Topic: War
Soldiers, military stories, veterans
Jeremiah J. Gilman, a Civil War veteran who lived on Chambers Street and Eaton Street in the West End, witnessed the immediate aftermath of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865. After the Civil War, Gilman made it in the local newspapers not only as a veteran, but also as the purchaser of an investment property on Eaton St. that later became his home.
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was the Union’s first free Black regiment of the Civil War. The Massachusetts Black regiments were all deeply linked to the West End, from which they were advocated for, recruited, and organized. The 54th is memorialized in a bas relief on Boston Common, and in the 1989 film “Glory”.
Sgt. Salvatore J. Cassaro was a West Ender who served in the United States Army during the Korean War. Mayor John Hynes honored Cassaro’s request for a flag of the City of Boston that he could fly over his gun position, demonstrating pride in where he came from.
John Osborn was a painter, paint dealer, and member of the Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company who purchased the first Harrison Grey Otis House from Otis when he moved to Mt. Vernon Street in 1801.
Col. George Middleton was an African American Revolutionary War soldier, a “Prince Hall Freemason,” and civil rights activist, who’s home is now part of the Black Heritage Trail. He was born in 1735 and died in 1815.
Prince Hall was a leader in Boston’s free black community on the North Slope and Copp’s Hill. He was one of the United States’ most vocal early abolitionist voices and a founder of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Hall advocated for black education and equality, running a school and making a wide array of arguments in service of bringing the fundamental promises of the Revolution to all Americans.
Primus Hall was an abolitionist, soldier, school master, and leader in Boston’s post-colonial period.
