Antietam: Connecticut captain's gravestone still in disrepair

 14th Connecticut captain Jarvis Blinn's gravestone remains in the same state of disrepair today ...

...as it was when I visited Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn., in September.

Jarvin Blinn's repaired gravestone in November 2011.  Blinn was 
killed at Antietam.  (Blinn photo: Rocky Hill Historical Society)

On Sept. 12, 2012, five days before the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, I visited the grave of Captain Jarvis Blinn of the 14th Connecticut at Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn. Sadly, the gravestone of the 26-year-old soldier who was killed at Antietam was broken, the top 3/4 of the stone resting in the grass behind the base. On the way to a research appointment this afternoon, I paid another visit to Blinn's grave, trudging through a foot of snow that still remains from a recent blizzard. Five months later, the gravestone remains in the same state of disrepair. Blinn's death shattered his two children and his wife, Alice. "His wife is heart-broken," Augusta Griswold wrote to her fiance, John Morris, a chaplain in the 8th Connecticut. "Their attachment to each other was unbounded -- he was all to her. Such a sad, hopeless, despairing countenance I never saw." (1) I'll investigate what the cemetery plans to do, if anything, to repair the gravestone.

(1) Letter from Augusta Griswold to John Morris, Oct. 19, 1862

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FACES OF THE CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
16TH CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS: Tales of the men in the hard-luck regiment.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it

Antietam death: Private Albert Easterbrook, 34th New York

Private Albert Easterbrook of the 34th New York was only 19 when
 he died at Antietam. (Photo: Courtesy of Dean Nelson)

Like in most wars, the Civil War claimed a disproportionate share of young men. At the Battle of Antietam, Daniel Tarbox, a farmer's son from Brooklyn, Conn., was just 18 when he was killed near Burnside Bridge. From East Haddam, Conn., John Bingham, another farmer's son, was 17 when died in John Otto's cornfield. George Crosby, a student at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., was 19 when he was mortally wounded on William Roulette's farm. Marvin Wait, the son of a lawyer from Norwich, Conn., was also 19 when he was mortally wounded near Harpers Ferry Road.

During a research trip to the Connecticut State Library last Friday, Dean Nelson, the Museum of Connecticut History administrator, shared with me this terrific carte de visite from his collection. Albert Easterbrook, a private in the 34th New York from Oneida, N.Y., was just 19 when he died at Antietam. His name was among those on this stunningly long list of Antietam dead published in the New York Times on Oct. 12, 1862. Just imagine the outcry today if a death list like this were published today.

Antietam: Descendant reunited (briefly) with ancestor's rifle

As Civil War collector Jeffery Cook looks on, Matt Reardon of Tolland, Conn., holds his
 great-great-great grandfather's Sharps rifle, the first time a member of his family has 
held the weapon since 1864. Michael Farley used the rifle at the Battle of Antietam.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

The Sharps rifle was manufactured in Hartford. A close-up 
of the stock reveals six notches.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

On Sept. 17, 1862, Michael Farley, a 21-year-old Irish-born private in Company G of the 8th Connecticut, carried his Hartford-manufactured Sharps rifle into the Battle of Antietam. The soldier from Stonington, about 60 miles southeast of  Hartford, had enlisted in the Union army three months earlier, no doubt hoping that the Civil War would be brought to a swift conclusion. Farley survived Antietam and Fredricksburg as well as smaller battles in Virginia at Swift Creek and Walthall Junction, but he became a prisoner of war at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff on May 16, 1864. Farley disappeared into a series of Southern prison camps, including the most notorious one of the Civil War, at Andersonville in Georgia. Farley's Sharps rifle disappeared too, never to be in held again by the 8th Connecticut private or another member of his family.

Until Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to Connecticut Civil War collector Jeffery Cook, Farley's great-great-great grandson took temporary possession of the rifle carried by his ancestor so long ago. It was an extra-special moment for Matt Reardon of Tolland, Conn. -- and members of the audience -- at the Connecticut Civil War Roundtable event in Torrington, Conn. The rifle is on temporary loan from a New Jersey collector to Cook, who gave a presentation Saturday about his impressive collection that includes the blood-stained scabbard of a presentation sword of a 16th Connecticut 1st lieutenant who was wounded at Antietam.

