In this Antietam photo by famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, an unburied rebel lies next to a hastily buried Union soldier. (Library of Congress collection)
When Connecticut families sought the return of loved ones killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, the Union army was of little help. The sad reality was that the army was ill-equipped to deal with death on such a massive scale.
A sketch of William Roberts that appeared with his obituary in the Hartford Courant on May 23, 1898.
More than 2,000 Union soldiers were killed at Antietam, and many of them were hastily buried after the battle, often in unmarked graves. Thankfully, sometimes the living tried to ensure that the dead could later be found by their families.
In a letter published in the Hartford Courant on Sept. 30, 1862, First Lieutenant John Burnham of the 16th Connecticut provided a detailed description of where those killed in his regiment were buried so "friends at home shall have authentic information as soon as possible."
Burnham described how bodies were arranged for burial, key landmarks near the gravesites and the placing of small headboards marked with the names and companies of the dead men.
But several Connecticut families paid for the services of one William W. Roberts, a 48-year-old Hartford undertaker/coffin maker who specialized in the grim task of traveling south to disinter bodies and returning them to the state for reburial. Roberts was so good at coffin-making that his "burial caskets of artistic design earned him a reputation which extended throughout New England." (1)
In addition to making coffins, William Roberts provided "ice boxes for preserving bodies for a short period," according to this advertisement in the Hartford Courant on June 29, 1863.
During the Civil War, Roberts frequently advertised for his onerous body retrieval services in the Hartford Courant.
"...have it done in a thoroughly reliable manner, by one who has had much experience, and is well-acquainted with the different localities in the South," one advertisement noted.
"Persons having friends who have died in the army, and buried at Port Royal, Washington, Fortress Monroe, Shenandoah Valley, before Richmond, or anywhere within our lines can have their remains brought north for internment by applying at the office of Wm. W. Roberts," read another.
In early October 1862, Roberts returned to Hartford with a ghastly haul of eight bodies from the Antietam battlefield, including 26-year-old Jarvis Blinn of Rocky Hill. The well-regarded captain of Company G in the 14th Connecticut also died near the Roulette farmhouse.
Born in Newington, about seven miles from Hartford, Roberts was oprhaned at an early age. After learning to become a carpenter, he operated a furniture business on Pratt Street in Hartford, across the street from a bank. Roberts later added an undertaking business and was known for the impressive innovation of adding glass to the sides of a hearse -- the first man in the United States to do so. (2).
During the Civil War, Hartford undertaker William Roberts and businessman M.S. Chapman, a former Union soldier, advertised in the Hartford Courant for their services for retrieving bodies of soldiers buried in the South.
In September 1866, Roberts, tired of his grim job and evidently a wealthy man, quit the coffin-making and undertaking business. In 1868, he built the Hartford Opera House on Main Street and for 17 years "provided practically all of the professional entertainment in the city." (3) From the business of death to the entertainment business, that's quite a career shift.
Roberts, "silent and uncommunicative by nature," according to his obituary in the Hartford Courant, died at age 84 on May 22, 1898. The man who was very fond of horses and "always had one or more handy sloppers in his stable" is buried in Hartford's Spring Grove Cemetery, not far from where he crafted coffins for the dead of Antietam.
A photographer with a really good camera (or iPhone) would have fun shooting at the Civil War memorial in downtown Indianapolis. I shot this with my Blackberry Bold during Super Bowl week in early February.
The Civil War memorial in downtown Indianapolis is one of the more impressive I have seen. Shot from a tricky angle, this shot of the statue above is of a man looking toward a woman comforting a soldier. Several large, exceptionally detailed statues surround the 284 1/2-foot memorial, a gathering point for fans during the Super Bowl. There's a fine Civil War museum at the base of the monument. If you're in Indy, be sure to check it out.
Born in New London, Conn., Lieutenant Perkins S. Bartholomew was killed at the Battle of Boydton Plank Road in Virginia in 1864. His body was never returned to Connecticut. (Mansfield Historical Society via Tad Sattler)
In late November 1864, Maro S. Chapman returned to Connecticut with a ghastly cargo: the remains of 12 soldiers who died in Virginia months earlier.
Among the dead were Horatio D. Eaton, a captain in the 6th Connecticut from Hartford killed at Drewry's Bluff in May; George Walbridge, a private in the 10th Connecticut from Manchester who died of disease in late July; George Shaw, a private in the 10th Connecticut from Baltic killed at Deep Bottom Run in August; and Amandor Keeney, a private in the 10th Connecticut from Manchester killed at New Market Road in September.
Chapman, a businessman and former Union soldier, was experienced in this grim duty. He and undertaker William W. Roberts frequently advertised in the Hartford Courant for their services to retrieve bodies of soldiers buried in the South. "... have it done in a thoroughly reliable manner, by one who has had much experience, and is well-acquainted with the different localities in the South" one advertisement noted. (Roberts was especially busy after Antietam, retrieving the body of 14th Connecticut captain Jarvis Blinn and seven other soldiers buried on the Maryland battlefield.)
