Michael Amaral has presented a memorial plaque to the Walpole Public Library, dedicated to Walpole’s Private Lowell E. Hartshorn, of the Massachusetts 56th Veteran Volunteers, Co. A. The plaque will be placed in the Walpole Room at the library.
Pvt. Hartshorn of Walpole, was taken prisoner in May 1864 at the Battle of North Anna, Virginia, during the U.S. Civil War. He suffered over six months of brutal captivity, perishing of disease and maltreatment on December 16, 1864, at the infamous Prisoner of War camp at Andersonville, Georgia. As of the creation of this memorial, Pvt. Hartshorn is the only Walpole man recorded to have died as a Prisoner of War. He left Walpole to re-enlist in the Mass. 56th on December 26, 1863. He was one of the nearly 13,000 loyal Union prisoners—nearly 750 from Massachusetts—who chose "Death Before Dishonor," having continually refused offers of freedom if they joined the cause of the Confederacy.
Pvt. Hartshorn was a descendant of Corporal Ebenezer Hartshorn, the drummer in Col. Seth Bullard's Co. of Patriots, who, along with a total of nearly 160 other Walpole men, responded to the Alarm of April 19, 1775 (Lexington-Concord), and was part of the first hours of the Siege of Boston, which culminated in the evacuation of British forces on March 17, 1776.
Mr. Amaral, a lifelong resident of Walpole and the former Historical Commission Chairman during 2011-2015 (member: 2007-2015), is a local history researcher and preservation advocate. Amaral is proposing that Walpole Town Common, the former location of Walpole’s Meeting House and likely the muster grounds for Walpole’s militia and minutemen on April 19, 1775, be nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is hopeful of receiving overwhelming support for that endeavor from the people of Walpole.
