established at Lowell.

[Illustration: KIRK-STREET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 1840.]

Among the first, and most distinguished, of the citizens of Lowell to
offer his services to the general government at this crisis, was General
Benjamin F. Butler, already a lawyer and orator of great reputation, who
had previously held high rank in the militia. Six companies from Lowell
joined his expedition to the Gulf.

Early in 1862, the Sixth and Seventh Batteries, mostly Lowell men, were
organized. In response to the President's call in July, 1862, three
companies joined the Thirty-third Regiment. In August, the Sixth
Regiment again entered the field for a campaign of nine months.

[Illustration: FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1840.]

In February, 1863, Lowell sent to the war the Fifteenth Battery, in
command of Captain Timothy Pearson and Lieutenant Albert Rowse. During
this month the ladies of the city raised about five thousand dollars for
the Sanitary Commission by a Soldiers' Fair--the second held in the
Northern States. In July, 1863, the "draft" called for over four hundred
additional soldiers from Lowell; less than thirty were forced into the
service. These were the palmy days for the substitute brokers and
bounty-jumpers. In July, 1864, the Sixth Regiment again responded, and
served one hundred days.

In 1865, came the close of the war and the return of the battle-scarred
veterans. During the long struggle more than five thousand citizens of
Lowell were in the army and navy of the United States, and the city