Michigan officer: 'Your husband has been thus sacrificed'

17th Michigan Private Elijah Ordiway (left) died of disease. His commanding officer,
Captain Loren L. Comstock. informed his widow about his death.
(State of Michigan, Library and Archives, Seeking Michigan)

 Like this blog on Facebook.
In late-summer 1862, Private Elijah Ordiway dodged Rebel bullets at South Mountain and Antietam, but the 29-year-old soldier couldn't avoid the Civil War's most prolific killer: disease. Before the 17th Michigan left Maryland for Virginia, the married father of three young daughters was struck down by typhoid fever. On Nov. 12, 1862, he succumbed to the disease at a Federal hospital in Weverton, Md., a hamlet about three miles down the Potomac River from the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Va.

Twelve days later from a camp near Fredericksburg, Va., Ordiway's commanding officer wrote a note to his widow in Adrian, Mich., informing her of Elijah's death.

"It is to me an unpleasant task to impart bad news to those who have been separated from their loved ones, sacrificed to the demon of this unholy war, on the altar of our common country," began Captain Loren L. Comstock's one-page condolence letter to Maria Ordiway. "It is however my painful duty to inform you that your husband has been thus sacrificed." (Complete letter below.)

        Elijah Ordiway died in a hospital in Weverton, Md., downriver from Harpers Ferry.
                                                                     (Google Maps)

Ordiway's service in the Union army was oh-so-brief. He had been mustered into Company A of the 17th Michigan on Aug 19, 1862. Elijah had been a member of the Adrian Cadets, a military organization in his hometown 70 miles southwest of Detroit.

"I cannot hope to offer consolation in this your trying affliction," continued Comstock's note to Mrs. Ordiway, "but God will be merciful to the widow and orphans who suffer such a mournful bereavement, and the memory of your 'mourned and lost' will be cherished by his former companion in arms, the surviving members of the Adrian Cadets."

After the war, Ordiway's remains were recovered from the village along the Potomac River and re-buried at the national cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md., in plot no. 2485.

One year and one day after Comstock wrote the note to Widow Ordiway, his war came to an end when he was mortally wounded by a sharpshooter in the door of his tent in Knoxville, Tenn. The Mexican War veteran, promoted to lieutenant colonel in the spring of 1863, was 39.

National Archives via fold3.com

---

Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES

-- Elijah Ordiway widow's pension file, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C., via fold3.com.

-- A Comstock Genealogy; Descendants of William Comstock of New London, Conn., who died after 1662, edited by Cyrus B. Comstock, The Knickerbocker Press, New York, 1907.

Antietam panorama: Massive Old Simon at national cemetery

                            Antietam National Cemetery, where Old Simon stands guard.
                    (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL-SCREEN INTERACTIVE PANORAMA.)

Musket in hand,  the massive Private Soldier monument has stood watch over the graves of thousands of Civil War soldiers at Antietam National Cemetery since its formal dedication on Sept. 17, 1880, the 28th anniversary of the battle. I make the cemetery my first stop during each Antietam visit, first paying my respects at the Connecticut section and then walking 30 yards or so over to the monument locals dubbed "Old Simon" more than a century ago. 

Created by Hartford-based New England Granite Works, it was carved by a team of stone carvers in Westerly, R.I., and designed by German-born sculptor Carl Conrads, a Civil War veteran and probably the man shown behind the monument in the stereoview below. The entire granite monument is nearly 45 feet tall -- Old Simon himself towers nearly 21 feet -- and weighs 250 tons. When Old Simon was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, it caused somewhat of a sensation. One reviewer gushed:

Like the nation he defends, this colossus is in the bloom of youth, and like it he is hard and firm though alert. What art has succeeded in making this monster out of granite. He is twenty-one feet six inches in height. What sempster, working with needles of thrice-hardened steel, has draped him in those folds of adamant, that hang ten feet or farther from his inflexible loins? The sculptors of ancient Egypt, who had their colossi in granite also, worked for years with their bronze points and their corundum-dust to achieve their enormous figures, while the makers of this titanic image, availing themselves of the appliances of  American skill, have needed but a few months to change the shapeless mass of stone into an idea. Something rocky, rude and large-grained is obvious still in this stalwart American; his head, with its masculine chin and moustache of barbaric proportions, is rather like the Vatican " Dacian" than like the Vatican "Genius." But, whatever may be thought of the artistic delicacy of the model, Mr. Conrads' "Soldier" presents the image of a sentinel not to be trifled with, as he leans with both hands clasped around his gun-barrel, the cape of his overcoat thrown back to free his arm, and the sharp bayonet thrust into its sheath at his belt. Rabelais' hero, Pantagruel, whose opponents were giants in armor of granite, would have recoiled before our colossus of Antietam, because his heart is of granite too. 

