The Bay State Monthly. Volume 2, No. 6, March, 1885. Various
Among all the men with whom I have come in contact in places of business responsibility and honor I do not know another to whom I give more unqualified respect and esteem than I do to Mr. Wallace. Cordially,
Mr. Wallace, as has appeared, was for three years associated with Governor Long in the Government of Massachusetts. In response to a note from me Mr. Long writes as follows:
"I am glad to know that you are writing a sketch of Mr. Wallace for publication. If a good subject will make a good sketch your work will be a success. He is one of the men, however, who write their own lives, not in the pages of any autobiography, but in their conduct and character. I have served with him in public life, and sat with him as one of my Councilors in the Executive Chamber, and have found him always a fund of practical good sense, of excellent judgment, trained by great experience in affairs, and of thorough integrity. He is a representative Massachusetts man, the builder of his own fortune, equal to the enterprise of acquiring wealth and position, and magnanimous in their use and enjoyment. But I like best to recall, as I am sure do all who know him, his generous friendship, his great public spirit, and his good heart, of which I have witnessed many proofs. I trust that it may be many years before his life is taken in any other way than in such an appreciative and kindly sketch as you will write of him.
December 1, 1853, Mr. Wallace married Sophia Ingalls, daughter of Thomas Ingalls of Rindge, New Hampshire. She died June 20, 1871, leaving two sons, Herbert I. Wallace and George R. Wallace. Herbert is a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1877. George studied at the Institute of Technology in Boston. They are associated with their father in the management of his business. December 28, 1876 Mr. Wallace married Mrs. Sophia F. Bailey of Woodstock, Vermont. Mr. Bailey was a member of Congress from the district in which Fitchburg is included. Mrs. Wallace is one of the well-known Billings family of Woodstock. Mr. Wallace lives in a beautiful house on Prospect street, which is surrounded with beautiful lawns and green-houses which, gratify his taste. From his front door he can overlook the city and its varied industries in whose development he has borne so conspicuous a part.
We are near the end of a story which it has been a pleasure to tell. Vastly more could be told. A volume of incidents could be written. There are precious secrets of every generous and noble man's life which no pen may profane by giving them publicity. These are the choice treasures reserved only for those who know him best, and live nearest his heart. But the writer desires, as Mr. Wallace's pastor, to add the testimony of observation and personal knowledge to the rare purity and uprightness of character, to the generosity of spirit, to the thoughtful kindness, and to the deep and reverent regard for spiritual things, of his distinguished parishioner. As an example of untiring energy, of probity of character, of cleanness of soul, of uprightness of life, of sincerity of purpose, of firmness of moral principle, he may safely be held up as a model for young men.
Fitchburg
Nested among her hills she lies,—
The city of our love!
Within her, pleasant homes arise;
And healthful airs and happy skies
Float peacefully above.
A sturdy few, 'mid hopes and fears,
Her fair foundations set:
And looking backward now, through years
Of steady gain, how small appears
Her old estate!—and yet,
She dons no autocratic airs,
In scorn of humbler days,
But shapes her fortunes and affairs,
To match the civic wreath she wears
And justify her bays.
Honor and Truth her old renown:
Conservative of both,
The virtues of the little town
She holds in legacy, to crown
The city's larger growth.
Nor ease nor sloth her strength despoil:
Her peaceful farmers till,
With patient thrift, th' outlying soil,
Her trained mechanics deftly toil,
Her merchants ply their skill;
Her ponderous engineries supply
A thousand waiting needs;
Her wheels revolve, her shuttles fly,—
And ever where the prize hangs high,
Her foot, unfaltering, leads.
Her sympathies are large and sweet:
And when, at Freedom's call,
The war flags waved, the war drums beat,
She sprang, responsive, to her feet,
And freely offered all!
Alert in War, she emulates
The Arts of Peace, as well:
Religion, Order, guard her gates;
Wealth, Culture, Thrift, like happy Fates,
Her destinies foretell.
So, through the round of years, she keeps
Advancing on her Past:
Her old-time vigor never sleeps,—
And even as she sows she reaps.
God bless her to the last!
Major General Lew Wallace At Shiloh
[Author of "Battles of the American Revolution."]
It seems common to all great wars that the true version of leading actions is rarely assured by the immediate reports of commanders. Many causes secure to such reports substantial accuracy, but the development of details seldom fails to show that justice to subordinates cannot be done by the simple statement of general plans and general results. There are historians who still claim that Arnold had no part in the battle of Freeman's Farm, September 19, 1777; and many other battles of the Revolutionary war lacked clear definition until nearly a century had passed and the records were supplemented by careful examination of the battle-fields and a more thorough scrutiny of British, French, and Hessian archives, thereby to correct topographical data and harmonize conflicting statements.
The case of General Fitz John Porter forcibly illustrates the difficulty of changing public opinion, once formed, even when supplemental data enforce military recognition of their value. The Battle of Franklin, which secured to General Thomas the opportunity to fortify Nashville and ultimately defeat Hood, and the battles of Stone River, Gettysburg, Chicamauga and Monocacy, are among the actions of the late war in which differences of statement as to positions and movements have greatly qualified first estimates of the relations which various officers sustained to those actions.
The battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, has been the latest under scrutiny. It is not the purpose to consider whether the action of the day was influenced by the arrival of Buel's army, or by the non-arrival of General Lew Wallace's division; nor whether General Wallace did, or did not, march by scientific methods, when he moved for the nearest firing. Among voluminous papers touching the civil war are the copies of original papers received from General Wallace himself, and of present interest. These papers received notice from the Western press at one time, but seem to demand a more formal record, as essential factors in the better understanding of the Battle of Shiloh.
The following outline is suggested by these documents:
1st. That the Federal line of battle,
Mrs. Mason is a resident of Fitchburg. Her home, on Rollstone Street, is shown in the "Sketch of Fitchburg." Her reputation as a writer of verse is not confined to the State. She is the author of the words of the familiar ballad "Do They Miss Me at Home?" and has, for many years, contributed poetry to leading weeklies and magazines.—Ed.