Antietam up close: A study in contrasts

O.J. Smith's farm, near Keedysville, Md., was used for a Union hospital after the Battle of Antietam.
(Library of Congress collection)

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At first glance, this image from Alexander Gardner's series of glass-plate photographs taken days after the Battle of Antietam seems uninteresting. In the pastoral scene, men gather in the foreground while in the background appear tents and the barn of a 52-year-old farmer named O.J. Smith, whose property two miles northeast of Sharpsburg was used as a Union hospital...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... But enlargements of the image show compelling detail. In this blow-up, six or seven men, two of them apparently staring at Gardner's camera, congregate a short distance from Smith's barn. Perhaps they are surgeons taking a break from their arduous duties ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... and this enlargement shows the crude, hay-covered shelters undoubtedly used for the wounded. In the right background, just outside the barn, soldiers gather -- one appears to be reading a letter -- as three horses rest near a fence, a cornfield and possibly shelters for other wounded soldiers in the far background  ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

...while in this enlargement, men appear outside the entrance to the barn. Judging from their attire, at least two of the men may be civilians. We can only speculate about the scene inside the barn, where surgeons likely performed the horrible tasks of amputating arms and legs. A nurse named Eliza Harris described the scene on the farm days after the battle:

 "The first night we slept in our ambulance. No room in the small house, the only dwelling near, could be procured. The next day was the Sabbath. The sun shone brightly; the bees and the birds were joyous and busy; a beautiful landscape spread out before us, and we knew the Lord of the Sabbath looked down upon us. But, with all these above and around us, we could see only see our suffering, uncomplaining soldiers, mutilated, bleeding, dying."

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

... this bare-chested man, probably a wounded soldier, peers at Gardner's camera from a makeshift shelter in this enlargement of the right background of the image. Could that be another wounded man at left? 

Two woman and two men gather for a picnic at Antietam Creek in this image shot by 
Alexander Gardner five days after the Battle of Antietam  The Middle Bridge, also known as
Antietam Bridge,  appears  in the background. (Library of Congress collection)

... As wounded soldiers suffered in barns, houses and field hospitals such as the one on O.J. Smith's farm, Gardner took this image entitled "Picnic Party at Antietam Bridge, September 22, 1862."  This incongruous scene was photographed less than two miles from Smith's farm near Keedysville, Md. A week earlier, more than 10,000 Rebel soldiers crossed the bridge in the background on the Boonsboro Pike as they made their way toward Sharpsburg ...

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

... detail in this enlargement of the picnic image is so impressive that even pieces of hardtack can be seen in the hands of the women on the boat. The woman at left may have even taken a bite of hers. A man, perhaps a soldier, stirs something in a container held by the woman on the right. Were they aware of the pain and suffering nearby? Did they care? Who were they? Their names and their stories are lost to history.

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SOURCES

--  Moore, Frank. Women of the War: Their Heroism and Self-Sacrifice, S.S. Scranton & Co., Hartford, Conn., 1866.

-- Frassanito, William. Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, 1978.

Nurse to Antietam amputee: 'Forget not, my friend ... '

Nurse Maria Hall, who cared for wounded soldiers after the Battle of Antietam,
 was beloved  by soldiers. "Her self-sacrifice is worthy of something more than
 a newspaper notice," a soldier in the 78th New York wrote. 
(Photo: U.S. Army Military Heritage Institute)

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While he lay wounded after a cannon ball ripped apart his right leg in Miller's cornfield at the Battle of Antietam, 12th Massachusetts Corporal Frederick Swarman was struck again by Rebel fire in the head and arm. The 23-year-old bootmaker from Medway, Mass., eventually was taken to nearby Smoketown Hospital, where he received treatment that probably saved his life. (Smoketown and Crystal Spring hospitals were large tent hospitals organized for thousands of Antietam wounded by Dr. Jonathan Letterman, the Army of the Potomac medical director.)

In this enlargement of an image taken at Smoketown Hospital,
Maria Hall is seen with wounded soldiers.
(Eli Collection, Edward G. Miner Library, Rochester, N.Y.)

