'Human gore': A catastrophic explosion at Bachelor's Creek

Accidental explosions, such as this one at Fort Sumter and the one at Bachelor's Creek, N.C., 
on May 26, 1864, occurred throughout the Civil War.  

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Shortly before one of the most horrific tragedies of the Civil War, United States soldiers eagerly gathered at the Bachelor's Creek station for the arrival of a military train from New Bern. In addition to supplies for Camp Claassen, base for the 132nd New York, the train delivered mail and newspapers — welcome news for the soldiers stuck in the backwaters of North Carolina.

The 4 p.m. train on May 26, 1864, also carried a deadly cargo: four crude mines. The U.S. military intended to deploy the "monstrous" torpedoes, built with large barrels packed with 250 pounds of black powder, with nine others already in the nearby Neuse River as a deterrent to Confederate warships.

132nd New York Colonel
Peter Claassen requested
 coffins from New Bern
after the explosion.

While soldiers clustered near the train platform, workers haphazardly removed the barrels from a boxcar. They rolled three from the train before a block of wood apparently struck the cap on the last mine, triggering a massive explosion that set off the other three. 

"Like the crush of a thousand pieces of artillery fired simultaneously," a newspaper described the sound of the blast.

Heard at least eight miles away, the explosion caused death and destruction on a massive scale. At least 40 soldiers and perhaps as many as 25 contrabands — escaped slaves — were killed. The blast obliterated a large signal tower and a 20 x 80-foot commissary building made of logs.

"The air was instantly filled with the torn and mangled remains of human bodies," recalled a 132nd New York soldier in a letter to the Niagara County (N.Y.) Intelligencer. "... Most of the victims were blown into fragments and for a distance of hundreds of yards human gore and remains were everywhere visable."

"The disaster," the New York Times reported, "was one of the the most appalling and heartrending that has happened in this country in a series of years."

Moments after the blast, soldiers frantically aided the wounded, but many of the unfortunates could not be helped. The disaster created a scene only Edgar Allan Poe might have envisioned.

The explosion scattered heads, bodies and limbs as far as a quarter mile. A distinctive ring on his detached arm identified David Jones, a commissary sergeant in the 132nd New York. Three soldiers from Company B of the 132nd New York, the hardest-hit regiment, appeared on a casualty list in the New York Herald as missing, "probably blown in pieces."

In the commissary building, a man who was bending over a barrel of rice had grains embedded in his face. He later died.

"An approximate idea may be conceived of the difficulty in identifying individuals when I state that three hard bread boxes were filled with fragments of flesh picked up on the spot," wrote Herald correspondent George Hart, "and the locomotive attached to the train was thickly covered with fragments of shattered humanity." All that remained from the four men handling the torpedoes, a witness claimed, was a small piece found 150 yards from the explosion.

The grave of torpedo explosion victim
Michael Brisco of the 132nd New York
at New Bern (N.C.) National Cemetery.
(Find A Grave)

Near the commissary building when the torpedoes exploded, a 132nd New York soldier got tossed about fifty feet. He landed on all fours but miraculously escaped without serious injury. Using the pen name "Hiawatha," he described the grim aftermath for the Buffalo Courier. 

"The train of last night brought up coffins and our men have been digging graves all night," he wrote. "Some eighteen bodies, more or less mangled, but recognizable, are now being buried. The condition of the dead ranged from a half mangled mass to a perfect jelly."

Continued "Hiawatha," who only suffered temporary deafness:

"The body of one man was thrown some two hundred yards, and on its way it passed a tree, taking a branch some three inches in diameter with it. The body fell some thirty feet beyond the tree. Another poor fellow was hurled about one hundred yards, and, the last fifty of his progress, the body grazed the ground carrying away in its passage a half rotten stump. Feet, hands and other fragments of bodies were thrown in all directions, but mostly towards the Sutler's shop three hundred yards distant. Taking it all and all, it was indeed a terrible scene of ruin, destruction and woe."

The explosion killed civilian Hezekiah Davis — “an old citizen of that neighborhood” — and seriously injured Frank Gould, a 10- or 11-year-old from New Bern. 

"Doctor," the boy pleaded, "I can stand any amount of pain, but don't take off my leg." 

The doctor saved the limb, but Gould's friend, Sergeant William Ennever of the 158nd New York, suffered a mortal wound. 

