Antietam: A staggering toll for the 8th Connecticut

October 1862 monthly returns for the 8th Connecticut. (Connecticut State Library archives)

A trip to the Connecticut State Library archives usually proves rewarding. Last week, I found a newspaper account from 1922 that shed light on the life of 20th Connecticut Private George Warner, who lost both his arms to friendly fire at Gettysburg. On Saturday morning, I discovered Warner's enlistment paper -- he was 5-11, with blue eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion -- and another gem: the monthly returns for October 1862 for the 8th Connecticut. The massive account of the regiment includes the staggering toll it suffered at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. Forty-one soldiers were listed as killed or mortally wounded on the fragile document.

Many of those men and boys have been written about on my blog. Private Oliver Case of Simsbury, killed. Color-bearer George Booth, a corporal from Litchfield, mortally wounded. George Marsh, a sergeant from Hartford and also a member of the regiment's color guard, KIA. Corporal Robert Ferriss of New Milford, killed. The death tally for the regiment at Antietam, according to my downloadable Excel spreadsheet, was at least 55 of the approximately 400 who participated in the fighting.

Antietam: Final resting places for New York soldiers

A cropped close-up of Alexander Gardner's image of graves of New York soldiers near
Burnside Bridge. Civil War photography expert William Frassanito first discovered
the names of the soldiers on their wooden headboards. (Library of Congress collection)
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

Headstones for Private John Thompson and Corporal Michael Keefe
 in Antietam National Cemetery.

In Alexander Gardner's iconic image of temporary graves of 51st New York soldiers at the foot of a stone wall near Burnside Bridge, the names of four of the men can be read upon magnification on crude, wooden headboards. Sergeant George Loud of Company C (buried at the feet of the posed soldier), Private Edward Miller of Company H (three graves to the right of Loud), Private John Thompson of Company B (three graves to the right of Miller) and Corporal Michael Keefe of Company I (second grave to right of Thompson) were killed during the attack at the bridge.

 In October 1866, more than four years after the Battle of Antietam, the task of disinterring the Union dead on the field began. Perhaps that's when the remains of these four New York soldiers, probably just bones by that time, were discovered. By Sept. 17, 1867, their remains had been transferred to their final resting places in Antietam National Cemetery, which was dedicated that day with President Andrew Johnson in attendance. Soldiers in the national cemetery were originally buried under wooden headboards, which eventually deteriorated and were replaced with stone markers in the 1870s.

During a recent visit to the national cemetery, the gravestones of all four men were easily found in the same row in the large New York section, about 35 yards from the entrance. Whether they are actually buried under those markers, however, is anyone's guess. In a comparison of a circa 1866-67 stereoview of national cemetery markers to a similar modern image, Antietam photo expert Stephen Recker ("Rare Images of Antietam," Page 35) demonstrated that bodies are not buried directly under the markers indicated. At least two graves in the Connecticut section of the national cemetery do not hold the bodies that are noted on their markers. The remains of Private Oliver Case of the 8th Connecticut, killed near Harpers Ferry Road at Antietam, were recovered by his father and reburied in their hometown of Simsbury, Conn. Private Bridgeman Hollister of the 16th Connecticut, mortally wounded at Antietam, is actually buried in his hometown of Glastonbury, Conn.

Who's really buried under their markers at Antietam National Cemetery? And how many other markers in the cemetery are inaccurate? We'll probably never know.

Headstones for Sergeant George Loud and Private Edward Miller in 
Antietam National Cemetery. Loud was posthumously promoted
 to sergeant, Miller to corporal.

Antietam: Snavely Ford interactive panorama, photos

                                    Click on image for full-screen interactive panorama.

As Yankees struggled to dislodge Rebels from the bluffs above Antietam Creek and Burnside Bridge during the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, two 8th Connecticut companies were sent upstream about a mile from the bridge to find a ford. At last across the waist-deep creek at Snavely Ford about 1 p.m., Private William Pratt of the 8th Connecticut and his comrades sought shelter under the crest of a hill, where they watched “the peculiar end over end movement of shells nearly spent” go over their heads during an artillery duel.