After his right leg was amputated, Swarman spent more than six months recuperating at Smoketown, receiving care there from a 26-year-old nurse named Maria Hall, whose remarkable devotion to wounded soldiers earned her much acclaim.  "With untiring perseverance she dealt out to the poor, wounded soldier the delicacies that he could relish, and which, by Government regulations, he could not get," wrote 78th New York Sergeant Thomas Grenan, who had suffered a gunshot wound to the jaw. Hall ran a ward at Smoketown, which handled patients whose wounds were so serious that they could not be removed to hospitals in nearby Frederick, Md., or elsewhere.

Finally well enough to be sent home, Swarman was discharged from the army for disability on April 2, 1863, several weeks before Smoketown was disbanded. Twenty-two days later, Hall wrote a four-page letter to the former Antietam patient, noting "we miss your cheerful face & voice from Ward D" and reflecting on her more than seven months' service at the hospital. (Complete letter below.)

Post-war image of Swarman.

"It has been a very happy home to us for some months," Hall wrote, "a place of intense suffering & close sympathy. But it has given me so much solid pleasure -- the very best kind of pleasure to have the privilege of ministering ... to relieve the sufferings and loneliness of our brave Antietam boys."  She also implored Swarman to remember those who took care of him at Smoketown.

"Forget not, my friend," she wrote, "to whose gracious protection and care you owe your life and its blessings."

Apparently eager to re-join the army, Swarman re-enlisted on Aug. 17, 1863 in the Veterans Reserve Corps, but his Antietam wounds wouldn't allow him to serve long. In January 1864, he was discharged for good. After the war, he got married, reared three children, ran a grocery and dry goods store and became postmaster in Medway, Mass. Swarman died of cancer at age 76 on March 2, 1915.

Hall wrote a four-page letter to 12th Massachusetts Corporal Frederick Swarman three weeks 
after he was released from Smoketown Hospital, also known as Antietam Hospital.
(Copy of letter courtesy  George  Glastris)

Antietam Hospital
April 24

It is just after tea my good friend & I am much inclined to spend a few moments in chatting to you. I was very glad to hear from you, and I rejoice in your happiness in being once more at home "sweet home." Doubtless there is some one besides yourself who rejoices in your presence there once more. We miss your cheerful face and voice from Ward D & often speak of the lady who sat in my tent one evening with her hood on. Poor Charley misses you more than any one who has left the ward. He is now in Porter's tent, waiting to see what will turn up for him. But I presume he has given you all the items of interest in regard to himself & the ward for I asked him to send a note with me. Smoketown begins to look ....

"Well the end of Smoketown draweth nigh!" Hall wrote. The hospital disbanded in May 1863, 
eight months after the Battle of Antietam.

...lonely enough & ere long the glory will have departed. There are now remaining only about 75 patients & on Monday 25 more are to leave for Frederick. All the old nurses who are able to do regimental duty have gone to the army and convalescents are left to do hospital work. Dr. [Bernard] Vanderkieft has gone home to Washington where he will probably receive instructions as to the remaining patients & will also learn where he will be sent for duty upon closing this hospital. Well the end of Smoketown draweth nigh! It has been a very happy home to us for some months -- a place of intense suffering & close sympathy. But it has given me so much solid pleasure -- the very best kind of pleasure to have the privilege of ministering in a slight degree to relieve the sufferings and loneliness of our brave Antietam boys. It is a saddening reflection that all the pain ...

"I hope you find no Copperheads in your region to battle against," Hall wrote. The
Copperheads were a vocal group of  Northern Democrats who opposed the war.

... endured here, & all the anguish at home so closely connected with this, is but a small part of the terrible portion of suffering to be poured out in our country! I hope you find no Copperheads in your region to battle against. If there are any such I beg you to hit them full the weight and strength of a good Antietam crutch on their head. We have been in the depths of a Maryland rainstorm for the last two days. All the cripples, except some adventurous ones like Henry [?] and Charley, have been obliged to stay in the tents. But this evening the sun shined out before its setting, and everybody is coming out to take a peek at it. Enjoy the prospect of a bright day tomorrow. You need no more words to tell you how the boys have felt during the stormy time.

Dr. Vanderkieft is made very happy by the arrival of his long-expected wife. They are very happy to be once more together ...

