[Illustration: FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 1860.]
While these active preparations for war were progressing, Judge Crosby called a public meeting, April 20, at which the Pioneer Soldiers' Aid Association, the germ of the Sanitary Commission, was formed. The city government was liberal, too, in its appropriations for the families of absent soldiers. In September, Camp Chase, a military rendezvous, was 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 expended over $300,000 in equipment and bounties.
The Lowell Horse Railroad Company and the First National Bank were incorporated in 1864. The French-Canadians began to settle in Lowell just after the war.
[Illustration: ST. PETER'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1860.]
In October, 1866, Dr. J.C. Ayer presented the city with the statue of Victory which stands in Monument Square.