A woman who lived roughly a half mile from the blast sought the aid of a military surgeon for her injured arm, struck by a piece of wood thrown in the explosion.

Some had Lady Luck on their side. 

As Adjutant Joseph Palmer of the 158th New York neared the locomotive astride his horse, the animal "showed great uneasiness, being restive and apparently terrified." A few seconds before the blast, the horse bounded away, perhaps saving his rider's life. The blast tossed Thomas Stewart of the 158th New York into the air, but he somehow survived with only a few bruises. The explosion threw a soldier drawing whiskey from a barrel headlong into the spirits. He also survived.

Spotted weeping after the catastrophe, Colonel Peter Claassen of the 132nd New York telegraphed New Bern requesting medical aid and coffins. Horribly mangled soldiers received care at a hospital in the garrison town, but many of them didn't survive.

The gravestone at New Bern (N.C.) 
National Cemetery for Stephen Sanford,
killed in the explosion.
(Find A Grave)

"This sad accident, entailing such fearful consequences, has cast a gloom over the soldiers of the outposts which will require a long time for them fully to overcome," the Herald wrote.

But the enemy didn't feel the Federals' pain.

The State Journal of Goldsboro, N.C., a Confederate newspaper, reported "great consternation" in New Bern, adding, "Such a scene of wild confusion is said to have existed in the good old town as has never been exceeded, except in the vicinity of the explosion." 

In a final, evil dig at the United States military, the newspaper concluded, "We regret that the whole infernal race was not within easy range of the torpedoes."

In the days immediately following the tragedy, commanding officers wrote to loved ones of the victims. Captain John W. Fenton of the 132nd New York advised Private Michael Brisco's widow to hire "some honest lawyer or claim agent" to help her secure a pension. (See letter and full transcript below.)

"My regiment mourns a loss of 39 killed & about 25 wounded," Fenton continued. "I have lost out of my company 6 men killed. Yourself and little family have my sincerest & warmest sympathies for the sad affliction to you."

On June 8, Captain George H. Swords of the 132nd New York wrote Sergeant Stephen E. Sanford's father that it would be "impossible" for him to retreive his son's remains "as it would be contrary to orders." Come in the winter instead, he advised, but get a permit from the commanding officer in New Bern. (See letter and full transcript below.)

Perhaps to take the sting out of that news, the officer also sent to Mr. Sanford a memento of his son: a lock of hair cut off by a friend after Stephen's death.

fold3.com

Camp Claassen, 132d N.Y.Vols.
Out Posts, Bachelors Creek, N.C.
May 27th, 1864

Mrs. Brisco,

It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of your husband, Michael Brisco, formerly of my Company, who was instantly killed last evening by the premature explosion of a "Torpedo" at the time he was in the discharge of his duty. His remains have been interred in the Regimental Grave Yard; his papers will all be made out so that you can obtain his back bounty due him & also his back pay. They will be forwarded to Washington and by your making application to the Adjutant General you can get the money. You are also entitled to a pension. Place the matter in the hands of some honest lawyer or claim agent and ...

Fold3.com

... you will have no difficulty. My regiment mourns a loss of 39 killed & about 25 wounded. I have lost out of my company 6 men killed. Yourself and little family have my sincerest & warmest sympathies for the sad affliction to you.

I am respectfully, 

John W. Fenton
Capt, 132d N.Y. Infty Vols.


P.S. His bounty due him is $75 U.S. Bounty and four months & 26 days pay. Your husband's effects will be sold & the proceeds placed to your credit on the pay rolls. Any little memento he may have I will send to you.

J.W.F.

Fold3.com

Head Quarters C Company, 132d N.Y. Inftry.

Out Posts of N.C., Bachelors Creek near 

New Berne, N.C., June 8, 1864
Mr. Stephen Sanford, 

Sir,

Your communication of 3d instant was received this afternoon. Your son's effects were forwarded June 1, 1864 per Adams Express Co. directed as follows viz.: "Mrs. Cordelia E. Champion, No. 163, York St, New Haven, Conn.

It will be impossible to send your son's remains home as it would be contrary to orders. In the winter it may be done by obtaining a permit from the Commanding Officer at New Berne. Enclosed you may find a lock of his hair which was cut off at the time of his death by one of his friends.