Left: Farley's muster-in papers. Right, his grave in Pawcatuck, Conn.
(Muster-in papers courtesy Tad Sattler; Grave photo courtesy Matt Reardon)
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

In beautiful shape, the Sharps infantry rifle, a breech-loader, includes six notches (Rebel victims perhaps?) carved on the stock below the band as well as the 8th Connecticut regiment designation and Farley's company carved on the butt. Understandably, Reardon, the enthusiastic executive director of the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn., was reluctant to part with the prized relic. Perhaps he'll find a way to add the pricey antique to his personal collection someday.

Enduring four prisoner-of-war camps, Farley was paroled on Nov., 19, 1864 in Savannah, Ga. He survived the war, becoming a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 18 in Westerly, R.I. and Hancock Post No. 81 in Pawcatuck, Conn., and eventually settling in Anniston, Ala. He died there on May 2, 1917, and is buried in Old St. Michael's Cemetery in Pawcatuck.

If he can't acquire the old weapon, Reardon would happily settle for a photograph of his great-great-great grandfather. If you find one, contact me here or Reardon here or through the New England Civil War Museum Facebook page. 

Matt Reardon holds the presentation sword of 16th Connecticut 1st lieutenant George S. Gouge, 
who was wounded at Antietam. The sword is part of Jeffery Cook's collection.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Close-up of the presentation sword of 1st lieutenant George Gouge of  the 16th Connecticut. The 
sword  was given to the Hartford soldier by  members of Company C. Wounded at Antietam, 
Gouge bled on the scabbard of the sword (bottom photo), collector Jeffery Cook said.  Gouge, who 
survived Antietam, resigned from the Union army on Dec. 24, 1862.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

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FACES OF THE CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
16TH CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS: Tales of the men in the hard-luck regiment.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it

Antietam: Crystal Spring Hospital tour

The original part of  the Geeting farm house dates to 1790, according to Troy Cool, the
 current owner. Other sections were added in 1820 and 1850, he said.
 (CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

The farm was known as Crystal Spring Hospital, among other names, because of this
 spring near the farm house.

These inquisitive sheep served as tour guides.

After the Battle of Antietam, Dr. Jonathan Letterman's Army Medical Corps established large hospitals for the long-term care of an unprecedented number of Union wounded. One was at a nondescript speck on the map called Smoketown, on the Union right; another was on the Union left, at the Geeting Farm, near Keedysville and a couple of miles from the battlefield. Both hospitals handled patients whose wounds were too serious to consider for removal to nearby Frederick, Md., or elsewhere, according to Letterman. On Sept. 15, two days before the battle, the Union IX Corps, including the 8th, 11th and 16th Connecticut regiments, bivouacked on the farm. Days later, many Connecticut soldiers were among the wounded treated there, including 16th Connecticut corporal Richard Jobes (amputated left forearm) and 16th Connecticut private Henry Adams, whose right femur was shattered by a gunshot in John Otto's 40-acre cornfield. (Jobes was at the hospital for nine days, according to his pension records; Adams, eventually joined there by his mother, recovered at the Geeting farm during the winter months of 1862-63.)

The farmhouse basement includes this
 original fireplace.

Known as Crystal Spring, Locust Spring or Big Spring Hospital after the battle, the farm today encompasses a fraction of the area it did in 1862; a large chunk has been sold off to accommodate housing. But the core of the farm remains, including a beautiful farmhouse that dates to 1790 and a small white-washed outbuilding that may have been used as a morgue after Antietam. On Sunday morning, Troy Cool,  owner of the property, was gracious enough to abandon his hearty breakfast to show me and Antietam battlefield guide Bill Sagle around. As two inquisitive sheep and two excitable turkeys accompanied us, Cool pointed out the old spring that still feeds the property (hence the name Crystal Spring); the farm house basement, which includes the original fireplace; and the small outbuilding that may have been the morgue after Antietam. Used as a two-car garage by a previous owner, it appears to have the original, wide floorboards.

Inside the white-washed outbuilding that may 
have been used as a morgue. The floorboards 
appear to be original.

