In the spring of 1861, President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for volunteers to suppress the secessionist rebellion brewing in the south. As a result, thousands of men from local communities like Concord, Acton, and Lowell answered the call as “Minute Men.” Grecco will focus on the Minutemen of 1861 and their connection to the Minutemen of 1775, 86 years earlier. The focus will be on Lowell’s contribution to the war effort in 1861, tying in the socio-economic make up of Lowell in that period and their reliance on the cotton industry and chattel slavery system in the American south.