Civil War under my nose: Unionville

Dedicated in 1916, this Civil War memorial was funded largely by a Civil War veteran. 

Close-up of the memorial in front of the First
 Church of Christ Congregational, near Route 177.

I pass this Civil War memorial every day on my way to work. Many people probably don't think much about it,  but when it was placed on what was then the Unionville village green in July 1916, it was a big deal. According to the Connecticut Civil War Monuments web site, 3,000 people, floats, 75 Civil War veterans and 20 cars were part of the celebration. The memorial, which honors Civil War veterans of the area, was largely funded by Nathaniel C. Hayden, a local businessman, who as a captain in 16th Connecticut Infantry was severely wounded at Antietam. He died a few weeks after the memorial was dedicated. It stands today in front of the First Church of Christ Congregational. I'm not sure if it's in Unionville or Farmington. As you can see by the photo at right, it's a nice work of art.

Small pieces of Civil War history

The two bullets at left are drops; the two bullets at right were fired.

Each of the Civil War bullets above weighs no more than a couple ounces and is a little bigger than the tip of my middle finger. But if any of these small pieces of  lead would have struck the officer in the background square in the arm during the Civil War, he likely would have faced amputation.

A fired bullet I found at Antietam in the 1980s.

I found the .54-caliber three-ring bullet (right and second from right above)  in the 1980s using a metal detector on the D.R. Miller Farm  in Sharpsburg, Md., when it was private property and you could relic hunt there legally (with permission, of course). That land on the Antietam battlefield was donated by the Conservation Fund to the National Park Service in 1990 and relic hunting there now is a big no-no. If you do it and get caught, expect a large fine ... or worse.

As a cub reporter for the Martinsburg (W.Va.) Evening Journal back in the day, I interviewed the Paul Culler family, who owned the Miller Farm at the time, for a story on Civil War relic hunting. When I arrived for the interview, the Cullers had a large table full of relics set up in the driveway. Rifle parts, artilillery shells and shell fragments, bullets --  they found all that and much more on the property they had been farming since 1952. Many of those relics were found in "The Cornfield," the infamous plot of land on the Miller Farm where thousands of Yankees and Rebels killed and maimed each other for hours on the morning of Sept. 17, 1862.

The bullet at right was found in a plowed field near the Hagerstown Pike, opposite the old Miller home, which dates to about 1800. Judging from its distorted state, the bullet was definitely fired, probably by a Union soldier, 149 years ago. Whether it struck another human being or not is lost to history.

Below are other bullets in my collection -- some fired, some not.


Civil War bullets in my collection.

 

Civil War under my nose: John Sedgwick

Major Gen. John Sedgwick is buried in Cornwall Hollow, Conn.

Major Gen. John Sedgwick was wrong.

Dead wrong.

As Sedgwick was lowered into his grave, "a peal
of thunder like the roar of distant artillery
reverberated along the heavens."

As the Union officer visited his troops on the front lines at Spotsylvania Courthouse, Va., on May 9, 1864, Sedgwick scolded them for ducking at scattered Rebel gunfire coming from a good distance away. "I am ashamed of you, dodging that way," Sedgwick said. "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." A short time later, blood spurted from a wound on Sedgwick's left cheek, just below the eye. The general fondly called "Uncle John" by his troops was killed by a sniper's bullet. (1)

He was 50 years old.

Sedgwick, the highest-ranking Union officer killed during the Civil War, was born in Cornwall, Conn., about an hour from Hartford. The house that he briefly lived in during the Civil War still stands on a corner on Hautboy Road in tiny Cornwall Hollow, about 3/4 of a mile from the cemetery where Sedgwick is buried. (There's a pool in the back yard now, probably not something the general enjoyed during his era.) Sedgwick lived in the house briefly while recovering from three wounds suffered at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. (2)

On this miserably cold April afternoon, I visited Sedgwick's grave as well as the large monument to the general directly across the road from the cemetery. I've been there several times, but never on a day as cold as this. With the wind blowing, it was challenge to photograph Sedgwick's grave with a printout of a Civil War era image of him in my left hand (above).

