Faces of the Civil War: Reenactors in Woodbury, Conn.

YANKEE: Norman Gardner, 1st  Rhode Island Light Artillery, Dalton, N.H.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

REBEL: Michael Wasilnak, 1st Maryland, Hartford, Conn.
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YANKEE: Russell Marchand, 13th Massachusetts, Blackstone, Mass.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

REBEL: Paul Maynard, 7th Tennessee, Exeter, R.I.
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Three weeks ago in sweltering northwestern Georgia, I traipsed the hallowed fields of Chickamauga battlefield, where Rebels and Yankees slaughtered each other on Sept. 19-20, 1863. Roughly 34,000 casualties resulted from the battle that only briefly turned Southern fortunes. On Sunday, the Blue and Gray slugged it out again at Strong Preserve Park in Woodbury, Conn., in a reenactment of that long-ago battle. (Click here to view my interactive panorama of Sunday's battle.) 

Thankfully, casualties were extremely light. EMTs tended to a spectator who sprained her ankle and several others onlookers suffered from ringing in their ears because they stood too close to two booming Federal cannons. 

Before the reenactors fired blanks at each other near the picturesque Connecticut town known for its excellent antiques shops, they took time out to pose for these profile images.  I successfully crossed a temporary bridge over a creek, snuck into the out-of-the-way Rebel camp and persuaded one Southern private to postpone attending a drill before his hardcore sergeant bellowed for him to get his butt in gear. The Yankees were slightly more accommodating.

Of course, most of the reenactors remained in character throughout our pre-photo chats. Like the men they emulated, two Southerners I photographed even walked the grounds barefooted. After I returned home, I channeled my inner-Alexander Gardner to give these images an 1860s look and feel. (Click here to view images of re-enactors I shot last year in Manchester, Conn.)

REBEL: Jim Saunders, 35th Virginia Cavalry, Plymouth, Mass.
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YANKEE: Ian Morrison, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Groton, Conn.
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REBEL AND YANKEE: Tom Asselin (left), North Carolina regiment, Terryville, Conn.
Victor Scalora, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, Newtown, Conn.
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REBEL: Mike Morgante, North Carolina regiment, Woodbury, Conn.

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INTERACTIVE ANTIETAM PANORAMAS: From John Otto's 40-acre cornfield to Bloody Lane.
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: Private Elliot Fleming's lonely grave

The toppled grave of 16th Connecticut Private Elliot Fleming in East Windsor, Conn.
(Photo courtesy of Matt Reardon, New England Civil War Museum)

During a visit to Melrose Cemetery in East Windsor, Conn., last week, I visited the graves of two  Connecticut soldiers who met their demise at the Battle of Antietam. But as friend of the blog Matt Reardon recently pointed out, I overlooked the grave there of Elliot Fleming, a 16th Connecticut private who also was killed at Antietam. According to my Excel spreadsheet of Connecticut Antietam deaths, I also missed the Melrose Cemetery grave of another soldier, 16th Connecticut Private John Allen. The emotional toll of the four soldiers' deaths on the small communities of East Windsor and nearby Windsorville must have been immense. Fleming's toppled gravestone, cracked in two places, lies embedded in the ground near the entrance to the small rural cemetery. Born about 1824,  Fleming was originally from New Hampshire. On March 1, 1852, he married Elisabeth Louisa Newell in Broad Brook, Conn., and their union produced four daughters: Rosabel Louisa (born 1853), Estella  Maria (1855), Lizzie Elmyra (1857) and Ida Angela (1860). The decision to leave a wife and four children who were 9 years old and younger and go off to war must have been agonizing for Fleming, who enlisted in the Union army on Aug. 15, 1862, and was mustered into the 16th Connecticut nine days later. At Antietam, Fleming's Company G suffered more deaths (16) than any other Connecticut company. Thankfully, the grave of the 38-year-old father of four is marked by an American flag, a small tribute to a man who sacrificed his life for his country.

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INTERACTIVE ANTIETAM PANORAMAS: From John Otto's cornfield to Bloody Lane.
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: Two rural graves, two tragedies

Solomon Allen is buried near a huge pine tree in rural Melrose Cemetery in East Windsor, Conn. 
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

While photographing the gravestone of  Solomon Allen this morning, I was again reminded of the terrible cost of war and the awful ripple effects of the Battle of Antietam in Connecticut in late summer and early fall 1862. Allen was a 24-year-old corporal in the 16th Connecticut from East Windsor, a rich agricultural area about 15 miles north of Hartford. More than 150 years ago, it was known for tobacco farming and even today the crop is grown near Allen's grave site in rural Melrose Cemetery, which is bordered on two sides by cornfields. On Aug. 10, 1862, Allen married Abalena Beebe. Thirty-nine days later, she became a widow when her husband was killed in John Otto's cornfield at Antietam. After the war, Abalena married Civil War veteran Henry Adams, a private in Allen's Company G who barely survived Antietam. Shot in the right leg, Adams lay in Otto's cornfield for 40 hours before he was discovered by a burial crew and taken to a field hospital on  Joseph Sherrick's farm. Years afterward, he wrote in amazement: "Why did I not die?" (Adams' story is told in more detail in my book, "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam.")

In a note dated Oct. 2, 1863, the Connecticut doctor who treated Warriner wrote of  the cause of the
soldier's death.  (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Thirty yards from Allen's final resting place is the grave of another Antietam casualty, 11th Connecticut Corporal William D. Warriner of Windsorville. Wounded in the left forearm in the attack at Burnside Bridge, Warriner lingered for nearly a month after the battle before he died back home in Connecticut on Oct. 14, 1862. The attending physician noted that Warriner died of complications resulting from his wound and typhoid fever contracted in Sharpsburg, Md. William's death was a terrible blow for his wife, Elizabeth, whom he married in a Methodist church on Christmas Day 1848 in Springfield, Mass. And one can only imagine the effects of his death on his four sons, Charles, Gilbert, Alberto and Daniel, none of whom was older than 11 when their father died.