Hall wrote that she was eager to hear from Swarman again, but noted that "my correspondents
are so numerous that I can hardly promise to answer you promptly."

... as you can well realize, enjoying as you do the restoration to your friends.

I am so thankful for you that you are there in safety. Forget not, my friend, to whose gracious protection and care you owe your life and its blessings. Alfred Munroe has just been in to get some paper. [Note: Munroe was a private in Company H of the 12th Massachusetts. A shoemaker from Weymouth, Mass., he was wounded at Gettysburg, necessitating amputation of his left arm.] He desires his love to you and says that he expects soon to go to the Regiment & see the boys once more. The enclosed letter was brought me by Egbert a few days ago to send to you. It must have been somewhat delayed by the way. Theodore wrote me of his safe arrival. His address is 93 1/2 West 26th Street N.Y. My sister is with me spending a few days. It is almost homelike. I would be very glad to hear from you again but my correspondents are so numerous that I can hardly promise to answer you promptly. Indeed I must confess that you are indebted to the enclosed letter and Charley's note for my being even at all prompt -- for many of the unanswered are staring me in the face at this moment. With kind regards to your wife I remain your sincere friend.

Maria M.C. Hall

Attempting to squeeze as much into the four-page letter as she could, Hall included this
at the top of the first page of the letter. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

I suppose  Charley has told you of Dr. [illegible] departure for the Regt. and of Dr. Truitt's doing duty in the dispensary. You would not know Smoketown's wards with all the changes.

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SOURCES

-- James, Ephraim Orcutt, The Military History of Medway, Mass., 1745-1885, Millis, Mass., E.O. Jameson, 1886.
-- 1860 and 1870 U.S. census, ancestry.com

History revealed: Yankee graves in St. Augustine, Florida

An unknown photographer shot this image of Union graves in St. Augustine, Fla.
in 1865. The burial ground became a national cemetery in 1881. (Library of Congress)

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Of the hundreds of thousands of Civil War deaths -- one demographic historian estimates there were 750,000 and perhaps as high as 850,000 -- the majority were caused by disease. For every three soldiers who died because of wounds caused by gunshot, artillery, bayonet or other means in combat, it is estimated that five soldiers died from typhoid fever, dysentery, malaria or other illnesses.

Among the nearly 3,300 soldiers from Connecticut who died of disease was Isaac Tuller, a private in the 8th Connecticut, who perished from typhus in New Bern, N.C., during an epidemic in the spring of 1862 that also claimed assistant regimental surgeon DeWitt Lathrop. Suffering from "congestion of the lungs" and measles, Private Henry Ford of the 11th Connecticut -- described by his captain as a "priceless treasure of liberty" -- died and was buried at sea off the North Carolina coast on Jan. 16, 1862. Private Oliver Case of the 8th Connecticut struggled to comprehend the death of his comrade, Private Henry Sexton, who frothed at the mouth as he battled jaundice aboard a hospital ship in Annapolis harbor. "I never saw anything so horrible in my life," Case wrote about his friend after Sexton's death on Jan. 7, 1862.

Memorial for John Adsit and other Civil War soldiers from
 New Hampshire in Church Street Cemetery in Hillsboro, N.H.  
"These soldiers of the Rebellion of 61 to 65 lie in unknown graves," the
 inscription at the top of the monument reads.
(Photo: Amy Levesque/findagrave.com)

Three soldiers from the 7th New Hampshire -- a sister regiment of the 7th Connecticut --  suffered similar fates in the fall of 1862 and late winter of 1863. (The 7th New Hampshire and 7th Connecticut were often referred to as the 77th New England regiment.) In 1865, an unknown photographer shot an image of a cemetery in St. Augustine, Fla., that included the tombstones of privates John W. Adsit, James M. Hoyt and Ebenezer Chany, who each joined the regiment in Manchester, N.H., in the fall of 1861.

Digitized versions of that glass-plate photograph are available in .jpg and TIFF formats on the Library of Congress web site, but the names on the gravestones cannot be easily read on the original. Enlargements of the image, however, reveal the names of Adsit and Hoyt on markers in the foreground, and minor detective work uncovered Chany's name on a tombstone in the middle background. Blow-ups of the image are so sharp that even grain on the wood of some of the tombstones can be seen.

