History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

Brevet-Major Solon A. Perkins, of the Third
Cavalry, in an engagement June 3, 1863, at Clin-
ton, La., was mortally wounded. He was born at
Lancaster, N. H., December 6, 1836, the son of
Apollos Perkins, who came to Lowell in 1840.
Major Perkins served Avith General Butler in the
Department of the Gulf, and earned the reputation
of being the boldest and most successful cavalry
officer in the army.
April 2, 1864, the 26th regiment returned, and
marched to Huntington Hall, where a collation was
provided for the soldiers.
Henry Livermore Abbott, major of the 20th
regiment of Massachusetts volunteers, fell, mortally
wounded, in tiie battle of the AVilderness, on Friday,
May 6, 1864, at the age of twenty-two. He
was the second son of the Hon. J. G. and Caroline
Abbott. He was born in Lowell, January 21,
1842, and graduated at Harvard College in 1860.
May 16, the First National Bank, incorporated
with a capital of $250,000, was organized.
July 6, Colonel Follansbee received a request
inviting the 6th regiment to enter the service for
one hundred days. Tliis was complied with, and
its services were offered and accepted.
In the record of the Great Rebellion two names
intimately connected with Lowell have gained a
prominence that entitles them to a place in her
history.
Captain Gustavus V. Fox was born in Saugus,
June 13, 1821. He came to Lowell with his
father, Dr. Jesse Fox, in 1823, and entered the
United States Navy, where he served nineteen years
at different stations, — on the coast survey, in command
of mail steamers, and in the war with Mex-
ico. While in the naval service, in 1856, he
accepted a position as agent of the Bay State
Mills, now the Washington Mills, of Lawrence,
which he held till 1861. In February, 1861, he
was sent for by General Scott, at the instance of
Postmaster-General Blair, in reference to throwing
supplies and troops into Fort Sumter, but Presi-
dent Buchanan refused at that time to allow the
expedition.
On the 6th of April, 1861, the first part of a
secret naval expedition under Captain Fox sailed
from New York for the relief of Fort Sumter.
Captain Fox says —
:
" My plan for supplying Fort Sumter required
three hundred sailors, a full complement of armed
launches, and three tugs. The Powhatan carried
the sailors and launches, and when this vessel was
LOWELL. 93
about to leave in obedience to the orders of the
secretary of the navy, two officers. Lieutenant
D. D. Porter, U. S. N., and Captain M. C. Meigs,
U. S. Engineer, presented themselves with an order
from the President of the United States, authoriz-
ing the former to take any vessel whatever in com-
mission, and proceed immediately to the Gulf of
Mexico. This order did not pass through the
navy department, was unknown to the secretary of
the navy, and when signed by the President he was
not conscious that his signature would deprive me
of the means to accomplish an object which he
held to be of vital importance."
This expedition arrived hi season to hear the
heavy guns and see the smoke and shells from the
batteries that had opened fire on Fort Sumter.
The arrival of this expedition was anticipated, tlie
President having on the 8th of April notified the
governor of South Carolina that supplies must be
sent to Fort Sumter. The fort was evacuated
on Sunday, the 14th of April. On Monday the
steamer Sabel took the garrison outside to the
steamer Baltic, which left that evening direct for
New York, where she arrived on the morning of
the 18th.
Captain Fox received a letter from the President
dated May 1, 1861, acknowledging that he, the
President, was in a measure responsible for the
failure of the expedition, and that the cause of
the country was advanced by the attempt.
Alive to the necessity of keeping open the com-
munications with the North, Captain Fox, when he
found that those of Washington and New York
were severed, applied to Mr. Aspinwall for a small
steamer to enable him to reach Chesapeake Bay.
Mr. Aspinwall applied to John Jacob Astor, Jr.,
who very generously gave a check for §3,000.
With this. Captain Fox procured the tug Yankee,
and persuaded Commodore Breese to arm and fit
her out. Having received from the commodore an
appointment as acting lieutenant. Captain Fox left,
on the 26th of April, for Hampton Eoads. The
services of the boat not being required at this ])oint,
he offered his vessel to General Butler, wlio was
about opening communications with Washington.
The general sent him through with a report to the
President, and immediately after Captain Fox was
appointed assistant-secretary of the navy.
After nearly six years' service as assistant-sec-
retary of the navy. Captain Fox returned to private
life. In 1869 he became agent of the Middlesex
Company, which position he retained until March,