SLOCUM

An active and out spoken Abolitionist and attorney, John Slocum was quite often in the public eye, becoming well known and hated by slave holders throughout the South.  Because of that, he was a highly favored son of Rhode Island, destined for a bright political future.

TOWER

A native of Pawtucket, Levi Tower helped form a Rhode Island Militia unit called the Pawtucket Light Guard.  A deeply religious man, Tower marched out of Providence with the 1st Regiment R.I. Volunteers on April 19, 1861, and took up quarters in defense of Washington D.C. at the outbreak of the Civil War, after Fort Sumter.  As Union Troops arrived to defend the Nation’s Capitol Confederate units were so close they could set their time-pieces by the clock towers of the city.  Several times while serving as Ensign with the First R.I. Tower was sent out in command of small raiding units on the Rebel side of the Potomac River to perform very dangerous reconnaissance missions in key areas along the river to dislodge the enemy or ascertain the strengths of Confederate units most threatening the Nation's Capitol.  For this he drew the admiration and attention of his Commander, Colonel Burnside.

Tower and S. James Smith of the 1st R.I. were both promoted to the rank of Captain and transferred to the 2nd R.I. Volunteers to assist Co. John Slocum with forming the new regiment.  Both Captains Levi Tower, of Company F, and Samuel James Smith, of Company I, were killed leading their men during the First Battle at Bull Run on July 21, 1861.  In the heat of battle during the attack on Mathew's Hill, as his regiment was about the take the hill, Tower was serverely.  His last words were, "We have em !  Go in Boys !  Go in !".

Ensign Levi Tower
Promoted to Captain and transfered
to the 2nd R.I.
Killed at the First Battle of Bull Run
July 21, 1861.

Tower was greatly admired by his men.  The best example of how much Tower was admired by his men was illustrated by that actions of Private Joseph Barnes of Company F, 2nd Rhode Island.  A month after the battle Barnes took the entire sum of his meager funds, totalling $2.00, and went back to the battle field by way of safe passage through Rebel lines to see that his beloved Captain Tower was given a descent burial.  After the war the R.I. GAR Veterans named Tower Post No. 17 in his honor.  They also named R.I. GAR Smith Post No. 9 after Tower’s close comrade Capt. Samuel Smith, also killed at 1st Bull Run while leading his Company against the rebels.

BALLOU

A lawyer and native of Smithfield, Sullivan Ballou served 4 terms in the Rhode Island General Assembly as a State Representative.  He married Miss Sarah Hart Shumway of Poughkeepsie, New York and together they had two sons.  Ballou was nominated, to run on the 1860 Rhode Island Republican Ticket, for State Attorney General, but lost in the general election. Although the Republicans were winning elsewhere in the country, during the election Rhode Islanders gave a sweeping victory to the Democrats led by William Sprague's gubernatorial ticket.  Governor Sprague believed the south would break from the Union well before most Rhode Islanders.  He recognized the widely respected administrative talents posessed by Ballou and appointed him Judge Advocate of the R.I. State Militia just before the out break of the Civil War.  Sullivan Ballou assisted Burnside in the formation of the First R.I. Volunteers and the R.I. Brigade, but stayed behind to conduct additional duties serving Governor Sprague when the First R.I. Volunteers marched off to relieve Washington D.C. after the fall of Fort Sumter.  When Col. Slocum returned to Rhode Island to form the 2nd R.I. Volunteer Infantry he sought out Ballou for help.  Ballou was made a Major in the 2nd R.I. Volunteers, third in command under Colonel John Stanton Slocum and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Wheaton.

Major Sullivan Ballou
Appointed Judge Advocate, R.I.M.
He helped Burnside form the 1st RIVI
and helped Slocum form the 2nd R.I.
He was the first RI officer killed at
First Bull Run near Sudley Springs.

At the First Battle of Bull Run, the 2nd R.I. moved in to action near Sudley Church.  While leading his men and pressing the advance towards Mathew's Hill after crossing Sudley Springs on the rebel left flank, a Rebel cannon shell struck next to him, instantly killing his horse and ripping off his leg.  His men carried him back to Sudley Church, which was converted in to a hospital, where Major Sullivan Ballou later died.  A week before the battle Ballou had a vision of his death and wrote the now famous letter home to his wife Sarah.  Sullivan Ballou was a loving and dear husband and a kind father.  Their lives shattered, his wife and both sons mourned his death until their final days.

