Enlistment Form for Benjamin Adams (May 1861): The dispersal of the French-Canadian Adams family began in May 1861 when Benjamin Adams enlisted in the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry.
On page three of the November 5, 1862 issue of the New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette, one of the state’s leading papers, appeared a curious, anonymous letter. The author referred the paper to the case of Placide Adams. A “Frenchman [sic] with a very imperfect knowledge of the American language, he had acquired a taste for American institutions, and with patriotic zeal” enlisted in the 5th New Hampshire. His adult son had enlisted in the Federal army as well. Adams “had left, to care for and provide for his wife in his absence, his younger son, a mere boy of the age of fifteen.” Unfortunately, “men in higher position than this poor Frenchman induced this boy to follow the fortunes of the father, and the Colonel of the Regiment received him against the rights and protest of the father.” The colonel—Edward E. Cross—had refused to release the son. “That boy,” the writer continued, “had not the just chance of the soldier to live if not shot, since his tender years and the hardships of army life would ensure disease.” Adams apparently begged Cross to release the son and declared that if the colonel did so, Adams would remain in the regiment “and fight all the battles of his country till peace should be declared.” Cross was unyielding, and so Adams deserted with his son at “Middletown” and brought the boy back to Canada. The anonymous author wrote of Adams that “the intention of the man, the spirit of the act, does not imply desertion, as his heart is in the war.” The letter was signed, “One who sympathizes with this honest Frenchman, as well as with the Northern States.”
What are we to make of this story, and is it supported by any evidence?
Enlistment Form for Placide Adams (September 1861): Was this “poor Frenchman” inspired by “patriotic zeal” or three squares and $13 per month? We will probably never know, but many older men (Adams lied about his age on this form–he was actually 46) were inspired to enlist because of financial insecurity.
According to www.findagrave.com, Placide Adams appears to have been born on November 4, 1814 in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, which sits on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River, between Quebec and Trois Rivières.[1] At some point, Adams moved to Vermont where his two sons were born. The Census of 1860 found “Placey Adames,” then aged 43, in Canaan, NH. He was described as a “laborer” with $200 in real estate and some small (but illegible) amount of personal property. His household consisted of his wife Sarah (41), his son Benjamin (20), another son Ephraim (14), and a daughter Jane (11).[2] With the outbreak of the secession crisis, this household was soon broken up. On May 20, 1861, Benjamin (also described as a “laborer” in his enlistment papers) joined Company I of the 2nd New Hampshire.[3] He was mustered in on June 7, 1861.[4] Four months later, on September 12, 1861, Placide traveled to Grafton, NH, and volunteered for Company I of the 5th New Hampshire; he was mustered in the next month.[5]
Enlistment Forms for Ephraim Adams (August 1862): Ephraim Adams’ form was signed by “C. G. Morgan” (see lefthand image) who, I presume, was Converse Goodhue Morgan (1827-1880), a prosperous merchant in Enfield, NH, then recruiting a company for the 11th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. The “A. H. Robinson” who signed as examining surgeon (see righthand image) was most likely Abraham H. Robinson (1812-1898), a well-to-do physician in Concord, NH. Of especial interest to fans of the 5th New Hampshire is the witness who signed the lefthand page (the signature appears sideways): Milo M. Ransom. A Baptist minister from Lisbon, NH, Ransom (1834-1912) had enlisted in the 5th New Hampshire just two days before so he could assume his duties as the regiment’s second chaplain (the first chapain, Elijah Wilkins, also of Lisbon, having resigned in June 1862). In Days and Events, Thomas Livermore remembered Ransom as a “little, puling fellow”, but the minister may have been instrumental in ensuring that Ephraim ended up in the 5th New Hampshire with his father.
