Samuel Humphrey Turner was born in Scituate, Massachusetts on September 20, 1838. As a volunteer in the Civil War, Turner enlisted in the Massachusetts Infantry, 5th Regiment, Company E, and was wounded in the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. Turner reenlisted one year later, joining the 39th Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry, and was promoted to sergeant. During the war, Turner married Ellen A. Washburn in Medford, Massachusetts. He was officially discharged on June 14, 1865, and subsequently settled in Medford, where he worked as a caulker for the Boston Water Department.
Turner wrote to his sister Nellie, “You are a good sister and always was. But us men are so very sightless that we never can appreciate kindness until it is too late.” He wrote to his mother, “If all mothers were like mine, all the world could not conquer the Sons of the North... if you and Father only knew the courage one of your letters give me you would send one every day.”
In addition to correspondence with family, Turner’s collection includes enlistment and discharge papers and materials relating to the Massachusetts Association of Minute Men of 1861, of which Turner was a member and an officer until his death on March 24, 1907. I was previously unaware of this Association, which prompted me to do some more digging.
The Massachusetts Association of Minute Men of 1861 included Members of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia of the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Regiments, Third Battalion, and First Battery of Light Artillery, and general and staff officers selected by the governor, who responded to President Lincoln's first call for troops on April 15, 1861.
From this history and roster of the Minute Men, written by George W. Nason in 1910:
“It is well to note here that while our pages treat only of three months of the doings of these men, yet the greater part of them continued their service of patriotism to the end of the rebellion, and that the names of some of them appear on the rolls of most of the battles of the Civil War.”
From this history and roster of the Minute Men, written by George W. Nason in 1910:
“It is well to note here that while our pages treat only of three months of the doings of these men, yet the greater part of them continued their service of patriotism to the end of the rebellion, and that the names of some of them appear on the rolls of most of the battles of the Civil War.”
Medals were given to the Minute Men by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with the following inscription: "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. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. April 15, 1861." You can see a likeness of the front and back of the medal in the broadside below:
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| Massachusetts Association of Minute Men of 1861 broadside announcing the 1906 annual banquet. From the Samuel Humphrey Turner Papers, Ms. Coll. 5. |
You can access the finding aid for Samuel Turner’s collection in the State Library’s digital repository, linked here, and an online version of Nason's book is available on the Internet Archive.
Work consulted:
Nason, George W. History and complete roster of the Massachusetts regiments, minute men of ’61 who responded to the first call of President Abraham Lincoln, April 15, 1861, to defend the flag and Constitution of the United States ... and biographical sketches of minute men of Massachusetts. Boston, MA: Smith & McCance, 1910.
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