and a structure next to him that looks like a podium.  

This author's example, in addition to the name substitution, also has several other modifications; the kneeling figure is wearing a hat, and holding a long staff over his head (the transfer print was also thorough enough to create a shadow on the ground for the staff).

Finding the author of the verse was relatively easy--it had been credited to children's author Mary Belson Elliott, published by William Darton in 1816. "My Bible" might have been adapted  from an earlier version called "My Mother" written by Ann Taylor, published in an anthology in 1804-5, also by William Darton. The theme may have had roots in missionary work, as it urges the child to learn the bible, but Darton was a Quaker, so the message might also have been one of anti-slavery.

So what about the modifications on our plate?  The cap resembles a Liberty cap.  The predecessor of the Liberty cap was the Phrygian cap which was familiar to ancient Romans. The original Roman cap was the pileus, a felt cap worn by emancipated slaves. The Liberty cap came to represent liberty in the American Revolution, and later in the French Revolution. You may have seen a Liberty pole at museums such as Historic Deerfield, and the Liberty cap appears on the seal of the U. S. Senate and on coins such as the Seated Liberty Dollar.  

The cap and staff appears in needlework and painted depictions of  the United States as represented by the figure of Columbia. The print titled "Liberty, in the form of the goddess of youth, giving support to the bald eagle" was engraved and painted by Edward Savage (1761-1817) around 1796.

It seems likely that this plate, made decades after slavery was abolished in England, might have been made for the American abolitionist market. Many items were sold at fairs and other events to support the cause of Abolition. Could "My Billy" refer to well-know abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison? Garrison (1805-1879) was born in Newburyport, MA, and was interested in suffrage as well as abolition of slavery. He established the anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator in 1831. Longmeadow had several home-grown abolitionists, including two descendants of the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs--Charles Backus Storrs and the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs, II.

- Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member.  

Sources include:

The British Museum, The Chipstone Foundation, "Ceramics in America:" Antislavery Ceramics 1787-1865, by Sam Margolin, Library of Congress, Historic Deerfield, eBay (image of 1868 dollar). 

Associate Curator Dan Sousa of Historic Deerfield was also consulted.

Dr. Hazel Richards: World War II Doctor

Dr. Hazel Richards Inspecting an X-Ray, Springfield Armory, NHS

When you think of an Army medical doctor during World War II, you probably aren't expecting them to be a woman. But Dr. Hazel Richards of Longmeadow did indeed serve in that capacity. Hazel Hortop Richards (1905-1981) was the only child of Fannie and Frederick Richards. She was born in Longmeadow and raised on South Park Place. 

South Park Place home of Hazel Hortop Richards

In a time before Longmeadow had its own high school, Hazel attended high school in Springfield where she graduated from Classical High. She then attended Skidmore College and went onto Middlesex Medical School, graduating in 1930. She pursued postgraduate training in Chicago.

She practiced family practice in Chicago after her internship and in 1940 moved to Malden, MA where her practice was primarily pediatrics.

In 1943 Dr Richards became a contract (civilian serving in the military initially without rank) surgeon in the US Army Medical Corps assigned to the Springfield Armory. She served until 1946 working as an industrial physician and obtained the rank of captain.

She was the first female physician from New England called into U.S. Army service in World War II. In 1940 only 4% of United States physicians were female. Dr. Richards had moved back to Longmeadow with her daughter by her first husband and initially resided with her parents in their home on South Park Place.

In 1949 she purchased a historic home at 766 Longmeadow Street which at one time served as a tavern and a dormitory/boarding house for employees of Dimond Chandler’s button factory which opened in 1848.

After the war, Dr. Richards went on to have a varied career. She was the examining physician for the Hampden District Court and Juvenile Court, a school physician, and active in the Well Baby Clinics in Springfield. She lived in Longmeadow for the remainder of her life dying at 76 years of age in November 1981.

Sources:

Springfield  Daily News

Springfield Republican 

Ancestry