Ephraim did not remain at home long “to care for and provide for” his mother. On August 14, 1862, he enlisted in Enfield, NH, claiming he was 18 (when he was, at most, 16).[6] The man who best fits the role of somebody in a “higher position” who enticed or pressured young Ephraim to volunteer was Converse G. Morgan (Ephraim’s enlistment papers appear to bear the signature of a “C. G. Morgan”). Morgan was a prosperous Enfield merchant who was then raising what became Company H of the 11th New Hampshire.[7] A plurality of his company eventually came from Enfield with Lyme and Canaan also producing substantial numbers of men. For the sake of filling up his company, Morgan probably applied the hard sell to Ephraim.[8] The young man did enlist but somehow escaped Morgan’s clutches and ended up in the 5th New Hampshire. How Ephraim managed this feat remains unclear. Perhaps he made service by his father’s side father a condition of his enlistment. Whatever the case, Morgan and Ephraim went their separate ways with the latter, in some respects, having a better war (for Morgan’s fate, see this endnote).[9]
Converse G. Morgan (1827-1880): Could this be the man in a “higher position” who talked young Ephraim Adams into volunteering? At this great distance in time, we can’t know for sure, but he seems a likely candidate. The 1860 Census describes him as a “Merchant” in Enfield, NH, with $2500 in real estate and $2500 in personal estate. At the time that Ephraim Adams volunteered, Morgan was recruiting a company for the 11th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. Morgan’s military career was cut short by dismissal for deserting his post while on picket duty in 1863. For further details, see endnote 9.
Ephraim soon found himself serving next to his father in Company I.[10] So far, so good. The letter checks out.
The story that the letter relates also seems to fit with what we know about the military situation. The letter claimed that Placide spoke to Cross about his son. Having obtained no satisfaction, the Adamses deserted at “Middletown.” That statement suggests that if some sort of exchange took place between Placide Adams and Colonel Cross, it had to have occurred between late August and September 14, 1862. Why? Cross returned to the regiment from his convalescence in New Hampshire (he had been wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks) on August 23, and Ephraim reached the 5th New Hampshire several days after that. September 14 is the very latest the discussion could have occurred because it was on that date the regiment was held in reserve during the Battle of South Mountain (which was often referred to as “Middletown Heights” after Middletown, MD, which lay several miles southeast of the battlefield).[11] Ostensibly, the desertion took place that day.
One can easily understand why Placide Adams would have felt great consternation during these three weeks. His 16-year-old son had reached the regiment at exactly the same time as a military crisis loomed. Returning from the Peninsula, the 5th New Hampshire disembarked at Alexandria, VA, just as Pope’s Army of Virginia was mauled at the Second Battle of Bull Run. According to Cross’s diary, his regiment covered the retreat of Pope’s broken force. Only days later, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia commenced its invasion of Maryland. With each passing day, it became clear to all that a decisive battle was approaching. Understandably, Adams must have feared for his underage son’s safety and decamping on September 14 would have made sense.
Likewise, military developments would have rendered Cross unsympathetic to Adams’s pleas. The 5th New Hampshire had suffered very heavily on the Peninsula. Cross had brought “900 officers & men” to Ship Point, VA, in early April 1862. By late August 1862, when the regiment returned to Alexandria, VA, it numbered only “three hundred and fifteen men fit for duty.” While quite a few had been killed in action, died of disease, or obtained discharges, a large number were in the hospital with a variety of ailments. While convalescing in New Hampshire, Cross had mistakenly believed he would be given 350 new recruits to fill his depleted ranks. He must have been disappointed to obtain just over 60. Moreover, the regiment was in poor condition, “weather-beaten, worn out, and ragged.” As he covered Pope’s retreat near Centreville, Cross worried that his soldiers, “greatly worn by long hardships on the Peninsula, had not the strength for such efforts.” Throughout the summer and fall, he would lose even more men to disabled discharges. Like Adams, Cross knew that a big battle was in the offing. Yet, on the morning of the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Cross could only produce “301 bayonets, and 18 commissioned officers” at roll call. It should come as no surprise that during this period, he would have been in no mood to countenance Adams’ request.
There is one problem with the letter, and it is a very big problem: there is no record in Ayling’s Revised Register of either Ephraim or Placide deserting in the fall of 1862. One person who did desert some months later, though, was Benjamin Adams, who left the 2nd New Hampshire. According to Ayling’s Revised Register, Benjamin deserted on April 8, 1863 in Concord, NH where the regiment had been camped since early March.[12] The reason is not difficult to find: on April 13, 1863, he married Mary Anne Bannoth in Canaan, NH.[13] His new life of married bliss, however, lasted less than year. He was apprehended at the end of February 1864 and brought back to his regiment. Eventually, he was discharged (time expired) near Richmond, VA, on April 14, 1865.
