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| 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery Corporal George Page was killed at the Battle of Cedar Creek. (Don Serfass collection) |
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| A state-issued marker for Page in Calhoun Cemetery in Cornwall, Conn. |
After the U.S. Army rapidly retreated, re-grouped and finally routed the Rebels at the Battle of Cedar Creek on Oct. 19, 1864, the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery aided its wounded and collected its dead. Among the 13 bodies found near a stone wall the next day were George W. Page, a 25-year-old corporal from Cornwall, and Charles Reed, a 19-year-old corporal from Salisbury.
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| JANUARY 2007: George Page's gravestone notes he was "killed in the battle of Seder Creek." (Find A Grave/Andrea Price-Johnson) |
"It was a sad sight," Kelly wrote about Page and Reed. "They were robed [sic] of all their effects... by the Rebs — shoes, Pants, blouse —- all that was any good was gone."
When a burial crew tossed Page and Reed into a trench with the rest of the regiment's dead, "many a rough and war worn veteran's face was washed with tears," assistant surgeon Judson B. Andrews noted, "as he turned away from so affecting a sight."
Page's remains were probably recovered and re-buried in Cornwall in Calhoun Cemetery, where he lies under a stone inscribed that he was killed at the battle of "Seder Creek."
During a recent visit, I found that marker face down in the grass, broken in two. A weather-worn, state-issued marker in front of the toppled gravestone memorializes the young soldier. Reed's final resting place may be in Town Hill Cemetery in Salisbury, Conn., although it's unclear if his remains were returned from Virginia.
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| JUNE 2015: Page's original marker, cracked and face down in the grass. |
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| Corporal Charles Reed's marker in Town Hill Cemetery in Salisbury. |
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| Charles Reed was only 19 when he died at the Battle of Cedar Creek. |