I wrote several days ago to Mrs. Champion and stated all the particulars of your son's death with  instructions what course to pursue in every particular.

Respectfully Your Obt. Servt.
Geo. H. Swords Jr.
Captain Commanding

---

-- Have something to add, correct? E-mail me at jbankstx@comcast.net

SOURCES

• Buffalo Courier, June 4, 1864
• Michael Brisco and Stephen Sanford pension records, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C., via fold3.com
• New York Herald, June 2, 8, 1864
• New York Times, June 2, 1864
• Niagara County (N.Y.) Intelligencer, June 1864
• North Carolina Times, New Berne, N.C., June 4, 1864
• The State Journal, Goldboro, N.C., June 3, 1864

Brothers: Connecticut's Civil War sacrifice

Each number on this map represents a Connecticut town in which a family lost at least two
 sons during the Civil War.  Numbers denote a story below. (CLICK TO ENLARGE.)

Five years of conflict.

Eight sets of brothers.

Seventeen separate Civil War tragedies.

The siblings from Connecticut whose stories are told below died far from their hometowns in such places as New Bern, N.C., Sharpsburg, Md., and Florence, S.C.

They died from gunshot wounds, disease ... or worse. Two of them lingered for weeks after being wounded, dying in their hometown. Two were only teenagers. One man's fiancee died almost exactly a month after he was killed in battle. Most left behind a wife and children. At least five were not even returned to their home state for burial. One soldier's brother and father died in service for their country during the war.

Who knows what all the ripple effects were of the deaths of these soldiers during the most tragic five years in American history?

In an e-mail to me more than two years ago, a descendant of a set of these brothers wrote that their loss is felt in her family even today. I'm not surprised.

Luman, Edward and Henry Wadhams: The brothers died in Virginia in 1864.

1. LITCHFIELD: The Wadhams brothers

In late spring 1864, Deacon Adams made several trips to the farmhouse of Edwin and Mary Wadhams, not far from the center of Litchfield, to deliver terrible news.

One of the Wadhams' sons had died.

Then another.

The Wadhams brothers' marker at 
West Cemetery in Litchfield, about 35 miles
 west of  Hartford.

And another.

Within an 18-day span, three Wadhams sons were killed in battles near Richmond.

The first to die was Edward, a 27-year-old sergeant in the 8th Connecticut who was killed at Fort Darling on May 16. Ten days later, Henry, a 33-year-old lieutenant in the 14th Connecticut, was killed at North Anna River. Finally, Luman, the well-regarded captain in the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor on June 1. Carried off the field by fellow soldiers using muskets as a makeshift stretcher, Luman died in an ambulance two days later en route to White House Landing, Va. He was 29 years old.

Luman's funeral service, held at the Congregational Church opposite the Litchfield village green, was "crowded to its utmost capacity by sympathizing friends, and large numbers of strangers from out of town came to pay their respects to the lamented deceased." (1)

Luman is buried beneath an impressive, white marker in Litchfield's West Cemetery. Perhaps his brothers are buried there too, although that merits more research. On a side of the marker are these words:

"The battle is fought, the victory won. Rest, soldiers, rest."

Edwin Lee (left) is buried in Barkhamsted, Conn. His brother, Henry, is buried under in an
unknown  grave in Virginia. (Photos John Lee of Hartford Co. and His Descendants)

2. BARKHAMSTED: The Lee brothers

A captain in the 11th Connecticut Infantry, Edwin Lee was just 28 years old when he was struck and killed by an artillery shell on March 14, 1862 at the Battle of New Bern (N.C.). Before he died, Edwin reportedly said: "Tell my brother I died at the post of duty. Good-by. Go on for your country!" (2) He was buried near the battlefield and later disinterred and brought back north for re-burial at Riverside Cemetery in Barkhamsted, about 20 miles northwest of  Hartford.  Edwin's brother, Henry, was killed on Aug. 16, 1864 at the Battle of Deep Run (Va.). His final resting place is Fort Harrison National Cemetery, near Richmond, where his body lies with many other Union soldiers whose tombstones are marked "Unknown." The 35-year-old lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut, described as a "brave, faithful, uncomplaining soldier," left behind a wife and four young children. (3)

Brothers John and James Willard have memorial markers in West Avon Cemetery, next to
West Avon Congregational Church. Each man, however, is buried elsewhere.

