Civil War under my nose: Memorial Day in Conn.



This Civil War memorial is in Thomaston, about 35 minutes from Hartford.

Within 25 minutes during a short drive on this rainy Memorial Day morning, I passed at least three Civil War memorials, a good reminder of how small Connecticut towns were affected by the war. Nearly 5,300 soldiers from Connecticut died during the Civil War, about 10 percent of those who served. (1)

Forty-nine soldiers from Plymouth, Conn., died during the Civil
War. Above, the Plymouth Civil War memorial, one of the
oldest in the state.

In Plymouth,  a memorial on the town green across from the Plymouth Congregational Church honors 49 soldiers who died.(1) The dedication date is unknown, but it may have been as early as 1865, making it among the oldest Civil War memorials in the state.

In Thomaston, about a mile down the road from Plymouth, there's a large memorial on a small trangular plot off Park Street. Dedicated in 1902, it is flanked by a pair of cannon.

In Burlington, the names of 88 soldiers who served from the area during the war are listed on the plaque on a memorial on a small plot at the intersection of Spielman Highway (Route 4) and George Washington Turnpike. Fourteen of those soldiers died, no doubt an immense burden for such a small town. (2)

And here's a nice thought on the meaning of Memorial Day from Oliver Wendell Holmes, who fought at Antietam and later became a Supreme Court justice. Thanks to my friend Jim Buchanan, an Antietam park volunteer, for posting it on his excellent Walking The West Woods blog.

At least 14 men from Burlington, Conn., died during the Civil War.

(1) A Compendium of the War of Rebellion, Frederick H. Dyer, 1908
(2) American Civil War Research Database
(3) American Civil War Research Database

Faces of the Civil War: David D. Mahaffey

David Mahaffey, a farmer from the Pittsbugh area, died
 June 19, 1864, of wounds suffered near Petersburg, Va.
This is a 1/9-plate tintype from my collection.

On Memorial Day, I'll pause to remember a 24-year-old farmer named David D. Mahaffey, one of 33,183 soldiers from Pennsylvania who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country during the Civil War.

From Dorseyville, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Mahaffey was mustered into Co. E of the 63rd Pennsylvania Infantry on Sept. 9, 1861, about five months after the opening shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

It's hard to read, but David Mahaffey's name is etched into
the top of his tintype photo, probably by a photographer
during the Civil War.

Mahaffey began the war as a private, but he was promoted to corporal on Oct. 4, 1862, while the 63rd Pennsylvania was serving in the defenses of Washington and guarding fords in Maryland. (1) Flush with pride and wearing a uniform featuring his corporal's stripes, David may have had the image above taken at a photographic studio in the capital. Standing 5 feet 10 with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, Mahaffey, his revolver tucked securely in his trousers, stared intently at the camera. In addition to tinting Mahaffey's cheeks red, the photographer etched the soldier's name at the top of the front of the tin plate and his unit on the reverse, a fairly common practice.

By May 1864, Mahaffey had been wounded at least twice, the first time at the Battle of Fair Oaks near Richmond on May 31, 1862. He returned to Co. E after recuperating. (2) The 63rd Pennsylvania suffered one dead and 29 wounded fighting near Emmitsburg Road on July 2, 1863, during the second day at Gettysburg, but Mahaffey survived that battle unscathed. At the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia on May 7, 1864, Mahaffey again was wounded, albeit slightly. (3)

On June 16, 1864, Corporal David Mahaffey's luck ran out. 

Mahaffey was discharged from the army by "reason of death."

 
As the Army of the Potomac began the siege of Petersburg, Va., Mahaffey suffered a severe leg wound. He was taken to the division hospital at Meade Station, where the leg was amputated. Three days later, the young Pennsylvania farmer, probably so full of hope when he enlisted nearly three years earlier, was dead. One can only imagine the reaction of David's family 375 miles away near Pittsburgh upon hearing the awful news.

