Location: Norwich Bridge Cemetery, Littleville Road, Huntington
Coordinates: 42°15’17.8″N 72°52’11.9″W
Date dedicated: May 30, 1895
Design/Sculptor/Manufacturer: Greenfield Granite & Marble Company
Located within the town cemetery, this monument was made possible through the generosity of Alfred J. Taylor, a Huntington native and successful New York City attorney. Taylor’s motivation stemmed from personal loss. His brother, Private Frederick Taylor, served with the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. Private Taylor, a 33 year old hotel keeper, enlisted in 1861. He served with the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry and was killed in action at Malvern Hill, Virginia on July 28, 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg and rests in an unknown grave.[1]
Dedicated on May 30, 1895, the monument’s primary inscription reads, “In memory of the men of Huntington who gave their lives in defense of their country, 1861 – 1865.” A secondary inscription reads, “Dedicated by the H. C. Lee Post 176, GAR to the memory of the brave men who gave their lives that the government by the people and for the people might live.”[2]
Overall, the town sent 137 men to serve in the Civil War.[3] Of these, at least 19 were lost (11 killed or mortally wounded, 3 died as prisoners of war, and 5 died of disease). Twelve Huntington men served with the 27th Masachusetts Infantry, a unit formed from western Massachusetts volunteers and mustered in Springfield. The unit initially served in North Carolina and then was transferred to Viriginia for the 1864 Overland Campaign where they saw heavy combat. Thirteen served in the 34th Massachusetts, mostly in Company B which was recruited from the Berkshire hill towns. This unit served in the defenses of Washington for much of the war, then were transferred to take part in the Siege of Petersburg late in the war.
The largest group of Huntington recruits, 20 in all, served in the 46th Massachusetts, almost all of them in Company F, another Berkshire hill town unit. This regiment was a nine-months unit organized in Springfield late in 1862. They took part in expeditions in North Carolina and briefly in northern Virginia during the aftermath of the Gettysburg Campaign.
[1] Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, volumes 1-4 (Boston: Adjutant General’s Office, 1931).
[2] Springfield Republican, June 3, 1865, 6.
[3] “Huntington,” in Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass (Syracuse, NY: W. B. Gay & Co., 1887), 321.