Sandwich Soldiers, Sailors, Sons

Stauffer Miller's latest book, Sandwich Soldiers, Sailors, Sons: A Cape Cod Town in the Civil War, tells the story of the Cape Cod, Massachusetts community of Sandwich before, during and after the Civil War. Sandwich was unique among Cape Cod's Civil War-era communities in that its economy was industrial rather than maritime. Boston businessman Deming Jarves established a glassmaking factory there in 1825. Irish immigrants soon arrived to work in Jarves's factory. They were Cape Cod's first Irish and also first Catholics. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Sandwich's population stood at 4,500, a sizeable increase from what it was before the factory's arrival. A substantial portion of that increase was Irish factory workers and their families. English settlers colonized Sandwich in 1637, well before the arrival of the factory and the Irish. A descendant of those settlers was Charles Chipman, born in 1829. He received some schooling at a Sandwich academy and in 1850 enlisted in the army. After serving several years he obtained his discharge, returned home, married, formed a militia company and when the war began received a captain's commission. Because he was a well-known and trusted local man, and had some military experience, he soon recruited a company of volunteers. About half of his recruits were Irish factory workers. Many of the others, though not Irish, were also drawn from the factory. Chipman's glassmaking volunteers went off to the war in May 1861, just a month after its beginning. It would be another fourteen months before another company of Cape Codders marched to the war. This was in part because men of military age in the other communities were at sea when the war began, rather than at home working in a factory. Thus, it was a combination of two factors, an on-hand pool of men from which to recruit and the right sort of man to do the recruiting, that allowed Sandwich to send men to the war so early. The book follows the fortunes of Chipman and his men through their many campaigns. It also follows the course of the community's other soldiers as well as its men who entered the Union navy. Several letter collections provide insights into the Sandwich home front. Miller's first two books discussed all the Cape Cod communities and their army, navy and civilian contributions to the war effort. Sandwich Soldiers etc narrows the focus to the Cape community that sent the first, and the most, fighting men to the Union cause. That tighter focus allows for discussion of not just the soldiers and sailors themselves but their families too. Thus, readers will find Sandwich Soldiers etc both an engaging and highly personal story of Cape Cod and the Civil War.