Over the course of the Civil War, the state of New Hampshire contributed 31,000 enlisted men and 836 officers to the cause, a large portion coming from Manchester and Nashua, being the two largest metro areas at the time. Nashua alone saw 924 of her native sons go to war; this out of a total populace of 10,100 as of the 1860 census.

Captain William Parker Ainsworth was one of those Nashua officers, and may have been the first service member from Nashua to fall. He was the son of William and Mary (Stearns) Ainsworth. One source said he was born in Jaffrey, NH; another says New Ipswich, NH; but they both agree on a date, December 22, 1825. He was killed in battle at Front Royal, Virginia, May 30, 1862. 

The following account of the battle is taken in substance from the Report of the Adjutant General of New Hampshire for the year 1866, and related by the Jaffrey Town History on their website as of June 2026.

Captain Ainsworth was by nature sensitive and retiring. At his own estimate he was a coward, and yet, when the great moment came, no bearded Hussar ever rode into the Valley of Death with greater dash and fortitude than he. It was the first year of the Great Civil War that furnished our finest examples of patriotism. Great principles were at stake; there was no conscription and no promise of bounty or reward. Men volunteered their lives for humanity and country. To William P. Ainsworth this period was a time of trial as by fire. He felt the duty of service to his country, but he was not by nature or training a soldier. Could he not serve his country at home where there was essential work to do? He was his own stern judge. He hesitated, but from the beginning there was no doubt of his decision. He went over and rejected every excuse that prudence could suggest. His friends and relatives were enlisting, and why not he? He was ashamed to meet them in the street. In the stillness of the night, he saw people pointing accusing fingers at him. In a turmoil of mind, he came to his cousin, Francis J. Parker, who was home on leave, and said, “Frank, I suppose people think it strange that I don’t enlist.” His cousin replied, “Well, William, I have heard some things said, but nothing unkind. Everyone knows his own business best.” “Why, Frank, I hope no one thinks I don’t want to go! You see, I am a coward. That doesn’t make me afraid to enlist, but I fear that if I got into a tight place, I should disgrace myself, my friends and my Country.” To this Parker replied, “William, we are all cowards. Only the men on each side of us, only the knowledge that we can’t go back, carries us forward.” These were the words of one brave man to another. In the autumn of the year 1861 the Secretary of War authorized the governors of the New England States to raise a regiment called the First New England Cavalry. The response to the call far exceeded the limits of a single regiment, with the result that four companies from New Hampshire and eight from Rhode Island were formed into a single regiment under the chosen name of the First New England Cavalry. The four New Hampshire companies formed a battalion commanded by Major Nelson, and one of the companies was commanded by Captain Ainsworth. The New Hampshire men were mustered into service at Concord. In December they were ordered to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and on the fourteenth of March, 1862, to Washington. Here came a severe test of their loyalty. There was much state pride among the troops, and it was a wound never completely healed when in Washington the name of the regiment was changed to the First Rhode Island Cavalry. On the fourth of April the army of the Potomac, of which the Rhode Island Cavalry was a part, embarked for the siege of Yorktown. The regiment had been for months under the command of Captain Robert B. Lawton, a gallant officer of the regular army who had served in Indian campaigns on the western plains, and had prepared for the demands now placed upon it. Its first bivouac was in mud and snow a foot deep. It suffered for provisions and provender for its horses. The streams were swollen and impassable from the spring floods. On May 22 the New Hampshire battalion was separated from that of Rhode Island, to their great joy. It had been expected that they would continue with McClellan’s army in the siege and capture of Richmond, and, with that over, they looked for an early ending of the war. But in a day all their prospects were changed. General Banks had been defeated by Stonewall Jackson, and General McDowell with the New Hampshire battalion as his advance guard was ordered to his assistance. On the morning of May 30 the New Hampshire advance guard, by way of Manassas Gap, a narrow pass in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reached Front Royal. Here at the top of a long steep hill, they plainly saw the enemy in the near-by village and could estimate their number. There were one regiment, two pieces of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry. The New Hampshire battalion, reduced by sickness and the loss of men on detached duty, numbered less than one hundred and fifty. It now halted on the hill, and with its single piece of artillery dropped shells among the enemy, while waiting for its supporting infantry regiment to come up. The guns of the enemy replied ineffectually. Smoke rose from the railway station in the valley, where were military stores, and, as