Hometown Heroes in the Civil War: Berkshire County has gripping narratives accompanied by historic photos and documents of twenty-seven men who answered President Lincoln’s call to preserve the Republic and found themselves in the cataclysm of the American Civil War.

These citizen-soldiers from the Berkshires became infantrymen, artillerists, chaplains, surgeons, and sailors. Through these men, the words of history will echo as they marched forth from farms and factories to face unrelenting combat, disease, force marches, exposure, inadequate food, and scarce medical treatment.

Hometown Heroes bears witness to the hundreds of thousands who fought and shed blood in this war and the one-in-three who died or were wounded on our own soil. The men’s struggles and failures are sad, but their bravery lifts our spirits. The heroes distinguished themselves in the terrifying battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania Court House, The Wilderness, Petersburg, and Appomattox.

The untold stories of these northern Berkshire men and more than 150 shared, rarely-seen images of the men and their times give a glimpse into the four years of sacrifice and bloodshed that characterized the War between the States. Through the powder and smoke these scenes evoke, you will read their captivating and self-sacrificing stories.

These twenty-seven stories include: two soldiers from the famous 54th Black Regiment; four brothers, two of whom perished; POWs who survived the notorious prisons of Libby and Andersonville; a sailor who survived the first submarine attack; President Lincoln’s carriage driver; a battlefield surgeon; and a bootmaker who received the Medal of Honor.

In the end, those who returned home became formative citizens and were honored for their
sacrifices in preserving the Union and ending the scourge of slavery—freeing 4,000,000 souls.