Other Shirley, MA Civil War Veterans

Shirley’s Last Surviving Civil War Veteran

Hiram Salley Clark was born in Lexington, Maine in 1840. He enlisted in the 4th Maine Battery at Augusta, ME in 1862, was stationed in barracks in Portland where he contracted typhoid fever and was discharged because of “physical disability.”  Undaunted, he re-enlisted in the 3rd Maine Regiment under the name of “Hiram Salley” and served for the next three years in the South. He frequently served as a substitute guard for Abraham Lincoln—a fact of which he was very proud. Hiram was wounded once during the Civil War, suffering a saber wound in his arm which left a deep scar. Often he proudly told of how he fended off the attack of “Johnny Reb.”

At the close of the war he returned to Augusta to work in a cotton Mill and later worked in Salem, Newburyport, Connecticut and Rhode Island. When he retired from mill work in 1880 he moved to Shirley and bought a farm on Garrison Road. The farm was known as “Coronation Farm” from the fact that the hymn “Coronation” was written in Shirley by Oliver Holden and was one of the hymns known by memory by Civil War soldiers.  In 1910 he moved to Ayer where, as the oldest resident, he was awarded the gold-headed cane. He was a charter member of the Shirley Grange, a member of Fredonian lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and honorary member of Ayer Grange and of Fort Devens post, V.F.W. He was also commander and the last surviving member of the George S. Boutwell post, G.A.R. in Ayer. In July 1840, Hiram died at the age of 100. He is buried in the Shirley Village Cemetery.

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A Sharpshooter Lost to an Anonymous Grave

Marcus Morton Parmenter was born in Princeton, MA in 1839. When he was ten years old his father entered him into an indenture contract to Thomas H. Parker of Shirley. The contract specified that in return for board, adequate clothing and eight weeks of yearly schooling, Marcus would work as a farm labor at the Parker Valley Farm on Center Road until he was twenty-one.

 

By 1860 he had moved to the farm of Thomas’ brother, Dr. James Otis Parker, a Shirley physician, also on Center Road. Marcus was released from his indenture contract that year, and by terms of the contract, he received $75 and three suits of clothing.   

 

In March 1862 Marcus enlisted as a private in the Union Army at Lowell and was mustered into the First Company Massachusetts (Andrew) Sharpshooters. His unit was attached to the 15th Massachusetts Regiment Volunteer Infantry, General John Sedgwick’s Second Corps, during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia. Andrew Sharpshooters were equipped with telescopic rifles and their mission during the Yorktown campaign was to drive Confederate gunners away from their artillery emplacements.   

 

In early September of 1862, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River, invaded Maryland and advanced northward until they met the Union Army across Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The battle of Antietam started on September 17th and was to be the bloodiest day in U.S. military history.   

 

On the morning of September 17th, Marcus advanced with the 15th Massachusetts as part of an attack of 5,400 men of Sedgwick’s Second Division against the rebel forces at the West Woods sector of the battlefield. The Andrews Sharpshooters were sent forward to silence artillery batteries located some six hundred yards to the front. They did so on at least two occasions, driving the cannoneers from their guns as they attempted to reload. During this time they fought large numbers of Confederate infantry at a range that at one point closed to 15 to 20 yards—each party sheltering themselves behind rocks and hay stacks.   

 

In the smoke and and confusion of the battle, the green 59th New York Regiment mistakenly fired into the backs of the 15th Massachusetts resulting in the deaths of many of the Massachusetts men.   

 

The Confederates soon outflanked the Second Division to the left and rear. At one point, Union forces were receiving terrific musket fire from three sides. Sedgwick’s Second Division retreated in confusion leaving their dead and wounded behind. In less than 30 minutes the 15th Massachusetts suffered over 50% casualties—the highest regimental loss at Antietam. At roll call following the retreat, only 208 men answered the roll. Marcus Parmenter was not among them. It was reported that he had received head and stomach wounds. His fate was not immediately known. The West Woods remained in Confederate hands from the morning of the battle until the early hours of September 19th. During that period, many of the bodies of the Union dead were rifled through for clothing, equipment and money. Personal items that might have been used later for identification, including letters from home, diaries, and inscribed Bibles, made excellent souvenirs and were frequently looted from the dead. 

 

When Union forces returned to West Woods on September 19, Marcus was listed among the dead. His body was never identified and he has no known grave. Initially the dead were placed in simple shallow graves and were later re-interred in the Antietam National Cemetery following the war. Marcus very likely lies under an anonymous headstone, one of the 1,836 unknown Union graves.

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Two Longley Men Survived the War

Stephen W. Longley, born in 1836 in Shirley, was 
commissioned an officer in Company D, Massachusetts 53rd 
Infantry Regiment in October 1862, and promoted to Full First 
Lieutenant in May 1863. He mustered out in September 1863 
at Camp Stevens, Groton, MA. Stephen died at the age of 36 in 
New York in 1872 and is buried in the Shirley Center Cemetery.

Harriman Longley, 1843-1924, served in Company D, 53rd 
Regiment, Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry as a musician, and 
is buried in the Shirley Village Cemetery.