Placide eventually did desert, but not until much later: December 6, 1864. He was in Washington, DC, at the time, perhaps recovering from an illness in a hospital. He probably left in the company of Paul Pontin, a 29-year-old substitute from France recently transferred into Company I who is also listed as having deserted from Washington, DC, on the same day as well.
And what of Ephraim Adams? He was wounded at Cold Harbor, VA, on June 3, 1864 and transferred to the 2nd Company, 2nd Battalion of the Veteran Reserve Corps in October of that year. He bounced around between several Veteran Reserve Corps units before being discharged on June 22, 1865 in Washington, DC. And so, “that boy” who “had not the just chance of the soldier to live if not shot” avoided death by illness and survived a serious combat wound. One can’t help but wonder if Placide decided to run off now that there was no need to protect his son who was now safely ensconced in the Veteran Reserve Corps.
The letter in the New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette, then, does not agree with Ayling’s Revised Register. What happened? There are three possibilities.
The first is that Ayling’s Revised Register is incorrect and Placide along with Ephraim deserted before the Battle of Antietam, returning at some point later. Admittedly, this explanation seems unlikely. Ayling’s Revised Register is fallible but could it have omitted both the desertion and the return (or apprehension) of the two men? Moreover, if Placide left the regiment to save his son, why would he return with that son some time later to continue their military service?
The second possibility is that the anonymous author knowingly presented a spurious charge against Cross. This answer is not terribly satisfying either. Why would somebody make such a charge in one of the state’s leading papers when it could be disproven so easily? (A great mass of correspondence passed between the regiment and New Hampshire the throughout the war.) This letter, though, may indicate something about Cross’s reputation in New Hampshire. In February 1862, Cross had released an underage soldier (Oratus Verry) from the regiment with the greatest ill-grace only after Thomas Edwards, New Hampshire’s congressman from the 3rd District, had intervened in the matter. Cross wrote an acerbic letter to the congressman that excoriated him for his interference. The letter ended up in the New Hampshire papers and elicited critical comments from a number of editors. Perhaps the author of the letter in the New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette drew inspiration from this incident when depicting Cross.
The third possibility might be that the writer of the letter was confused. It turns out that on August 30, 1862, while the 5th New Hampshire marched in the rain toward Centreville, VA, just as the Second Battle of Bull Run was ending, two soldiers deserted from the regiment: Frederick Flury and Enos B. Nevers. Both men belonged to Company I where Placide and Ephraim also served. Flury, like Placide Adams, was from Canaan, NH. Not only that, but Flury was also a French-Canadian; he had been born in Trois Rivières, about 25 miles southwest of Placide Adams’s birthplace. Is it possible that the anonymous author of the letter to the New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette somehow knew of Placide Adams’s distress regarding Ephraim and then, upon hearing of the desertion, mistook Flury, another French-Canadian from Company I, for the elder Adams? There are problems with this solution. Aside from the fact that such a mistake would have been a big one, the author identified “Middletown” as the scene of the desertion. This could only mean Middletown, MD, and as we have already seen, that would place the date of the desertion around September 14. Only one man deserted at roughly this time: Cpl. Charles H. Bartlett of Company D who hailed from Milan, NH (on September 15, 1862). Since no location for his desertion is given in Ayling’s Revised Register, we can’t even be sure he was with the regiment at the time; had he been ill, he could just as easily have deserted from a hospital elsewhere. Clearly, though, there was no mistaking Bartlett for Adams.
To get to the bottom of the matter, one would have to survey documents concerning Placide and Ephraim Adams that are stored at the National Archive. These would include Placide and Ephraim Adams’s compiled service records (CMSR) or their pension files. The “record of events” for Company I of the 5th New Hampshire would also shed some light on what happened. Frederick Flury is a person of interest too. He has proven especially elusive. On his enlistment form, he gave Canaan, NH as his residence, but the Census of 1860 did not find him at this location.[14] His post-war career has been difficult to trace; like many deserters, he probably stayed away from his pre-war residence.
Placide Adams, on the other hand, returned to his old stomping grounds after the war. If the letter indicated anything, it was sympathy for the “honest Frenchman,” and perhaps the people of Canaan bore him no grudge. The Census of 1870 located him and his wife (Sarah) in Hanover, NH, where he was described as a “Woodchoper.” By June 1880, when the next census took place, he had moved back to Canaan, NH, (now a “Farmer”) along with his wife. He lived next door to Ephraim who was married to Lucina Adams and had three children: Placide, John, and Esther. Placide only had five months left to live. Perhaps, even in those days, Placide and Ephraim reminisced about that terrible time in September 1862 when the father had feared for the son and led the boy out of the army—or did not.