In these 1865 advertisements in the Hartford Courant, businessman Maro S. Chapman and undertaker William Roberts offered their services to retrieve remains of soldiers buried in the South.
Despite "unusual exertions," Chapman failed during his November 1864 trip south to recover the remains of a young soldier named Perkins S. Bartholomew, a lieutenant in the 14th Connecticut who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Boydton Plank Road. "He was anxious to go in search of it, but could not obtain a flag of truce," the Hartford Courant reported Nov. 28, 1864.
A bullet tore through the 23-year-old soldier's haversack and ripped through his side on Oct. 27, 1864. Suffering in a muddy rifle pit deep in rebel-held territory, Bartholomew gave his equipment to a comrade, urging him to keep it unless the regiment had a battle the next day. If it did, he told the soldier, he should throw the equipment away so it wouldn't be a burden.
"This touching thoughtfullness for others in his own distress marks the true unselfishness of an heroic life," an 1872 book on 14th Connecticut officers who died during the war noted, "and makes us realize how much the war cost humanity." (1)
Alone for a period of time that rainy day, Bartholomew asked his friend, Private Horace Brown, to stay with him after other soldiers were compelled to flee.
"I saw the sergeant and asked what he thought of his wound and he told me he couldn't live but not to tell him for it would make him worce so I tryed cheer him all that I could ..." Brown wrote Bartholomew's sister weeks later.
Noting Bartholomew "vomited occasionally" after he was shot, 14th Connecticut adjutant William B. Hincks spared few details of the soldier's death in a letter to his mother.
"He had his senses perfectly and remained conscious of his condition," Hincks wrote to Caroline Bartholomew. "We had but two or three officers but one of them detailed a number of men to carry him away. The ambulances had all gone back with wounded men before. The lieutenant of the ambulance train agreed to send back an ambulance for him and did so. But it was an uncommonly dark night and rainy and the ambulance got lost in the woods and never found him."
Hincks wrote of how a soldier retrieved Bartholomew's shoulder straps and memo book and noted the lieutenant's last words. ("Tell my mother I die like a man fighting for my country.") The officer explained that Bartholomew's son had "the love and respect of us all," and "we sympathize with you in your grief."
And he also made a vow.
"...I think I can promise you in the name of the few officers who are left in the 14th," Hincks wrote, "that if it ever lies in our power we will have his remains sent home to Connecticut."
Buried by a plank road by the rebels, Perkins Bartholomew's body was never found.
William Hincks, the 14th Connecticut adjutant, promised Perkins Bartholomew's mother "that if it ever lies in our power we will have his remains sent home to Connecticut." (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)
These photos of a stained-glass window at the old Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Rockville, Conn., don't really do it justice. I popped into the Hall, which now houses the terrific New England Civil War Museum, for a quick visit last weekend. Civil War veterans swapped old war stories and probably hoisted a beer or two in the place back in the day. Today, Civil War artifacts such as this fill cases throughout the second-floor room.
Robert Gillette of Hartford, paymaster aboard the U.S.S. Gettysburg, was killed when the magazine exploded at Fort Fisher on Jan. 16, 1865. (Photo: Connecticut State Archives via Tad Sattler)
After Federal soldiers forced the surrender of the Confederate stronghold at Fort Fisher, Union sailors on ships in the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast climbed the rigging of their vessels, cheered wildly and marveled at "a regular Fourth of July scene on the ocean." (1)
Roman candles and rockets fired from Union ships lit up the night sky.
Steam whistles blew.
Jubilant Federal soldiers rejoiced in the conquered fort.
The celebration of the rebels' surrender on Jan. 15, 1865 was like few in the Union navy had seen during the Civil War.
Images by famed Civil War photographer Timothy O'Sullivan show the magazine at Fort Fisher (top) and a cannon crippled during the Union attack in January 1865. (Library of Congress collection)
The land-and-sea assault on the strategic fort at the mouth of the Camp Fear River near Wilmington -- the "Gibraltar of the South," it was often called -- was successful but not without a high cost.
"Glory forever!" Robert Hooker Gillette, a paymaster aboard the U.S.S. Gettysburg, hurriedly wrote his parents back in Connecticut late that winter night. "Fort Fisher and the entrance to Wilmington are ours. Everything we have been fighting for they have just surrendered. ... Our losses are heavy and we have had a hard fight, both on land and sea, but the result is glorious." (2)
At daylight the next morning, Gillette and a party of officers slowly made their way ashore to inspect damage at the vast fort. As the 22-year-old from Hartford and two other officers stood on the parapet at about 8:20 a.m., a massive explosion -- "something louder than the boom of a 15-inch gun," according to a Baltimore American correspondent -- rocked the fort's magazine. (3)
"A volume of smoke and sand rose fifty feet in the air, enveloping and hiding from view the whole of the immense work for four or five minutes," the New York Times reported on Jan. 19, 1865. "It was at once apparent that the magazine had exploded, and that it must have been accompanied with great loss of life." The explosion was so great, in fact, that it caused a large crater nearly 50 feet wide.