11th Connecticut Private William Warriner's weathered gravestone notes that he died "while 
absent on a furlough." (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

William Warriner's grave in Melrose Cemetery in East Windsor, Conn.

'Connecticut Yankees at Antietam' a real eye-opener!

Daughter mesmerized by "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam."

My daughter said "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam" raised her IQ 38 points in one hour! Place your order online -- it's 283,570th on amazon'com's best-sellers list -- or e-mail me about how you can get a signed copy directly from the author. Check out a preview of the book here. You also can view the Connecticut Yankees at Antietam Pinterest page here.

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Chickamauga: Interactive panoramas, photo journal

Located 10 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn., in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.,  Chickamauga is
 one of the better preserved Civil War battlefields.

This monument marks the spot where Union Colonel Edward King was killed on Sept. 20, 1863.

The Park Service aims to restore some land on the field to its 1863 appearance.

One year after he led a division at Antietam, Confederate Gen. John B. Hood led a massive 
assault during a Rebel victory at Chickamauga.. He was wounded in the right leg, which was
 amputated. This mound of cannon balls marks Hood's headquarters at Chickamauga.

The Wilder Brigade monument is located at the top of 
a hill where Union troops armed with Spencer repeating rifles
 held off a Rebel attack.

After maneuvering through nearby urban sprawl of pawn shops, fast-food restaurants and car dealerships on Friday afternoon, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Chickamauga is one of the better preserved Civil War battlefields in the country. It's not as pristine as, say, Antietam, easily the gem of the national park system and my  favorite Civil War battlefield.

And like Gettysburg, Chickamauga suffers from monument and marker clutter (1,400 of 'em!). But the battlefield where one of the bloodiest clashes of the war took place (34,000 casualties) on Sept. 19-20, 1863, still retains much of its rural character.

Because my wife and I were pressed for time, our visit on an awfully humid afternoon only lasted a little more than an hour. We missed checking out Bloody Pond, no doubt a huge disappointment to Mrs. Banks. I easily could have spent two or three days exploring the nooks and crannies on the field where the Rebels earned a hard-fought victory and where Union General George Thomas earned the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga." The battlefield is in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., about 10 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn. Check out my interactive panoramas of five key spots on the battlefield:


                                      Click on images for full-screen interactive panorama.

BATTLE LINES: The Battle of Chickamauga was fought in largely wooded terrain, presenting a huge challenge for the generals directing their troops. The battle's final day, on Sept. 20, 1863, began near this spot. The national park, dedicated on Sept. 18-20, 1894. has 1,400 monuments and historical markers

                                     
THE ATTACK: At mid-morning on Sept. 20, 1863, a battery of Confederate artillery fired 562 rounds here to support the Rebels' assault.


WILDER'S DEFENSE: An 85-foot monument honors Colonel John Wilder and his brigade of mounted infantry, which held off a Rebel attack at this point on Sept. 20, 1863. Wilder's men were armed with seven-shot Spencer repeating rifles. The monument stands on the site of the house owned by a 23-year-old widow named Eliza Glenn. Her home was used as headquarters by Union General William Rosecrans.


UNION RIGHT ROUTED: On Sept. 20, 1863, Federal troops moving through this field were surprised by a Rebel attack under the command of General James Longstreet. The Yankees were routed here and retreated.

                                       
SNODGRASS HILL: On the afternoon of Sept. 20, 1863, Union troops retreated to this hill, where under the leadership of General George Thomas they held off repeated Rebel attacks. For his stand here, Thomas became known as the "Rock of Chickamauga." The Snodgrass cabin was used as a field hospital after the battle.

Civil War tragedy: A girl named Antietam

Antietam Burnside Mann (back center) was the daughter of Peter Mann, a private in the 
8th Connecticut who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.
 (Photo courtesy Mann descendants)

In the course of reporting for my book, “Connecticut Yankees at Antietam” (The History Press), I uncovered several compelling tales, but none was as sad as the story of a 54-year-old soldier from Enfield, Conn., named Peter Mann. Born in Scotland, Mann emigrated to the United States in the 1850s. He fathered 10 children with his first wife, who died in 1855, and three more with his second wife, Ann. Shaving 10 years off his real age, Peter, a weaver in a carpet mill, enlisted in the 8th Connecticut on Sept. 21, 1861. At the Battle of Antietam, the old soldier was shot in the groin and died 10 days later in a field hospital near Sharpsburg, Md. (Download my Connecticut Antietam death list Excel spreadsheet here.)

Death knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors during the Civil War, but the demise of this soldier was especially tragic because Ann was pregnant at the time. With the aid of two midwives, she gave birth to a girl a little more than four months after her husband died. Born blind in her left eye, Ann’s daughter had serious health issues for the rest of her life -- issues so serious that decades later she was compelled to write a letter to the president to plead her case for a pension. In honor of her father’s sacrifice on a ridge outside Sharpsburg on Sept. 17, 1862, the girl with fragile health was given an unforgettable name: Antietam Burnside Mann.

Descendants of Peter Mann shared information about the soldier and his family, including letters he wrote while he served in the 8th Connecticut and the photo above of Antietam late in her life. That image doesn’t appear in the book, which I hope you will check out. Available to pre-order on amazon.com, "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam" will be officially released Tuesday.