Dr. Truman Squire, a surgeon in the 89th New York, was in charge of Crystal Spring Hospital. His work was praised by Letterman in a letter to the assistant adjutant general of the Army of the Potomac.  "The inspections made of these hospitals from time to time were a source of great gratification," Letterman wrote, "as they made known to me the skillful treatment which these men received and the care with which they were watched over, and convinced me of the propriety of the adoption of this course in regard to them. ...  Great care and attention were shown to the wounded at the Locust Spring hospital by Surgeon Squire, Eighty-ninth New York Volunteers."

Off the beaten path, the site of Crystal Spring Hospital is seldom visited today. Consider a drive-by visit of this historical site -- and other Antietam hospital sites -- the next time you are in the area.

This small outbuilding near the farmhouse may have been used as a morgue when the farm
 served as a  large Federal hospital after the Battle of Antietam.

Antietam: Where Connecticut soldiers met their demise

MARVIN WAIT, 8th CONNECTICUT LIEUTENANT:
From Norwich, he was mortally wounded  near Harpers Ferry Road during the Ninth Corps' attack.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Nineteen-year-old Marvin Wait's refusal to leave the battlefield after initially being wounded at the Battle of Antietam  may have cost him his life. "If Lieutenant Wait had left the battle of his own accord when first hit in the arm, all would have been well," 8th Connecticut Captain Charles Coit wrote after the battle, "but he bravely stood to encourage his men still further by his own example, and at last nobly fell pierced by bullet after bullet."  The last words of the 8th Connecticut lieutenant to a private who helped carry him to the rear were: "Are we whipping them?" (1) With the aid of Antietam battlefield guide Bill Sagle on Sunday, I photographed the placard of Wait near the 8th Connecticut monument. As noted in this post, on Sunday and Monday I photographed the placards of Connecticut soldiers who were killed or mortally wounded at Antietam near where the men met their demise. The weather was cooperative, allowing for a pretty cool presentation. My second-favorite image is the one below of 16th Connecticut captain Newton Manross, who was killed by cannon fire in farmer John Otto's 40-acre cornfield. Before he enlisted in the Union army, Manross told his wife: "You can better afford to have a country without a husband than a husband without a country.." That's great stuff.
(1) Memorial of Marvin Wait, Jacob Eaton, 1863

NEWTON MANROSS: 16th CONNECTICUT CAPTAIN:
From Bristol, he was struck and killed by cannon fire on John Otto's farm.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

GIDEON BARNES: 16th CONNECTICUT PRIVATE:
Mortally wounded at Antietam, he died at his father's house in Burlington, Conn.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

DANIEL TARBOX; 11th CONNECTICUT CAPTAIN:
From Brooklyn, Conn., he was killed in a field near Burnside Bridge.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

HENRY BARNETT: 16th CONNECTICUT PRIVATE:
From Suffield, Conn., his body was found after the battle by a pile of  fence rails.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

SAMUEL BROWN, 16th CONNECTICUT CAPTAIN:
Brown's body was found stripped of his outer clothes and shoes. He was from South Danvers, Mass.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Antietam: Where Connecticut soldiers met their demise

JARVIS BLINN, 14th CONNECTICUT CAPTAIN:
From New Britain, Conn., he was shot through the heart and died on William Roulette's farm.
The Roulette farmhouse is in the background. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

In the fall, Central Connecticut State professor Matt Warshauer, co-chairperson of Connecticut's Civil War Commemoration Commission, his wife Wanda and I teamed to produce placards of the state's soldiers who were killed or mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam. Perhaps you saw them staked in the ground at the Wickham Park encampment in Manchester in late September or at another Civil War event in the state. During a research visit to Antietam on Sunday, I remembered that I had a set of the placards in my car trunk, so I had an idea: How cool would it be to take each to the site on the battlefield where each soldier was killed or mortally wounded and photograph it?

As long as I removed the placards from the field when finished, the National Park Service had no problem with it. So Antietam battlefield guide Bill Sagle, an  ultra-enthusiastic student of the battle, and I traipsed the muddy field for three hours, gauging where each soldier met his demise and setting up the placards to photograph. Conditions were nearly perfect, with little wind and blue skies, for me to shoot images with my iPhone 4S.

