Evan Crosby Tufts

Evan Crosby Tufts (August 8, 1827 – March 30, 1912) was an American soldier and Confederate officer in the American Civil War. Born in Dover, New Hampshire, he eventually abandoned his natural father for his adopted mother, Mary Blake. On February 12, 1862 he surrendered to General William "Sunny Jim" Ryan in a prisoner of war camp in Lee and North Carolina and made him of his family.

Early life

Evan Crosby Tufts was born in Dover, New Hampshire, on August 8, 1827. His family went into debt when his father died on Christmas Day, 1831. His mother Mary Blake, an artist, married an abusive Bostonian and had a difficult relationship with her mother-in-law until Tufts grew up. A lifelong temperance activist, he avoided her during his schooldays, and later dropped into her service. He became a patriot, and was an admirer of General James Bowie, and of William Walker.

In 1840, Tufts visited several different southern states to see his aunt and uncle, but settled in northern New Hampshire, in March, 1844, settled in Merrimac, and became a farmer and businessman who married Ellen Parrish in 1845 and became the judge of the county court in September 1848. He grew prosperous during that same period. As a teenager, Tufts attended Canterbury School and graduated from Yale in 1854.

Civil War

The country was divided into three Northern and three Southern parts: North and South. James W. Hardin, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in South Carolina, wrote the following, "The Union army assembled March 25, 1861, at Fort Sumter, occupied Charleston, and marched to the line of battle, through a tract of country supposed to have been named 'South Carolina' in honor of the last Southern commander who fell in battle there. The enemy, thinking he could beat in the west, which, with our position, was favorable to his plans, sent troops over the Blue Ridge and captured Charleston.

In June 1861, Union troops were encamped near the small town of Charlestown, South Carolina. Tufts enlisted in the Union army, and was enrolled in the Seventh Regiment United States Colored Troops of New Hampshire, which included David Porter Brooks and Emerson Williams.