Although he was nearly 50 yards from the magazine, Gillette was struck by pieces of timber, thrown from the parapet and killed -- one of perhaps 200 men from both sides who died in the blast. His body was found covered in sand. (4)
(A Confederate torpedo or black Union troops were originally suspected of causing the deadly explosion; however, an official inquiry determined that careless Federal soldiers, sailors and marines -- many of them drunk, firing their weapons and carrying torches in the magazine of the fort -- were to blame.)
Seaside view Gillette may have had as he approached Fort Fisher on Jan. 16, 1865. This image appeared in The Photographic History of The Civil War in Ten Volumes: Volume Five, Forts and Artillery in 1911.
Lamson was especially shocked by the death of Gillette, who was "as near and dear to me as a brother," the captain wrote to the parents of his dead paymaster later that day.
"The joy of victory is saddened by the loss of our comrades," Lamson noted in the letter to Francis and Elisabeth Gillette, "and there is no one whose fall is more generally mourned than that of your son, who was loved and respected throughout the fleet." (5)
For Gillette, it was a tragic end to a remarkable, short life. From a prominent Connecticut family -- his Yale-educated father was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1854 -- Robert had accomplished plenty by the time he was 22. As a teenager, he sailed around the world aboard a merchant ship and visited China. He later traveled to California to visit his 23-year-old brother, Frank, who died of consumption in Sacramento before his arrival. Robert brought the body back East to be buried.
Gillette's death shocked Roswell Lamson, the captain of the U.S.S. Gettysburg.
Initially involved in recruiting troops at the start of the Civil War, Gillette aimed to secure a commission in the 16th Connecticut in July 1862. Instead, he was commissioned as captain in Company K of the 14th Connecticut on Sept. 6. But the young soldier didn't catch up with his regiment in Maryland until Sept. 18, one day after the Battle of Antietam.
Inexperienced as a leader of troops, Gillette was initially reluctant to take his position as captain.
"... I do not really know what to do," he wrote his parents on Sept. 17, 1862 from Middletown, Md., about 15 miles from Sharpsburg. "I shall not do anything dishonorable, but if it is so that I can I shall fight on my own hook, in the ranks, as a private, to-morrow, rather than take my place as captain. I should like a few hours with my men before going into action." (6)
When he arrived at the battlefield, Gillette was shocked by what he saw.
"The whole field is covered with the dead and wounded, and it is an awful sight," he wrote his parents on Sept. 18. "We are expecting every minute the firing will begin. The enemy's lines are close by, and all that we are waiting for on both sides is rest." (7)
After the 14th Connecticut moved to Harpers Ferry days later, a fatigued Gillette became ill with a dangerous fever that shattered his health. Resigning his commission, he returned to Hartford. But he couldn't stay out the of service long. In 1863, he was appointed an assistant paymaster in the navy, serving aboard ships blockading the North Carolina coast. He later rose to paymaster, a position that entailed ensuring sailors were paid their wages but also included duties as Lamson's right-hand man.
Throughout his war experience, Gillette often wrote his parents, describing in vivid detail the toll the fighting took on soldiers. In his final letter home, he wrote about the assault on Fort Fisher.
"The officers and sailors who were landed to charge the Fort have been slaughtered like sheep," he wrote, "and the sand-beach in front is covered with their dead bodies. I am saddened by the loss of so many brave men, but the victory is glorious." (8)
Close-up of the unusual gravestone for Robert Gillette in Riverview Cemetery in Farmington, Conn.
Hours later, he too was dead.
In a long article printed shortly after his death, the Hartford Press noted Gillette was "a young man of unusual promise."
"He had good principles, and kept himself pure and upright," the newspaper said, "and his friends who were warmly drawn to him, by his affectionate and generous nature, saw no bad habits in him to overlook. His family have the heartfelt sympathy of the whole community." (9)
Robert Gillette's final resting place is in Riverview Cemetery in Farmington, Conn., a short distance from the Farmington River. His parents are buried to the right of Robert's gravestone, a block of marble topped by a slender, 5 1/2-foot stick of stone.
On the bottom right side of his tombstone are these words:
"I shall go into battle trusting in God that he will do by me what is best for us. All I hope is he will permit me to live. Soon all will be over and whatever is to be will have been."
(2) A Discourse Delivered January 29th, 1865 In Memory of Robert H. Gillette, Nathaniel J. Burton, 1865, Page 15
(3) Ibid, Page 24
(4) Ibid, Page 25
(5) Ibid, Page 25
(6) Ibid, Page 27
(7) Ibid, Page 28
(8) Ibid, Page 44
(9) Hartford Press, Jan. 20, 1865
Robert Gillette's tombstone (right) is next to the marker for his father, Francis, who was noted for his anti-slavery stance before and during the Civil War. Bottom: "I shall go into battle trusting in God..." the phrase on the side of Gillette's tombstone starts. He was only 22 years old when he died.