Stereoview of Old Simon in Westerly, R.I., where it was created by a team of stone carvers.
(Robert N. Dennis collection/New York Public Library)
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

An enlargement of the stereoview above shows the enormity of Old Simon.

A stereoview of the monument at Rhode Island Granite Works in Westerly, R.I., before it was completed.
(Robert N. Dennis collection/New York Public Library)

Old Simon at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
 (Robert N. Dennis collection/New York Public Library)

Antietam 1879 Decoration Day: 'Very little drunkeness'

Dedication Day observance  at Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md., on Sept. 17, 1880.  
This image was by Elias M. Recher.  (Author's collection)
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

On May 30, 1879,  a huge crowd gathered for a Decoration Day observance at Antietam National Cemetery. Now known as Memorial Day, Decoration Day in the North was a very big deal in the decades just after the Civil War. (Because of lingering animosity toward the North, Southern states refused to celebrate May 30 until after World War I.) With memories of the conflict still very fresh, citizens in towns and cities gathered in cemeteries to place flowers and mementos at the final resting places of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In Hartford, newspapers extensively covered Decoration Day, publishing long lists of the graves of soldiers to be decorated and speeches of dignitaries who attended the events. (Update: I should have checked with Antietam photo expert Stephen Recker before posting the photograph. The Recher image, Recker (no relation) points out, was probably taken on Dedication Day at the national cemetery on Sept. 17, 1880.)

A captain in the 6th Wisconsin, Edward Bragg was wounded
in the left arm at Antietam. His 1879 Decoration Day speech at
Antietam National Cemetery was called a "masterly production."

"At an early hour the crowd came pouring into town," the Sharpsburg (Md.) Enterprise reported a week after its 1879 Decoration Day observance, "and at the appointed time for the ceremonies the town was literally packed." The newspaper estimated that between 4,000 to 5,000 people, roughly four times the population of the village, attended the event. At noon, a procession of people that included General Edward S. Bragg, a veteran of the battle, formed in Sharpsburg's square and walked the short distance up a hill to the national cemetery, which had been officially dedicated 12 years earlier. The procession wound its way through the 11-acre grounds before it halted at the rostrum that was decorated with evergreens and an American flag. A lieutenant colonel in the 6th Wisconsin who was wounded in the left arm at Antietam, Bragg gave a speech that the Sharpsburg newspaper called a "masterly production and a beautiful tribute to the memory of the fallen heroes of the battle of Antietam. ... he alluded to the brave ones of his own regiment who were now quietly sleeping the sleep that knows no earthly waking in this consecrated spot." While "appropriate music" was played by the Myersville (Md.) Band and Colonel Mobley's Hagerstown Band, flowers were strewn on the graves of Civil War dead. Later, local military units fired salutes in sections of the cemetery and artillery from the cemetery circle, near the massive Private Soldier monument.

"Everything passed off pleasantly," the Enterprise reported, "nothing occurring to mar the pleasure of the day. The best of order prevailed, and there was very little drunkenness. The artillery and infantry left in the afternoon for Martinsburg  (W.Va.), and by nightfall Sharpsburg had settled back into the even tenor of her ways, and quiet reigned supreme."

Antietam panorama: Connecticut section national cemetery

                                                  Click on image for full-screen panorama.

16th Connecticut Pvt. John Loveland's gravestone at 
Antietam National Cemetery. Loveland, from Hartford, 
was mortally wounded in John Otto's cornfield
 during the Battle of Antietam.

There are 85 gravestones for Connecticut soldiers at Antietam National Cemetery, but not all those men were killed at Antietam, an obscure fact that may only interest me. Indulge me for a moment while I toss around a few numbers.