3. AVON: The Willard brothers

Two weather-worn markers stand in West Avon Cemetery in memory of  John and James Willard. Sadly, neither brother's final resting place is back home in Connecticut.  James, a 20-year-old private, was killed in the 7th Connecticut's attack on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, S.C., on July 10, 1863. He was buried on the battlefield, perhaps thrown into a trench by the enemy. The son of Julius and Damaris Willard "sleeps where he fell," according to his cemetery marker. John, a 32-year-old wagoner in the 11th Connecticut, died of yellow fever in New Bern, N.C., on Oct 3, 1864, and according to his marker, he is "buried in that city."

4. BERLIN: The Bacon brothers

Medal of Honor marker next to Elijah Bacon's grave
in Maple Cemetery in Berlin, Conn.

On July 3, 1863, Private Elijah William Bacon of the 14th Connecticut was a hero at Gettysburg, snatching the colors of the 16th North Carolina during Pickett's Charge. Less than a year later, on May 6, 1864, he was killed in action at the Wilderness. Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for valor at Gettysburg, Elijah left behind a wife, Eliza, and two daughters. Elijah's brother, Andrew, was captured in early May at Ely's Ford, Va., and sent to Andersonville, the notorious Rebel prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia. After being transferred from Andersonville, Andrew died on Jan. 25, 1865 at a POW camp in Florence, S.C.  He and his wife, Marissa, had no children. The brothers are buried in Maple Cemetery in Berlin, about 15 miles south of Hartford.

5: EAST HARTFORD: The Flint brothers

Alvin Flint Jr.

Death was no stranger to the Flint family during the Civil War. In the winter of 1861-62, Alvin Flint Jr.'s mother and sister died of consumption in East Hartford. Just 18 years old, Alvin joined the 11th Connecticut as a private on Oct. 1, 1861. Less than a year later, he too was dead, killed in the 11th Connecticut's fruitless attack at Burnside Bridge at Antietam. The loss was no doubt excruciating for 53-year-old Alvin Flint Sr., who had enlisted in the 21st Connecticut along with his 13-year-old son, George, in August 1862. "Hardly had the sadness of the death of a dear daughter, that I had lost last January, worn off when this sad, sad calamity should come upon me," he lamented in a letter published in the Hartford Courant on Oct. 29, 1862. In another unbelievably tragic turn of events, Alvin Sr. and young George died of disease within several days of each other in mid-January 1863. In a 13-month timeframe, five family members -- including two brothers -- were dead. They are all buried in Center Cemetery in East Hartford.

6.  COVENTRY:  The Talcott brothers

A private in Company D of the 14th Connecticut, 26-year-old Henry Talcott was wounded when an artillery shell burst near a wall in the lane leading up to William Roulette's farmhouse, wounding three other men and killing three in his company. (4) Samuel, Henry's 20-year-old brother, also was severely wounded at Antietam; he lingered for several weeks before he died on Oct. 14, 1862.  Samuel was buried in Center Cemetery in his hometown of Coventry, about 25 miles west of Hartford. "After the services the congregation viewed the remains," the Hartford Courant reported on Oct. 27, 1862, "and the sad procession slowly wended its way to the cemetery. The flag draped in black was borne by the members of the Sunday School Class of Talcott, to whom he was strongly attached."  Like his brother, Henry also lingered for several weeks before he died on Nov. 10.  He is buried to the right of his brother in the family plot.

Close-up of Samuel Talcott's gravestone. The 20-year-old private was mortally
wounded on Sept. 17, 1862. He died four weeks later.

7. EAST HADDAM: The Bingham brothers

John Bingham was killed at Antietam. Wells Bingham survived.
Another brother, Eliphalet, died during the Civil War.
It's unclear which brother is which in these photos.
(Photo courtesy of Military and Historical Image Bank)

A little more than a month after he enlisted in the Union army on Aug. 7, 1862, 17-year-old John Bingham, a private in the 16th Connecticut, was killed at Antietam. Younger brother Wells, also a private in Company H of the 16th Connecticut, apparently survived Antietam physically unscathed, but the memory of that terrible day was probably seared into the 16-year-old boy soldier's brain the rest of his life. Three other Bingham brothers served during the Civil War, including Eliphalet, who died May 1, 1864 at Arlington Heights, Va. It's unclear whether he died of a battle wound, disease or another cause. John and Eliphalet are buried at First Church Cemetery in East Haddam, about 35 miles southeast of Hartford. Apparently upset over a failing business, Wells committed suicide in 1904.