Helen Mumma, a Sharpsburg, Md. resident, painted a scene of the Dunker Church on this original shingle from the church. She sold the shingles to veterans who returned to the battlefield, according to Matt Reardon of the New England Civil War Museum. Below: Close-ups of front and reverse of shingle. (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)
At the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn., there are plenty of wonderful artifacts as well as some weird and bizarre ones.
X-ray of a 16th Connecticut Infantry veteran who had a Civil War bullet embedded in his body?
Got it.
Flattened bullet removed from the above soldier?
Check.
In this 1884 photo, two men sit on the front steps of the Dunker Church in Sharpsburg, Md. (Mollus Collection)
Forage cap that belonged to 14th Connecticut veteran Benjamin Hirst?
It's there.
Bullet that mortally wounded 21st Connecticut colonel Thomas Burpee at Cold Harbor?
Ditto.
Also among the period letters, rifles, swords and photographs of soldiers is an unusual relic from the Battle of Antietam: a shingle from the Dunker Church, the small, whitewashed building around which savage fighting swirled during the first phase of the bloodiest day in American history.
In the decades after the Civil War ended, Sharpsburg resident Helen Mumma collected original shingles from the Dunker Church and then painted scenes of the small building on them. Mumma sold the shingles at a small souvenir stand in Sharpsburg, according to Matt Reardon, the very enthusiastic executive director of the museum. (See video below.)
Reardon isn't sure how the Dunker Church shingle ended up in the New England Civil War Museum, which is housed in the second floor of what once was the local Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) headquarters. Four Connecticut regiments fought at Antietam, so it's likely a veteran bought it from Mumma and brought it back from Sharpsburg after a trip to the battlefield, Reardon said.
This rare relic monument pyramid at the Connecticut Museum of History includes bullets. pieces of artillery and other artifacts from the Battle of Antietam.
In the decades immediately after the Civil War, relic collectors and veterans made displays of bullets, shrapnel, belt buckles, bayonets and the like to commemorate a battle. These relic monument pyramids are rare and highly collectible. In September, Dean Nelson, adminstrator at the Connecticut Museum of History in Hartford, gave me a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the Civil War relics in the museum's collection -- including this rare Antietam relic monument pyramid that belonged to a veteran of the battle. The Horse Soldier, a Gettysburg Civil War antiques store, offered a similar Antietam relic monument pyramid last fall for $22,500; Nelson said the one in the museum is probably worth $12,000 to $13,000. I don't think it will be added to my collection anytime soon.
A collage of close-ups of the gravestones of soldiers buried in Connecticut who were killed or mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.
Made of brownstone or marble and weathered by the elements for nearly 150 years, the gravestones of Connecticut soldiers killed or mortally wounded at Antietam often make for interesting photos. Some of these markers, such as the one for John Griswold at Griswold Cemetery in Old Lyme, Conn., are works of art. In fact, the Hartford Courant on Aug. 5, 1863 raved about the captain's memorial stone, advising "lovers of art to examine it" at Thomas Adams' Hartford establishment on the corner of Market and Temple streets before it was placed on Griswold's grave. "We have never seen a monument more strikingly beautiful," the newspaper gushed.
I am often struck by the craftsmanship of these gravestones, especially the ornate writing. I took the close-ups above at cemeteries throughout Connecticut during the past five months. My favorite is the one at the top for Samuel Willard, a 39-year-old captain from Madison who was killed during the 14th Connecticut's attack near Bloody Lane. Willard had embraced religion nine years before his death, and on the side of his gravestone is a moving excerpt from one of his final journal entries before he was killed Sept. 17, 1862.
"My faith is in God if I die," it reads in part. "I die in the faith of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
The side of the gravestone for Captain Samuel Willard of Company G of the 14th Connecticut includes an excerpt from one of his final journal entries. Willard, 39 years old when he was killed at Antietam, is buried at West Cemetery in Madison, Conn., near Long Island Sound.
Private Henry D. Sexton of Canton, Conn. died of disease in Annapolis, Md. on Jan. 7, 1862. This is the marker for the 25-year-old soldier in Canton Center Cemetery.
Suffering from a severe case of jaundice, Henry Sexton frothed at the mouth and thrashed about aboard the schooner Recruit in Annapolis Harbor during the early morning hours of Jan. 6, 1862.
Just three weeks earlier, the private in the 8th Connecticut and two other comrades from Canton, Conn. had written a note home to Sophronia Barber thanking her for sending mittens and stockings to help them keep warm during a harsh winter.
"...as we are engaged in helping to maintain the government and wear these to keep our bodies warm," the letter dated Dec. 16, 1862 read, "you may be assured that our hearts will warm toward those who have remembered the soldier in his need."
