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| 14th Connecticut captain Jarvis Blinn's gravestone remains in the same state of disrepair today ... |
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| ...as it was when I visited Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn., in September. |
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
I note the Masonic symbol at the top of his stone. Have you considered approaching them for help? Perhaps a SUV post can help. It is sad to see, but stones like this are all over the country.
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