Robert F. Morrow Jr. at his Henderson Road home with his great-great grandfather Pvt. William A. Baker’s medals. (Photo by Linda Carman)
WILLIAMSTOWN — When Robert F. Morrow Jr. of Henderson Road started out to write a book about his great-grandfather’s Civil War experiences, he had just a few mementoes — a case of medals, the Confederate rifle his great-great-grandfather had captured and a photograph taken later in life showing a craggy, bewhiskered face etched with resolve.
Morrow also had the patience for extensive research, and, since he had retired from his engineering job on disability after being stricken with Parkinson’s disease, he also had the time.
“I looked at my disability as an opportunity to write,†Morrow said, speaking at his home earlier this week.
“I was always interested in history. My parents took me to Civil War battlefields,†he said. “But I didn’t know anything about the 77th New York Volunteers except that my great-great grandfather served in that regiment.â€
Morrow said he worked on the book for 15 years, spending the first seven on research. And he credited the Civil War documentary film aired on public television by Ken Burns with rekindling his interest and launching him on his project.
The results of his research and diligence have just been published as “The 77th New York Volunteers: ‘Sojering’ in the VI Corps,†by White Mane Books, available at Water Street Books, Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.com.
Morrow may have considered his retirement on disability an opportunity to write, but Parkinson’s limited that opportunity to short intervals when tremors did not interfere.
“When I came down with Parkinson’s, my father [Robert Morrow Sr.] became my legs,†Morrow said. “He went around Saratoga and that area looking up material for me.â€
Morrow’s great-grandfather, William A. Baker, was 36 years old when he enlisted as a private in the Union Army, a farmer and Teamster with a wife and two children — a man who marked an X to sign his name.
“I inherited his dog tags,†Morrow said. “I wanted to know who he was.â€
Baker enlisted in August 1862 as part of the first wave of reinforcements for a regiment that left the Peninsula campaign in Virginia, having lost 100 men to sickness and with twice that number on disability. Some 90 percent of the regiment was from the Saratoga area.
In his introduction, Morrow wrote, “The 77th chaplain, Norman Fox, stated, ‘The man who makes the good soldier was not the swaggering swash-buckler, not the street brawler, but the plain respectable man who at home had always done his duty, faithfully, whatever it might be. The man who being set to hoe corn on a hot day would hoe his row without watching, even when the day was hot, was the man who, when assigned a station on the field of battle, would stay there till recalled, even though it was apparent that the recall would be given by the resurrection angel.’â€
“I would like to assume that my great-great grandfather was this type of a man,†Morrow wrote. “The more information that I collected on the 77th, the more evident it became that the boys from Bemis Heights were arguably one of the better regiments in the Union Army, and that their stories should be told.â€
The regiment, whose members were recruited from Essex, Fulton and Saratoga counties in New York, left home on Thanksgiving Day, 1861, and until the war’s end in April 1865, the 77th fought in more than 50 grim and bloody battles, from Lee’s Mills during the siege of Yorktown through Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Bloody Angle and Fredericksburg, to Lee’s surrender at Appomatox.
When the regiment got off the boat in Washington, D.C., they were met by President Abraham Lincoln, who greeted them with the pun, “Better not be late, because we’ve got to get Early,†a reference to Confederate Major General Jubal Early.
At the battle of Fredericksburg, the regiment captured two Confederate cannons, 100 prisoners and the colors of the 18th Mississippi, as it struggled to capture Marye’s Heights.
Of the 1,421 who served in the 77th New York, 600 — less then half — were mustered out after their service. The others were killed in action, died of wounds or disease, were captured or honorably discharged.
Morrow’s great-great-grandfather, William A. Baker, known as “Yankee Bill†after the war, was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic war veterans. He died in 1904 at age 82.
Morrow said Baker’s photograph, taken probably in his 70s, clinched the publisher’s acceptance of his book project.
“The picture helped me get my query accepted,†Morrow said. “I wrote them that ‘he’s been watching as I write the book, now he’s looking over your shoulder,’†he said.
For Morrow, the Internet was an invaluable information source. Since his great-great-grandfather could not write, Morrow had no letters home as material. But he scoured the Internet and often hit pay dirt in his contacts with descendents of other members of the regiment in his quest to learn what his ancestor experienced.
“In some places there were gaps, but every now and then another door would open for me,†he said.
For example, the major of the 77th went to Nebraska as a homesteader after the war. His descendents passed along copies of two of his letters, full of references to the battle of Petersburg.