The First Battle of Bull Run overwhelmed the regimental surgeons of the 1st and 2nd RIVI.  Rhode Island casualties were very high.  Regimental surgeons George W. Carr, Francis L. Wheaton and James Harris were horrified.  Rev. Augustus Woodbury did all he could to comfort the mourtally wounded.  Dr. Harris (a Veteran of RI GAR Arnold Post No. 4) remained behind to tend to the wounded when the Union began its retreat.  He was subsequently captured by the rebels and witnessed a great atrocity that even sickened Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  Most of the officers of the 1st and 2nd Rhodey were hand picked because they were outspoken abolitionists, a fact well known to the rebels.  When they captured the hospital area of the Rhode Islanders near Sudley Springs, they heaped all the bodies of the Rhode Islanders together and burned them.  All other Union dead were buried.  After the battle a group of Rebel soldiers returned to the area and sought out the body of Col. Slocum, who they hated the most.  They found the body of Ballou, and mistook it for that of Slocum and mutilated it by removing the remains of his head as a war trophy and to symbolize the war to maintain slavory in the south was in their minds a rightous cause.  The act drew the attention of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who expressed his shame and disgust for such dishonorable behavior, saying the act spoiled the Confederate victory at First Bull Run.  Rhode Islanders were outraged.  Governor Sprague issued what amounted to a State Declaration of War against the State of Virginia, which received full support by the Rhode Island General Assembly.  It is still said today the Ballou "war trophy" taken after the battle will never be returned for proper burial in Rhode Island, and as result Governor Sprague's declaration has to this day never been rescinded, meaning Rhode Island is still technically at war with Virginia.  RI GAR Ballou Post No. 3 was named in honor of Major Sullivan Ballou.

PRESCOTT

Lieutenant Henry Prescott
Wearing the R.I. State Militia uniform.
Killed serving with Company D, 2nd R.I.
at First Bull Run.
Promoted to 1st Lt. and transferred
to the 2nd RIVI due to his great skills
in all aspects of infantry drill.

A native of Providence, Henry Prescott was a deeply religious man.  He was also a very successful businessman with his family business in Providence prior to the war.  He had absolutely no ambitions to become an officer in the State Militia or the Volunteers, but his strong leadership ability and patriotism drew him to duty.  Prescott was also a well-educated man interested in English Literature, Drama, genealogy studies and he loved military spectacles.  He was very proud to be able to trace his lineage to a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill.  To his friends he quoted Shakespeare, detailed accounts of the American Revolution and the life of General Nathanael Greene.  A staunch Rhode Island Patriot, he was a member of several R.I. Militia pre war units and served as a Captain of the First Light Infantry, R.I.M.  Prescott was with the First R.I. Volunteers when they left Providence on April 19, 1861.  Since Prescott was one of the key officers who drilled and trained the First Volunteer Regiment to the peak of their proficiency, he was selected to join Col. Slocum and help form the 2nd Regiment R.I. Volunteers.

After joining Slocum, on July 16,1861, Prescott marched with his new Regiment, the 2nd R.I. Volunteers across Long Bridge out of Washington with the Union Army under General McDowell to engage the enemy in Virginia.  Several people from Rhode Island were witness to the grand march and followed to see the Union Army gain a great victory.  Prescott and Company D camped at Fairfax.  In his last letter home he wrote, "From present appearances, I shall have no moving accidents by flood or field to relate our greatest achievements being in the way of forced marches; expecting to engage the enemy, but never getting very near to them.  However if the approach of our troops has the effect of making them retire, we ought to be thankful the effusion of blood is spared".  During the Battle of Bull Run when all looked as though victory was imminent, Lt. Henry Prescott was shot through the forehead by a Rebel musket.  At first it seemed that no one would continue to press the fight forward in his Company.  As shot and shell flew around his men they all stood around Prescott stunned at the loss of their leader.  Finally they regained enough of their wits to reform and continue the fight.  They pressed on as far as they could loading and firing their muskets all with tears streaming down their cheeks.  In March 1862, Governor Sprague and others went to the battle field to look for Prescott's body and the bodies of other Rhode Islanders.  All they found of Prescott was a small piece of his tunic.  A mural tablet was erected as memorial to him in Grace Church in Providence.  After the war his comrades named the first GAR Post in Rhode Island in his honor, Prescott Post No.1.