It was 150 years ago today that Southern batteries opened fire
on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, pushing months of sectarian
tension into open warfare. Here in the Berkshires, there were
plenty of memories of standing up to actual oppression and
tyranny — from the memory of the battles of Bennington and
Saratoga, to Shays Rebellion. But in 1861, they were just as
quick to claim that heritage as they rushed to the defense of
the Union they had helped create. A Massachusetts Volunteer
Militia company from the Berkshires was one of the first units
called into action, responding to President Abraham Lincoln’s
call on April 15 for the states to send troops to defend the
capital. Henry S. Briggs of Pittsfield, the commander of the
city's "Allen Guard" militia unit, which was among the first
group of Massachusetts troops to join the fight. The “Allen
Guards,” had been organized in Pittsfield in 1860, and were made
up of men from the city and surrounding towns of Great
Barrington, Lee, Adams, Cheshire, Richmond, and