Sedgwick briefly lived in this house in Cornwall Hollow, Conn.,  
while recovering from wounds he suffered at Antietam in 1862.

Sedgwick's funeral in 1864 and the dedication of his monument on Memorial Day in 1900 were huge deals in rural Cornwall Hollow. According to accounts, more than 3,000 people attended the monument dedication 36 years after Sedgwick was killed.

"After his tragic death his remains were borne to his home at Cornwall Hollow and a public funeral, offered by the legislature, was declined by his family," according to a book on the Sedgwick family. "No military salute was fired above his grave but as his body was lowered to its last resting place, a peal of thunder like the roar of distant artillery reverberated along the heavens, sounding his requiem and the tired soldier rested." (3)

The monument originally included piles of real Civil War cannonballs, but they were sold for scrap during World War II and replaced. The monument has been vandalized several times, and the original bronze plaque of Sedgwick was replaced after it was stolen.(4). 

Plaque on front of Sedgwick memorial.

The front of the monument includes this simple, eloquent inscription:

"The fittest place where man can die is where man dies for man.”

(1) "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War"
(2) Cornwall Historical Society
(3) "A Sedgwick Genealogy: Descendants of Deacon Benjamin Sedgwick", Page 101
(4) CT monuments.net

More than 3,000 people turned out for the dedication of this Sedgwick  monument in 
Cornwall Hollow, Conn., on Memorial Day in 1900.

Civil War under my nose: Collinsville, Conn.

The Collins Co. supplied the Union Army during the Civil War.

Canton Historical Museum Civil War
display: Swords and blades made at Collins Co.

The Union army needed bayonets, axes, plows, swords, picks and shovels. Lots of them. The Collins Co. in Collinsville, Conn., filled a good chunk of the army's orders. In fact, the sprawling facility along the Farmington River made 200,000 bayonets during the Civil War, according to an historian at the Canton Historical Museum in Collinsville. The company also has a tie to the famous John Brown, whose raid on Harper's Ferry, Va., in 1859 was a spark that helped lead to the Civil War. Pikes that Brown wanted to use to help incite a rebellion of slaves were made in Collinsville. The old Collins Co. houses a large antiques store and other businesses now. (All the photos in this post were taken with my Blackberry.)

A large antiques business is housed in one of the old Collins Co. buildings today.

Civil War under my nose: Collinsville, Conn.



Civil War monument in Collinsville, Conn., cemetery.

 

Close-up of back of monument.

Thirty-nine Civil War soldiers are listed on a well-kept monument in Collinsville Cemetery, about four miles from my home. They died in such places as Irish Bend, La.,; Andersonville, Ga.; Drewry's Bluff, Va., and Sharpsburg, Md.. Their bodies were never returned home. The monument was erected in 1903 by the Collinsville Cemetery Association and the state of Connecticut to honor these men from Canton who died during the war. Among the names listed: Martin L. Wadhams, who served with the 16th Connecticut and was killed at Antietam. I wonder if he's related to the Wadhams brothers of Litchfield, Conn., each of whom was killed in an 18-day span in Virginia in 1864.


The bodies of all 39 men listed on the monument were never returned home.



Faces of the Civil War: The Hewitt brothers

New Jersey brothers: William and John Hewitt

William Hewitt may have been one of the lucky ones. Some of his comrades in the 12th New Jersey Infantry were assigned the dangerous task of flushing out Rebels from the Bliss Farm buildings on the afternoon of July 2 and the morning of July 3, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg. The 12th New Jersey suffered 106 killed, wounded or missing during both engagements. Hewitt, a private in Co. A from Woodbury, N.J., didn't participate because he was injured.

According to Hewitt's claim for a pension in 1876, he "was ruptured across the bowels" from carrying a heavy load to Gettysburg while on the march about July 1, 1863. And in an amended claim in 1885, it was stated that Hewitt suffered from chronic diarrhea and piles that were contracted in July 1863, "the consequence of fatigue and overmarching" to Gettysburg.(1) Hewitt's pension claim for the hernia apparently was rejected, but he received a $6-a-month pension in 1885 for "chronic diarrhea and resulting piles and dyspepsia."