A teacher before the Civil War, Sexton was quite busy in the fall and winter of 1861. Ten days after he enlisted in the Union army on Sept. 9, Henry married Eliza Barbour, also a teacher from Canton, a small town about 20 miles northwest of Hartford. Six days later, he was mustered into Company A of the 8th Connecticut. And by mid-October, Sexton and the 8th Connecticut left the state for Annapolis, where the regiment prepared for a move to North Carolina as part of Burnside's Expeditionary Force in early January.
Sometime during late December and early January, Sexton became seriously ill. Nearly 72,000 cases of jaundice, often caused by the lack of hygiene in camps, were reported by the Union army during the Civil War. (1)
Henry Sexton was listed as a teacher in the 1860 U.S. census.
"I had no control of him as he could handle me like a child," Case wrote. "...It was very difficult to get anyone to take hold of him as they seemed to be afraid of him. It took five of us to hold him and keep him from tearing his face with his hands."
A lack of medical care on the ship appalled Case, who noted: "I never saw anything so horrible in my life."
Upon receiving word that her husband was deathly ill, Eliza made the 350-mile journey to Annapolis. But it was a futile trip. Only 25 years old, Henry died on Jan. 7 and was hurriedly buried. His wife never found his grave. (2).
Twenty-eight years later, at age 57, Eliza died and was buried in Canton Center Cemetery, across the road from the beautiful white-washed First Congregational Church. A 7-foot white marble memorial marker for the woman with the "attractive personality" (3) and her husband stands surrounded by a low iron railing. At the top of the marker are these words:
Henry Sexton died a martyr to his country in Annapolis, Md.
Twenty paces away from that obelisk stands another marker, this one muddy brown, cracked and weathered by the elements for nearly 150 years. Sophronia Barber, the woman who sent mittens and stockings to Sexton and his two friends, died two years after the teacher-soldier. She was 58 when she passed away on April 1, 1865.
Sophronia Barber, the woman who sent Henry Sexton and his friends mittens and stockings in December 1861, is buried 20 paces from the obelisk for the soldier and his wife.
Each number on map corresponds to a story below of a soldier who was killed or mortally wounded at Antietam. All but two soldiers below have known markers in cemeteries in Connecticut. 4. Robert Hubbard: New Farm Hill Cemetery, Middletown; 6. John Doolittle, Miner Cemetery, Middletown; 13: Marvin Wait, Yantic Cemetery, Norwich.
As the Army of the Potomac approached Sharpsburg, Md. two days before the Battle of Antietam, Samuel Willard, a captain in Company G of the 14th Connecticut, added an entry in his journal. The 39-year-old from Madison, near Long Island Sound, had embraced religion less than a decade before the great battle.
Civil War memorial in West Cemetery in Madison. Captain Samuel Willard's marker is nearby.
"These may be my last words; if so, they are these: I have full faith in Jesus Christ my Saviour," he wrote. "I do not regret that I have fallen in defence of my country; I have loved you truly and know that you have loved me, and in leaving this world of sin I go to another and better one, where I am confident I shall meet you. I freely forgive all my enemies, and ask them for Christ's sake to forgive me. If my body should ever reach home, let there be no ceremony; I ask no higher honor than to die for my country -- lay me silently in the grave, imitate my virtues, and forgive all my errors.
"I prefer death in the cause of my country, to life in sympathy with its enemies." (1)
Willard's words were indeed prophetic: On that awful Wednesday nearly 150 years ago, he was one of two captains in the 14th Connecticut killed in battle. His remains were returned to Madison, where he is buried near a large, white memorial marker in West Cemetery. Etched in the left side of the marker is an excerpt from his moving journal entry.
Willard's final resting place is just one of scores of gravesites of Connecticut soldiers who died or were mortally wounded at Antietam within easy driving distance from my home in suburban Hartford. From Chaplin in the west to Bristol in the east, men from the 8th, 11th, 14th and 16th Connecticut regiments gave their lives to the cause.
Below are short vignettes of 20 of those men; 18 of them have markers that I have visited over the past three months. Before the war, one was a professor. Several were farmers. Another was a ropemaker, and one was a businessman/adventurer who quickly returned from Hawaii to enlist in the Union army in 1861. Another was a student at a Connecticut university. One young man hoped to follow his father and grandfather and practice law. Four were only teen-agers.
Tragically, their world and the world of their families changed on Sept. 17, 1862.
"It is seldom that we are called upon to bury so many braves in so short a space of time," the Hartford Courant reported nearly a month after Antietam. Here are the ugly final results.
The marker for Captain Samuel Willard of the 14th Connecticut in West Cemetery in Madison, Conn. A stirring excerpt (right) from one of Willard's final journal entries is etched on the side of the marker.
1. Private Alvin Flint, 11th Connecticut (Center Cemetery, East Hartford): Only 17 years old, Alvin joined the 11th Connecticut as a private on Oct. 1, 1861. Less than a year later, he was dead, killed in the attack near Burnside Bridge.
The loss was no doubt excruciating for 53-year-old Alvin Flint Sr., who had enlisted in the 21st Connecticut along with his 13-year-old son, George, in August 1862. In the winter of 1861-62, Alvin Flint Sr.'s wife and daughter died of consumption in East Hartford.
