Upon Us Rests the Burden

The Civil War Experience of a Small Vermont Town VOLUME 1

War has many phases.

It is not alone at "the front" that patriotism develops. The army without guns and ammunition is a mob. Banners may wave, bugles blow, but without the "sinews of war" banners lead a forlorn hope, and bugles will sound only a retreat. Those in the field must be clothed and armed and fed by those at home. One is the heart, the other the blood. The heart ceases to beat, the blood no longer circulates; draw away the blood, the heart is useless. Together they represent life, strength, intellect. The man with the gun, the sword, the cannon, must be more than duplicated by the man with the hoe, the axe, the chisel, the loom, or the plow. - William Wallace Higbee, 1842-1911.

Charlotte, Vermont, like all towns both north and south, was a microcosm of the war effort - its people and politics generally representative of the greater population. Men and boys from our town were involved almost from the time of the firing on Fort Sumter, to and beyond the end of the fighting war. Some left their homes to confront the tragedy of war; some did not survive; some survived to return to confront tragedy at home. Few if any of these men and boys who left to join the army came back unaffected.