In 1862, the 7th New Hampshire battled disease more than the Rebels. After a four-week stay at the White Street Barracks in New York, the regiment headed for Florida aboard two transport ships -- a trip made more harrowing by an outbreak of smallpox that claimed the life of at least one soldier. In May, 120 men in the regiment suffered from illness and 25 were absent for duty because of sickness at Port Jefferson, Fla. Many of soldiers, the regimental historian noted, suffered from a "virulent form" of smallpox "from which the regiment suffered severely." In late spring, the 7th New Hampshire was ordered to Beaufort, S.C., where a typhoid fever epidemic so crippled the regiment that it was transferred to lighter duty at a post in the more palatable climate in St. Augustine, Fla.

7th New Hampshire Private John Adsit died of fever "followed by chronic diarrhea," according
to this document in his pension file. (fold3.com)
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

Even that change of scenery, however, proved to be fatal for Adsit, Hoyt and Chany. A 45-year-old married man from Hillsborough, N.H., Adsit succumbed from fever and chronic diarrhea in a hospital in St. Augustine on Oct. 5, 1862. Three days earlier, Hoyt, 45, from Newton, N.H., had also died from disease. The comrades were buried side-by-side in the garrison's burial ground, once part of a Franciscan monastery. Seven months later, on March 10, 1863, 22-year-old Private Ebenezer Chany also was felled by disease and buried in the same cemetery, just yards behind Adsit and Hoyt.

After the war, the remains of all three soldiers apparently were disinterred from St. Augustine Cemetery and perhaps returned to New Hampshire. Or perhaps they were removed by the Federal government and re-buried in a national cemetery during a massive post-war effort. The final resting place for each of the privates is unknown.

In this enlargement, the side-by-side graves of 7th New Hampshire privates John W. Adsit (left)
 and James M. Hoyt at the garrison cemetery in St. Augustine, Fla.

The gravestone of Private Ebenezer Chany of the 7th New Hampshire appears in this enlargement.

Detail in the background of the cemetery in another enlargement. The Dade pyramids, 
dedicated to soldiers who lost their lives in the Indian Wars of the 1830s, appear prominently.
BELOW: A similar view of the cemetery today.

Photo: U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs web site.

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Antietam Up Close: A lone grave on the battlefield

The original of Alexander Gardner's glass-plate image of a lone grave at Antietam.
(Library of Congress collection.)

This haunting photograph of five Yankee soldiers near the lone grave of one of their comrades at Antietam is one of the iconic images of the Civil War. These men, probably part of a burial crew, were photographed by Alexander Gardner on Sept. 19 or 20, 1862, two or three days after the battle. Perhaps the men resting on the ground at left had just completed the arduous task of burying comrades -- maybe they had even recently filled the grave in the foreground -- when Gardner came upon them.

In his ground-breaking book, "Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day," William Frassanito examined this glass-plate image in detail and even discovered the name and background of the soldier whose name appears on the wooden headboard at the fresh grave by the tree: John Marshall, a private in the 28th Pennsylvania. (A version of the image also was used on the cover of Frassanito's book.) While the original of the photograph has been seen in many publications over the years, enlargements of it probably have not. They are revealing. (Click on all images below to enlarge, and click here for the Antietam Up Close series on my blog.)

In an enlargement, this soldier, wearing a slouch hat, carrying a blanket roll and leaning on a musket, seems to stare directly at Gardner's camera ... 

... while these three soldiers appear unaware of the photographer's activities but probably were posed by Gardner.  At first glance, the soldier at the far left appears to be dead, but that's unlikely because he appears fully equipped -- Rebels often stripped Union dead at Antietam of valuables such as shoes -- and doesn't exhibit the bloating typical of a dead man exposed to the elements for days ...

... this young soldier with his musket stares into the distance. Perhaps only a teenager, he was among the lucky survivors of Antietam. Teen-aged soldiers from Connecticut such as this one and this one didn't survive the bloodiest day in American history while others were maimed for life ...