"Hardly had the sadness of the death of a dear daughter, that I had lost last January, worn off when this sad, sad calamity should come upon me," he lamented in a letter published in the Hartford Courant on Oct. 29, 1862. Tragedy again visited the Flint family. Check out my video below to find out.
2. Captain Jarvis Blinn, 14th Connecticut (Center Cemetery, Rocky Hill): Barely a month after he enlisted in the Union army, Blinn -- a man who had an "expression of quiet but earnest resolve tinged with a dash of sadness in his air" -- was one of 38 men killed and mortally wounded in the 14th Connecticut at Antietam. Moments after he was shot through the heart, the 26-year-old captain shouted: "I am a dead man!"
A Hartford undertaker named W.W. Roberts brought Blinn and the bodies of seven other soldiers killed at Antietam back to Connecticut in the second week of October 1862. His funeral was held at Center Church in New Britain on Oct. 14, 1862. Afterward, his body was escorted to Rocky Hill, about 10 miles away, in "one of the largest processions ever seen" in New Britain. He is buried near the back of Center Cemetery.
A decorative wrought-iron angel on the fence around the gravesite of Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn at Denison Cemetery in Berlin, Conn.
3. Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn, 16th Connecticut (Denison Cemetery, Berlin): Washburn's father traveled to the battlefield to retrieve the body of his son, an orderly sergeant who was probably killed in farmer John Otto's field. After a funeral service at Berlin's Congregational Church, Washburn was buried in Denison Cemetery, now located in a residential area. His gravesite is surrounded by a beautiful ornamental wrought-iron fence.
4. Private Robert Hubbard, 14th Connecticut (New Farm Hill Cemetery, Middletown): A 31-year-old private in Company B of the 14th Connecticut, Hubbard was one of at least two soldiers in the regiment killed by friendly fire on William Roulette's farm. Nearly a month before his death, he wrote an impassioned letter to his brother.
"Must it be written that 360,000 slaveholders wielded such influence and power," he wrote Josiah Hubbard. "as to destroy a government which can place a million armed men in the field, and which has conferred greater blessing on its citizens than any other that has ever existed since the days when God was the direct ruler over His own peculiar people."
"I feel as if I could not forgive myself," Robert concluded in the letter, "if this government should be overthrown and I had no weapon in its defense."
5. Lieutenant George Crosby, 14th Connecticut (Union Hill Cemetery, East Hampton): A student at Wesleyan University in Middletown before the war, the 2nd lieutenant in the 14th Connecticut Infantry was mortally wounded at Antietam barely a month after he enlisted. Thirty-seven days later, Crosby, not quite 20 years old, died at home in Middle Haddam.
"From the beginning of the battle till he received his death wound, he fought nobly, encouraging his men and leading them on," the Middletown Constitution reported on Oct. 29, 1862. "And for a half hour after he was wounded, while he lay helpless on the ground, without regarding his own condition, he kept constantly exhorting his comrades to do their duty."
His funeral service at Middle Haddam's Episcopal Church was described at the time as "one of the largest funerals ever attended in that place."
My shadow eerily hovers near the markers for John Doolittle at Miner Cemetery in Middletown, Conn.
6. Private John Doolittle, 8th Connecticut (Miner Cemetery, Middletown): As the 8th Connecticut made a futile push on the Union left flank at Antietam, it was struck on three sides near Harpers Ferry Road. Wounded in the knee, Doolittle was treated at a Sharpsburg-area field hospital but died on Oct. 10, 1862. The final resting place of the 22-year-old soldier is in Middletown's Miner Cemetery, near a large brownstone marker memorial for his other family members
7. Captain Samuel Willard, 14th Connecticut (West Cemetery, Madison): In the last entry in his journal, dated the morning of Sept. 17, Willard wrote: “I pray God we may be successful, and that you may see me again ...”
After his death, Willard's body was taken to nearby Keedysville, and then sent to Madison, where a service was held in the Congregational Church. He was buried in West Cemetery six days after the battle. (2)
On the front of his well-designed white marker are these words:
"He fell asleep in Jesus on the battlefield of Antietam, Md."
8. Captain John Griswold, 11th Connecticut (Griswold Cemetery, Old Lyme): Under fire from the bluffs above, the 25-year-old captain from Lyme boldly led a group of skirmishers across the 4-foot deep creek Antietam Creek on Sept. 17, 1862.
"In the middle of the creek a ball penetrated his body," Griswold's friend, Dr. Nathan Mayer of the 11th Connecticut, wrote in a letter from Sharpsburg to his brother on Sept. 29, 1862. "He reached the opposite side and lay down to die." Griswold, who hurriedly returned to the mainland from Hawaii to enlist in the Union army in 1861, died the next day.
He is buried in a small private cemetery in Old Lyme (see video below) under a beautifully carved 8-foot gray marker. Near the bottom of the memorial are these words:
"Tell my mother I died at the head of my company."