I shot the photos of Captain Jarvis Blinn, Lieutenant George Crosby and Captain Jarvis Blinn in this post before I set off for the National Archives in Washington on Monday morning, just as the sun peeked through the clouds. If you're looking to honor Civil War soldiers in your town, you may wish to emulate the placard idea, a low-cost, low-tech  and educational initiative. I'll post the remainder of these Antietam images later this week.

GEORGE CROSBY, 14th CONNECTICUT LIEUTENANT:
From Middle Haddam, Conn., Crosby was mortally wounded on the William Roulette farm. He
had surgery in the Roulette spring house in the background. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

JOHN GRISWOLD, 11th CONNECTICUT CAPTAIN:
From Old Lyme, Conn., he was mortally wounded while crossing Antietam Creek.
near Burnside Bridge. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

FREDERICK BARBER: 16th CONNECTICUT CAPTAIN:
From Manchester, Conn., Barber was mortally wounded in the 40-acre Cornfield.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Antietam: Off-the-beaten path then and now

This famous Alexander Gardner image of President Lincoln's meeting with George McClellan
after Antietam took place on a hillside overlooking  present-day Mills Road, 
where a small house is today (below). Top photo: Library of Congress Civil War collection

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner lugged his cumbersome equipment to key spots on the battlefield, recording ground-breaking scenes of death and destruction. Gardner also took two famous photographs of President Lincoln -- by the way, happy 204th birthday, sir -- meeting with George McClellan, the commander of Army of the Potomac.

Marked by a wayside marker, the location of the photo taken at the Stephen P. Grove Farm is well known by most Civil War buffs. The large Grove farmhouse, in private hands, is just outside Sharpsburg, along the road to Shepherdstown, W.Va.,that was Robert E. Lee's retreat route. Until Antietam battlefield guide Bill Sagle pointed it out Sunday, I was unaware of the location of Gardner's other Lincoln image, which shows a seated president and McClellan posing in the general's tent, a captured rebel battle flag on the ground.

McClellan's tent was pitched on a hillside overlooking what today is Mills Road, about two miles from Burnside Bridge. The present-day site is occupied by a small home.

Gardner also recorded an image across Mills Road from McClellan's tent of the 93rd New York, the general's headquarters guard, as the regiment posed in a field. The location of that photo, discovered by Dennis Frye, chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, remains remarkably unchanged more than 150 years later.

About a quarter-mile down the road from the site of McClellan's tent, General Ambrose Burnside made his headquarters at a farmhouse from Sept. 24-Oct. 1, 1862. Burnside met Lincoln there during the president's visit to the army in early October. That red-brick house, bordered by a white picket fence and beautifully restored to its Civil War appearance, is also in private hands today.

Alexander Gardner took this image of the 93rd New York as it gathered in a field
near Sharpsburg after the Battle of Antietam. The location is still a field today (below).
(Top: Library of Congress Civil War collection.)

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

President Lincoln met General Ambrose Burnside in this house after Antietam.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

National Archives Day 2: Hidden treasure

These letters found at the National Archives in a pension file of  a Connecticut soldier are
 heart-rending. Wounded at the Battle of Antietam, he died a month after the war ended.

A peek inside a research room at the National Archives in Washington.

About halfway through my nine-hour day digging into Civil War pension files at the National Archives in Washington on Friday, I found a terrific cache of letters from a Connecticut soldier who was wounded at the Battle of Antietam to his mother in Middletown, Conn. The young man spent nearly six months in a hospital in Sharpsburg, Md., before being sent back home. Unable to recover from a bullet wound to his knee and a lengthy stay in an overcrowded Federal hospital, he traveled to Ohio to recover under the care of a physician who prescribed treatment that included an "electric bath."

 "I think he is the nearest right of any physician that I have employed," the 16th Connecticut private wrote."He says also that from my throat to my stomach is one complete mass of ulcers and that it is like raw meat." A little more than a year later, the soldier was dead, another victim of the Battle of Antietam, according to a physician who treated him.  I'll have more details on the fascinating story of this soldier soon.

A hefty pension file takes up a good chunk of the table at the National Archives.