On Mahaffey's fill-in-the-blanks casualty form (right) completed by 1st Lt. Issac Mills at a camp near Petersburg on July 4, 1864, the language is cold  and bureaucratic:

"Having served honestly and faithfully in the A of P to the present date, (David Mahaffey) is now entitled to a discharge by reason of death." 

Mahaffey had received from the United States clothing worth $39.18 since Sept. 1, 1863. That account apparently was settled. He was last paid by the army on Feb. 29, 1864.

Many Union soldiers killed at Petersburg were hastily buried, often in shallow or mass graves. From 1866-69, the U.S. Burial Corps recovered remains of 6,718 Federal soldiers from the Petersburg Campaign and reburied them in Poplar Grove Cemetery. Only 2,139 bodies were positively identified, with most of the rest buried under headstones marked "Unknown."

Unfortunately, David D. Mahaffey is probably among them.

David Mahaffey suffered the same fate as this Confederate soldier
who died in the defenses at Petersburg. (Library of Congress collection)

(1) David Mahaffey military records, National Archives
(2) Casualty sheet, National Archives
(3) Casualty sheet, National Archives

More Gettysburg hidden history

The diamond-shaped insignia of the Union 3rd Corps is carved into the small
boulder  to the right of the 40th New York monument in the "Valley of Death"
 at Gettysburg. The monument is about 20 yards from Sickles Avenue.

If you don't mind fending off ticks and slogging your way through a muddy field or woodlot, you can find pieces of history that most don't see at Gettysburg.

The diamond-shaped carving is
easy to find on this boulder near the
 40th New York monument. 

As I wrote in this post earlier this month, soldiers and long-ago visitors to the battlefield left their mark in many ways -- including carvings on monuments, rocks, barns and who knows what else. One man's graffiti is another man's important historical treasure, right? (Dinosaurs, really long-ago visitors, also left their mark at Gettysburg. But this is a Civil War blog, so we'll skip pointing out where to find footprints of T-Rex and friends.)

To find these quirky bits of Civil War history, you just need to know where to look. Or you could simply ask a very knowledgeable park volunteer or buy J. David Petruzzi's outstanding book "The Complete Gettysburg Guide," which provides an excellent road map. A great resource for the Civil War novice or expert, you can get it online for about 30 bucks.

After the Civil War, an  "X" was carved into the upper right of this boulder
 in Rose's Woods by  John R. Brooke, a Union colonel. 

The carvings I didn't cover in my earlier post are fairly easy to find. On a small boulder several feet from the 40th New York Infantry monument in the "Valley of Death," you can find the diamond-shaped insignia of the Union 3rd Corps. The monument was dedicated in 1888, and Petruzzi speculates in his book that the diamond was carved by a veteran or veterans of the 40th New York. "40th" is supposed to be carved into the rock, above the diamond, but I couldn't find it. 

Trust me, an "X" was carved into this rock by
 John R. Brooke,  a Union colonel. The big "X"
 was caused by Mother Nature.

I gave up several pints of blood (thanks, ticks) to find a very faintly carved "X" on the John R. Brooke Rock in Rose's Woods. Yes, you need to be a little off to do this. Or, at the very least, have a can of Off! Brooke, a colonel in the Union army, apparently carved an "X" in the rock during a post-war visit to mark his position during the battle. Brooke needed a better carving instrument, because his "X" is obscured by an "X" created by Mother Nature.

Thankfully, the last piece of hidden history was in a tick-free zone. Just off the road on Culp's Hill and behind the 149th New York Infantry monument, long-ago scoundrels carved their names and the year "1888." J.E. Thompson and his pals would have been fined and their names entered on the police blotter if they were caught doing that today.

On a  boulder behind the 149th New York Infantry monument on Culp's Hill,
 long-ago visitors  to Gettysburg left their mark (below).

Civil War under my nose: John Brown birthplace

The house where John Brown was born burned down in 1918.

The man who helped spark the Civil War was born in 1800 in a house on a scenic hill outside Torrington, Conn.

John Brown, about 1856.

