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.)