William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 2

[25] claim is, that much was done to alleviate and ward off suffering, and to smooth down the rough and jagged road along which, for four long years, our people struggled, bearing many and grievous burdens. Of course we are aware that in the households over which the Angel of Death cast its dark shadow, there were griefs which no kind hand or sympathetic word could wholly assuage, or console; but what could be done to lighten the weight of sorrow by which so many hearts were bowed down, and so many firesides left desolate, by the exercise of friendly aid and kind, sympathetic words, was done. But there are sorrows known to every heart which only He who made it can fully relieve.

With these preliminary words, we present to the reader the doings of the ‘small assemblies of the towns,’ as they appear from an examination of their records.