With the exception of a large stone marker and the remains of the foundation of the main house and an outbuilding, I didn't find much left this afternoon of  John Brown's birthplace. The house, built in 1785 and restored in the early 20th century, was destroyed by a chimney fire in 1918. (1) The remains are located in a clearing just north of John Brown Road, about four miles from downtown Torrington off Route 4 and 30 miles from Hartford. Several plots of land are for sale in the immediate vicintity, so I don't expect the area to remain so rural for long.

Brown, of course, was one of the most polarizing figures in the country in the years just before the Civil War. An ardent abolitionist, he hoped to incite a rebellion of slaves when he and his followers raided the government armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va., on Oct. 16, 1859. His plans were crushed by miltia led by Robert E. Lee, and Brown was captured, tried, convicted of treason and finally hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, in Charles Town, Va. Brown became a martyr in the North, and his death put the nation on the course for the Civil War.

(1) Torrington Historical Society website 





Stone marker for Brown's birthplace in Torrington, Conn.



An illustration of the Brown house, which burned down in 1918.



These stones are all that remain of an outbuilding on the Brown property.

Antietam: Bloody Lane now and then

Bloody Lane at Antietam, with the 132nd Pennsylvania monument and
War Department tower in the background.

Stereoview of the famous Alexander Gardner photo of dead Confederates
in Bloody Lane.  (Library of Congress collection)

I'm a huge fan of "then-and-now" photography. William Frassanito's terrific books on Gettysburg, Antietam and Grant's Campaign in Virginia in this vein were among the first Civil War books added to my collection. During my visit to Antietam in early May, I shot the photo above at Bloody Lane, one of most visited spots on the battlefield. The second photo, by Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, was taken from a similar vantage point on Sept. 19, 1862, two days after the battle. Dead Rebels were strewn throughout the old farm lane. (Hat tip to Jim Rosebrock's excellent Antietam Voices website for directing me to this telling quote of the scene.)

  “The Confederates had gone down as grass falls before the scythe. They were lying in rows like the ties of a railroad, in heaps, like cord-wood mingled with the splintered and shattered fence rails. Words are inadequate to portray the scene.” (1),  -- Northern correspondent, Sept. 18, 1862

There were only two other visitors on this part of the field the morning I was there. It's still hard to believe this was a spot of so much carnage and pain.

1) Robert K. Krick "It Appeared As Though Mutual Extermination Would Put a Stop to the Awful Carnage Sharpsburg’s Bloody Lane”, Gary W. Gallagher, editor The Antietam Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Page 223

Civil War under my nose: A hero's grave



Congressional Medal of Honor winner Patrick Scanlan is
 buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Avon, Conn.

Civil War graves are often marked by
plastic G.A.R markers such as this
one on Patrick Scanlan's grave.
G.A.R. stands for Grand Army of the Republic.

A hero lies buried slightly more than a mile from my house.

Born in Ireland, Patrick Scanlan was a bootmaker from Spencer, Mass., a small town about 45 miles from Springfield. Irishmen served both sides of the Civil War, of course. In their terrible assault on Dec. 13, 1862, at Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, Va., Union boys of the famed Irish Brigade were cut down by Irishmen from Georgia.

After enlisting in the 4th Massachusetts Cavalry in December 1863, Scanlan sailed from Boston to Hilton Head, S.C., aboard the steamer "Western Metropolis" on March 20, 1864. The 25-year-old private arrived in Hilton Head on April 1, but the 4th Massachusetts was assigned mostly picket and outpost duty.

In late May, Scanlan and his comrades finally "saw the elephant."

This sign at St. Mary's Cemetery in
Avon, Conn.,  marks the row for
Patrick Scanlan's grave.

As the steamship "Boston" made its way up the Ashepoo River on May 24, 1864, with nearly 400 soldiers aboard, it came under heavy fire from a Confederate shore battery. Stranded Union troops on the "Boston" were rescued by Scanlan and four other soldiers who volunteered to bring them to shore. For his bravery, Private Scanlan was finally awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1897.

Scanlan, whose name is misspelled "Scanlon" on his gravestone, died in Farmington, Conn., on Sept. 5, 1903. He was 64. His final resting place is among other Irish graves at St. Mary's Cemetery, a rolling plot of land in Avon, Conn., that slopes toward the Farmington River.