... John Marshall's name and regimental number are barely visible etched on a crude wooden headboard. On the original of the image at the Library of Congress, Marshall's regimental number clearly can be seen under magnification, according to Frassanito. Another piece of wood, perhaps a footboard, appears in this enlargement. From Allegheny City, Pa., across the river from Pittsburgh, Marshall was 50 years old, one of the oldest soldiers in the Union army. (Also killed at Antietam, 8th Connecticut private Peter Mann was 54 years old.) Sometime after the war, Marshall's remains were recovered and re-buried in Antietam National Cemetery under Grave 19 in the Pennsylvania section.

Antietam Up Close: President Lincoln visits George McClellan

 Acclaimed photographer Alexander Gardner took this famous image of 
President Lincoln's meeting with General George McClellan on  Oct. 4, 1862.
 (Library of Congress collection)

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The detail is remarkable in this Alexander Gardner glass-plate image of Abraham Lincoln and General George McClellan, taken during the president's visit near the Antietam battlefield in early October 1862. McClellan's tent was pitched on a hillside overlooking what today is Mills Road, about two miles from Burnside Bridge. (The site was first identified by Antietam expert and historian Dennis Frye.) A small home occupies the present-day site. (Click on all images to enlarge, and click here for the Antietam Up Close series on my blog.)

In this enlargement of Gardner's photograph, even the wick of a candle can be seen next to the top hat of the president, who nearly 18 months into the Civil War looks weary of it all ....

... on the early fall day, the president wore gloves ...

...meanwhile, on a desk next to the general, a hilt of a sword and a butt of a pistol are visible. On McClellan's uniform, stars are clearly seen on his shoulder board. (And so are two cracks in the glass-plate image.) ...

... and on the ground next to Lincoln lies a trophy of war, one of 39 Rebel flags captured at the  Battle of Antietam.

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Antietam Up Close: Samuel Mumma farm ruins

Left half of  Alexander Gardner's glass-plate image of Mumma farm ruins at Antietam.
(Library of Congress collection)

Fearing the buildings would be used by Union sharpshooters, Rebels burned Samuel Mumma's brick farmhouse, springhouse and barn on the morning of Sept. 17, 1862 during the Battle of Antietam. Two or three days later, according to acclaimed Civil War photo expert William Frassanito, noted photographer Alexander Gardner captured the image above of the ruins of the 62-year-old farmer's property. Published versions of the glass-plate image have probably been seen hundreds of times by most Civil War buffs, but how many of you have viewed enlargements of the photograph that reveal the amazing details below? (Click on all images to enlarge.)

In the lower left corner, a Union soldier gazes at the ruins of the farm ...

... musket in hand and perhaps a blanket over his arm, he looks almost ghost-like in this enlargement ...

... while a man, probably another Union soldier, appears amid the rubble ...

... which included this roofless, white-washed brick springhouse, the only salvageable building on Mumma's farm after the battle ...

... and in this close-up of the left side of the image, a horse stands idly by with Gardner's darkroom wagon just beyond a fence. 

10th Connecticut Private Levi Lyman 'died a soldier's death'

John Otis, captain of Co. B of the 10th Connecticut, wrote of the death of 
Private Levi Lyman in this letter to the soldier's father. Levi was mortally wounded 
at the Battle of New Bern. (Photo: fold3.com via National Archives.) 
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

On March 15, 1862, a day after grapeshot tore through the chest of  29-year-old Levi F. Lyman at the Battle of New Bern (N.C.), the 10th Connecticut private died from his wounds. The duty of  informing Levi's family of the death of the married father of a 1-year-old son fell to the captain of Lyman's Company B, John L. Otis. The officer's short note, dated March 19, 1862, began like so many others letters to families of dead soldiers during the Civil War, including this one, this one and this one. "It becomes my painful duty to inform you ...," Otis wrote Levi's 52-year-old father in Manchester, Conn.

The final resting place of Lyman is unknown.

XXX
Newberne, N.C., March 19, 1862
Levi L. Lyman Esq.

Dear sir 

It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of your son Levi F. Lyman. He died on Saturday the 15th inst. of wounds received in battle the previous day, and though you and your family cannot but sorrow for the loss, you must feel proud of one who died a soldier's death, in the cause of Republican institutions. I have been witness to his courage and good conduct in the field, being beside him when he was struck. He dropped his gun, saying, "O, captain, I am shot." When his brother Willie went up to him, he said "Don't mind me Willie. Go back and help drive out the rebels." When we went in pursuit of the enemy I left Willie who stayed by him to the last. He rejoined his company last night.

