Historical interpreter Tammy Alfano talks to a group during the town center cemetery tour.
(Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz) MORE PHOTOS
A teenage Union soldier, an abolitionist’s daughter, a war widow, a soldier’s sister who saved his letters, an adventurous war veteran. These were some of Harvard’s residents from the Civil War era who told their stories in the town center cemetery last Saturday, with the help of volunteers from the Historical Society.
Just as the soldiers who camped on the Common were re-enactors, so too were these volunteers who brought their Harvard characters to life. The presentations were based on extensive research and vivid scripts by Doug Cregar. Each character wore clothing appropriate to the period, much of it provided by Pat Hatch. Both Cregar and Hatch serve on the Historical Society’s Board of Directors.
Surviving the Battle of the Wilderness
Forrest Dadmun enlisted as an infantryman in 1864 and survived the terrible Battle of the Wilderness, where many wounded soldiers burned to death when the dense woods caught fire. As portrayed by Chef Paul Correnty, Dadmun recalled not only the horrors of war but also the horrors of army food, especially hardtack. Hardtack, Correnty explained, was a cracker made from unleavened flour and water and was “so hard that men could break their teeth trying to eat it.” Correnty handed out samples he had made himself, assuring his audience that it was of much higher quality than the wormy stuff that Civil War soldiers had endured.
“I see you have some hardtack,” Civil War nurse Flora Burt said, as the audience moved on from Dadmun to Burt’s tea table by her tombstone. “I hope you have a good dentist.” Burt (portrayed by Tammy Alfano) described how she volunteered to be a nurse but was at first turned down because the organizers wanted older, plainer women for the job. Eventually, however, Burt went to Virginia as a nurse and cared for many wounded or sick soldiers. When she came home, she married a war veteran from Maine and had a daughter. But Burt had contracted tuberculosis during her nursing stint and died at the age of 30, a civilian casualty.
Young Lyman Blood, presented by Matthew Canning, stood by his tombstone to tell onlookers how he had run away from his home in Harvard at the age of 15 to enlist in the 20th Massachusetts, Company C. Eight months later, he was shot while on picket duty and died of the wound. Lyman was buried in Virginia, but his parents placed a memorial tombstone in the Harvard cemetery. Canning is an eighth-grader whose history teacher, Kristin McManus, took the lead in inviting the army re-enactors to town.
Daughter of an abolitionist
Also in eighth grade is Lily Shaw, who portrayed Arathusa Farwell Sawyer. Arathusa’s father was a committed abolitionist who—like many of his neighbors—was active in the Underground Railroad. He warned Arathusa never to tell of voices she might hear from the cellar at night, and she kept the secret for many, many years.
Sarah Sprague, presented by Carlene Phillips, saved the letters she received from her younger brother Charles, who enlisted at 23. (The Historical Society has nine of those letters.) Charles wrote of seeing men killed just a few feet from him, with shells landing so close that they sprayed dirt in his face. Yet he survived his three years of service and lived the rest of his long life in Harvard.
Fanny Whitney was another sister who watched a brother go off to war. But Fanny, portrayed by eighth-grader Abby Zajac, was just 13 when her adored older brother joined the army. Keeping scrapbooks was a widespread hobby at the time, and Cregar based his script on the hypothesis that Fanny might have collected newspaper articles about the war. The Historical Society has several such scrapbooks. Although Fanny’s brother came home from the war, he lived only a few more years. Fanny collapsed at his funeral and never fully recovered.
William Henry Savage had an adventurous life even before the war, having traveled widely as a sea captain’s son. Bob Eiland, his portrayer, described how Savage was one of the first to enlist from Harvard and how he took part in the battles of Antietam (the bloodiest one-day battle in American history) and Gettysburg. When he had recovered from the wounds he received at Gettysburg, Savage re-enlisted as an artilleryman. After the war, he married twice, raised a large family, became an enthusiastic bicyclist, and lived in Harvard until his death in 1916.
A shared history is part of what gives a town its identity. A town is different from a shopping mall or an industrial park or a housing development, and part of that difference comes from knowing that past generations also called this town their home.
When retiring Bromfield history teacher Kevin Foster spoke at the rededication of the Civil War memorial last Saturday, he emphasized the importance of “collective memory.” He said such shared memories are “an essential ingredient to an informed citizenry” in a democratic society. By putting together the dramatic presentation of these seven individuals from the Civil War era, all who took part helped to keep alive Harvard’s collective memory of a crucial period in the town’s past.