Faces of the Civil War: John Hathaway

John Hathaway, a 43-year-old private in the 61st New York, died  June 22, 1864,
about  two months after he enlisted.  He is buried in a cemetery in Baltimore. This
is a  close-up of a  tintype of Hathaway in my collection.

John Hathaway, his long goatee flecked with gray, wore a smart, new military uniform and a stern expression for a tintype photo probably taken shortly after he enlisted in the Union army on April 13, 1864.

According to this document from the National Archives,
Hathaway's effects were turned over to his sister after his death.

A 43-year-old hatter from Providence, R.I., Hathaway joined the war effort later than most. The 5-foot-5 blue-eyed bachelor with dark hair and dark complexion apparently didn't have any immediate family to support. Perhaps Hathaway was finally caught up in the patriotic fervor of the day. Or maybe he was pressured by the folks back in his hometown of Newport, R.I.

In any case, Hathaway, who served as a private in Co. K of the 61st New York, never saw his native Rhode Island again.

On May 12, 1864, Hathaway was wounded during the 61st New York's assault at Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in Virginia. Eventually transported to a Union hospital at Newton University in Baltimore, Hathaway died at 10 p.m. on June 22, 70 days after he enlisted. The cause of death was listed as diarrhea, probably a result of the unspecified wound he received in battle. He was buried at 2 p.m. the next day in Loudoun Park Cemetery, location 886, near the hospital. (1)

Although the marker reads
New  Hampshire, I believe Hathaway is
buried here in Baltimore.

Hathaway left behind one knapsack, one pair of shoes, one blouse, one woolen blanket, one shelter tent, one knife and $180. Six days later, his meager effects were turned over to his sister.

Six years ago, I located Hathaway's grave in Loudoun Park Cemetery, where nearly 3,000 Union and Confederate soldiers are buried. The pearl white tombstone, which probably replaced an older one many years ago, was inscribed New Hampshire, but I think that's a mistake. The final resting place of Pvt. John Hathaway of the 61st New York Infantry is 400 miles from home.

(1) John Hathaway pension file, National Archives and Records Service, Washington D.C.

Thirty-three soldiers in the 61st New York were wounded at Spotsylvania Courthouse 
on May 12, 1864,  including John Hathaway.

Battle of Antietam memories: The Roulettes

Union soldiers formed on the Roulette Farm before attacking the Rebels
in Bloody Lane during the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862.

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A spry old man with a wisp of white hair and an absolutely wicked sense of humor, Earl Roulette was a treasure.

I visited Earl and his wife, Annabelle, three times during my visits to Sharpsburg, Md., over the years. Their house was just across the street from a grove of trees and a monument that marked Robert E. Lee's headquarters during the Battle of Antietam. The Roulettes farmed around Sharpsburg for more than 40 years, and Earl had an encyclopedic knowledge of the area and the battlefield.  He even recalled old Civil War veterans returning to the great field for one last look when he was a youngster.

I took this picture of Earl and his wife, Annabelle, in 2005.

Three of Earl's great-grandfathers had farms on the battlefield at Antietam. One of them, William Roulette, had the misfortune to own a farm in the middle of the field, bordering the infamous Bloody Lane. Afterward, 700 soldiers were buried on his great-grandfather's property.

Imagine having 700 soldiers buried in your back yard.

Although his farming days were over, Earl still kept a farmer's hours. Up around 4 a.m. and to bed a little after sundown. Even during the summer, the Roulette house was heated to about 80 degrees, so it was important to dress properly for the visit. I usually expected to stay a half-hour, but once Earl got going, each sitdown typically lasted a couple hours or more. Yes, ol' Earl could definitely talk.

Passed down through Earl Roulette's family, 
this wedding ring  was pulled from a 
dead soldier at Antietam.

