VOLUME TWENTY SIX, NUMBER THREE
MARCH 2012
Love a-bloom in the Beaumont Room A radiant smile was Barbara Clothier’s response to her prize, one of 18 won by residents at the Valentine’s Day dinner dance presided over by Dining Services Director Rose-Marie Pringle in the Beaumont Room. Photo by Dining Supervisor Lee-Anna Lopez
INSIDE: Chef Mark makes his farewell, Page 3 More Valentines photos, Page 8
Four years of events commemorating the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, began with a Presidential proclamation on April 12, 2011, the 150th anniversary of the opening attack on Fort Sumter. This Sesquicentennial celebration fired the imagination of Beaumont resident Carol Allen. She built a recent “Timely Topics” session around an invitation to other residents to attend and tell the Civil War stories that have come down in their families. Following are some of the stories that emerged from that session.
A tale of two grandfathers By Hannah Henderson My family’s Civil War stories concern both my grandfathers. My paternal grandfather in 1862 joined up at age 14 (he lied about his age and his younger brother, age 11, joined as a drummer boy). The Bradley family had been farming in the Merrimac River Valley for
Family tragedy, Page 4 Brother vs. brother, Page 5 How a spider saved a life, Page 6
about 175 years, but by the time of the Civil War they had lost most of their land. My paternal grandfather, Leverett Bradley, joined up with a Massachusetts heavy artillery regiment; for the next two years he and his regiment sat in the trenches guarding Washington. In the spring of 1864, General Grant pulled all those troops out of the trenches to join his troops on the campaign to capture Richmond. It took them almost a year to do so; for the first three months there were non-stop battles with appalling casualties at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and North continued on page 2