Biography of Ezara C. Willard :Pittsfield, Merrimack County, New Hampshire **************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net. Submitted by: Jody Goodson kestrell@prodigy.net Date: May 14, 2001 **************************************************************************** From the Book 'History of Pittsfield, N. H. in the Rebellion' by H. L. Robinson, published 1893 Note: A picture of Ezra is in the book. Page 165 to 172 EZRA C. WILLARD was born near Howath's mill in Loudon, January 9, 1827, and was the youngest of the nine children of Nathaniel and Susan Willard. His father died when he was six years of age, and the widow had a hard struggle to maintain her family, as there was but little property. After he came to man's estate Ezra took good care of his parent, until her death in 1852. In October, 1842, he experienced religion and was baptized at Loudon Ridge by the Reverend Peter Clark, and since that time has been a consistent member of the Free Will Baptist church. On his eighteenth birthday he moved to Pittsfield, and has since that time made this town his home, excepting a few years he spent in Boston, Newmarket, and Manchester. When he first came to town it was with the intention of learning the blacksmith's trade, and for that purpose he entered the shop of the late Jonathan Langmaid, where he remained a year. He was then offered a desirable situation in the Pittsfield mills, where he remained fifteen years, except a short time he spent at Tilton seminary. September 2, 1852, he was married to Miss Sarah Garland of Nottingham. They have had one child, who died while an infant. He enlisted September 12, 1862, in Company G, Fifteenth New Hampshire volunteers, as a private, and was, soon after going into camp at Concord, promoted to be corporal. On November 13 he left New Hampshire with his regiment for Long Island, N. Y., where he remained until December 5, when the regiment marched to Brooklyn and his company with five others went on board the Prometheus and sailed for New Orleans. The regiment first camped at Carrollton and afterwards at Camp Parapet. Comrade Willard kept a diary, and it would be interesting to publish it entire did space permit, but I will give a few extracts from it: February 17, 1863. I go on picket about noon. It commenced to rain in showers, harder and harder it pours. At 3 o'clock we were called out to go to our posts. The ditches are filled with water, the roads are overflowed, the rain still falling in torrents. We start for our posts, one and a half miles distant. We march but a short distance when one of us steps into a hole and away lie goes into mud and water. Before we got to our destination we were as wet as we could be. We had no shelter hut slept on the ground. After a long, dark, dreary night, morning came at last. This is one of the times that tries men's souls, health, constitution, and temper. February 18. I go on picket about noon, I return to camp with a rebel prisoner. (This was the first prisoner captured by the regiment.) Sunday, March 22. Went to a negro meeting; arrived just in time to witness a marriage ceremony. It was quite a curiosity to me. It was performed something like the Episcopal form of ceremony; a ring is put upon the finger of the bride by the bridegroom. Everything was done in a very orderly manner and their dress was very appropriate. After an hour's intermission a funeral sermon is to be preached. I waited for the service. First they sang a hymn, then read from the Bible, then a prayer, then another hymn, then the discourse, which was plain and reasonable. The pulpit was trimmed in a very appropriate and tasty style and in no way inferior to that of a northern community. Then the meeting-house was worth going to see. It was, I should say, forty by twenty-four feet. There is not a board or shingle on or in it. It is covered with split staves and the seats are the same, so if you think the negro has no ingenuity or capacity to learn, just look at that church; and best of all, hear the prayers and exhortations. April 14. We went to-day to get cane poles to shade our tents. (Canebrake poles such as are used for fishrods.) April 15. A rebel shot to-day, while trying to steal past our guards. April 27. Had a dreadful time with the mosquitoes last night. (These were a terrible pest, and each man was furnished with a mosquito bar. When on the march he might throw away everything else, but not this very necessary protector.) On Wednesday, May 20, the regiment started for Port Hudson. May 22. We started again up the river at 8:30 o'clock. Landed about 18 miles up the river at 11 o'clock. At 2 p. m. started on a march of 15 miles. It is very hot. About 4 o'clock had a shower, and the worst of it was they hurried us extremely. At last we stopped and laid clown about exhausted and didn't know anything until next morning. It rained in the night. Saturday, May 23. Started again at 1 p. m., marched 4 miles, when we camped in the woods. During the night a heavy shower came over, and as we had no tents we got very-wet. Sunday, May 24. Oh, I am sick this morning. I hope I shall have strength according to my task. Started at 5 p. m., marched one mile to the rebel pits, and camped. Tuesday, May 26. Go about one half mile to support battery. Wednesday, May 27. Commenced battle at Port Hudson about noon. Several hundred killed and wounded. Thursday, May 28. Ouiet to-day,--finding and burying our dead. May 29. Not much doing to-day, only strengthening our fortification. May 31. Received our knapsacks. June 1. Still here, near the battle ground. June 2. One man killed in Company A, that lay next to us last night, and one wounded by a bursting shell. (A piece of this shell went through a handkerchief that was spread over my head to keep the dew off.) Here follow a few days in which Comrade Willard was too sick to write. Tuesday, June 9. Laboring yet on fortifications. T drank some whiskey for the first time in my life. Saturday, June 13. We are yet in the woods. One hundred and fifty sharpshooters attempted to gain (rebel works) but failed. Sunday, June 14. Dreadful battle. We were ordered out at 3 o'clock this morning to make another charge, but failed. Laid in the scorching sun all day. Many wounded and killed. Tuesday, June 16. Promoted to be fourth sergeant. To be promoted on the field was an extraordinary honor, and when we consider that he passed over eight who outranked him it shows the estimation in which he was held by his superior officers. For the next few days he was at work in trenches. Sunday, June 21. Pickets (skirmish line) advanced last night. Several wounded. Several days more; working in trench. This trench, I will say, was an approach to the mine that was placed under the citadel to blow it up. Most of the labor was performed by the Fifteenth New Hampshire. Tuesday, June 23. Battery opened fire upon the rebels at 3 p. m. We lay in the rifle-pits through