Moses Dennett: An Amesbury Boy in the Civil War
Young Moses Dennett, about age 20, with his dog Carlo. While traveling back home to Amesbury from Louisiana, after being injured and suffering the effects of malaria, Moses worried that his faithful pet would not remember him. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Howe.)
Once again, Scott Dennis, with his co-author Tim Kendall, has succeeded in bringing another chapter in the story of Amesbury carriage-maker Moses Dennett (1841-1930) to life. This third report about Dennett presents his youth and Civil War experiences, much of it seen through the eyes of family members who worried at home while this Amesbury boy went off to war in the South. It’s an impressive and highly readable addition to Amesbury’s historical records.
The two researchers have skillfully stitched together a coherent account of Dennett’s youth and Civil War days, extracting and organizing details from family school papers, letters, diaries and a family histories, arranged in context with military service records, the history of his regiment and The City of Newburyport In the Civil War, published in 1903. Several of the letters are included as appendixes to the report.
His first attempt at army enlistment was rejected, but persistent Moses made a second attempt and was able to hide a disability (a missing thumb lost in an accident) long enough to be accepted. After that, much of the “action” in this report takes place near Baton Rouge, La., where Moses was seriously injured during a foraging expedition to find food and supplies for Union troops.
Moses Dennett’s personal collection of Civil War items. The canteen (lower right) was his own, but the sword, rifle and bayonets may have been collected or given to him. (Photo courtesy of Rob Gordon.)
He eventually recovered and worked for a while in Lawrence, where he learned woodworking and carriage-making. He soon married and started his own carriage company in Amesbury, becoming a respected member of his Amesbury community. Moses’ Civil War days, however, forever remained part of his identity, as it did for other veterans before and after him. When he died in 1930, he was one of only three surviving Amesbury Civil War veterans.
Click here to read “Moses Dennett’s Early Years and Civil War Service.”
Scott Dennis, who co-wrote this paper with Tim Kendall, also wrote “Moses Dennett and the Carriage Hill Fire” and “The Dennett Home on Powow Hill,” both published on the ACM website earlier this year. Scott is the great-grandson of Moses Dennett and now lives in Virginia.