Yours truly
J.L. Otis, Capt. 
Co. B. 10 C.V.

Soldiers attempt to 'wake up' grieving brothers' 'manhood'

Orlando E. Snow, a private in the 16th Connecticut, was described as 
"morose" after the death of his brother at the Battle of Antietam. 
(Photo: Author's collection)

Although two 16th Connecticut soldiers were despondent over the deaths of their brothers, comrades resorted to harsh -- even cruel -- means to shake them from their grief.

16th Connecticut soldiers tired of 
Orlando Snow's  "ill humor" after the death
 of his brother, William Relyea (above) of the
 16th Connecticut wrote.
(Photo: Connecticut State Library archives)

Seen frequently "moping around a fire" after his sibling's death, Private Alonzo N. Bosworth of Company D became disgustingly filthy, according to 16th Connecticut Sergeant William Relyea. Francis H. Bosworth, Alonzo's brother, was captured at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, paroled three weeks later and died in Annapolis on Feb. 20, 1863 of an undetermined cause, perhaps a battle wound. (The 21-year-old soldier had been discharged from the army for disability on Feb. 5, 1863.)

"By and by the boys began to notice his dirty black, grimy looks," Relyea wrote of Alonzo, only a teenager. "He had become so discolored with dirt, grease and smoke as to be almost unrecognizable, and so it was determined among us to wake up his manhood ..."

Instead of consoling the young soldier from Union, Conn., his comrades pushed Bosworth nearer to a campfire "until he got right in the smoke." Angry that the ploy was unsuccessful in curing Alonzo's apparent depression, one man resorted to an even harsher tactic: pushing Bosworth directly into the fire.

"...his hands and clothes were burnt some, but it made him mad, so very mad," Relyea wrote, "that he swore terribly. But he kept away from fires and one day soon after he appeared among us with clean face and hands and indeed a new man."

Back of Orlando Snow CDV includes the soldier's name, company and regiment in period writing,
 as well as the name of the photographer and Washington studio where the image was made. 
The photograph undoubtedly was taken when the 16th Connecticut briefly camped near Washington
 before it joined the Army of the Potomac en route to Maryland and the Battle of Antietam.

Soldiers in the regiment also showed a lack of compassion for Private Orlando E. Snow, whose brother Nelson was killed in John Otto's cornfield at Antietam. (See my interactive panoramas of Otto's cornfield.) A 23-year-old private, Nelson was sick several days before Antietam, but his illness didn't keep him from fighting. "(Snow) went into the fight for fear someone would call him a coward," Relyea wrote.  "He was brave enough to die."

 "Likewise morose" after his brother's death, Orlando "was cured by similar means" used on Bosworth, Relyea wrote.

"After the boys had endured his ill humor for months in pity for his loss, they got tired of it and many were the muttered threats against him if he didn't clean up dirty, lousy, and lazy. One day as he sat in the sun brooding over his sorrow, a little Irishman who was always clean as a whistle came along and stopped before him. Looking at his forlorn face for a moment, he stepped up to Snow and said, 'Begorrah, ye are the dirtiest bit of Snow I've seen in many a day,' and then without a word of warning he struck a ringing blow that made Snow's face look like a piece of toasted bread. Snow sprang to his feet and a lively rough-and-tumble ensued, but our wiry son of Hibernia was to (sic) much for him and the boys laughing parted them. Snow wanted to fight the whole regiment, forgot all his sorrows and became a man once more."

Like their brothers, neither Orlando Snow nor Alonzo Bosworth survived the Civil War. Captured with nearly all their regiment at Plymouth, N.C., on April 20, 1864, they ended up at Andersonville, the most notorious of all Civil War POW camps. Promoted to corporal in January 1863, Alonzo, 20, was the first soldier in his regiment to perish at Andersonville when he died of diarrhea on June 20, 1864. After the war, he was buried at the camp under Grave No. 2,254. Orlando, 21, also died at Andersonville, probably of disease, on Nov. 17, 1864. His final resting place is unknown.