"Lookie here, John," he would say in a slightly high-pitched voice. As Annabelle slowly rocked in her chair in the living room, Earl would pull out a piece from the past from a box or a folder. A chewed pain bullet. A daguerreotype of freed slave Nancy Campbell, who was treated like family by the Roulettes. An old sword and scabbard. It was a collection any Civil War museum would envy.

During one visit, Earl reached into a plastic bag and pulled out a thin, gold band. Passed down from his Great-grandpa Snavely, the wedding ring  was pulled from a dead soldier, his name lost to history, who was found in Antietam Creek after the battle. In a small shed out back, Earl kept a collection of relics he recovered while farming his property over the years. A cannonball or two, a bent bayonet, fired bullets.

I remembered getting a little squeamish when Earl picked up an old artillery shell.

Artillery shells, a cannonball, a bayonet and other relics recovered from the Antietam battlefield
by Earl Roulette. The ammunition box pictured was found by his ancestors there.

"Was that thing deactivated, Earl?" I asked.

Soldiers from the 14th Connecticut captured Rebel skirmishers
 at this  spring house on the Roulette Farm 
by slamming the door shut.

"Oh, no," he would cackle. "I've been handling it for years."

Quick with a quip, Earl typically had a message for me when I left. "Better be back soon, John," he said once with a laugh. "The old buzzards may be circling me soon."

I thought of Earl as I was walked down the old gravel road from Bloody Lane at Antietam to his Great-granddaddy William Roulette's farm last week. The property is maintained by the National Park Service, but save for a couple park signs, I'd bet any of the soldiers who fought here 149 years ago would recognize it.

Several ground hogs have invaded the cellar, but the farmhouse, used as a hospital during and after the battle, still looks its did in the famous Alexander Gardner photo taken days after the fighting. The cellar entrance from which William popped out and urged Union troops to rout the Rebels from his property is still there. So is the spring house where soldiers from the 14th Connecticut, bayonets at the ready, captured Confederate skirmishers in the small outbuilding simply by slamming the door shut.

"Give it to 'em! Drive 'em!" William Roulette yelled to
Union soldiers after he left his farmhouse cellar. (1)

And the field where Union soldiers gathered to receive absolution from a priest before making the awful march into history is just a short distance from the house.

Sadly, Earl Roulette is gone. Shortly after having his leg amputated, Earl died in October 2008. He was 88. Annabelle is gone now, too.

Good people.

Great memories.

Famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner captured this stereo image of
 the Roulette Farm days after the battle. (Library of Congress collection)

15th Massachusetts monument at Antietam

Viewed up close, the 15th Massachusetts monument  at  Antietam is imposing.



The monument was dedicated in 1900.

I really like this closeup that I took recently of the 15th Massachusetts monument at Antietam. The 15th Massachusetts suffered 330 casualties -- 75 dead and 255 wounded -- in about 20 minutes in the West Woods at Antietam. The monument, the most impressive on the field, was dedicated on Sept. 17, 1900, 38 years after the battle. It's hard to believe that the fields surrounding the monument, so peaceful now, were the place of so much suffering 149 years ago.

A plaque on the monument lists the 15th Massachusetts soldiers killed and mortally wounded at Antietam.

Civil War history lost ... and found

The Fletcher family (clockwise from upper left): Brothers Josiah and George and
their parents, Ephraim and Margaret. George was killed at Gettysburg.

Thanks to about 10 minutes of Internet detective work, a great piece of family history is back where it belongs.

Several weeks ago, I spotted a grouping of four Civil War era photos of the same family for sale on the Historical Shop web site. The 1/9 plate ambrotypes were billed as possibly Samuel or James Fletcher, his brother George and their parents, Ephraim and Margaret. George, shown above at right in uniform, was purportedly killed at Gettysburg while serving in the 15th Massachusetts Infantry. Price for the four ambrotypes in a beautiful thermoplastic case: $625.

The 15th Massachusetts monument at Antietam.

Photos of soldiers who fought at the most storied battle of the Civil War are highly sought by collectors, so I was intrigued enough to investigate.

Was George really killed at Gettysburg? And what about the other brothers, Samuel and James? Did they serve during the Civil War? If so, did they survive? Did the other photo show Samuel or James or perhaps another family member? And were these really photos of the Fletcher family?