[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124805117/placide-adams I have not been able to substantiate this information elsewhere. Ayling’s Revised Register lists Placide’s birthplace as “Canada East, St. Anne’s.”
[2] “United States Census, 1860”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7WT-DGH : 14 December 2017), Ephraim Adames in entry for Placey Adames, 1860., Mauricie Region, Quebec, Canada.
[3] “New Hampshire, Civil War Service and Pension Records, 1861-1866,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Q1-BD1X : accessed 20 September 2018), Benjamin Adams, 20 May 1861; citing New Hampshire, United States, New Hampshire State Archives, Concord; FHL microfilm 2,257,028.
[4] Ayling’s Revised Register, p. 29.
[5] Alying’s Revised Register. See also “New Hampshire, Civil War Service and Pension Records, 1861-1866,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Q1-Y89F : accessed 20 September 2018), Placide Adam, 12 Sep 1861; citing Grafton, Grafton, Grafton, New Hampshire, United States, New Hampshire State Archives, Concord; FHL microfilm 2,217,640.
[6] The part of the enlistment form requiring parental consent for a minor was left unfilled. “New Hampshire, Civil War Service and Pension Records, 1861-1866,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Q1-YKS4 : accessed 20 September 2018), Ephraim Adams, 14 Aug 1862; citing Enfield, Enfield, Grafton, New Hampshire, United States, New Hampshire State Archives, Concord; FHL microfilm 2,217,642.
[7] See Leander W. Cogswell, A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, Volunteer Infantry in the Rebellion War, 1861-1865 (Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1891), 10-11.
[8] See Leander W. Cogswell, A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, Volunteer Infantry in the Rebellion War, 1861-1865 (Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1891), 10-11.
[9] According to the 11th New Hampshire’s official history, in April 1863, Morgan was on picket duty outside of Mount Sterling, KY, when he, along with several soldiers, stopped by a house to find some food. It so happened, that General Edward Ferrero, the brigade commander (yes, that Ferrero, the one who sat in a bomb proof drinking while his division was shot to pieces during the Battle of the Crater), was at the home “in conversation with the ladies of the house.” Ferrero accused Morgan of deserting his post and recommended the captain’s dismissal from the service. Apparently, this was not Morgan’s first such infraction, and he was indeed dismissed. He found a job as a clerk in the Paymaster-General’s Office in Washington, DC, but he did not take the dismissal lying down. In 1867, he somehow managed to get it reversed and was retroactively given an honorable discharge dating to the date of his dismissal. He then quit his job at the Paymaster-General’s Office and returned to Enfield, his custom somewhat diminished and his health poor. He died in 1880. Cogswell, A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, 244-246.
[10] Out of the 1000-odd men who joined the regiment in the fall of 1861, only about 50 were of Canadian origin, and of this fraction, only a third were French-Canadians (judging from the names). Company I had more than its share of Canadians—about ten men, half of whom may have been French-speakers. These five French-Canadians in Company I did not find life in the regiment congenial; all of them eventually deserted:
- Joseph Piney (October 19, 1861)
- Frederick Flury (August 30, 1862)
- Joseph Sylvester (December 4, 1862)
- Joseph Gravelle (March 31, 1864)
- Placide Adams (December 6, 1864)
[11] There is a Middletown, VA, but this town sits at northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. The regiment did not visit this area in 1862.
[12] Ayling, p. 29. See also Martin A. Haynes, A History of the Second Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, in the War of the Rebellion (Lakeport, NH: 1896), pp. 154-157.
[13] “New Hampshire Marriage Records, 1637-1947,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FL6J-FKM : 26 September 2017), Benjamin W. Adams and Mary Anne Bannoth, 13 Apr 1863; citing Canaan, Grafton, New Hampshire, Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Concord; FHL microfilm 1,001,120.
[14] “New Hampshire, Civil War Service and Pension Records, 1861-1866,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2Q1-YZ7C : accessed 22 September 2018), Fredrick Flury, 10 Sep 1861; citing New Hampshire, United States, New Hampshire State Archives, Concord; FHL microfilm 2,217,640.
The 5th New Hampshire Project 