The Ladd and Whitney Monument: Lowell's Memorial to Two of the Civil War's First Dead

On June 17, 1865, the people of Lowell, Massachusetts, gathered in Merrimack Square to dedicate a monument to Luther C. Ladd and Addison O. Whitney. The two might have been forgotten but for one distinction: they were among the first soldiers to die in the Civil War.

Two young workers

Luther C. Ladd was born in Alexandria, New Hampshire, on December 22, 1843. In spring 1860 he joined his three sisters in Lowell and went to work at the Lowell Machine Shop. He had lived there only a year when he answered President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers, joining a regiment already organized in expectation of war.

Luther Ladd, photographed shortly before his death. Lowell Historical Society.

Addison O. Whitney was born in Waldo, Maine, on October 30, 1839 — some sources say 1836. He came to Lowell in 1859 and worked in the No. 3 spinning room of the Middlesex Mills. He had belonged to the Lowell City Guards, the local militia, but had left to learn a trade; when the call for volunteers came he rejoined, in the same Lowell company as Ladd.

On the evening of April 15, 1861, both learned they would leave for the war the next morning. Early on April 16, before leaving Lowell, each stopped to have his portrait taken.

Addison Whitney, from Harper's Weekly.

Baltimore, April 19, 1861

Ladd and Whitney served in Company D of the 6th Massachusetts, the first regiment in the country organized and sent south to defend Washington, D.C. On April 19, 1861, as the regiment marched through Baltimore, a crowd of Southern sympathizers mobbed the Lowell company, attacking with stones, bricks, clubs and guns. After several men fell, the 6th returned fire. Forty of its members became casualties that day — 36 wounded and four killed. Ladd was the first to die; Whitney fell after him.

Ladd was said to have cried "All hail to the stars and stripes!" as he died, but no one is ever named as having heard it, and the story is probably apocryphal. His body showed a fractured skull and a bullet wound that had cut an artery in his leg. Veterans of the regiment later claimed a man named Wrench, of Williamsport, Maryland, had boasted of killing the "boy soldier"; without further evidence, that story too seems doubtful.

"Massachusetts Militia Passing Through Baltimore," F. F. Walker and F. O. C. Darley, 1861.

The regiment's other dead were Sumner H. Needham of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Charles A. Taylor. Taylor had joined in Boston, knew no one in the regiment, and was out of uniform; he was recognized as a soldier only when his comrades came to identify his body. A fifth man, John Ames, is sometimes counted among the dead, but he appears on the original list of wounded, not killed. Between nine and 12 Baltimore residents were also killed, and an unknown number wounded.

Home to Lowell

Ladd's and Whitney's bodies were sent to Lowell. Their funeral in Huntington Hall, above the Boston and Lowell Railroad depot, reportedly drew the largest crowd ever gathered for a public funeral in the city, and a great procession carried the coffins to the Lowell Cemetery. Ladd's body first went to Alexandria for further services with his parents, John and Fanny Ladd, before returning to Lowell; Whitney's father, John Whitney, agreed that his son should remain in Lowell. (His mother Jane's views were not recorded.) Needham was buried with a similar ceremony in Lawrence, where a monument was raised to him; he left a wife and child whose names are not recorded. Taylor's family and hometown were never found, and with no one to claim him, he was buried in Baltimore.

The monument

As early as 1863, Lowell planned a monument to its "first martyrs of the great rebellion." Massachusetts gave $2,000 and Lowell residents raised another $2,000. The monument was set in place in April 1865, with its dedication planned for April 19 — the anniversary of both the Baltimore riot and the 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord. Lincoln's assassination forced a delay, and another date meaningful to Massachusetts was chosen: June 17, the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Dedication of the Ladd and Whitney monument, Lowell, June 17, 1865. Sketch by William H. Hard, Harper's Weekly*, July 8, 1865.*

That day Merrimack Square — afterward called Monument Square — filled for the ceremony. Governor John A. Andrew charged the people of Lowell with preserving the monument and the memory of Ladd, Whitney and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had died to end slavery and restore the Union. The two men were moved from their graves and reburied beneath the monument, where they still lie. Charles Taylor's name was later added to it.

Sources

• National Park Service, Lowell National Historical Park: "Ladd and Whitney Monument." The article gives Whitney's birth year as 1839 and notes that other sources say 1836.