“For people to dig into their possessions and send me copies of letters and pictures was rewarding,†Morrow said. “The project finally came together.â€
He, in turn, passed along information he unearthed about the regiment and its members to other descendents. For example, he gave the descendent of Col. Windsor French, the regiment’s commanding officer, [the descendant is now himself a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army] all the information about his ancestor.
“I always felt the descendents had a right to it,†he said.
Morrow rewrote the book three or four times, he said, noting that the first draft was 600 pages, and the finished volume only 200. The cover is a photograph of four officers of the 77th, all of whom died in battle.
Morrow, a graduate of Saratoga Springs High School, worked as an industrial engineer at the former General Cable Co. here until he could no longer work. He and his wife, Mary, live on Henderson Road.
The publisher, he said, specializes in first books and in the Civil War. Now that he has recounted the story of his great-great grandfather’s regiment, he plans to tackle a novel set during the Civil War and is considering a children’s book as well.
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Lanesborough Officials Take Road District Dissolution Off Warrant
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Select Board has removed a town meeting warrant article regarding the dissolution of the Baker Hill Road District.
JMJ Holdings development consultant Tim Grogan spoke in public comment saying the Berkshire Mall owner is currently has purchase-and-sale agreement for the mall.
Back in February, the Select Board settled a tax dispute with JMJ Holdings by agreeing to move forward in dissolving the district if the company paid $1.1 million to the town. JMJ Holdings had to provide a signed development-and-purchase agreement 30 days before the town meeting.
JMJ holdings did not submit a payment to be made by May 9. Because of that, the Select Board voted to take the article of the warrant to be voted at the annual town meeting.
Meanwhile, the Baker Hill Road District presented a slideshow defending the district and explaining what it does.
The district currently provides a non-resident-funded revenue stream of around $500,000 per year. These funds help pay for police cars and officer salaries, dump trucks, fire trucks, and more for the town.
"Dissolution would mean the district's three commercial property owners would no longer have to pay for upkeep of the Route Seven/Eight connector road. As a result, the BHRD annual contribution of more than $500,000 to Lanesborough would disappear permanently, since the services and maintenance costs associated with the Route Seven and Eight connector road would still remain," said Tom Caraccioli, PR consultant with AH&M Inc. "Lanesborough would have to absorb these costs and continue to provide emergency services to the mall and Target. The financial burden for these remaining expenses would then fall on Lanesborough taxpayers through higher taxes or the reduction of other important town services."
The proposal with JMJ would affect the town in a negative way Caraccioli claimed.
"JMJ is proposing a one-time payment of $1.1 million to Lanesborough in exchange, JMJ would never pay BHRD taxes again. The decision to dissolve the BHRD by accepting this proposed $1.1 million would be a permanent choice that would have irreversible consequences," he said. "There will be no official system in place to cover recurring costs once the money from this single payment is spent. Therefore, the proposed one-time payment is not a long-term solution for the town of Lanesborough."
JMJ's dispute was that the Berkshire Mall no longer exists as a functioning entity and it should not be on the hook for protection and maintenance that had been based on the mall's operation in its heyday. The company is seeking to redevelop the site as senior housing and town officials were asking the state to take over the Connector Road.
District officials said it's not guaranteed that the state would take over the road linking Routes 7 and 8, built to service the mall back in the '80s, and that the state Department of Transportation had historically discouraged the town from asking. Even if it happened, it could take three to five years, during which no BHRD funds would be collected if the district is dissolved. The state would not replace the revenue they support, and they argued the state is facing its own budget issues making it unlikely they would want to take over.
The road district was created by an act of the Legislature and would require another act to dissolve it. The town meeting article asked for voter support for a home-rule petition to start that process.
After the presentation, it was asked what the current financial status of the BHRD, given that JMJ hasn’t paid in a long time and if the district actually has the money or if it is dependent on the mall sale.
Mark Siegars, attorney for BHRD, reminded the room that the mall is under a purchase and sale agreement and if the sale closes, the district expects to receive more than a million dollars because of the lawsuit and lien, but does not have that cash yet. If the sale does not go through, BHRD will take the mall and sell it. The district still gets payments from Target, which is separate from the mall.
There were also some questions on the district's history, with Select Board member Jason Breault asking if the mall did not have a high tax rate from the district, would it still be solvent. The exchange became heated between Siegars and BHRD Chair Bill Prendergast.
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