In a Connecticut cemetery, two brothers are not forgotten

A before and after of the Hollister brothers' marker in a Middle Haddam, Conn., cemetery.

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More than a decade ago, I spotted a grimy gravestone for the Hollister brothers—Francis, 20, and Frederick, 18—in Union Hill Cemetery in Middle Haddam, Conn. Both served in Company K of the 14th Connecticut and died of disease within a half hour of each other in a camp near Fredericksburg, Va., two days before Christmas 1862.

“They lost their blankets at Antietam and for three months had to sleep out of doors or crouch scantily clad all night long over a smoky camp-fire, from which exposure they died,” according to a regimental history. The brothers' bodies were returned to Connecticut and buried "with appropriate ceremonies" on  Jan. 11, 1863.

Now the good news from Kimberly, who read an old post on the brothers on my blog. She and her husband cleaned the stone. Fabulous work.

“It took about three separate cleanings to get the gravestone as white as you see it. It could stand to use at least two more cleanings this season because there is still some very slight staining over the epitaph, and it's still a bit spotty at the bottom of the gravestone. This was one challenging stone to clean! It was black with years of biological growth and sticky tree sap, forming a thick cement-like layer on the gravestone. We also planted some daffodil bulbs (which have since bloomed) and placed a new GAR marker for the brothers.”

Let’s keep history alive. 👊

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SOURCES

• Page, Charles, History of the Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, Meriden, Conn.: The Horton Printing Company, 1906
• Hartford Courant, Jan. 20, 1863

Antietam: A penny for your thoughts

Gravestone of 16th Connecticut captain Newton Manross in Forestville Cemetery in Bristol.
A professor before the war, Manross told his wife upon enlisting: "You can better afford to have
 a country without a husband than a husband without a country." (CLICK HERE FOR STORY.)

Gravestone of William Sweet, a 20-year-old private in the 8th Connecticut, at Carey Cemetery
in rural Canterbury, Conn. Three other soldiers killed at Antietam -- Sergeant Charles Lewis of the
8th Connecticut, Private Dwight Carey of the 8th Connecticut  and Private Charles Morse
of the 11th Connecticut -- are also buried at Carey Cemetery.  (CLICK HERE FOR STORY.)

Gravestone of Daniel Tarbox, a private in the 11th Connecticut. Buried in South Cemetery
in Brooklyn, Conn., Tarbox was mortally wounded at Antietam at the assault on Burnside Bridge.
Only 18 years old, he died the day after the battle.  (CLICK HERE FOR STORY.)

Two pennies on the gravestone of brothers Francis and Frederick Hollister of the 14th Connecticut.
The Hollisters, who lost their blankets at Antietam, died within a half-hour of each other a little
 more than three months later, at Falmouth, Va. They are buried together in Union Hill Cemetery 
in East Hampton, Conn. (CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY.)

Gravestone of 16th Connecticut private Thomas DeMars of Cromwell, Conn. Killed at Antietam, 
he is buried at Kelsey Cemetery in Cromwell. He was only 19 years old.

For the past 15 months, I have traveled throughout Connecticut -- from Brooklyn in the east to Bristol in the west -- visiting the graves of solders with a connection to the Battle of Antietam. It's not hard to find them. Scores of men and boys from Connecticut were killed or mortally wounded in the fields and woodlots outside Sharpsburg, Md., on Sept. 17, 1862 -- the bloodiest day in American history. Each time I visit a cemetery, I place a penny, Lincoln side up, on the soldier's gravestone. I figure that's a neat way to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice nearly 150 years ago. As the 150th anniversary of Antietam nears, perhaps you'll want to do the same in a cemetery near you. (Lincoln side up, of course.)