“CITIZENS’ MEETING, SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1862.
‘At the hour appointed on Saturday evening, the Town Hall was crowded with patriotic citizens, who assembled to take 6ome action about raising tho ninety-seven men required at this time from Fitchburg, as her portion of the three hundred thousand troops called for by tho President.
The meeting was called to order by D. H. Merriam, Esq. Alvah Crocker, Esq. was chosen chairman, and T. K. Ware, secretary. Eloquent remarks were made by Mr. Crocker, Hon. Alfred Hitchcock, T. K. Ware, D. H. Merriam, Esq., Hon. J. W. Mansur, H. L. Head, Amasa Norcross, Esq., Hon. Nathaniel Wood and others.
The following resolutions were presented by T. K. Ware, Esq., and were unanimously adopted:
Resolved, That, as citizens of the town of Fitchburg, we are desirous of giving an earnest and practical response to the approval of His Excellency, tho Governor of Massachusetts, to the several towns of this Commonwealth, and of taking effective measures to do our share in tho support of the Administration of tho United States in its renewed efforts for the suppression of tho rebellion.
Resolved, That, in order to the more rapid enlistment of tho quota of recruits allotted to this town, we request our selectmen to call a Town Meeting on as early a day as possible, to take measures for offering a bounty of seventy-five dollars a man to all rercuits who shall enlist themselves for tho war, from this town.
It being desirable that recruiting should commence at once, the selectmen were authorized to pay each, and every recruit, seventy-five dollars as soon as ho Is enlisted and accepted. The following gentlemen signed a bond agreeing to hold themselves responsible to tho selectmen for the money paid out: Hon. Muses Wood, Hon. Alvah Crocker, Hon. Ebenezer Torrey, Hale W. Page, Hon. Alfred Hitchcock, L. H. Bradford, Otis T. Ruggles, Dr. Jonas Marshall, C J. Billings, George E. Towne, Dea. S. A. Wheeler, D. H. Merriam, T. K. Ware, Charles T. Crocker, Amasa Norcross, Dr. T. R. Boutelle, Dr. Thomas Palmer, John P. Sabin, H. F. Coggshall, Lyman Patch, J. H. Fairbanks, James P. Putnam, Charles W. Wilder, H. A. Willis, Gardner Farrar.
The chairman then announced that they were ready to receive recruits as soon as the papers for enlistment should be prepared. Dr. F. A. Makepeace was the first man who came forward to enlist, and was followed by W. H. Signor and George E. Keyes.
The meeting was conducted, and the business transacted in the same spirited and patriotic manner that has characterized the action of our citizens whenever they have been called upon to furnish men and means to put down this rebellion. A committee of one from each district, and six from the centre district, was chosen to canvass for recruits.’
In accordance with the request contained in tho Resolutions of the Citizens’ Meeting, a Town Meeting was called for July 19th, and we give below the preamble and resolutions adopted providing for the payment of one hundred dollars bounty to each recruit.
This was the commencement with us of the system of paying bounties, which was carried to such a pernicious extent before the war closed. Other communities were doing it, and we were obliged to, or our men would go elsewhere to enlist. And our citizens were only too glad to tax themselves with the burden, feeling that it was due the patriotic young men who were going forth to peril their lives for their country, that their pecuniary compensation should be liberal.”
Reference Data:
Fitchburg in the War of the Rebellion, by Henry Augustus Willis, 1866, pages 62-3