William Hewitt died of a heart ailment on Aug. 24, 1894, in Clayton, N.J. He was 62. He is buried in IOOF Cemetery in Medford, N.J.

The 6th plate ambrotype above from my collection shows William and his brother, John, who served in Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama with the 34th New Jersey Infantry. John is buried in Saint Andrews Graveyard in Mount Holly, N.J. According to Hewitt family lore, one of these brothers, most likely John, was killed by lightning after the war. Pretty amazing to survive the war and then die that way.

(1) Pension appeal document, April 19, 1887.

Faces of the Civil War: George Lawrence

George Lawrence, a private in the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry, was
wounded at the first Battle of Bull Run but survived the war.

George Lawrence felt the effects of Civil War long after the rebellion was over. A 21-year-old private in the 2nd New Hampshire, Lawrence was injured at the first Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, when he was hit near the temple by a piece of artillery shell. But it was marching in the hot Virginia sun that apparently had an especially lasting effect on Lawrence.

In an application for a pension in 1886, he complained that he could not hold a job as a carpenter since he was discharged from the army because he could not stay in the sun long. "I was sun stroke August 27, 1862, between Catlett's Station and Bristoe Station in the pursuit of Jackson," he wrote in reference to the famous Rebel general, Stonewall Jackson. "I was sun stroke a second time June 20, 1863, or about that date near Manassas Junction while following the army to Centerville and was taken to Seminary Hospital in Alexandria." (1)

Stonewall Jackson

One of his comrades backed up Lawrence's claim. On Aug. 28, 1862, Lawrence "was overcome with the heat to the extent that he was unconscious and breathed heavily from that time into the night," Stephen Smiley wrote in 1887. "I was with him from that time until far into the night ... When there was no change for the better in his condition, I concluded that it was the last time I would see him alive." (2)

Another soldier who served with Lawrence recalled somewhat humorously the injury his pal suffered at Bull Run. "He was and is somewhat flighty in his talk," J.M. House wrote in 1887. "Used to say to him ... that if he ever had much sense, guessed that piece of shell knocked it out of him." (3)

There's no record in his file at the National Archives whether Lawrence was granted his pension long after the war was over. The photograph above is a 6th plate tintype of Lawrence from my collection.

(1) June 15, 1886, affidavit in pension application at National Archives.
(2) May 9, 1887 letter in George Lawrence's pension application at National Archives
(3) May 6, 1887 letter to commissioner of pensions in pension application at National Archives

Ruins of Henry House on Bull Run battlefield, 1861
(Library of Congress collection)

Read all about it! Civil War newspaper

Frank Leslie's Illustrated, Oct. 18, 1862 edition.

I love old newspapers. They have a look and a feel and a smell that's just ... well... different.

Because Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, I decided to dig out some of my Civil War collection for inspection, including this Oct. 18, 1862, copy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated.

Newspapers of the 19th century were made of rag paper -- essentially cotton fibers -- and thus preserved much better than today's wood pulp-based paper, which may contain high concentrations of acids. Frank Leslie's Illustrated was the Time or Newsweek of its day. The technology of the 1860s, of course, did not allow for newspapers to reproduce photography, which was in its infancy.

This edition of Frank Leslie's was published a month after the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, Md., the bloodiest day in American history. Nearly 23,000 Americans were killed, wounded or MIA. The main art on the first page (close-up above) is an engraving of Maryland and Pennsylvania farmers watching Union soldiers bury Rebels near Bloody Lane, one of the landmark sites on the rolling farm fields outside Sharpsburg.

Depending on the event that's featured, newspapers of this era can be had for as little as $18. This one -- which includes a map of the Antietam battlefield on an inside page -- cost me about $30.

Faces of the Civil War: Wadhams brothers

Edward Wadhams: Killed at Fort Darling, Va., on May 16, 1864.

Luman Wadhams: Mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, Va., June 1, 1864.

Henry Wadhams: Killed at North Anna, Va., May 26, 1864.




Wadhams brothers monument, Litchfield, Conn.