8. CANTERBURY: The Lewis brothers

A sergeant in Company F of  the 8th Connecticut, Charles Lewis -- described as a man who "had always fought in the front ranks" -- was killed at Antietam. (5) His fiancee, 21-year-old Sarah Hyde, died nearly a month later, on Oct. 16, 1862, and is buried next to Charles at Carey Cemetery in Canterbury. "They had been brought up together in life, in death they were not divided," the Hartford Courant reported on Oct. 24, 1862,  "and together they sleep the last sleep."  Charles' brother, Albert, was a 28-year-old corporal in the 5th Connecticut. Captured at Winchester, Va., on May 24, 1862, he was a prisoner of war for four months before he was paroled. Like other Union POWs who were paroled or released -- see my blog post on  Wallace Woodford of Avon -- Albert no doubt was in poor health when he finally returned home to Canterbury. Discharged because of a disability on Dec. 15, 1862, he died on March 23, 1863.

Charles Lewis, a sergeant in the 8th Connecticut killed at Antietam, is buried next to his
fiancee, Sarah Hyde, at Carey Cemetery in Canterbury, Conn.

(1)  The Litchfield Times, June 1864
(2)  The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morrism 1869, Page 175
(3) Barkhamsted And Its Centennial, William Wallace Lee and Henry Roger Jones, 1881, Page 175
(4) History of the Fourteenth Regiment, Conneticut Volunteer Infantry, Charles Davis Page, Page 43, 1906
(5) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morris 1869, Page 272, Page 277

Faces of the Civil War: Edwin Ruthven Lee

Edwin Lee, a captain in the 11th Connecticut,  was killed at
New Bern, N.C. on March 14, 1862.


Nearly a month after a Confederate shell ripped open his abdomen and killed Edwin Lee on a North Carolina battlefield, his body lay in state at the City Guard Armory in Hartford.


Edwin Lee's final resting place is in Riverside Cemetery,
next  to Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church
in Barkhamsted, Conn.

A U.S. flag, "mingled with black and white," draped the walls inside the armory, the Hartford Courant reported, and "hundreds of sorrowing citizens" paid their respects to a young man who only a couple years earlier had worked at the nearby Colt Armory and Sharps Rifle Co. Members of the City Guard, a Connecticut militia group of which Lee was once an important member, stood watch all day that Thursday in mid-April 1862.

The 28-year-old captain's cap, sash, blood-stained sword, torn belt and his broken pistol, which was struck by the shell that killed him, were placed upon the coffin, likely closed because of Lee's terrible wounds. A canopy of stars and stripes over the bier was topped by a placard that included the final words Lee supposedly uttered:

"Go on For Your Country." (1)

Edwin Ruthven Lee, the well-respected captain of Company D in the 11th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, was home for good.

Ever since I first discovered Lee's impressive brownstone grave marker in a rural Connecticut cemetery on a gray winter day four years ago, I was eager to find out more about him.

Who was this man buried in Riverside Cemetery next to the small, white Methodist church near the Farmington River?

An account of Lee's funeral appeared in the
Hartford Courant on April 19, 1862.
The funeral was actually on April 18,
not April 19 as appears in the story.

Did his loved ones travel south to arrange for the return of his body back home, as many families of soldiers killed during the Civil War did? 

Who mourned for Edwin Lee?

Thanks to assistance from Paul Hart of the Barkhamsted Historical Society, Gordon Harmon of the Canton Historical Museum and some Internet detective work, I now have a more complete picture of Lee's life and death.

Before the Civil War, Lee was a major supporter of Abraham Lincoln, often giving speeches for the Republican candidate during the 1860 presidential campaign. Described as a "young man of a clear head and earnest convictions," Lee was employed as a riflemaker at Hartford's Colt Armory and later Sharps Rifle Co., both of which supplied a large number of small arms to the Union army during the Civil War.