they watched, movements on the part of the enemy indicated preparations to retreat. Beyond Front Royal were two long bridges over the two forks of the Shenandoah. If the retreating enemy should cross the river and burn these bridges behind them, they would be safe from pursuit, and the invasion of the valley by our troops would be greatly impeded. Instant action was necessary; the Union infantry was too far in the rear to render immediate assistance, and if the bridges were to be saved and the stores of the enemy captured there was no alternative but to charge-one hundred and fifty men against a thousand. The order was given, “By fours, march!” In the narrow road leading to the town no other order was possible. The men moved out promptly, and saw the enemy preparing to meet them. “Trot-March!” and down the hill the trot became a headlong gallop. At the foot of the hill the bridge over a small creek had been washed away, but the horses plunged into the stream, and found their way out to the opposite bank. The enemy fired a volley, and fled before the New Hampshire men could overtake them. The enemy cavalry, which attempted to act as a rear guard, ingloriously rode down their own infantry and escaped. Of those remaining, a few were ridden down by our men and some were sabered, but most surrendered without resistance. The bridges of the Shenandoah were crossed, the horses leaping over the openings that had been made by pulling up of planks, and they were saved. The road was filled with baggage wagons, broken and abandoned, and the battalion was so encumbered with prisoners that the pursuit was greatly impeded. At the foot of a hill the flying enemy reached a narrow gorge, or ravine, with a small brook running through it, and here they so posted themselves near a bridge that they had complete range of the bridge which must be crossed by the pursuing column. The formations were now broken up and all order was lost. Captain Ainsworth, a splendid horseman, followed only by a remnant of a dozen men out of all the companies, dashed down the hill to the bridge which was to be their gate of death. Here they were met by a volley from the hidden enemy which none escaped. At the moment of victory all were killed or seriously wounded. Captain Ainsworth fell, pierced with seven bullets, and any one of four of his wounds would have been mortal. Here the infantry came up and the pursuit ended. They had saved the pass into the enemy’s country and now they had only to gather their dead and count their trophies. The entire loss of the battalion was one officer-Captain Ainsworth-and seven men killed and ten wounded. They had captured more than one hundred and fifty officers and men, besides baggage wagons, horses, stores, and implements of war of all kinds in great numbers. Only the cavalry of the enemy and a small remnant of a regiment of infantry escaped. This was the first bloody affair in which the New Hampshire men were engaged, and it was such a complete victory that it surprised even those who had accomplished it. As the booty was collected and the prisoners were placed in line and counted, they were found to be more in number than those who had captured them. The cheers with which the victorious company was received by their comrades thrilled and flattered them and the men could not repress a feeling of pride. They felt themselves invincible, but when their dead and wounded companions were brought in few could restrain their emotions. They had not yet learned to look upon such scenes with composure, and pride in their victory was overcome with sadness at their loss. The loss of Captain Ainsworth was deeply felt. His horse, the gift of a friend in Nashua, was returned to his former owner and was still alive in 1866, bearing several bullets in his body. Captain Ainsworth had been for several years previous to his enlistment a resident of Nashua, New Hampshire, where he held a position with the Nashua and Lowell Railroad Company, and never in its history were the feelings of the city so stirred as by his heroic death. His remains arrived in Nashua on Thursday, June 5, 1862, and funeral services were held on the following day, with the entire city clothed with the emblems of mourning. The streets were draped with flags, and from every flag staff they were displayed at half-mast. The obsequies, held in City Hall, were doubly impressive as the expression both of sincere affection and of respect for a noble life willingly given in a sacred cause. Only a few of the thousands assembled could gain admission to the hall, but, in and out, profound order and silence prevailed. The tributes to his memory were perfect in propriety and fitness and overflowed with tenderness and sympathy. The funeral exercises were in charge of Rising Sun Lodge of Freemasons, of which he was a member, and following the tribute in the hall a procession composed of military and civic organizations accompanied the remains to the cemetery, where they were temporarily placed in the receiving tomb. But it yet remained for the old home town to claim its son, and shortly afterwards the final honors were paid and prayers were said in Jaffrey, when our hero was laid to rest among his honored kindred in the shelter of the Grand Monadnock, the fitting emblem of his undying fame. 

US Service Personnel Profiles
By Gary Ledoux June 12, 2026

Source of some material: Jaffrey Town History online

Graphic source: “Find a Grave”