In an 18-day span in 1864, three brothers from Litchfield, Conn., were killed on Civil War battlefields in Virginia. I traveled to the West Cemetery in Litchfield this afternoon to visit the gravesite of Luman Wadhams, taking with me a copy of a period photograph of him as well as one of each of his brothers killed during the war. Using the sepia tone option on my Blackberry, I photographed each brother by their tall, weather-worn stone memorial. (Further research will determine if Luman's brothers, Henry and Edward, are also buried by him.)

There were other instances of multiple members of the same family dying during the Civil War. But three brothers in 18 days? This story is "Saving Private Ryan" way before "Saving Private Ryan." One can only imagine the reaction of the brothers' parents, Edwin and Mary, when Deacon Adams delivered news of their deaths at the Wadhams farm just outside of town. In gathering information from the National Archives in Washington, the Litchfield Historical Society and from other sources, here's some of what I know about this fascinating story of three brothers:



Camp Dutton today: Luman Wadhams trained here.

 


Camp Dutton marker

LUMAN WADHAMS: The middle brother, Luman first enlisted in the 1st Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in 1861. He participated in the Bull Run campaign and later re- enlisted in the 8th Connecticut for three years, serving as a lieutenant in Company E. The 8th Connecticut saw action in North Carolina during Gen. Burnside's expedition at Roanoke Island and Newbern, after which Luman resigned because of poor health. Not one to remain out of the action, Luman later re-enlisted in the 19th Connecticut Volunteers, the "County Regiment" that trained at Camp Dutton, about two miles outside of Litchfield. (At right, marker put up in 1912 at the site by Civil War veterans.) The 19th consisted of farmers, machinists and laborers from towns surrounding Litchfield -- places such as Goshen, New Canaan, Barkhamsted, Winsted and Torrington.

Luman, commissioned a 1st lieutenant, was highly regarded by his men throughout his service, seldom punishing them. A visitor from Litchfield, while visiting Wadhams' troops after he became captain, remarked to him: "I find none of your men in the guard house, the boys say that is always so. How do you manage?" "I talk to my boys,” Wadhams replied. (1)

Luman Wadhams is in sixth row, second from left. (Litchfield Historical Society)



Luman Wadhams, dead at 29.

The 19th served mainly in the defenses of Washington, near Alexandria, Va., before being transferred to the artillery and becoming the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery. Gen. Grant pulled the Connecticut boys out of the Washington defenses in May 1864, and they saw some action at North Anna River. But their first battle came June 1 at a little crossroads outside Richmond called Cold Harbor. Wadhams, by now a captain in command of Company A, and 333 other soldiers from the 2nd Connecticut were killed at Cold Harbor, mowed down by Rebels behind strong fortifications.

According to The Connecticut War Record: "In the moment of success [Wadhams] fell pierced through the body. His devoted men sprang to his assistance. In the absence of a stretcher they made a stretcher of their muskets, and carried him on their shoulders a mile and a half to the hospital."(2) Wadhams lingered for two days and died in an ambulance on the way to White House, Va., on June 3, 1864.  He was 29 years old.

Wadhams' funeral service, held at the Congregational Church opposite the Litchfield village green, was "crowded to its utmost capacity by sympathizing friends, and large numbers of strangers from out of town came to pay their respects to the lamented deceased." (3)

Following Luman's death, his widow, Louisa, worked as a nurse in the South, where she often encountered horrid conditions in Union hospitals. "There was not an arm, head, leg, or any wound even, I shrank from, however bad it was," she wrote in a letter to a Rev. George Richards in October 1864. "There was one poor boy that had his right eye entirely shot away, and his left was so filled with blood dirt and powder he thought that was gone too, as he told me: 'I am blind, Lady, blind for my flag.' ...

"Another has his left lung laid entirely bare," she wrote, "you can look in and see the beating and working of that delicate machinery, but there he lies, unmurmuringly, patiently awaiting death." (4)

More to come.

(1) The Connecticut War Record, Wadhams brothers obituary, published September 1864.
(2) The Connecticut War Record, Page 277.
(3) The Litchfield Times, June 1864
(4) The History of Litchfield, Page 227.