Meet Hartford undertaker who recovered bodies at Antietam

In the Hartford Daily Courant, undertaker William Roberts and businessman M.S. Chapman
 advertised for their services to retrieve bodies of Union soldiers from battlefields in the South. 
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

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To recover remains of loved ones who died at Antietam, some Connecticut families paid for the services of William W. Roberts, a 48-year-old Hartford undertaker/coffin maker, who specialized in the grim task. In early October 1862, he returned home with a ghastly haul of eight bodies from the battlefield, including 26-year-old Jarvis Blinn of Rocky Hill. The well-regarded captain of Company F in the 14th Connecticut was shot through the heart on William Roulette’s farm.

A sketch of William Roberts that appeared 
with his obituary in the Hartford Daily Courant
 on May 23, 1898.

In the Hartford Daily Courant, Roberts and businessman M.S. Chapman, a  former Union soldier, frequently touted their body retrieval services: "...have it done in a thoroughly reliable manner, by one who has had much experience, and is well-acquainted with the different localities in the South," one advertisement noted.

Read another: "Persons having friends who have died in the army, and buried at Port Royal, Washington, Fortress Monroe, Shenandoah Valley, before Richmond, or anywhere within our lines can have their remains brought north for internment by applying at the office of Wm. W. Roberts."

"Those who have lost friends in the army and desire to procure their bodies," the newspaper reported, "will do well to consult W. W. Roberts, No. 12 Pratt st."

Even well into October 1864, months after the war ended, Roberts and Chapman advertised for their  services.

Born in Newington, about seven miles from Hartford, Roberts was orphaned at an early age. After learning to become a carpenter, he operated a furniture business on Pratt Street in Hartford, across the street from a bank. Roberts later added an undertaking business and was known for the impressive innovation of adding glass to the sides of a hearse -- the first man in the United States to do so. He became so good at coffin-making that his "burial caskets of artistic design earned him a reputation which extended throughout New England."

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In September 1866, Roberts, a wealthy man, left the business of death for the entertainment business. In 1868, he built the Hartford Opera House on Main Street and for 17 years "provided practically all of the professional entertainment in the city."

"Silent and uncommunicative by nature," Roberts died at age 84 on May 22, 1898. The man who was very fond of horses and "always had one or more handy steppers in his stable" is buried in Hartford's Spring Grove Cemetery, not far from where he once crafted coffins for the dead of Antietam.

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SOURCE

-- Hartford Daily Courant, May 23, 1898.

Antietam: Captain Jarvis Blinn's restored gravestone

Flowers placed by the grave of 14th Connecticut Captain Jarvis Blinn, who
 was killed at the Battle of Antietam.

Nearly 152 years after a bullet tore through Jarvis Blinn's heart and killed him, the 14th Connecticut captain's descendants, re-enactors and Civil War enthusiasts gathered under leaden skies Saturday afternoon to honor him at his restored tombstone in Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn. Sparked by this February 2013 post on my blog that included images of Blinn's broken tombstone, a 14th Connecticut re-enacting group sought donations from Civil War groups, Blinn descendants and others to repair it.  A low bid of  $1,050 was submitted by Nelson Architectural Restoration's Randall Nelson, who repaired the marker recently and may be seen below in the video that I shot at Blinn's gravestone.

A 26-year-old mechanic from New Britain, Conn., Blinn was killed at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862 -- 152 years ago Wednesday.  "I am a dead man!" the officer said moments after he was shot near Bloody Lane. (See my interactive panorama here of where the 14th Connecticut attacked.)  A Mason and the first officer in his regiment to die, Blinn left behind wife, Alice, and two young children. 

"His wife is heart-broken," a woman who attended Blinn's funeral service noted. "Their attachment to each other was unbounded -- he was all to her. Such a sad, hopeless, despairing countenance I never saw. There are two children -- dear little creatures the eldest five years of age -- for them only his memory lives."

Hal Gilbert, Blinn's great-great nephew, and his daughter, Mary, pose at their ancestor's
 grave at  Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn. Hal, whose father was named after 
Jarvis,  holds an original albumen  image of Blinn, a well-liked soldier who was 
unanimously selected captain of Company F on Aug. 15, 1862.

A close-up of the albumen of 14th Connecticut Captain Jarvis Blinn, who was
 only 26 when he was killed.

During the ceremony at Blinn's grave, a re-enactor sang The Vacant Chair,  a Civil War song.