Sources:  Relyea, William, Letter book, 1862-1865, MS 72782, Connecticut Historical Society.
Also by Relyea: "The History of the 16th Connecticut Volunteers, ” MS 72782, CHS. Relyea evidently confused the last name of the Bosworth brothers, recording their last name as "Bostwick." A review of 16th Connecticut rosters found no Bostwick in any company in the regiment, so Relyea must have been in error.

State-issued markers for 16th Connecticut privates Orlando and Nelson Snow in
West Suffield (Conn.) Cemetery. The final resting place of each soldier is unknown.

Faces of the Civil War: Robert Hooker Gillette

Robert Hooker Gillette (New York State Military Museum)

Here's the front and back of a CDV of Hartford's Robert Hooker Gillette, a paymaster aboard the U.S.S. Gettysburg, who was killed when the magazine at Fort Fisher exploded in North Carolina on Jan. 16, 1865. An official inquiry determined that careless Federal soldiers, sailors and marines -- many of them drunk, firing their weapons and carrying torches in the magazine of the fort -- were to blame. The image, in the New York State Military Museum collection, once may have been tacked on the wall at the State Capital building in Albany with other images of Civil War soldiers. To my knowledge, Gillette had no connection to a New York unit, but he did serve briefly in the 14th Connecticut before he left the army because of illness shortly after the Battle of Antietam. He joined the Union navy in 1863.

Crumbling history: Monument to captain killed at Antietam

Captain Newton Manross was killed by artillery fire in Otto's cornfield at Antietam.

This monument to Manross was placed in Forestville Cemetery in Bristol, Conn., by survivors 
of Company K of the 16th Connecticut.

Manross was only 37 years old when he was killed.
(Photo: Amherst College Archives & Special Collections)

I periodically have provided updates on the poor condition of a monument to 16th Connecticut Captain Newton Manross, who was killed at the Battle of Antietam. The 37-year-old soldier's body was returned in September 1862 to his hometown of Bristol, Conn., where he was buried in Forestville Cemetery, not far from the house where he was grew up. After the Civil War, survivors of Manross' Company K dedicated a monument in the cemetery in memory of their captain, a professor at Amherst (Mass.) College when the war broke out. Harsh winters have taken their toll on the obelisk, which is made of brownstone, a soft stone often prone to erosion. Water gets in cracks, freezes and expands ... and well, the damage is done. A huge section of the back of the monument has been cracked for at least two years, but the damage I saw this morning looks worse than ever. It won't take much for that large section to fall off -- damage that I suspect could be irreparable. Lichen also must be removed from the monument. Perhaps an intelligent blog reader has an idea or two for how we can repair this important piece of Civil War history. E-mail me at jbankstx@comcast.net. I'll talk about Manross and his monument at my "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam" talk at the Bristol Historical Society on Thursday, March 20 at 7 p.m. Admission is free for members, $5 for non-members.

Above and below: A massive crack on the back of the Manross monument.

'We scared Abe Lincoln like hell': U.S. graves near Fort Stevens

William Morris Smith took this image of a Union cemetery near Fort Stevens in August 1865.
(Library of Congress collection)

Graves for Lieutenant William B. Laughlin of the 61st Pennsylvania and Private Andrew Manning
of the 77th New York appear in this enlargement of the image at the top of this post.

Another enlargement of Smith's image reveals the graves of Private Andrew Ashbaugh of the 
61st Pennsylvania and John Dolan of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry.

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Nine months before John Wilkes Booth fired a Deringer pistol into his brain, Abraham Lincoln came under enemy fire in a little-known, two-day battle about five miles north of the White House. Observing the fighting from a parapet, the president survived the Battle of Fort Stevens unscathed and veteran U.S. Army troops chased off the Confederates. But the Rebel general who led the attack on July 11-12, 1864, relished a consolation prize. 

“We didn’t take Washington,”  Jubal Early told his staff officers, “but we scared Abe Lincoln like Hell.”

Rebels ransacked houses near the fort, leaving notes in books that the destruction was in retaliation for the Federals' destruction of property in Virginia. The retreating invaders also carted away an "immense plunder," according to the New York Times, which reported that "many (Rebels) who came on foot will go back mounted, as they have cleared out all the stables wherever they have been marauding." The newspaper belittled the Southerners' desperate attempt to invade the Union capital.