Famished, the private’s thoughts turned to food -- or lack thereof. “I think 4 crackers was all Uncle Sam furnished me that trying day,” recalled Pratt, who also remembered an officer in the regiment grinning at him with an ear of raw corn in his mouth, “a substitute for scanty rations or no rations at all.” (1)  Pratt, whose story is told in my book, "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam," was later wounded in the thigh near Harpers Ferry Road and briefly became a prisoner of war.

Private William Pratt of the 8th Connecticut
 crossed Antietam Creek at Snavely Ford. 
He was later wounded in the 
thigh and captured. 
(Connecticut State Library)

Last Friday morning, John Rogers and I traced the route that Pratt and his comrades in the 8th Connecticut took from Snavely Ford onto the battlefield at John Otto's farm. Heavily wooded today, the ground was much more open in 1862.

The 8th Connecticut and 16th Connecticut, frequent subjects on my blog, were part of General Isaac Rodman's division that crossed Antietam Creek at the ford. The Yankees were briefly harassed there by soldiers in the 50th Georgia, who fired on their enemy from the rocky high ground along the creek. Pratt and his comrades undoubtedly watched the artillery duel play out over their heads at the foot of that hill.

I joined Rogers, who chronicles the story of 8th Connecticut Private Oliver Case on his excellent blog, on a steep climb up to the crest, where the view of the creek was largely hidden by trees. A Southerner whose great-great grandfather served as a sergeant in the 22nd Georgia at Antietam, Rogers wondered how much Yankees and Rebel lead from that firefight 151 years ago  remained in the ground. We'll probably never find out. Most of the ground we covered Friday is National Park Service property and thus relic hunting there is strictly forbidden.

 The 1.8-mile Snavely Ford Trail, maintained by volunteers and the Park Service, is one of the hidden gems of Antietam. Put it on your must-see list the next time you visit the battlefield.

(1) Pratt, William MacLain, My Story of The War, unpublished manuscript, 1912

Part of General Isaac Rodman's division, the 8th and 16th Connecticut regiments crossed here at 
Snavely Ford about 1 p.m. on Sept. 17, 1862.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

50th Georgia soldiers harassed the Yankees from this high ground along Antietam Creek,
 near Snavely Ford. A path along the creek allows modern-day visitors to survey the scene.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Antietam panorama: Oliver Case's Connecticut grave

                                                  Click on image for full-screen panorama.

Three months after Oliver Case was shot through the head and killed at the Battle of Antietam, his father, Job, traveled to Sharpsburg, Md., to recover the remains of his son. Case was re-buried in Simsbury, Conn., his hometown, sometime during the winter of 1862.

On his blog about Case, John Rogers eloquently tells the tale of the 22-year-old private in the 8th Connecticut. Eloquent is also a good word to use to describe Case, whose remarkable letters to his sister Abbie are preserved in the Simsbury Historical Society. I knew nothing about Case's story until I began corresponding 18 months ago with Rogers, a career military man from Georgia who knows a thing or two about the sacrifice soldiers make for our country.

I find myself drawn to Case's grave high atop the slope at the cemetery about 10 miles from my house. Perhaps it's the beautiful white marker with the inscription "Killed at Antietam, Md." that pulls me back there. Or maybe it's the inscription "Aged 22 Years." 22 years old. That kid had years of life ahead of him. Or maybe it's the story of Case and his Bible, which the soldier inscribed with the words "If you die, die like a man." Maybe it's because I just like the view of the quaint New England town from the atop that hill.

On a bike ride Sunday, I decided to stop by Case's grave, this time to shoot an interactive panorama. More than 150 years ago, Job Case stood there to bury his son, one of more than 200 men and boys from the Connecticut who died at Antietam. On Memorial Day, Case's grave and the graves of all veterans in the old cemetery were decorated with American flags. A nice touch. Well-deserved, too.

Oliver Case is buried in Simsbury (Conn.) Cemetery, not far from the house where he grew up.

Antietam: Where's Bridgeman Hollister really buried?

Gravestone for Private Bridgeman Hollister of the 16th Connecticut in tiny Wassaic Cemetery 
in Glastonbury, Conn. Bridgeman was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.

