Civil War under my nose: Dorence Atwater

The Dorence Atwater monument is in Baldwin Park in Terryville, Conn.

As I have noted in posts here, here and here, you don't have to look hard to find a marker, monument or grave related to Civil War history in Connecticut. On a drive from Thomaston, Conn., back to Avon on a rainy Memorial Day morning, I pulled off the road into a park in the village of Terryville. That's when I happened upon a sign that -- surprise, surprise -- told an intriguing Civil War tale.

Dorence Atwater

I wasn't familiar with the incredible story of Dorence Atwater, who was born in Plymouth Center, Conn. (Terryville) and probably lied about his age when he enlisted in the Union army at the start of the Civil War when he was barely 16.

After being captured at Hagerstown, Md., on July 7, 1863, Atwater was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Richmond before eventually ending up in the notorious Rebel POW camp in Andersonville, Ga. (1) While imprisoned there, he had the presence of mind to secretly record the deaths and burial locations of many of his fellow soldiers. He survived Andersonville and then turned over the death records after the war to Clara Barton., the famous Civil War nurse (and later the founder of  the American Red Cross). Atwater and Barton used the records to help properly mark the many previously unknown graves at Andersonville, no doubt bringing comfort to their families back north.

Clara Barton in 1902

In his amazingly colorful life, Atwater was a gold speculator, selected as U.S. Consul to the Seychelles by President Andrew Johnson at age 23, married a Tahitian woman and worked with lepers. (2) Pretty incredible stuff. Atwater died in 1910 in San Francisco and was buried in Tahiti. Deborah Safranski has an excellent account of her ancestor here, and Judith Giguere of the Plymouth (Conn.) Historical Society has more detail on Atwater here.

As for the cannon at the memorial, well, it's a biggun'. I am not a Civil War cannon expert, but I think this is a  Columbiad tube, many of which are on display at courthouses and memorials throughout the United States. The barrel of the cannon (bottom photo below) has markings and a serial number, which I believe identifies the foundry where it was made.

By the way, Atwater isn't the only famous citizen of Terryville. Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka, better known as Ted Knight of "Mary Tyler Moore Show" fame, is also from Terryville.

Clara Barton, the famous Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross
after the war, attended the dedication of the Atwater monument in 1906.



A look straight down the barrel of the Atwater monument cannon.

(1) American Civil War Database
(2) Angel of Andersonville: The Extraordinary Life of Dorence Atwater by Deborah Safranski, 2008

Civil War under my nose: John Brown birthplace

The house where John Brown was born burned down in 1918.

The man who helped spark the Civil War was born in 1800 in a house on a scenic hill outside Torrington, Conn.

John Brown, about 1856.

With the exception of a large stone marker and the remains of the foundation of the main house and an outbuilding, I didn't find much left this afternoon of  John Brown's birthplace. The house, built in 1785 and restored in the early 20th century, was destroyed by a chimney fire in 1918. (1) The remains are located in a clearing just north of John Brown Road, about four miles from downtown Torrington off Route 4 and 30 miles from Hartford. Several plots of land are for sale in the immediate vicintity, so I don't expect the area to remain so rural for long.

Brown, of course, was one of the most polarizing figures in the country in the years just before the Civil War. An ardent abolitionist, he hoped to incite a rebellion of slaves when he and his followers raided the government armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va., on Oct. 16, 1859. His plans were crushed by miltia led by Robert E. Lee, and Brown was captured, tried, convicted of treason and finally hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, in Charles Town, Va. Brown became a martyr in the North, and his death put the nation on the course for the Civil War.

(1) Torrington Historical Society website 





Stone marker for Brown's birthplace in Torrington, Conn.



An illustration of the Brown house, which burned down in 1918.



These stones are all that remain of an outbuilding on the Brown property.

Nobody does fall like New England Part 2

Took this photo during a bike ride Saturday around Lake Waramaug, near New Preston, Conn.

A Connecticut Civil War soldier revealed

This Civil War monument in Litchfield, a small town northwest of Hartford, made for an interesting winter photo. Soldiers from Litchfield County, which includes Waterbury, Litchfield, Fairfield and other small towns, died for the Union at Antietam, Cold Harbor and elsewhere during the Civil War. I did some research on Capt. Luman Wadhams, listed on the monument as killed at Cold Harbor, Va. Wadhams was from Waterbury, which sent 799 sons to serve for the Union. Forty-two were killed in action, 13 died as POWs and 61 died of disease. Here's a snapshot of Wadham's service:

CAPT. LUMAN WADHAMS

On 4/22/1861 he mustered into "Inf D" Co. CT 1st Infantry
He was Mustered Out on 7/31/1861 at New Haven, CT

On 9/25/1861 he was commissioned into "E" Co. CT 8th Infantry
He Resigned on 4/8/1862

On 9/11/1862 he was commissioned into "A" Co. CT 2nd Heavy Artillery
He died of wounds on 6/3/1864
(Residence listed as "Litchfield, CT")

He was listed as:
* Wounded 6/1/1864 Cold Harbor, VA

Promotions:
* 2nd Lieut 9/25/1861 (As of Co. E 8th CT Infantry)
* 1st Lieut 9/11/1862 (As of Co. A 2nd CT Heavy Artillery)
* Capt 8/24/1863

Litchfield County (and the Union) suffered terribly at Cold Harbor, where Gen. Ulysses Grant (left) ordered a misguided frontal assault against the entrenched Confederates. The loss Wadhams' regiment suffered in a charge against Confederate breastworks was greater than that of any Connecticut regiment in any single battle. Grant later wrote: "Cold Harbor is the only battle I ever fought that I would not fight over again under the circumstances. I have always regretted that the assault on Cold Harbor was ever made."

Here's an excerpt from the regimental report in which Wadhams is mentioned:

June 1st, under command of Colonel Kellogg, the regiment
was disposed in three lines, under Majors Hubbard, Rice, and
Ells, and advanced in that order, the objective point being the
heavy earthworks defended by Longstreet's veterans. It passed
at double-quick to the first line, capturing it and sending to
the rear over 300 prisoners; forward again at double-quick,
with intervals of less than 100 yards between the battalions,
to and through a stiff abattis, within twenty yards of the
enemy's main line, where it met a most destructive fire from
both its front and left flank, but pressed on, some even to the
top of the main line of earthworks. Nothing could withstand
the murderous fire that now met them, and the First and Second
battalions crept back to the somewhat less exposed position
held by the Third, but leaving on the field 323 of Litchfield
County's bravest sons, 129 of them dead or mortally wounded, --
a record unsurpassed by any regiment of the Union army during
the war. Among these were that ideal soldier, Colonel E. S.
Kellogg, who fell riddled with bullets in the advance with the
First battalion, Captain Luman Wadhams, who was mortally, and
Major Ells, who was severely, wounded.

We are not allowed space in which to chronicle individual
acts of bravery and devotion to duty, but cannot pass to record
other scenes without saying that the fortunate survivors of
this terrible conflict remember with loving pride the last
words and acts of such comrades as Corporal Baldwin of Company
E (reported "missing," but certainly killed in action), and the
cool, quiet, but quick and sensible decisions of Kellogg,
Hubbard, Ells, Skinner, Fenn, Wadhams, Berry, Burnham, Hosford,
Spencer, and other officers, and the unrecorded bravery of very
many of our fellow-soldiers.

After Cold Harbor, Union soldiers often were buried (above) in shallow graves. Shortly after the war, they were unearthed for reburial elsewhere.