William Francis Bartlett

Welcome to Did You Know a video series about Massachusetts where we take a look at interesting tidbits of state history. Each video will cover a different part of Massachusetts history and culture. Today, our topic is Civil War General William Francis Bartlett. Did you know that Bartlett lost his leg at the siege of Yorktown, Virginia? Let's find out more.

The statue of General William Francis Bartlett stands in an anteroom in the Brigham edition of the Massachusetts State House, Although he only lived to the age of 36. Bartlett is well known for his youth and his bravery in battle. He was born on June six, 1840, in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover and entered Harvard College in 1858, where he became known for his love of parties, women, sports and theater.

However, his college life would be drastically interrupted by the outbreak of war. On April 12th, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War. Bartlett was in his junior year at Harvard at the time, and he immediately enlisted in the Union Army during the fourth Battalion of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. The battalion was assigned to prepare for independence on Castle Island in Boston Harbor to defend the city from a possible attack by sea.

After the battalion's 90 day term was up, Bartlett briefly took part in military drills while hoping for a chance to join the new regiment. On July 2nd, 1861, Bartlett was commissioned a captain in the newly formed 20th Massachusetts Infantry. On the recommendation of a fellow soldier with whom he had served in the fourth Battalion, he helped recruit soldiers for the new regiment, which was nicknamed the Harvard Regiment, for its large contingent of Harvard educated officers and traveled with it to Washington, D.C., on September 4th.

The regiment was stationed at Camp Benton in Virginia, and on October 21st, 1861, they fought in the Battle of Ball's Bluff. Or Bartlett kept his men calm and helped them retreat across the Potomac River when their lines collapsed. Following the battle, Major General George McClellan began the Peninsular campaign, which was a plan to take the Confederate capital of Richmond by landing troops, including Bartlett's regiment on the Virginia Peninsula and marching them overland.

In the spring of 1862, the campaign came to the fortified city of Yorktown, Virginia, and the army dug in to see it. Bartlett was occasionally assigned picket duty to monitor the Confederate lines, and while he was observing them on April 24th, he was shot in the knee by a Confederate sharpshooter. The severity of the wound forced the army surgeons to amputate his leg above the knee, and Bartlett was sent back to Boston to recover.

That summer, he finished his degree at Harvard and healed from his wounds. Though we know the discomfort from the phantom pain caused by the damaged nerves where his leg was removed that autumn, Bartlett resigned his commission in the 20th Regiment and became a colonel in the 49th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, composed of men from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and based in Pittsfield.

He quickly impressed his men by leading them in drills without crutches, often standing on his good leg alone for 2 hours at a time. He received a prosthetic leg but chose not to wear it on horseback due to its discomfort. In November, the 49th was sent to Army headquarters in New York, and on January 24th, 1863, it was shipped to Louisiana as part of a campaign to capture Confederate forts on the Mississippi River.

On May 27th, 1863, Bartlett oversaw the initial assault on the Confederate stronghold of Port Hudson on horseback. Due to his missing link and was shot in the wrist and ankle. Barlow wasn't able to serve with the regiment for the rest of its nine month term. On April 9th, 1864, he was commissioned in another regiment, the 57th Massachusetts, known as a veteran regiment, due to its composition of men who had served at least one other campaign.

This regiment fought in the Battle of the Wilderness between May 5th and seventh, during which Burleigh was wounded in the head, and while recovering, he received a promotion to Brigadier General. Bartlett, mostly recovered, returned to the Army in July and received command of the first Brigade of Massachusetts troops. That summer, he had a small part in the planning to break the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, by digging a tunnel underneath the Confederate lines, filling it with gunpowder and detonating it to allow the Union Army to break through the fortifications.

On July 30th, the gunpowder was detonated. But the resulting battle of the crater was a disastrous loss for the Union Army. After the detonation, the soldiers tried to take shelter in the newly created crater where they became easy targets for the Confederates, resulting in high casualties. During the battle, Bartlett's prosthetic leg was shot off, and he was captured by Confederate troops.

He spent several months suffering from dysentery in the infamous Libby prison in Richmond, Virginia, before being recovered in a prisoner exchange in September 1864. Bartlett recovered in Boston and became engaged to his fiancee, Mary Agnes Pomeroy, that autumn. Bartlett returned to the Army two months after the end of the Civil War. In June 1865, to serve with the troops that remained on active duty.

While on leave, he married Mary on October 14th, and the couple took a trip to Europe for their honeymoon. On January 13th, 1866, Bartlett received the honorary rank of Brevet Major General from President Andrew Johnson, and he resigned his position in the Army on July 18th, 1866. Bartlett and Mary settled in Pittsfield, where they had five children Agnes, Caroline, Edwin, Robert and Edith.

Bartlett spent the next several years managing a series of ironworks, including the Pomeroy Ironworks in West Stockbridge and the POW Hatton Iron Company and Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond, Virginia. He often suffered from illness in the last ten years of his life due to his injuries and recurrences of dysentery, but still involved in business and politics. Bartlett served as a delegate to the 1872 Republican National Convention, where he supported Charles Francis Adams's nomination.

On April 19th, 1875, he delivered the speech for the centennial celebrations in Lexington, Massachusetts, representing the soldiers of Massachusetts who had fought in the war. In the fall of 1875, Bartlett was nominated for Massachusetts lieutenant governor by the state Democratic Party and for governor by the state Republican Party. But he declined both those nominations as he supported Charles Prince Adams's campaign for governor and did not want to impede him on the ticket.

Bartlett died of tuberculosis on December 17th, 1876, and is buried in Pittsfield Cemetery. He is remembered for his military career and service to Massachusetts, as well as his adventures and odds to find life. Thanks for joining me to learn about William Francis Bartlett. If you'd like to know more, check out these resources. Thank you for watching and.