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Chapter 1 “Independence Still Lives” FROM NORTH BRIDGEWATER TO PHILADELPHIA, MAY 21, 1840–JULY 28, 1861 Ambrose Henry Hayward was born on May 21, 1840, in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts. His father, Ambrose Hayward—a thirty-year-old dry goods merchant—had lived in North Bridgewater most of his life. The Hayward family descended from one of the first residents of Old Bridgewater town, Thomas Hayward, who settled in Plymouth Colony in 1638. Hayward’s mother, Hannah Howland Hayward, came from a family of thirteen siblings in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, nine of whom were still living by the outbreak of the Civil War. On April 11, 1833, at age twenty-five, she married Ambrose Hayward and they took up residence in North Bridgewater at 48 Green Street. Hannah Hayward gave birth to her first child, Augustus, on September 1, 1834. Over the next fourteen years, she bore another six children: Melville, in 1836; Hannah Corinna, or “Cora,” in 1838; Ambrose Henry, or simply “Henry,” in 1840; Albert Francis, in 1842; Julius Freeman, in 1844; and John Parker, in 1848. Only one of the Hayward siblings did not live past childhood. Sadly, Julius Freeman Hayward died from the effects of dysentery on October 25, 1849, at age four years and eleven months. Almost nothing is known about how Julius’s death affected Henry, who was then nine years old. In a time when child mortality was ever-present, such an event probably seemed commonplace, but almost certainly this tragic event had to have impressed upon Henry the frailty of human life. Henry Hayward’s hometown, North Bridgewater (presentday Brockton), sat in the northwest corner of Plymouth County, about twenty miles south of Boston. The town had expanded rapidly in the 1850s. In the five years leading up to the war, it grew by 4 The Life and Letters of First Sergeant Ambrose Henry Hayward about 1,300 people. Throughout the decade, it steadily increased as a manufacturing center for clothing, dry goods, furniture, hardware , footwear, and musical instruments. By the Civil War, North Bridgewater encompassed about 13,000 acres and contained 6,584 inhabitants. It also had 1,377 families, 1,023 dwellings, 10 churches, 14 free schools, 1 private school, 2 academies, 1 bank, 5 fire companies, and a total property valuation of $2,173,965. It was, as one chronicler stated, “a live place.”1 Hayward’s hometown was important to him. Throughout his wartime correspondence, he ruminated nostalgically about his youth. Writing from Point of Rocks, Maryland, in 1861, he asked his youngest brother, John Parker, for particulars about the beauty of Katey Meadow and the fish biting in Porter’s Upper Pond. Two years later, while in Tennessee, Hayward reflected on his elementary school days: “I look back to my School Boy days at times and wonder at the Changes time has made. I never dreamed that I would be a Soldier In those days of Compositions.” His youth in North Bridgewater stood at the center of Hayward’s life, and throughout his service in the Union army, he kept up-to-date on events in Plymouth County by receiving his town’s newspaper, the North Bridgewater Gazette—his most cherished reading material.2 Religion also played a large role in Hayward’s early life. At age seven he received a baptism from Reverend Warren Goddard, a leading member of the New Church, a religion founded on the works of Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Although Hayward rarely mentioned his faith in his letters, a fellow soldier in Hayward’s company substantiated his devotion to the New Church. As Private William Roberts Jr. wrote to his sister in January 1864, “I hope Harry Hayward called at the house. He is a noble fellow. . . . His folks as you are perhaps aware are ardent New Church people, & he is the same.”3 However, Hayward’s family—more than any other institution —stood at the core of his existence. During the war, he devotedly sent portions of his pay to support his parents and siblings. His letters recurrently expressed an eagerness to remain informed about their lives. When his sister, Cora, mistakenly addressed one of her letters to the wrong regiment, Hayward expressed himself heartbroken . Although this mistake cost Hayward a few photographs, he lamented that he could never read her missing letter. He wrote, “I would have rather received the letter than the Photo for I can get more of them, but you cannot again bring your mind to bare upon the same...

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