9. Private John Bingham, 16th Connecticut (First Church Cemetery, East Haddam): Only 17, Bingham was killed at Antietam a little more than a month after he enlisted. Younger brother Wells, also a private in Company H of the 16th Connecticut, apparently survived Antietam physically unscathed, but the memory of that terrible day was probably seared into the 16-year-old boy soldier's brain the rest of his life.
Three other Bingham brothers served during the Civil War, including Eliphalet, who died May 1, 1864 at Arlington Heights, Va. John and Eliphalet are buried at First Church Cemetery in East Haddam, about 50 miles southwest of Hartford. Apparently upset over a failing business, Wells committed suicide in 1904.
Close-up of weathered flag on the gravestone of S. Franklin Prior of the 16th Connecticut at Town Street Cemetery in East Windsor.
10. Corporal S. Franklin Prior, 16th Connecticut (Town Street Cemetery, East Windsor): The 16th Connecticut paid a terrible price at Antietam, its first battle of the war. Out of 779 men, the rookie regiment lost 161 wounded, 204 captured or missing and 43 killed, including Prior of Company B. Some of those killed never even fired a shot, and many of the survivors never got over the carnage at Antietam.
Hartford undertaker W.W. Roberts, who retrieved Captain Jarvis Blinn's remains from Maryland (see story above), also brought back Prior's body in early October, according to a report in the Hartford Courant on Oct. 11, 1862.
Prior left behind a wife, Emily, and two young children, Ella and Charles.
(Once probably surrounded by countryside, the cemetery where Prior is buried is now surrounded by suburbia, including a shopping center and a busy two-lane highway. There's no safe place to park at the cemetery, so I parked across the highway at a pizza joint.)
11. Privates Henry and Samuel Talcott, 14th Connecticut (Center Cemetery, Coventry): A private in Company D of the 14th Connecticut, 26-year-old Henry Talcott was wounded when an artillery shell burst near a wall in the lane leading up to William Roulette's farmhouse, wounding three other men and killing three in his company. Samuel, Henry's 20-year-old brother, also was severely wounded at Antietam; he lingered for several weeks before he died on Oct. 14, 1862.
"After the services the congregation viewed the remains," the Hartford Courant reported on Oct. 27, 1862, "and the sad procession slowly wended its way to the cemetery. The flag draped in black was borne by the members of the Sunday School Class of Talcott, to whom he was strongly attached."
Like his brother, Henry also lingered for several weeks before he died on Nov. 10. He is buried to the right of his brother in the family plot in Center Cemetery in his hometown of Coventry, about 25 miles west of Hartford. (See video below for more about the Talcott brothers and George Corbit, another soldier from Company D of the 14th Connecticut who also was mortally wounded at Antietam.)
12. Sergeant Charles E. Lewis, 8th Connecticut (Carey Cemetery, Canterbury): A sergeant in Company F, Charles Lewis -- described as a man who "had always fought in the front ranks" -- was killed near Harpers Ferry Road as the 8th was struck on three sides. Lewis' fiancee, 21-year-old Sarah Hyde, died nearly a month later, on Oct. 16, 1862, and is buried next to Charles at Carey Cemetery in Canterbury.
"They had been brought up together in life, in death they were not divided," the Hartford Courant reported on Oct. 24, 1862, "and together they sleep the last sleep."
Marvin Wait's marker in Yantic Cemetery in Norwich, Conn. Wait was only 19 years old when he was killed at Antietam.
13. Lieutenant Marvin Wait, 8th Connecticut: (Yantic Cemetery, Norwich): A"brave, noble-hearted man and highly esteemed by all who knew him," Wait was killed late in the afternoon as the Ninth Corps made an ill-fated push toward Sharpsburg. Like George Crosby of the 14th Connecticut, Wait was only 19 years old.
"If Lieutenant Wait had left the battle of his own accord when first hit in the arm, all would have been well," Captain Charles Coit, also of Norwich, wrote after the battle, "but he bravely stood to encourage his men still further by his own example."
From a prominent Norwich family, Wait had an large funeral that was attended by the governor and other dignataries. The young man who planned to become a lawyer is buried under a beautiful white marker that includes the word "Antietam" in raised letters on the front.
14. Corporal John Holwell, 11th Connecticut (Final resting place unknown; hometown: Norwich): In his letters home during the Civil War, this soldier in Company H often mentioned his children.
"Kiss Edward and Henry for me and I hope they will be good boys," Holwell wrote his wife, Rebecca, in one letter "... I will bring them a handsome present when I come home."
"Your dagerreotype and the children's look very natural and I was very glad to receive them. ..." he wrote in another. "I hope little Eddy will keep on going to school and be smart. The men down here all like his picture and praise it up highly."
A ropemaker before the war, Holwell was probably killed near Burnside Bridge. His final resting place is unknown.
Buried in his hometown of Simsbury, Private Oliver Case was only 22 years old when he died.
