Obsequies of Addison O. Whitney and Luther C. Ladd, Soldiers, Who were slain at Baltimore, April 19th, 1861

[Lowell]: Stone & Huse, Printers, 1861. First printing. Single sheet. 5" x 8. Near fine. A few tiny rubs to black border, a tiny closed edge tear at top right corner.. Rare broadside program for the funerals of the first two Union soldiers killed in action during the Civil War. Addison and Ladd, both of Company D, 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, were killed in mob violence as their regiment changed trains in Baltimore en route to the reinforcement of Washington. <br /> <br /> Both young men worked in the textile mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. The town of Lowell had been rather pro-slavery in the antebellum era, due to its industrial interests in cotton production, but the killings of Whitney and Ladd instantly turned public opinion rabidly anti-Southern. <br /> <br /> A monument was dedicated to Whitney and Ladd in Lowell on June 17, 1865. The dedication had been planned for the 4 year anniversary of their deaths two months earlier, but was postponed due to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.<br /> <br /> A remarkable survivor and an incredibly poignant and direct connection to the first bloodshed of the American Civil War. Printed with the town seal of Lowell, whose motto reads, "Art is the Handmaid of Human Good." The printed text includes the words to an original hymn for the occasion read by Rev. J. J. Twiss. <br /> <br /> OCLC locates only 2 copies--both in Massachusetts.