I knew exactly where to start digging for the information. Susan L. Harnwell has put together a terrific site on the 15th Massachusetts, one of the most hard-fought Union regiments of the Civil War. After several clicks, I was able to find extensive bios of George, Samuel and James.

According to the 15th Massachusetts site, Corporal George Fletcher indeed was killed at Gettysburg. A machinist from Northbridge, Mass., he was only 19 when he died on the third day of the great battle. His brother, James, was 22 or 23 when he was killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. And there was yet another Fletcher brother who served. Like his siblings, Samuel J. Fletcher, a 2nd lieutenant. served in Company H of the 15th Massachusetts. He survived the war, although he was shot through the jaw at Antietam. (The Fletchers' cousin, Edward Fletcher Chapin, was shot at Gettysburg and died of his wounds a month later in Baltimore.)

James Fletcher was killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862.
His name is on 15th Massachusetts monument there.

Many of the bios on the 15th Massachusetts site are supplied by contributors. In the Fletchers' case, the info was provided by a descendant, Sherry Fletcher, whose e-mail address was at the bottom of each entry.

I dashed off a quick e-mail to Sherry, alerting her to the possibility that photos of four of her relatives were for sale online. A week later, I received this reply:

Yes! I purchased them and I should receive them via post either tomorrow, Thank you ever so much for the heads up!

Sherry confirmed the ambrotypes are indeed her ancestors. I'm not sure how the photos got out of the hands of the Fletcher family. What's important is that they're finally back in their rightful home.

This "witness" tree in the West Woods at 
Antietam  dates to the time of the battle,
 according to park  volunteer Jim Buchanan. 
Did the Fletcher brothers
 walk past it or shoot into it?

As it turns out, the photo at top left is of neither James nor Samuel. Instead, it's Josiah Spring Fletcher, another Fletcher brother. A farmer, he apparently did not serve during the Civil War.

UPDATE: According to a recent e-mail from Sherry Fletcher, Josiah Spring Fletcher fought against Quantrill's Raiders, a pro-Confederate guerilla group, in Kansas. "I have only lately discovered that Josiah moved from Massachusetts to Ohio and from Ohio to Eastern Kansas, where he dealt with the Missouri raiders, like Quantrill," Sherry wrote of her great-great grandfather. "So Josiah, for unknown reasons did not join the 15th Mass, like his brothers and cousin, but fought a guerilla-type warfare in bloody Kansas."

George Fletcher easily could have met the same fate as his brother, James, at Antietam. According to an account on Jim Buchanan's excellent Walking The West Woods blog, George was struck by a bullet in the chest, but a folded up issue of Harpers Weekly stopped the bullet, sparing him injury.

The Fletcher family has a fantastic record of military service dating to the Revolutionary War. James was named after his great-grandfather, one of the famed Minutemen during the Revolution. Sherry's son, John, served in Desert Storm during the war against Iraq, and other members of the family have served in Viet Nam and Afghanistan.

Of the Fletcher brothers who served during the Civil War, I was especially interested in James, a sergeant. During my visit to Antietam last week, I found his name on the 15th Massachusetts monument, the most impressive monument on the field. The 15th Massachusetts suffered huge losses in the West Woods at Antietam, with 75 killed and 255 wounded in only 20 minutes.

After the battle, many of the 15th Massachusetts dead were buried on the field, on the northwest side of Mary Locher cabin, and later disinterred and buried in family plots back home or in the national cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md. Buchanan has an excellent account of the Fletcher boys and a photo of James' final resting place on his blog.

Park volunteer Jim Buchanan, an expert on the vicious fighting in the West
Woods at Antietam, shows where 15th Massachusetts soldiers probably were buried
 after the battle. The Mary Locher cabin behind Buchanan is being restored.

Antietam sunrise

The sun rises at the Antietam battlefield this morning about 6:25 a.m. That's the New York monument, the largest monument on the field, in the background.

