Left: Academy of Music.
duties were performed by commissioners. A curious controversy, now settled, arose with the town as to which should look after the street crossings. The fire department from the start has been sustained by the zeal of its members, and now, directed by its Chief Engineer, George S. Willis, enjoys an enviable reputation for efficiency.
During the civil war the State and County are found to have acted in harmony. The old militia system had died out many years before; in 1860 the Pittsfield Guards of 1853 was re-organized under the name of the Allen Guard, and in January of the following year declared its readiness to respond to any call from the government. On April 19, within twenty-four hours from the time of receiving word, the company was on its way and became a portion of the Eighth regiment. Its Captain was Henry S. Briggs, later Brigadier General, and after the war elected State Auditor. Then, at short intervals, until the close of the war, the town sent men to the front who fully maintained its honorable reputation gained in former wars. A Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society was organized and has received much merited praise for its useful services. The ideal volunteer soldier of the war was William F. Bartlett. He was a student at Harvard, not yet of age when the war broke out. In April he enlisted as a private, was appointed Captain before going to the front, and in his first engagement showed great coolness, bravery and judgment. He was a strict disciplinarian and popular with his men. Before the close of the war he had been brevetted Major-general. In peace he made his influence felt in the interests of religion and education, and in the elevation of politics.
Immediately after the war public attention in the town was turned towards taking suitable action for honoring the memory of its sons who had died on the field of battle. The result was a monument, one of the most appropriate ever erected for a similar purpose. It is placed on the Park, a short distance from the Athemeum. A bronze statue of a Color-sergeant, as if in line of battle, stands upon a square granite pillar He looks earnestly into the distance. The entire effect of the expression of the countenance anti the attitude conveys the impression of intelligent self-reliance, a true type of our best volunteer soldiers. On opposite sides of the pillar are represented in bronze relief the arms of the United States and of the Commonwealth.
On the others are two shields, engraved with the names of those in honor of whom this memorial was erected. The shaft bears the following inscriptions. On the west face
"FOR THE DEAD. A TRIBUTE — FOR THE LIVING, A MEMORY — FOR POSTERITY, AN EMBLEM OF LOYALTY TO THE FLAG OF THEIR COUNTRY."
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