15. Private Oliver Case, 8th Connecticut, (Simsbury Cemetery, Simsbury): A day after the battle, Alonzo Case discovered his brother's body on the field. It was a gruesome sight.
"He was no doubt killed instantly the bullet having passed through his head just about the top of his ears," wrote Alonzo, a first sergeant in the 16th Connecticut. "We wrapped him in my blanket and carried him to the spot where the 16th dead were to be buried having first got permission from the Colonel of the Eighth and the 16th to do so.
"The 16th men were buried side by side in a trench and they dug a grave about 6 [feet] from them and we deposited the remains of my brother and that having first pinned a paper with his name and age on the inside of the blanket. Then they put up boards to teach with name and Regiment on them. His body lay there until December when father went there and brought the body to Simsbury where it now lies to mingle with the sole of his native town."
Case's final resting place is high atop the hill in Simsbury Cemetery, near the grave of his parents.
16. Private Martin Wadhams, 8th Connecticut: (Final resting place unknown; hometown: Canton): Wadhams' body was identified on the field two days after the battle, following the rebels' retreat into Virginia.
In a letter excerpted on this excellent 8th Connecticut Infantry site, Wolcott P. Marsh described the horrific scene where the Federals suffered hundreds of casualties.
"About 9 o'clock A.M. Friday we were ordered across the bridge and on to the field where the battle of Wednesday was," the captain in the 8th Connecticut wrote nine days after the battle. "The rebels having skedadled the night before and our forces were then following them up capturing many of their rear guard. We stacked arms and details were sent from different to pick up the dead so that could be buried together. I went up where our regit. was engaged and there what a sight. 30 men from our regit. alone lay dead in a little field and near by was 42 Zouaves (9th N. Y.) and many more from other regit.
The first man I came to of my company was Charles E. Louis my acting orderly. (probably Charles E. Lewis.) Then Corp. Truck my color corporal and close by them lay Dwight Carry, Herbert Nee, Horace Rouse and Mr. Sweet all of my company then passing on to Co. A. were the body's of Oliver Case, Orton Lord, Martin Wadhams and Lucius Wheeler then to Co. K. saw Jack Simons body the only one whose name remember had all body's brought from hill down by several straw stacks."
The out-of-the-way marker of Private William Hall of the 11th Connecticut in the interestingly named Bedlam Road Cemetery in Chaplin, Conn., about 50 miles east of Hartford.
17. Private William Hall, 11th Connecticut, (Bedlam Cemetery, Chaplin): Serving in Company H with John Holwell (see above), Hall probably was killed in the assault on Burnside Bridge. Hall's post-war marker, tucked off to the side near an overgrown bush in a tiny old cemetery, looks lonely. It's unclear whether Hall is actually buried at Bedlam Road Cemetery or elsewhere.
18. Captain Newton Manross, 16th Connecticut (Forestville Cemetery, Bristol): A professor before the war, Manross was another of the unfortunate victims in this hard-luck regiment. A graduate of Yale, Manross was named professor of chemistry and botany at Amherst (Mass.) College shortly before entering the service.
"He was a man of great promise in science and rare nobility of character," an 1873 history of Amherst College noted. "A great favorite with officers and students, he stood up boldly for the Christian faith, and used all his influence for the highest good of the students and the prosperity of the Institution." (3)
After the war, surviving members of Company K of the 16th Connecticut placed a large brownstone memorial in Manross' memory near his grave in Bristol. Sadly, the marker is now deterioriating and badly needs to be repaired.
A contemporary gravestone for Captain Newton Manross of the 16th Connecticut in Forestville Cemeteryin Bristol. Badly in need of repair, a memorial obelisk placed by survivors of Company K of the 16th Connecticut is nearby. The brownstone monument (right) is separating.
19. Sergeant Orville Campbell, 16th Connecticut (Fairview Cemetery, New Britain): Like Alvin Flint, Marvin Wait, John Bingham and George Crosby (see above), Campbell was just a teenager when he was killed at Antietam. The orderly sergeant's tall brownstone obelisk reads:
Was Killed while Bravely Defending the National Flag in the battle of Antietam Sept 17 1862 at the age of 19."
Close-up of Orville Campbell's marker at Fairview Cemetery in New Britain.
20. General Joseph Mansfield (Indian Hills Cemetery, Middletown): Mortally wounded near the East Woods, Mansfield is one of 110 soldiers with ties to Middletown, Conn., who died during the Civil War. His death was a huge shock to Connecticut, and his funeral in Middletown was one of the largest of the war.
"Flags were displayed at half mast," the Middletown Constitution reported on Sept. 24, 1862. "Many of the stores, public buildings, and some private dwellings were appropriately draped for the occasion. The Young Ladies' Seminary in Broad Street, which was under the especial patronage of General Mansfield and was founded by his liberality, was dressed in a most beautiful and becoming manner. During the passage of the procession the bells were tolled, and minute guns were fired. The funeral services at the grave were concluded at sundown."