Standing guard at Gettysburg

I like this shot of the 40th New York Infantry monument that I took Wednesday with my Blackberry.

Gettysburg hidden history

David Acheson was buried next to this rock near the tree line on the
  John T. Weikert farm. Acheson was a captain in the 140th Pennsylvania.

David Acheson's comrades refused to let him be forgotten.

David Acheson was originally buried in the
 woods in back of this farm outbuilding.

Killed by a shot to the chest on July 2, 1863, during the fight in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, the captain in the 140th Pennsylvania was carried to the rear and eventually buried in a shallow grave on the John T. Weikert farm. To mark the grave, one of his fellow soldiers crudely carved the initials "D.A." in a large rock near the tree line of the farm.

Thanks to a comrade whose name is lost to history, Aceheson's family was able to find his grave on July 13 and take his body back to his hometown in Washington, Pa., about 35 miles south of Pittsburgh. The 23-year-old Acheson was buried in Washington Cemetery on July 15. (1)

After trudging through the soggy ground about 50 to 60 yards in back of one of the original Weikert farm outbuildings Wednesday morning, I found the Acheson marker a few steps into the woodlot. A park service worker told me hardcore battlefield visitors often look for the site. (Huge hat tip goes to J. David Petruzzi's excellent book "The Complete Gettysburg Guide" for directions.)

There are many other examples of "hidden history" at Gettysburg.

A.L. Coble, a Confederate soldier from North Carolina, carved his name 
and unit  into this boulder in the Spangler Spring meadow.

Gettysburg volunteer guide Dick Kolmar, 73, points
 to the A.L. Coble carving.

On a ridge in the Spangler Spring meadow, a Confederate soldier from North Carolina carved his name into a boulder. It's unclear whether A.L. Coble, a 20-year-old private at Gettysburg, did his handiwork during the battle or at a veterans gathering years later. Gettysburg volunteer guide Dick Kolmar, who helped me find the carving Wednesday afternoon, thinks it's unlikely Coble had time to do it during the battle.

Kolmar related another interesting story about Coble's work. He recently noticed a couple staring at the ground in the area of the Coble rock. Suspecting they were relic hunters, he asked them what they were doing. As it turned out, the couple was looking for the Coble carving. They told Kolmar they are direct descendants of the North Carolina soldier.

Barely legible, these inscriptions were carved by two Civil War
soldiers from Pennsylvania at  the McPherson barn.

The initials of two Pennsylvania soldiers appear on the
McPherson barn, just above the vent on the right.

On the McPherson farm, scene of intense fighting on the first day at Gettysburg, two soldiers from Pennsylvania etched their initials above a wooden vent on the barn. It took me several minutes to find the barely legible initials of Jonas C. Tubbs and Singleton M. Goss, whose scratchings were discovered in 2004 by Jesse Richards, the son of a battlefield guide. Tubbs and Goss, who served in the 143rd Pennsylvania, apparently did their work at  a veterans gathering in 1889. (2).

Other carvings are very obvious.

On Little Round Top, there's a clear carving on top of a 4-foot high boulder to mark the spot where Union Col. Strong Vincent was mortally wounded on July 2. He was shot in the groin, no doubt a painful way to go. The inscription was likely made by Union veterans of the battle.

This carving is thought to be one of the earliest on the battlefield.

And on a boulder near Devil's Den, veterans from the 4th Maine regiment made their mark. I had no problem finding this carving, which was re-discovered in 1993 by Gettysburg battlefield guide Timothy Smith, according to Petruzzi.. If the park service doesn't cut the grass regularly, though, it may be hard to find. 

This carving is found near Devil's Den.

Those kids in 1890 were crazy!

Of course, old soldiers didn't have all the fun. I made my first trip up the steep, craggy slopes of Big Round Top on Thursday morning to check out the 41st Pennsylvania Infantry monument. (You may need an oxygen mask.) At the base are children's hand prints in cement that date to the placement of the monument in 1890. Those dang kids! (3)

1.) "The Complete Gettysburg Guide," Page 249
2.) Ibid, Page 261
3.) Ibid, Page 244