NAPL: Hometown Heroes in the Civil War

08:44AM / Friday, May 15, 2026Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On May 28 at 2 pm, visit the North Adams Public Library to meet author Dennis G. Pregent, as he discusses and shares readings from his latest book "Hometown Heroes in the Civil War."

Hometown Heroes in the Civil War features twentyseven narratives of Berkshire County men who answered President Lincoln's call to preserve the Republic. They left farms and factories to become infantrymen, artillerists, chaplains, surgeons, and sailors, experiencing the terror of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Chancellorsville, facing unrelenting combat, disease, exposure, malnutrition, and scarce medical treatment, stated a press releas.

Marine Corps veteran and Berkshire native Dennis Pregent researched and included a wealth of original documents and photographs to enhance these accounts. The profiles include two soldiers from the famous 54th Black Regiment, four brothers who fought simultaneously, POWs in the notorious prisons of Libby and Andersonville, a survivor of the first-ever submarine attack, President Lincoln's carriage driver, a battlefield surgeon, and a modest bootmaker who earned the Medal of Honor.

Held in the front parlor. All are welcome. There will be books for sale.

This event is co-hosted with the North Adams Historical Society.

The North Adams Public Library is located at 74 Church Street, North Adams, MA, 01247.

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North Adams Becomes a Purple Heart Community

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Veterans Service Officer Kurtis Durocher, a Purple Heart recipient, tells his own story of how he was wounded in Iraq.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City leaders last week held a ceremony marking the city as a Purple Heart Community to honor local military service members wounded or killed in combat.

"This designation is much more than a sign that will stand at the entrances to our city," said Kurtis Durocher, Northern Berkshire veterans service officer at City Hall on Friday. "It is a lasting commitment and a promise to this community. We'll never forget the sacrifices made by those who are wounded or killed while serving our nation. It is a public declaration of the courage and sacrifices of combat wounded. Veterans will always have a place of honor here in North Adams."

As a Purple Heart Community, North Adams will place signs throughout the city acknowledging the designation. The city will also hold a ceremony every Aug. 7 on National Purple Heart Day.

During the inaugural ceremony, Durocher said he was asked by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to find a keynote speaker for the event, preferably a Purple Heart recipient. But he was unable to find someone willing to speak. With the date approaching, he decided to tell his own story.

"I don't like standing up and telling my own personal story ... But I realized, in my position as a VSO, I get so many ... children of veterans who will say, 'I didn't know anything about my father until after he passed because he just didn't talk about it,'" Durocher said. "... I have been that way until I've gotten into this position, and so, now, I try to tell my story as much as I can when it is brought to me."

Durocher served in the Army for 20 years and retired as a master sergeant. On Friday, he recalled a time early in his career while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Sept. 12, 2003, his squad was conducting a patrol on Route Irish in Baghdad. He was serving as a gunner on an LMTV when it was struck by a 155-millimeter artillery shell. He said the explosive had been hidden behind a guardrail and detonated using nothing more than a washing machine timer.

"In an instant, everything changed. The blast knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I instinctively was removing my helmet," he said. "Almost immediately my training took over. We had been taught repeatedly that attacks like this were often followed by a secondary attack or an ambush. I quickly put my helmet back on and began searching for my machine gun."

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