Acton Memorial Library
Civil War Archives

At Acton Mass. On the fifteenth of April 1861 I entered the service as Captain of Company E. Old Sixth Regiment Mass. Volunteers I. Davis Guards

I was first discharged on 22nd July 1861 at Boston Common, as my term of service had expired.

Going through Baltimore was my first engagement. We reached Washington late on the 19th, were quartered in the Senate Chambers in the Capitol twelve days and then with a part of the Eighth Regiment and a battery under command of Gen. Butler, went back to open the route through Baltimore, staying there some ten days. We were then detailed to guard the Junction of the Baltimore & Ohio R.R. at the Relay House, staying there during term of service.

I was intimate with all my men but among my most intimate ones were Henry Chapman, Luke Smith, Charles Jones, Levi Robbins & Swift Fletcher.

I received a dispatch late in the afternoon of the 15th April 1861 and was the first to report to Regiment Headquarters at Lowell, Mass. With my company ready for service and, it is a matter of history that we were the first armed body of troops to report for duty in the state and the Regiment (the Sixth), the first armed troops that arrived at Washington for the defense of the Nation's Capitol and the Call of President Lincoln.