14th Connecticut re-enactors fire a salute near Jarvis Blinn's grave.

Jarvis Blinn's descendants and re-enactors gather near Blinn's grave.

A close-up of Blinn's repaired gravestone.

Antietam: Jarvis Blinn gravestone may be repaired soon

The top 3/4 of Jarvis Blinn's gravestone remained behind the base when I visited
Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn., on Saturday.

It appears that the gravestone of Jarvis Blinn, a captain who was killed at the Battle of Antietam, will soon be repaired. On Saturday, I spoke with a Blinn descendant, who was unaware the gravestone at Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn., had been in a state of disrepair for at least six months. When the weather turns warmer, he plans to marry the toppled 3/4 of the gravestone to the bottom portion, which includes a carving of the word "Antietam." I hope to be there the day it is repaired. Blinn, who served in the 14th Connecticut, was shot through the heart near the William Roulette farmhouse. "I am a dead man!" he said moments after he received the wound.

The base of Blinn's broken tombstone on Saturday.

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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

Antietam: Connecticut captain's gravestone still in disrepair

 14th Connecticut captain Jarvis Blinn's gravestone remains in the same state of disrepair today ...

...as it was when I visited Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn., in September.

Jarvin Blinn's repaired gravestone in November 2011.  Blinn was 
killed at Antietam.  (Blinn photo: Rocky Hill Historical Society)

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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LIKE THIS BLOG ON FACEBOOK!  It will improve your hand-eye coordination.
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: 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.)

Antietam: Shattered family, broken tombstone

Killed at the Battle of Antietam, Captain Jarvis Blinn of the 14th Connecticut is buried in
Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn. His repaired gravestone was upright in this photo
I shot in November. (Blinn photo courtesy of Rocky Hill Historical Society)

In its terrible wake, the Civil War left behind broken dreams and hundreds of thousands of shattered families, including the Blinns of New Britain, Conn.

A 26-year-old captain in the 14th Connecticut, Jarvis Blinn was killed at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, proclaiming "I am a dead man!" moments after he was shot in the heart on the Samuel Mumma or William Roulette farm. A mechanic before the war, Blinn left behind a wife, Alice, and two young children.

Two days after the battle, while gathered in a camp near Sharpsburg, Md., officers of the 14th Connecticut passed four resolutions to honor Blinn and Samuel Williard, a captain from Madison, who also was killed at Antietam. Published in the Hartford Courant and New Haven Register, the resolutions included this acknowledgement of the awful loss for the families of the dead men, both of whom were well-regarded by their peers.

After a funeral service in New Britain, where Blinn resided, 
another service was held for the captain at the
 Congregational Church in Rocky Hill, where he was born. 
Afterward, he was buried in nearby Center Cemetery. 
The church was built in 1808.

"Resolved. That we tender our my earnest sympathy to the bereaved families who are thrown into sudden mourning by this loss, and pray God to sustain and comfort the wives made widows, and the children made fatherless, and to grant that this and all other sacrifices now offered upon the altar of our beloved country may not be in vain." (1)

For Alice Blinn, the death of her husband hit home especially hard. In a letter to her fiance, 8th Connecticut chaplain John Morris, 19-year-old Augusta Griswold of Wethersfield described the "sad ceremonies" held Oct. 14, 1862, for Blinn in nearby Rocky Hill and the effect of his death on his wife.

"He was a much esteemed resident of New Britain," she wrote. "Funeral services were first conducted in the Center Church there from thence he was brought to the church in Rocky Hill attended by citizens, Free Masons and representatives of several military companies -- a large procession. His wife is heart-broken. Their attachment to each other was unbounded -- he was all to her. Such a sad, hopeless, despairing countenance I never saw.

"There are two children -- dear little creatures the eldest five years of age -- for them only his memory lives." (2)

Sadly, only five days before the 150th anniversary of his death, Jarvis Blinn is dishonored at Rocky Hill's Center Cemetery, where he was buried. His tombstone is broken, the top portion lying in the grass just behind the base. Visible on the bottom portion are these weather-worn words:

Sept. 17, 1862
Antietam

(1) Hartford Courant, Sept. 27, 1862, Page 2
(2) Letter from Augusta Griswold to John Morris, Oct. 19, 1862.

Today, the top portion of  Jarvis Blinn's tombstone lies in the grass behind the base.