On Sept. 27, 1861, a little more than five months after the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Lee enlisted in the Union army in Hartford. He had raised a company of 19 men from Hartford, 19 from Canterbury and Winsted and the remainder from small towns west of the state capital. (2). The Lees, who came from Revolutionary stock, were a patriotic family -- two of Edwin's brothers also enlisted and another attempted to enlist but was rejected because of a disability. (Another brother was a sutler during the war.)

On  the morning of April 18, 1862, a crowd gathered at the Collinsville train depot to await
the arrival of the coffin containing Edwin Lee's remains. The depot, shown in a post-Civil War 
photo, no longer exists. At right, the site today. (Left photo courtesy Canton Historical Musuem.)

After drilling in Hartford, Lee and his comrades headed for New York, where the 11th Connecticut left by steamer on Dec. 17, 1861, bound for Annapolis, Md. The 11th Connecticut  broke camp in early January and sailed to North Carolina as part of Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Expedition. In early March, Lee and his comrades moved from Roanoke Island to fight in their second battle of the war, an attack near New Bern, N.C., an important link in the Confederate supply chain and thus a key military target.

As Rebel artillery fire shrieked through the air around 9 a.m. on March 14, 1862, Lee wheeled his men into line to attack an enemy behind entrenchments several hundred yards away. Suddenly, an artillery shell crashed into the captain, killing Lee and five other Union soldiers, according to one account.


Lee's funeral cortege went through New Hartford, Conn., a short distance
 from where he was buried. Flags were at  half-mast along the route that day.

Although it seems unlikely after being struck in the abdomen by an artillery shell, Lee reportedly uttered these final words: "Tell my brother I died at the post of duty. Good-by. Go on for your country!" (3) The last sentence was later carved on Lee's tombstone.

A day after the battle, Lee was buried on the bank of the Neuse River, a short distance from where he was killed. His body was later disinterred and then shipped back north by the army on April 11 aboard the transport ship U.S. Jersey Blue, under the care of Reverend George Soule, the chaplain for the 11th Connecticut. Rank has its privileges, even in death. Four days later, the Jersey Blue arrived in New York, where Lee's family or his friends in the City Guard likely arranged for the final leg of the sad journey to Hartford. (4)

On Friday morning, April 18, 1862 -- a day the Hartford Courant reporter described as "one of the finest of the spring" -- Lee's remains began the meandering journey by train from Hartford to his funeral in Barkhamsted, about 30 miles away. Nearly 50 of Lee's former co-workers at the Sharps Rifle Co. and 44 City Guards were aboard as the train slowly wound its way through New Britain, Plainville and Unionville before finally arriving in the small Farmington River manufacturing town of Collinsville. (The Collins Co. in Collinsville supplied pikes to John Brown that the abolitionst intended to use to help incite a slave rebellion in Harper's Ferry, Va., in 1859.)

By 10 a.m., a large crowd had gathered at the Collinsville train depot, including many of Lee's friends, and the soldier's coffin was loaded into a coach for the 10-mile journey to Barkhamsted. As the cortege traveled up the steep hills before descending into the valley, "the sun and dust conspired to make the trip rather uncomfortable," the Courant reporter wrote, and the journey became tedious. But all along the route, through the small towns of Pine Meadow and New Hartford, the U.S. flag was displayed at half-mast in respect for Lee.

Edwin Lee's coffin was placed on a bier in front of this Methodist church in
Barkhamsted, Conn. At top, an early 20th century photo of the church before it was
expanded in the 1990s. Lee's grave marker is just to the right of the big, leafy tree.
Bottom, the church today. (Top photo courtesy Barkhamsted Historical Society)

The funeral cortege finally arrived at Pleasant Valley Methodist Church at 1 p.m.. Edwin Lee's coffin was removed from the coach and placed on a bier on the grass in front of the church  A large crowd had gathered, including Lee's grief-stricken family, parents Henry and Mary, and his brothers and sister.

A choir sang "When Blooming Youth Is Snatched Away," and an address and a prayer were offered by two local reverends. Lee's coffin was then carried to his gravesite about 25 yards away. The diligent Courant reporter described the scene:

The City Guard fired a volley over the grave, and again formed in marching order. The Armory Band, which played a durge during the march to the grave, played a lively quickstep as the company went away. "The King is dead; long live the King."

(1) Hartford Courant, April 20, 1862, Page 2
(2) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morrism 1869, Page 129
(3) Ibid, Page 175
(4) New York Times, April 16, 1862