the night. For several days more he only mentions working in trenches. Tuesday, June 30. Mustered to-day for pay in rifle-pits at Port Hudson. July 1. Called out last night to make a charge, but did not. July 2. Confined in camp with a sore foot (scurvy). Wednesday, July 8. Port Hudson surrendered. Thursday, July 9. We marched into Port Hudson this morning. Saturday, July 18. We got our tents to-day. After the regiment left Camp Parapet, on May 20, they had no shelter until July 18, yet in this respect the Fifteenth fared as well as any other regiment, and better than many, for some of them had not had a piece of canvas since March and did not get any until still later, sleeping in swamps, in rain or heavy dews, and enduring the scorching sun by day; --yet some people think it was a picnic! At the surrender, the Eighth New Hampshire was given the post of honor and allowed to enter the works first. The Fifteenth soon followed, and Company G was selected to do guard duty at the landing, that being the most responsible position in which any company could be placed. Saturday, August 26. Started for home on "The City of Madison," at 10 o'clock a. m. We will not follow his diary further, however interesting it may be, but will say that he arrived home with his regiment though in a very sick condition. A local writer says: From the time Mr. Willard was attacked with the several diseases his appearance changed. Then his look was anything but natural. His flesh was much wasted away. His lower limbs were badly swollen with large scurvy sores resembling carbuncles, and it was thought he would never live to get home. His wisest course would be to go to the hospital, but he decided otherwise. So with feet and legs bandaged and cane in hand, he managed to get on board the boat. Mr. Willard was attacked with bilious colic just before starting for home, and got along quite comfortably on board the boat, but when changed at Cairo for cattle cars, the suffering was the greatest he ever endured. For seven years after his return he was able to do but little work, and never any of a laborious nature. A comrade relates the following: It was Saturday evening, the 6th of June, I think, when an officer came to our company and wanted three men for a hazardous enterprise. Ezra Willard, John Chesley and William Chesley, two brothers from Barnstead, volunteered. When they reached the place of rendezvous there were some hundred or more men, and the officer said, "Now, if there is a man among you that is afraid to die to-day, let him step out and he can return to his regiment honorably;" but not a man from the Fifteenth moved. They were then instructed what they were to do. They were to deploy as skirmishers and advance as near to the rebel works as possible. Then to get into any cover they could, and at a given signal they were to begin firing; the object was to attract the attention of the enemy while a charge was to be made on another part of the line. They marched silently forward until within a very short distance of the fortification, when they lay flat upon the ground, and working forward they came to what is known to farmers as a "dead furrow." The weeds in this were about a foot or a foot and a half high. Our boys lay down in this. Soon it was daylight, and they waited for the expected signal that never came. The commanding general had changed his mind. What little food they had with them was soon eaten. By ten o'clock their canteens were empty, the sun shone with tropical heat, but these men dare not move, for if they did so it would disclose their whereabouts to the enemy. They could not communicate with each other for the same reason. About noon one man started to run. He had not taken a dozen paces before he was pierced by twenty rifle balls, and as his body lay on the field the rebels would shoot at it, during the rest of the day. About two o'clock a black snake made its way towards the men. Now Ezra, in common with all mankind, had a horror of these reptiles; but his snakeship cared nothing for this, but made straight for our friend and crawled across his body, and he, poor fellow, dared not stir. Comrade Willard said that perhaps the snake was not larger than many others, but it seemed to him that it was the biggest snake that ever lived. The sun sinks slowly, so slowly to these men; at last the day ends and darkness at once comes on, and then they can crawl out of their hiding-place and make their way back to their lines. They cannot speak, but seizing the first canteens they drain them, then they hunt for their regiment. It has been moving all night. They wander around and just at morning they find their comrades. No wonder that Willard's diary for the next few days should be broken. The negroes flocked to our lines by thousands. They were placed in colonies, that is they were marched into the open field and bivouacked. In other words, they could sleep on the ground as the soldiers did, but they would soon gather some barrels or boxes and make a shelter." Colony number 8 was near the writer's stable, where he was quartered for a short time. One of my hostlers was sick. I went to see him and measured his house; it was eight feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high in front! Here my man William lived, with his wife and two children. It was as good as any house in the colony of 1,500 inhabitants. There was not a building in it but that a man could look over the top while standing on the ground. In other words, two men standing upright in any part of the village could see each other. On the other side of my stable was the church spoken of by Comrade Willard. The size was 30 by 50 feet. There was no floor. Posts were set in the ground and poles spiked to them. In this way the frame was made. Then the shakes, or split staves as Comrade Willard calls them, were nailed to these, and a tower was built over the front entrance. Crotched stakes were driven into the ground inside the church, in which poles were laid, and on these were placed shakes for seats. There was not a hoard in the whole building, except the top of the pulpit. These shakes were made out of a species of cedar that grew in Louisiana. It had so good "rift" that a log twenty feet long could be split with an ax and then the whole reduced to shakes one inch thick and the width of the diameter of the log. The men and women in these colonies were employed, most of them, in cutting wood on government land, and when they came to a tree of this kind they would split it up and "tote" (carry) it two miles to the spot to build their church, although they needed this material to build them shelters. One day, while removing sugar from an abandoned plantation, I took the bell that had been used to call the slaves from their work and carried it down to this church. The negroes cut a tree, leaving two prongs on it, and set it up before their edifice, and in the fork they hung this bell.