The Warner Free Lecture Trust, together with the Harvard Historical Society, will host a Civil War program called “To My Dearest” Friday, Feb. 9, in Volunteers Hall at 7:30 p.m. Lynne McKenney Lydick and her husband, Thomas R. Lydick, actors and public historians, will read the letters exchanged between George Ward and his wife, Emily, while he served in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment from 1861 to 1863 and she remained home in Worcester raising their two young children. The Harvard Historical Society will display Civil War letters from its archives, those of a young soldier, Charles Sprague, to his sister, Sarah. Both sets of letters describe the anxieties and horrors of the battlefield and the longings for home on the part of the men. Emily Ward’s letters show her attempts to be reassuring and cheerful as she talks about the children and domestic life.
The war correspondence between the Wards might have been lost to history, but several years ago, the letters—116 of them—turned up in a house on Cape Cod. McKenney Lydick told the Press she heard the letters had been given to someone who worked for the Ward family. In turn, the letters were given to the Worcester Historical Museum, which also owns a portrait of George Ward. The letters were transcribed and annotated by Peter Viles, a retired doctor and public historian in Worcester. In 2015 the museum contacted McKenney Lydick and her husband to put together a performance based on the Ward letters. The result was “To My Dearest,” for which they edited the letters for brevity and combined those with overlapping material.
McKenney Lydick said it is unusual to have numerous letters from both correspondents, but because George was an officer, his letters were sent back upon his death. She said she finds the letters beautifully written and expressive of all emotions. Of particular interest to her are the photographs Emily sent of herself and the children and George’s comments on them. “This one family was a microcosm of a war that devastated a whole country,” said McKenney Lydick.
George H. Ward and Emily Elizabeth Mayo married in 1851, when he was 25 and she was 21. George enlisted in the Worcester City Guards and rose to the rank of commander. When the Civil War broke out, the governor asked George to raise a Worcester infantry regiment. The 15th Massachusetts was mustered into service for three years and arrived in Washington, D.C., in July 1861. George was 36 years old and the unit’s lieutenant colonel. His half brother Henry was an 18-year-old volunteer in George’s regiment.
Just three months later, George’s leg was shattered at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff in Virginia and had to be amputated. During his long convalescence he was promoted to the rank of colonel and spent time recruiting for the 15th and other regiments. By the winter of 1863, there were rumors of a looming climactic battle, and although his leg had never healed properly and he was in pain, George returned to his men.
George was commanding his own regiment, and next to them was the 82nd New York Infantry Regiment in the Battle of Gettysburg. The two units had been sent to fill a gap in the Union line but had no support on either side. Within minutes of the start of the battle, the 3rd Georgia infantry, with twice as many men, charged and overran them. George was trying to rally his men when he was shot behind the right knee. He cried out for help but no one responded.
George’s half brother Henry would later write that he searched for his brother for two hours before finding him on the battlefield. George was taken to a field hospital, where he died the next morning. He is buried in Rural Cemetery in Worcester.
Emily never remarried and spent the rest of her life in Worcester. She attended a ceremony at her husband’s grave every Memorial Day until she died at the age of 87.
A monument to George Ward, sponsored in 1886 by the 15th Massachusetts Association and paid for by veterans and residents of Worcester, stands in the field at Gettysburg where he fell.
The actors will answer questions at the end of the performance. As social historians they have an interest in sharing their research and in tying the past to the present.
