MASSACHUSETTS MINUTEMEN MEDAL OF PRIVATE JOHN D. WHITE, COMPANY B, 3rd BATTALION, MASS. RIFLEMEN & 21st MASS; BATT. G 4th US ART; & 10th MASS LT. ART.

MASSACHUSETTS MINUTEMEN MEDAL OF PRIVATE JOHN D. WHITE, COMPANY B, 3rd BATTALION, MASS. RIFLEMEN & 21st MASS; BATT. G 4th US ART; & 10th MASS LT. ART.

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Reportedly one of group of “muscular and spirited men . . . generally men of the dare-devil stripe,” this soldier served throughout the Civil War, in a total of four units, with almost continuous service from April 19, 1861, to muster out June 9, 1865. During his service with the 21st Massachusetts Infantry, he saw heavy fighting in North Carolina and then in Virginia at Chantilly, South Mountain, and Antietam. Transferring to the regular army shortly after that battle he saw more hard fighting in Battery G of the 4th US Artillery, which served perhaps most notably at Gettysburg under Capt. Bayard Wilkinson, who obtained some fame there at the cost of his life on July 1, and where it continued to fight all three days, losing 16 officers and men killed, wounded or missing, and expended an astounding 1,400 rounds of ammunition. As part of the 11th Corps it later saw action also in the west, in Tennessee. After discharge from that unit at Nashville in August 1864, apparently at the end of his original term of service when signing up with the 21st, he joined the 10th Independent Battery Massachusetts Light Artillery, and saw further action at Petersburg and in the Appomattox Campaign.

Somewhat ironically, his medal was award for his very earliest and shortest service, though under the very first call for troops to save the Union. Authorized in 1902, these two-piece bronze medals consist of a rectangular pin-back bar reading “MASSACHUSETTS MINUTE MEN OF 1861” and a circular drop with the  Seal of the State of Massachusetts at center of the obverse and the reverse reading,  “THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS VOLUNTEER MILITIA WHO WERE MUSTERED INTO THE UNITED STATES SERVICE IN RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS APRIL 15, 1861.” Approximately 3,800 of these were struck, stamped on the rim with the soldier’s name, rank, and unit and were available for the veterans and family members. This one is marked, “JOHN D. WHITE, PRVT. B. 3d. BTN. RFN,” indicating his membership in Company B of the 3rd Battalion of Riflemen. The battalion, part of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, consisted of three companies: Companies A and C from Worcester and Company B from Holden, nicknamed the “Holden Rifles.” These three were later joined by a newly recruited fourth company after arriving in Washington.

The battalion was activated April 18, 1861, and White officially enrolled as of April 19 for three-month’s service. The battalion paraded at City Hall in Worcester at 5:00 p.m. April 20, boarded trains at 10:30, reached New York the morning of Sunday April 21, boarded ship for Annapolis that night, and arrived at Annapolis April 24. It remained there until May 2, when it was assigned as garrison to Fort McHenry. It served at Ft. McHenry and vicinity, doing guard and garrison duty, dismounting and remounting the forts heavy guns, etc., until returning home on July 30 and mustering out August 3.

White did not let any grass grow under his feet. He re-enlisted almost immediately, joining for duty and enrolling in Co. E of the 21st MA Infantry on Aug. 16, which was given an official muster-in date of Aug. 23. He mustered in as a sergeant, listing his age as 19 and his residence as West Boylston. He served with that unit until Oct. 23, 1862, when he transferred into the regular army, joining Battery G of the 4th US Artillery. During his time with the 21st MA, it saw action as part of Burnside’s Coast Division in North Carolina, being engaged at Roanoke Feb. 8, 1862, New Bern Mar. 14, and Camden April 19, losing 40 officers and men killed or mortally wounded in those actions. It returned to Virginia in August, was lightly engaged at 2nd Bull Run on Aug. 30, but heavily engaged at Chantilly on Sept. 1, losing 38 in killed or mortally wounded, was engaged at South Mountain at Fox’s Gap, and again at Antietam, where it helped carry Burnsides Bridge and suffered 10 officers and men killed or mortally wounded and another 35 wounded.

Shortly afterward, he took advantage of an offer to transfer from the volunteers to the regular army to finish out his term of service. The regimental history of the 21st notes, “Towards the close of October, having got back several of our detailed men, sick and wounded, the 21st had begun to look a little like its old self again, with some three hundred men for duty, when it suffered a loss of fifty-nine muscular and spirited men, who, tired of ‘hoofing it’ as infantry, under an order of the War Department allowing the transfer, enlisted in the regular cavalry and artillery. They were generally men of the dare-devil stripe, and, though they were a grand addition to the regular army, were a sad loss to the 21st.”

White is listed as joining Battery G of the 4th US Artillery at Pleasant Valley on Oct. 24. Dyer  gives their service from that point as: “Moved to Falmouth, Va., October 30-November 19. Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 12–15. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Battle of Chancellorsville May 1–6. Gettysburg Campaign June 11-July 24. Battle of Gettysburg July 1–3. Moved to Bridgeport, Ala., September 24-October 3. Reopening Tennessee River October 26–29. Battle of Chattanooga, Tenn., November 23–25. Bushy Knob November 23. Orchard Knob November 23–24. Missionary Ridge November 25. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., February 1864, and post duty thru until October.”

White was discharged at Nashville on Aug. 23, 1864, returned to Massachusetts, and promptly enlisted again, mustering into the 10th Independent Battery Massachusetts Light Artillery on Sept. 7, 1864, serving in that battery until muster out on June 9, 1865, at Galloup’s Island, Boston. He reached the regiment with thirteen other recruits on Oct. 13, at which point the battery was in Battery 14 in the trenches before Petersburg, where it remained until Oct. 24. For its service, we again turn to Dyer: “Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher's Run, October 27–28. In Forts Stevenson, Blaisdell, and Welch until November 29. Movement to Hatcher's Run December 9–10. In Forts Emery and Siebert until February 5, 1865. Dabney's Mills, Hatcher's Run, February 5–7. Watkins' House March 25. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9. Moved to Dabney's Mills March 30. Fall of Petersburg April 2. Pursuit of Lee April 8–9. Sailor's Creek April 6. Cover the crossing of II Corps at High Bridge, Farmville, April 7. Appomattox Court House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. March to Burkesville April 11–14. March to Washington, D.C., May 2–13. Grand Review of the Armies May 23.”

The condition of the medal is very good, with nice bronze tone overall, crisp die work, and pin in place on the reverse of the top bar. Like White, many of the men who received these, had significant wartime service in other units, but there could not have been many so in the thick of things. We know a little about his personal life. He was born in Portland, ME, in 1842. The army listed him as grey eyes,l black hair, and a fair complexion, standing  5’7-1/2”. He is listed as a “mechanic” by profession, but also more specifically as a shoemaker before the war and bootmaker later, having returned to West Boylston after the war and taken up his old profession. He had married by 1870, when the census picks him up with a wife and two children. Although we see no absences listed in his records for sickness or disease in the army (at least in his Massachusetts records- muster rolls for his time in the 4th US are not accessible) his health seems to have suffered for he applied for an invalid pension in September 1865. The outcome of that application is not clear and it may only have been for a partial pension- the 1870 census lists him as “works in boot shop,” but he died in December 1875, and was interred in West Boylston. [sr][ph:L]

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