On Sept. 17, 1862, Private Bridgeman J. Hollister of the 16th Connecticut was shot in the throat in the 40-Acre Cornfield during the Battle of Antietam. Eight days later, the 30-year-old soldier from Glastonbury died, perhaps at the German Reform Church in Sharpsburg, where many soldiers in his regiment were cared for, or at Smoketown or Big Spring hospitals near the battlefield. Today, a gray marker, gravestone No. 1,104, marks Hollister's final resting place at Antietam National Cemetery.

The gravestone for Bridgeman J. Hollister in
Antietam National Cemetery.

Or maybe not.

In tiny Wassaic Cemetery in Glastonbury, two markers for Hollister may be found: a small, state-issued gravestone placed in the 1930s and a large, slate-gray gravestone on which family members' names are inscribed.

A document in the Glastonbury (Conn.) Historical Society indicates Hollister's remains were indeed returned to Connecticut. Signed by town sexton Holcey Buck, it notes that Brigman (sic) Hollister was buried at Wassuc (also known as Wassaic) Cemetery on Jan. 17, 1863. Under place of death, Buck wrote "The Battle Antitum."

So if Hollister is buried in Glastonbury, who's really buried under marker No, 1,104 at the national cemetery in Sharpsburg? Or is that grave really empty?

Of course, this wouldn't be the first misidentified gravestone at Antietam. Private Oliver Case of the 8th Connecticut was shot through head and killed as his regiment was overwhelmed near Harpers Ferry Road, just outside Sharpsburg. His father, Job, retrieved his body from the battlefield and returned his son's remains to Simsbury for burial in the town cemetery. But in the Connecticut section at the national cemetery in Sharpsburg, the name O.C. Case is carved on gravestone No, 1,090. Who's really buried under that tombstone?

According to this document,  Bridgeman Hollister's remains were buried by Glastonbury sexton
 Holcey Buck in Wassaic Cemetery on Jan. 17, 1863.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

---

-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

Antietam: Old 16th Connecticut monument photo

Damaged photograph, probably taken in 1894,  of the 16th Connecticut monument at Antietam. 
The monument was dedicated on Oct. 11, 1894.  (Connecticut State Library Civil War collection)

Close-up of William Tipton's name on the 
photograph. The reverse of the photo includes 
the address of Tipton's Gettysburg studio.
(Connecticut State Library)
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

 Like this blog on Facebook.
Antietam rare photo expert Stephen Recker undoubtedly could tell us more about this damaged oversized photograph of  the 16th Connecticut monument taken by William Tipton. This image, torn at the top, was probably shot by Tipton in October 1894, when 16th Connecticut veterans and their families returned to the battlefield for the monument dedication. (See Page 10 of the "Souvenir of Excursion to Antietam," a recap published in December 1894 of the Connecticut veterans' return to the battlefield.) Tipton was well known for his battlefield photographs of Gettysburg, where he had a studio, but he also took shots at Antietam, only 45 miles south of our most famous Civil War site.

Discovered this morning in a box in the George Whitney Collection at the Connecticut State Library, this photograph is interesting because it shows the field probably much as it looked on Sept. 17, 1862. There's more vegetation today in this scene, which was the farm of John Otto during the battle. I wonder if that tree in the left background is the one that 16th Connecticut adjutant John Burnham described as the "large tree standing alone" where many of the dead of his regiment -- including privates John Bingham and Henry Barnett  and Lieutenant William Horton -- were temporarily buried before their remains were returned to Connecticut. (8th Connecticut private Oliver Case, subject of John Rogers' excellent blog,  also was buried with the dead of the 16th Connecticut.) It certainly merits more research ... or a blog reader setting me straight.

Recker, by the way, has a book coming out soon on rare views of the Antietam battlefield. Don't miss it. It will be spectacular.

Recker responds in comments section: "Thanks for the plug! This is really exciting. I have a number of Tipton 8x10s of Antietam monuments but have not seen this one. They are great for the ability to see clearly in the distance. What is notable here is a section of the Connecticut Park fence. There are remnants of what I think is the original fence, but this would help to confirm that. In my book I have a few pages from Tipton's hand-written catalog of Antietam views and this is in it. It does not have a date, but shows that he offered this view in 8x10, 11x14, and 14x17. Very cool. Thanks for putting this up."

Close-up of the monument photo showing detail in the background. BELOW: A shot of the 
monument taken from near  photogapher William Tipton's location more than 100 years ago.
(Connecticut State Library Civil War collection)

---

Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.