Norwood Penrose Hallowell

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Norwood Penrose Hallowell
Norwood Penrose Hallowell in uniform, 1862.jpg
Hallowell as a captain in the Union Army, 1862
Born(1839-04-13)April 13, 1839
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedApril 11, 1914(1914-04-11) (aged 74)
Medford, Massachusetts
Place of burial
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Cambridge, Massachusetts
AllegianceUnited StatesUnited States of America
Years of service1861 – 1863
RankUnion Army colonel rank insignia.png Colonel
Unit20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Commands held55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War
- Battle of Ball's Bluff
- Battle of Glendale
- Battle of Antietam
- Second Battle of Charleston Harbor

Norwood Penrose "Pen" Hallowell (April 13, 1839 – April 11, 1914) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. One of three brothers to serve with distinction during the war, he and his brother Edward Needles Hallowell both became commanders of the first all-black regiments. He is also remembered for his close friendship with and influence upon future Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who was his classmate at Harvard and his comrade during the war.

Background and education[]

Hallowell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1839 to Morris Longstreth Hallowell, and Hannah (Penrose).[1] Norwood and his brothers, Edward Needles and , were raised in a household that was strongly Quaker, and strongly abolitionist; during the Civil War, their father opened his home as a hospital for wounded Union soldiers.[2] He attended Harvard College, where he befriended Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.. He graduated in 1861 and was elected the Class Orator.[3] Their sister Anna Hallowell was a nurse during the Civil War and went on to be an education reformer.[4]

Civil War service[]

Hallowell's fervent abolitionism led him to volunteer for service in the Civil War, and he inspired Holmes to do the same.[5] He was commissioned a first lieutenant on July 10, 1861, joining the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry with Holmes.[6] Hallowell fought in the Battle of Ball's Bluff on October 21, 1861, in which he distinguished himself by leading a line of skirmishers to hold off Confederate forces. Hallowell then swam across the Potomac River, constructed a makeshift raft, and made several trips to the Virginia bank to rescue trapped Union soldiers before his raft fell apart.[7] Hallowell was promoted to captain on November 26, 1861.[8] He was wounded in the Battle of Glendale on June 30, 1862, and suffered more severe wounds in the Battle of Antietam on September 17.[9] His left arm was shattered by a bullet but later saved by a surgeon; Holmes was shot in the neck. Both took refuge in a farmhouse (a historic site now known as the Royer-Nicodemus House and Farm) and were eventually evacuated.[10]

On April 17, 1863, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, as second-in-command (after Colonel Robert Gould Shaw) of the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first all-black regiments in the U.S.[11] In a letter to the governor of Massachusetts, John Murray Forbes recommended Hallowell for the promotion based on his bravery, soundness of mind, and willingness to lead a black regiment despite the fact that many found the idea "unpopular."[12] On May 30, he accepted Governor John A. Andrew's personal request that he be made colonel in command of the 55th Massachusetts, another all-black regiment.[13] He and his regiment were stationed at Charleston Harbor and participated in the siege and eventual taking of Fort Wagner; Hallowell was one of the first to enter the fort after its abandonment.[14] Hallowell faced continuing disability due to his wounds, and was discharged on November 2, 1863.[15]

Later life[]

Hallowell moved to New York City, where he first worked for the commission house of Watts, Crane & Co., followed by a partnership with his brother Richard, as Hallowell Brothers and later Hallowell, Prescott & Co.[16] Hallowell married Sarah Wharton Haydock (1846–1934) in New York on January 27, 1868.[17] They had six children together: Anna, Robert Haydock, Norwood Penrose, John White, Esther Fisher, and Susan Morris.[18]

He moved to Medford, Massachusetts in 1869.[19] He became a wool broker in Boston, and was made vice president of the of Boston in 1886.[20]

Death and legacy[]

Hallowell died in Medford on April 11, 1914, two days before his 75th birthday. Holmes wrote several days later that his death had left "a great space bare for him." Hallowell had been his "oldest friend...[and was] the most generously gallant spirit and I don't know but the greatest soul I ever knew....[H]e gave the first adult impulse to my youth."[21] African American writer Benjamin Griffith Brawley dedicated his 1921 book, A Social History of the American Negro, "to the memory of Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839-1914), patriot." He is buried in the Hallowell family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[22]

Writings[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Rand, p. 277.
  2. ^ Brawley 1921, p. vii. Senator Charles Sumner also rested there after his attack on the Senate floor.
  3. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483; Brawley 1921, p. vii; White 1993, p. 31. Holmes was elected Class Poet.
  4. ^ Swing, Elizabeth Sherman (2000). "Hallowell, Anna (1831-1905), civic leader and education reformer". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0900882.
  5. ^ White 1993, pp. 31–32, 477. They initially left Harvard to do so, but returned to graduate.
  6. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483; Rand 1890, p. 277.
  7. ^ Menand 2001, pp. 35–36.
  8. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483.
  9. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483; Brawley 1921, p. vii.
  10. ^ Menand 2001, p. 41; described in greater detail in Bowen 1944, pp. 169–170.
  11. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483.
  12. ^ Hallowell, Norwood Penrose (1863), The Norwood Penrose Hallowell Papers, 1764-1914, Massachusetts Historical Society
  13. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483; Rand 1890, p. 278.
  14. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483; Brawley 1921, p. vii.
  15. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483.
  16. ^ Rand 1890, p. 277.
  17. ^ Rand 1890, p. 277; Merrill & Ruchames 1981, p. 499 n.4.
  18. ^ Rand 1890, p. 277.
  19. ^ Brooks, Whitmore & Usher 1886, p. 483.
  20. ^ Rand 1890, p. 277; Merrill & Ruchames 1981, p. 487 n.3.
  21. ^ White 1993, pp. 31, 589 n.1; Menand 2001, p. 68. Both sources quote from a April 17, 1914 letter by Oliver Wendell Holmes to Lewis Einstein.
  22. ^ Col Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839 - 1914) - Find A Grave Memorial

References[]

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