The graves of Andrew Dowen, a private in the 77th New York, and Alanson Mosier, a private
in the 122nd New York. Both soldiers were killed July 12, 1864 during the Battle of Fort Stevens.

In this enlargement of the original Smith photo,
 wires extending from  a telegraph pole are revealed.

"The numerous little spurts of fight they have shown have been of the most feeble kind -- only the reencounter of last evening reaching the proportions of a respectable picket fight," the Times correspondent wrote on July 13, 1864, a day after the fighting ended. "Without doubt  they would have been willing, had they found the opportunity — had they found Washington defenceless — to have entered, sacked and burned it, and their expedition in this direction was probably a reconnaissance to see what the chances were. They did not find them promising, and after this they appear to have confined their efforts to keeping our large force cooped up in Washington, while the rest of the band devoted themselves to an extended system of pillage."

Although small in scale, the Battle of Fort Stevens — the only battle of the war fought in the District of Columbia — resulted in nearly 400 U.S. Army casualties. Afterward, 40 of the dead were buried about a half-mile north of the fort in the fruit orchard of a farmer named James Malloy — land "appropriated" by the government.

 "With the rude tenderness of soldiers," wrote George T. Stevens, a surgeon in the 77th New York, "we covered them in the earth; we marked their names with our pencils on the little head-boards of pine, and turned sadly away to other scenes." Lincoln himself visited the cemetery on the evening of July 12, dedicating the site as Battleground National Cemetery.

The photograph site and photographer's initials are scratched into the glass plate of the image.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

In August 1865, four months after the war effectively ended, an image of the cemetery was made by William Morris Smith, then employed by Alexander Gardner. At first glance, the digitized version of Smith's glass-plate photograph in the Library of Congress collection is fairly unremarkable. But upon closer inspection, compelling details are revealed in enlargements of the original image: a small building with a window open; a telegraph pole, three wires on it extending to another pole a short distance away; and another tall pole, probably topped with an American flag. 

Most remarkably, the last names on four of the 41 white tombstones are easily read, leading to definitive IDs of the soldiers. The identities of three other soldiers were revealed after some Internet sleuthing, including use of the American Civil War Research Database. Each of these soldiers was killed on July 12, 1864, the second day of the battle:

Grave of  Corporal Ambrose Mattott 
of  77th New York.

Lieutenant William B. Laughlin, 61st Pennsylvania: The son of Robert and Nancy Laughlin was a 24-year-old carpenter when he enlisted on Aug. 1, 1861. He was promoted from sergeant on March 22, 1864. From Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania, he was one of six men in his regiment killed during the battle. Twenty-six other soldiers were wounded in the regiment. Laughlin, who was 5-foot-11 with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion, served as the 61st Pennsylvania's adjutant.

Private Andrew Manning, 77th New York: A private in Company H, Manning was 35 years old when he enlisted in Charlton, N.Y. on Nov. 13, 1861.

Private Andrew Ashbaugh, 61st Pennsylvania: From Allegheny City, an industrial town just across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh, he enlisted on July 14, 1863. Ashbaugh left behind a 52-year-old widow, Mary, and one child, a 12-year-old daughter named Louisa. Mary filed for her husband's pension three months after he was killed.

Private John Dolan, 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry: A shoemaker from Natick, Mass., he was 20 years old when he enlisted on Dec. 20, 1863. Dolan was born in Ireland.

Private Andrew Dawen, 77th New York: He enlisted in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Oct. 15, 1861 when he was 27. Dawen, who was killed instantly by a gunshot, was survived by a wife named Mary.

Private Alanson Mosier (or Mosher), 122nd New York: He was 18 years old when he enlisted on Aug. 11, 1862 in Fayetteville, N.Y.

Corporal Ambrose Mattott, 77th New York:  He was 31 years old when he enlisted on Aug. 30, 1862 in Northumberland, N.Y. Mattott, a boatman, stood 5-foot5 and had hazel eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion. He was survived by a wife named Frances Jane and a 5-year-old daughter.

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