Captain John Drake of the 16th Connecticut was killed at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. (Photo Connecticut State Library archives) |
Drake's grave in Hartford's Spring Grove Cemetery. Antietam is barely legible on the marker. (Photo courtesy Mary Falvey) |
"Captain Drake was the most gentlemanly man in the regiment," Surgeon Nathan Mayer noted. "He was the very soul of courtesy and unaffected dignity of deportment. He always had a quiet care for his men, when they were sick, and was a marked favorite with them, as well as with comrades in the line." (2)
Regiment adjutant John Burnham, Antietam's unsung hero, supervised the burial of 16th Connecticut soldiers, ensuring that the graves of soldiers such as Drake could be found later. Along with the bodies of Brown and 16th Connecticut privates William Nichols and Seth Franklin Prior, Drake's remains were returned to Hartford by undertaker William Roberts on Oct. 10, 1862. Advertising his ghastly services in the Hartford Courant, Roberts made a good living retrieving bodies of soldiers throughout the South during the Civil War. Drake had a military funeral in Hartford, where he was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.
If you can help me find out more about Drake, send me an e-mail at jbankstx@comcast.net.
(1) George Q. Whitney Collection, Connecticut State Library, Biographical Sketches of 16th Connecticut soldiers
(2) History of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers, B.F. Blakeslee, Hartford, The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1875
Thanks for this John - I updated my listing for him, and grabbed his face too. In googling I find there's a 2 page article about him titled "A Brief but Gallant Career, Capt. John L. Drake Antietam 1862" in the December 1978 issue of Arms Gazette magazine (ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ARMS-GAZETTE-V6-N3-December-1978-Colt-s-Philippine-Constabulary-Revolver-/221157712463). I suspect it's in the context of a presentation revolver Colt gave Capt Drake before he left for the War.
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