At least 25 Connecticut soldiers buried on the grounds are from units that did not fight in Sharpsburg, according my count using the History of Antietam descriptive list published in 1869. Pvt. Anson Balcom of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, for example, was wounded in Winchester, Va., on Sept. 19, 1864, died 23 days later and was buried in the national cemetery, probably after his remains were disinterred elsewhere shortly after the war.

According to the descriptive list, one grave contains the remains of an unknown soldier from an unknown Connecticut regiment. At least two soldiers who were killed at Antietam and have gravestones in the national cemetery are actually buried in Connecticut, leaving who's really buried under those markers a mystery. 8th Connecticut Pvt. Oliver Case, killed near Harpers Ferry Road, and 16th Pvt. Bridgeman Hollister, mortally wounded in John Otto's 40-acre cornfield, are buried in Simsbury and Glastonbury, respectively. 

Seven soldiers from Connecticut who died of their Antietam wounds were treated at Big Spring Hospital, a tent hospital set up on a farm near Keedysville, Md. Truman Squire of 89th New York, the head surgeon at that hospital, compiled the list below of 32 soldiers who died at Crystal Spring, also known as Big Spring or Locust Spring Hospital. Privates Horace Hunn (16th Connecticut), Francis Burr (16th); Henry Schofield (11th), Thomas Remington (11th), Frederick Culver (11th) and corporals Andrew Kimball (8th) and W. Farmer (8th) each have gravestones in the national cemetery. Schofield apparently also has a marker at Hickory Street Cemetery, which really makes my head spin. Where is he really buried? 

This exercise in frustration began tonight as I was trying to determine how many Connecticut soldiers who died at the Battle of  Antietam are actually buried in the national cemetery. That detective work continues. In the meantime, enjoy the interactive panorama above of the Connecticut section of the national cemetery.

Seven soldiers from Connecticut appear on a list of soldiers who died at Locust Spring (also
known as Crystal Spring) Hospital near Keedysville, Md., after the Battle of Antietam.
(Chemung County Historical Society)

Antietam: Old national cemetery postcards

Entrance to Antietam National Cemetery. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

1907 postcard of Antietam National Cemetery, with the soldier's monument, also known as
"Old Simon," prominent in background.

I recently picked up these early 20th-century postcards of Antietam National Cemetery on eBay for a few bucks. If you peruse the Internet diligently, it's not hard to find a good, old Antietam image or two for a decent price. Although Antietam is probably the best preserved major Civil War battlefield, the landscape, of course, has changed over the past 150 years. Old postcards such as these are a good way to view what Antietam looked like way back when. This 1885 cabinet card image of the Antietam National Cemetery, purchased by yours truly in Gettysburg last month, was a little pricier than the postcards.

1885 image of Antietam National Cemetery

An 1885 cabinet card image of Antietam National Cemetery, taken by an
 unknown photographer.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

A close-up of the image shows "Old Simon," the massive monument,
 in the left background.

As Antietam rare image expert Stephen Recker can attest, old photographs of the battlefield turn up every so often at Civil War shows and even on eBay. Recker features many old images of Antietam, some never before published, in his recently published book. (I especially love the images he included of the unveiling of the 16th Connecticut monument.) At the Gettysburg Civil War Show last weekend, I purchased the cabinet card image above of Antietam National Cemetery entrance, taken in September 1885 by an unknown photographer.  The content isn't spectacular, but it is a unique look of  the cemetery 127 years ago.

Antietam visit: 'Old Simon' at National Cemetery

The Civil War memorial at Antietam National Cemetery, one of my favorite spots at the battlefield.

On a crisp fall day in October, I took this picture of the beautiful 44-foot Civil War monument at Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md. The monument was designed by a Hartford man, James Batterson, and formally dedicated on Sept. 17, 1880. The 21-foot soldier on the memorial was nicknamed "Old Simon" by local residents. His journey to Sharpsburg from the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 was delayed a few months when he fell into the Potomac River.

The remains of 4,776 Union soldiers -- about 1,800 whose names are unknown -- are buried at the cemetery, one of my favorite places at Antietam. Perhaps Justus Collins Wellington, whose body was not returned to his hometown in West Brookfield, Mass, is buried here under a gravestone marked "Unknown." A private in Company F of the 15th Massachusetts, Wellington was killed in the fight in the West Woods.

