Antietam KIA: Jason Twiss, 32, left behind wife, two children

16th Connecticut Private Jason Twiss had this image shot in the Prescott & Gage studio
 at 368 Main Street in Hartford, perhaps just before he was mustered into the regiment
 on Aug. 24, 1862.  (Photo: Blogger's collection)

Jason Twiss' gravestone at Antietam National Cemetery
in Sharpsburg, Md.

Commanded by Captain John Drake of Hartford, Company I of the 16th Connecticut suffered 15 killed or mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam. Only Company G suffered more killed or mortally wounded (16) at the battle. (See my downloadable Excel spreadsheet of Connecticut Antietam deaths here.) Among Company I's dead was Jason Twiss, a 32-year-old private from Willington, Conn., who was shot in the breast in the 40-acre cornfield of farmer John Otto and left behind a wife named Augusta and two young sons, Frederic, 5, and Robert, 3 months. At the time of his death, Jason and Augusta had been married a little more than six years.

Drake himself was shot and killed at Antietam, a bullet tearing through his heart, according to a letter written home four days after the battle by 16th Connecticut Corporal James Peckham, who noted that two other Company I officers were also killed on Otto's farm: Lieutenant William Horton of Stafford Springs (shot through the head) and Sergeant Thomas Macarty of Hartford. "You must write Mrs. Macarty to tell her that he was shot through the head [and] killed instantly," Peckham wrote to his wife, Katie. "He fought bravely [and] died with a good hart [sic].  I believe it to be true. He and Twiss both died Christians I think."

After her husband's death, Augusta filed the paperwork to obtain a widow's pension, which was granted. She began receiving $8 a month in April 1864. In 1889, she lived in Michigan and received a $12-a-month widow's pension. On Nov. 11, 1892, Augusta died in Hillsdale, Mich., having never re-married.


SOURCES:

Jason Twiss pension file, National Archives And Records Service, Washington (via fold3.com)

Website: Wilt Thou Remember Me, Letters From The American Civil War

Antietam panoramas: John Otto's 40-acre cornfield

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The John Otto cornfield at Antietam, where the 16th Connecticut was routed on Sept. 17, 1862.

                             
                              CLICK ON IMAGES FOR FULL-SCREEN PANORAMA

JOHN OTTO'S CORNFIELD (REBELS' PERSPECTIVE): In a 40-acre field of head-high corn on Sept. 17, 1862, the 16th Connecticut was battered, many men skedaddling for the rear. (Two deserters fled all the way to England. One deserter's ancestor saw his great-grandfather's photo for the first time on this blog.) Above and below are interactive panoramic images of what that field looks like today. Some of the 16th Connecticut wounded lay in this field for 40 hours, only rescued when Union burial parties found them late in the morning on Friday, Sept. 19. Many of the wounded were taken to about a half-mile away to Otto's barn, where a makeshift field hospital had been set up. Some of the most serious cases were later taken to the German Reformed Church on Sharpsburg's main street.


OTTO'S CORNFIELD (REBELS' PERSPECTIVE II):  A.P. Hill's veterans, who quickly marched 17 miles from Harpers Ferry earlier in the day, arrived on the battlefield just in time to save Robert E. Lee's army at Antietam.  They struck the extreme left flank of the Union line that included the 4th Rhode Island and the green 16th Connecticut, sending both regiments retreating in chaos. “My company of one hundred men number but twenty eight at roll call this morning,” Pvt. William Relyea of the 16th Connecticut wrote his wife on Sept. 19, 1862, two days after the battle. “Many poor fellows bit the dust. I stood alone about fifty feet from the rebel line and fired and I supposed they fired at me, but I happened to notice I was alone and I left to help some of our wounded off. Capt. (Samuel) Brown was wounded and we found him dead today stripped of hat, coat, shoes, and all valuables." (1) The 16th Connecticut monument, dedicated in 1894, can be seen in the far distance.

(1) Relyea, William  Henry. Letter book containing copies of letters, 1862-1865, Ms. 72782,  Connecticut History Society, Hartford, Conn.

OTTO'S CORNFIELD (UNION PERSPECTIVE): The 16th Connecticut lay in this hollow until advancing into Otto's cornfield ... and disaster at the Battle of Antietam. "About 4 o'clock we were marched over a hill, and down into a hollow, and lay down," a private in the 16th wrote. "We were in this situation about an hour, the shells from both batteries were playing over us. One man in our company lying just behind me was struck by a piece of shell. Cap't Manross was killed while we lay there. We marched from here up to a cornfield."


OTTO'S CORNFIELD (WHERE NEWTON MANROSS FELL): In the center of  this panorama, in front of the large group of trees in the hollow,  is the approximate location where 16th Connecticut Capt. Newton Manross was mortally wounded by cannon fire. This is a hollow in which the 16th Connecticut lay just before it moved into the 40-acre field of head-high corn. "I often think of that day, Sept. 17, 1862, and helping Captain Manross into the fence corner," Lester Taylor, a private in Company H of the 16th Connecticut, wrote 39 years after the battle. "I could look down inside of him and see his heart beat, his left shoulder all shot off." Manross, a brilliant man and a world traveler, was from Bristol, Conn. He was an assistant professor at Amherst (Mass.) College when he enlisted.