Topsfield and the Civil War

Many of Topsfield's young men served in the Civil War. Twenty-one died in the war. Our archives have originals and copies of letters those soldiers wrote home. We've sponsored research on Topsfield in the Civil War and provided presentations on various aspects. Here are some of our offerings.

• Topsfield in the Civil War
  A study prepared by Emily Marson of Gordon College and her advisor, Professor David Goss
• Joel Lake Sweeney wrote his sister a letter just before the Battle of Fredericksburg.
• "Kiss Clara for me" A touching letter that Eugene Henry Todd wrote his mother from Louisiana in May 1862. Clara was his baby sister. Read more about Eugene and what the Union Army was doing in Louisiana.
• Lincoln's Funeral TrainTopsfield resident William Gould was a conductor on the train that took Lincoln's body back to Springfield, Illinois. Read his memories of the trip as published in our Historical Collections in 1917.
• A list of the Civil War Veterans buried in Topsfield's cemeteries.
• "Topsfield in the Civil War"" by George Francis Dow, Topsfield Historical Collections, Vol. XXX, 1933, pg. 65 From our published collections, a record of Topsfield's response to the Civil War including short biographies of each of the soldiers who served.