"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.
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:
Longmeadow Historical Society archives
Lost New England - Derek Strahan
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
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