Discharge papers for Henry Adams, a private in the 16th Connecticut,
whose right femur was shattered by a bullet at Antietam.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Friday's search also turned up the disability for discharge paper of 16th Connecticut private Henry Adams, whose femur was shattered by a bullet in John Otto's cornfield at Antietam, as well as details of the Antietam wounding of 8th Connecticut 2nd lieutenant Nelson Bronson.

"Gun shot wound in the right forearm – said ball entering five inches below the ulna ...deep through, forward and out the palm or  thumb," a physician noted. "The sinews of his right arm were severed and his right arm is now entirely paralyzed. The right wrist is stiff and he has not strength in his arm --- has no power to use the right hand, cannot shut the fingers of the right hand -- is by profession a clerk and is totally disabled from labor."

It's tough to read these sad -- and oftentimes gruesome -- accounts of what soldiers suffered at Antietam during the bloodiest day in American history. But nuggets gleaned from pension files often add color and fill in gaps in the story of a soldier's life. I've also included behind-the-scenes photos from the inside the belly of the beastly National Archives, a building with old Westinghouse elevators and 1940s charm.

The National Archives entrance for researchers is on Constitution Avenue.

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FACES OF THE CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
16TH CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS: Tales of the men in the hard-luck regiment.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it

National Archives Day 1: A very painful existence

Only 19, Charles Wood lost his left arm at the Battle of Petersburg.
(Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library)

In 9 1/2 hours of research at the National Archives in Washington today, I mined pension records that will help me tell the stories of Connecticut soldiers who died or suffered battlefield wounds. This line from the pension file of a soldier who survived the amputation of part of his left arm after the Battle of Antietam really struck me: "Any little tap on the under part & end of my stump," he wrote, "pains me ten times as bad as when I was shot."  In many cases, wounded soldiers who survived were so terribly maimed that death was probably preferable.

Accounts by wounded Civil War soldiers of their suffering are often troubling to read. Photographs of wounded Civil War soldiers, such as these digitized images recently posted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library site, are especially haunting and difficult to view. (Warning: Some of the photos are very graphic.) Above is a photo of Charles H. Wood. a 19-year-old private in Company D of the 53rd Pennsylvania, whose left arm was amputated after the Battle of Petersburg on March 31, 1865. He survived the operation and the war, but his quality of life was adversely affected in an era well before today's era of high-quality prosthetic limbs and medical care. Civil War surgeons had little experience handling grievous wounds such as those suffered by Wood, who was treated at Harewood Hospital, one of the many Federal hospitals in Washington during the war.

I'll tell the story of the unnamed soldier mentioned above in detail in a forthcoming project. The good news: He went on to live a long and prosperous life. But it was a very painful existence.

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FACES OF THE CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
16TH CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS: Tales of the men in the hard-luck regiment.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it

National Archives: Road trip to mecca for researchers

Captain James Moore of the 8th Connecticut survived Antietam but was 
badly wounded later in the Civil War. (Connecticut State Library Archives)

Nelson Bronson, a 1st lieutenant in the 8th Connecticut, 
was wounded at the Battle of Antietam.
(Connecticut State Library Archives)

It's not quite like Christmas Eve when I was a kid, but it's close. I am putting the final touches tonight on preparations for a trip to the mecca for Civil War researchers, the National Archives in Washington. While there for the next 3 1/2 days, I hope to uncover details of the stories of Connecticut soldiers such as Nelson Bronson, a first lieutenant in the 8th Connecticut from Waterbury. Bronson was wounded in the back and arm at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, and later served in the Veterans Reserve Corps, a unit for disabled soldiers.

Tapping into pension files and searching other musty nooks and crannies at the Archives, I also hope to uncover more about Captain James Moore, who also served in the 8th Connecticut. From Norwich, Moore survived Antietam unscathed but was badly wounded at the Battle of Walthall Junction, near Richmond and Petersburg, on May 7, 1864. (A CDV of Moore is currently up for sale on eBay for $135. And here's another image of him on Flickr.) My aim is to stay intensely focused on researching Connecticut soldiers who fought at Antietam, but there's an outside chance I could be distracted. According to an excellent source, there's a very good Irish bar in my hotel, a short walk from the Archives. Rumor has it that it once was a popular spot for the Irish Republican Army in the '70s. A pint of Guinness versus hours of research in the Archives? Life is always filled with interesting challenges. Wish me luck!