Antietam visit: 16th Connecticut's demise

16th Connecticut soldiers Henry Evans of Avon and Henry Aldrich of Bristol were killed at Antietam.

Antietam National Cemetery, on a hill near the edge of Sharpsburg, Md., remains one of the most beautiful, peaceful and sad places I have ever visited. On a crisp, fall afternoon, leaves dancing in the air, it sometimes is a magical place, too. The cemetery is the final resting place for thousands of soldiers, mostly those killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. 

The 16th Connecticut monument at Antietam.

On Friday afternoon, I visited the graves of two 16th Connecticut soldiers killed at Antietam: Corporal Henry D. Evans of Avon (where I reside) and Private Henry Aldrich of Bristol. (My thanks to my friend Jim Buchanan of  the Walking the West Woods blog for adding the small American flags for the photo above.)

The 16th Connecticut paid a terrible price at Antietam, its first battle of the war. After the 16th was organized in Hartford in August 1862, these Connecticut men spent most of their time getting on and off steamships and learning the basics of military life.  Part of General Ambrose Burnside's extreme left flank at Antietam, the rookie regiment was unfathomably sent into John Otto's 40-acre cornfield in the later stages of the battle and was hit smack in the left flank by veterans of A.P. Hill's division. Out of 779 men, the 16th Connecticut lost 43 killed, 161 wounded and 204 captured or missing. Some of those killed never even fired a shot, and many of the survivors never got over the carnage at Antietam.

After the war, a soldier from the 16th described the terrible night after the battle as "the saddest we ever experienced."

"All was quiet and silent as the grave," Lieutenant Bernard Blakeslee of Hartford wrote. "The stacks of straw which the rebels had fired burned slow and dimly. The cries and groans of the wounded that lay on the battlefield could be heard distinctly, and the occasional report of artillery sounded solemn and death-like." (1)

View of the back of John Otto's farmhouse. Connecticut
troops moved across his property on the afternoon
of Sept. 17, 1862 after crossing Antietam Creek.

Blakeslee also described the treatment of the wounded:

All houses and barns were converted into hospitals, and yards and fields were strewn with straw and the wounded laid there without shelter. Surgeons worked hard day and night, taking rest only when unable to stand up from weariness. At one of these hospitals about 25 of the Sixteenth were placed. Nothing was to be heard but cries, groans, and entreaties. … In a room about 12×20 a bloody table stood and around it were five surgeons. A wounded man was laid on the table and it took but a few seconds for them to decide what to do, and but a few minutes to do it. The amputated limbs were thrown out of a window. In forty-eight hours there were as many as two cart loads of amputated legs, feet, arms, and hands in the pile. (2)

On Friday afternoon, I also walked the ground that the 16th Connecticut covered on the Otto farm with Buchanan and fellow blogger Jim Rosebrock of South From The North Woods blog. It's a wonder those Connecticut men, unused to forming for battle, even made it to Otto's 40-acre field. The undulating ground was probably tough for even veteran units to navigate. (See my video clip below.)

A small  stone marker at Antietam
National Cemetery denotes the final
resting place for three unknown soldiers.

Henry Evans' fellow townsmen -- privates Newton Evans, Wallace Woodford and Robert Hawley -- were wounded at Antietam. Hawley died eight days later. (Woodford and Newton Evans later became prisoners of war; Evans died in Andersonvile on Sept. 9, 1864, and Woodford died at home on Jan 10, 1865.) There is a marker for Henry Evans in West Avon Cemetery in Avon, perhaps put there so his family could mourn him more easily. The wife and mother of Aldrich, who served in Company K, applied for his pension after he was killed. It's unclear if the government paid up, but that merits further research.

Evans and Aldrich were among the lucky ones, I guess. At least their tombstones have names, perhaps a result of the diligence and compassion of a soldier such as 16th Connecticut First Lieutenant John Burnham. Burnham, from Hartford, helped identify and mark the gravesites of the dead of the 16th Connecticut in the days after the battle in the hope that their loved ones could retrieve their bodies. Many of the dead at Antietam National Cemetery are unknown, their final resting place marked by small square white markers with numbers denoting the number of bodies in a plot. It's a sad result of an awful Wednesday nearly 150 years ago.

(1) The History of the Sixteenth Connecticut, B.F. Blakeslee, 1875
(2) Ibid.