Union. Massachusetts First Defender Medal. Bronze. Awarded to Warren J. Ball.
38 mm. 38.4 grams. Hanger with brooch reading MASSACHUSETTS / MINUTE MEN 1861. Attached by suspension ring is the medal, the obverse showing the State Seal of Massachusetts, an Algonquin Native American holding a bow and arrow, with the State motto ENSE PETIT PLACIDAM SUB LIBERTATE QUIETEM ("By the sword we seek peace, but only under liberty") below. The reverse carries the words: THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS / TO THE / MEMBERS OF THE / MASSACHUSETTS / VOLUNTEER MILITIA / WHO WERE MUSTERED / INTO THE UNITED STATES / SERVICE IN RESPONSE TO / PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S / FIRST CALL FOR / TROOPS / APRIL 15, 1861. Around the edge is printed WARREN J. BALL, PRVT. B. 3D. BTN. RFN. Josiah Warren Ball was born June 28, 1841 in Holden, Massachusetts to Josiah and Elmira Fales Ball. He enlisted April 19, 1861 and was mustered into B Company of the Massachusetts 3rd Rifle Battalion, where he served from April to August 1861. In September 1861, he was promoted to corporal and was mustered into G Company of the Massachusetts 1st Cavalry Regiment, where he served through December 1862, achieving the rank of sergeant. That month, he was promoted to second lieutenant and commissioned into D Company of the Massachusetts 2nd Cavalry Regiment. He was discharged for disability at the conclusion of the war on April 13, 1865. Josiah W. Ball married Elizabeth Evans Farrington in July 1878, but she died suddenly at age 30 in England, two weeks after their marriage. Ball then married Edna Esther Smith the following year. Ball lived most of his postwar life in Boston, where he practiced as a dentist. He died in 1916 in Worcester County and was buried in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Accompanied by a research file with histories of all three regiments in which Josiah Warren Ball served.

Estimate: $200