Avon's Wallace Woodford 'came home to die'

Wallace Woodford, a 22-year-old private in the 16th Connecticut, is buried
 in West Avon (Conn.) Cemetery. He  died shortly after being released 
from a POW camp in 1865.

Wracked with pain, Wallace Woodford thrashed about as he tried to sleep, tormented by thoughts of his treatment by the Rebels. Woodford's parents desperately tried to nurse him back to health following his return home to Avon, Conn. on Jan 3, 1865, after eight months in Confederate prisoner-of-war camps. But the 22-year-old private in the 16th Connecticut Infantry was clearly a broken man.

Wallace Woodford is buried in Avon, Conn. 
His parents, Corydon and
 Sylvia,  are buried in the same plot.

"He had been so long without proper nourishment that he was unable to eat even the most delicate morsels which his parents provided for him on his return," the Hartford Courant reported. "Continued hunger had destroyed his vitals. When asleep he would throw his arms about, thinking he was in Andersonville ... endeavoring to obtain food."

Exhausted mentally and physically, Woodford found it difficult to talk about his imprisonment in Andersonville, the most notorious Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, and later at a stockade in Florence, S.C. "Words could not describe the horrors," he reportedly told his friends. (1)

Unable to gain strength, Wallace Woodford, paroled by the Rebels on Dec. 10, 1864, died exactly a month later in his hometown, his parents Corydon and Sylvia likely by his side.

For Woodford and other members of the 16th Connecticut, Andersonville was hell on earth. By August 1864, the camp in southwestern Georgia was home for 32,000 Union prisoners of war jammed on about 26 1/2 acres. POWs, who often drank from the polluted stream that ran through the camp, suffered from overexposure, malnutrition and disease.

In his excellent book on his imprisonment published in 1865, Robert H. Kellogg, a private in Company A in the 16th, recounted the terrible, crowded conditions there.

"I ... wished that the President, under whose banner we had fought, could look in upon our sufferings, for surely the sight would move him to help us, if anything could be done," Kellogg wrote. "Live worms crawled upon the bacon that was given us to eat. 'It is all right,' we said; 'we are nothing but Yankee prisoners, or, as the rebels usually speak of us, 'damned Yankees.' " (2)

By August 1864, 32,000 Union soldiers were jammed into the 26 /1/2 acres
 of Andersonville prison. Wallace Woodford arrived at the camp in southwestern 
Georgia sometime in the spring of 1864.  (Library of Congress photo)

Nearly 13,000 Unions soldiers died at Andersonville during the camp's 15-month existence from February 1864 to April 1865. Near the end of the war, when Union General William Tecumseh Sherman marched through the state, many Andersonville prisoners were transferred to other camps in Georgia and South Carolina. (Private Van Buren Towle of the 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, whose story I told in this post in May, also was imprisoned at Andersonville and Florence, S.C.)

One of the hard-luck regiments of the Civil War, the 16th was sent into captivity April 20, 1864, when the hugely outnumbered Union garrison in Plymouth, N.C. surrendered. University of Akron professor Lesley Gordon has an excellent account of the regiment's surrender and capture here.

Robert Kellogg (right) , a sergeant  in the  16th Connecticut,
  described the horrors of  Andersonville in a book
 published in 1865. 
 (Photo courtesy Connecticut History Online/
Connecticut State Library.)

Wallace Woodford enlisted in the Union army as a private on July 28, 1862, about a year after Bull Run, the first major battle of the war. Nearly a month later, he was mustered into Company I of the 16th Connecticut, one of about 1,000 soldiers from prosperous towns in Hartford County.

Like most Civil War soldiers, young Wallace probably knew little of the rigors of army life before the war. In fact, before the 16th Connecticut shipped off for New York on Aug. 29, 1862, he probably had never traveled far from Avon, a small farming town of a little more than 1,000 people about 15 miles northwest of Hartford. (3)

By the summer of 1862, the Union army had suffered a series of defeats around Richmond during McClellan's Peninsula campaign. It was obvious the war would not be over soon, but Woodford, like many men his age, probably was excited about his new adventure.

Less than a month after it was mustered into the Union army, the barely trained 16th Connecticut was under fire, struggling to ford Antietam Creek about a mile upstream from the Rohrbach Bridge, during the Battle of Antietam. Later that afternoon on Sept. 17, 1862 -- the bloodiest day in American history -- it was positioned on the extreme left flank of the Union army, in the field of a farmer named John Otto.

John Otto's 40-acre cornfield at Antietam, viewed from the Confederates' 
vantage point. "We could not see the rebels, but could hear them and their
 bullets," a 16th Connecticut soldier wrote.  The 16th Connecticut monument, 
dedicated in 1894,  is in the distance.

Charles Clark, a sergeant in Company A of the 16th, described the fighting outside Sharpsburg, Md.

"A piece of shell struck very near me," he wrote in an account published in the Hartford Courant on Sept. 25, 1862. "Our Chaplain had his clothes torn, our Surgeon's horse was wounded, and a private in Company I was hit in the left arm. About noon we advanced again, and were informed that our right was whipping out the rebels. In the middle of the afternoon, we went into the fight, and a terrible one it was, piles of our men were wounded. Our regiment was in a corn-field, where we could not see the rebels, but could hear them and their bullets."

On Sept. 25, 1862, the Hartford Courant printed 
a list of  16th Connecticut soldiers killed at 
Antietam. Seven men from Woodford's Co. I were
 listed,  including Henry Evans of Avon, Conn. 
Woodford was among the wounded.

The 16th was thrashed that September afternoon, struck in the left flank by veterans of A.P. Hill's division who had just arrived on the field after a 17-mile march from Harpers Ferry, Va. Many of the Connecticut men broke and ran during the battle, a stigma the regiment never erased. Out of 779 men, the 16th Connecticut suffered 43 killed, 161 wounded -- losses of about 26 percent.

At some point during the fighting at Antietam, Woodford was wounded and perhaps later treated at a field hospital at the Henry Rohrbach farm nearby. Seven members of Company I, including Corporal Henry D. Evans of Avon, were killed.

Many men in the 16th Connecticut never got over Antietam or imprisonment in Andersonville.

Wrote Lesley Gordon:

An estimated three hundred members of the 16th Connecticut were imprisoned at Andersonville and nearly one third of them perished there. Even for those who survived and returned home, many found their health destroyed by their long captivity, and struggled to adapt to civilian life. It is unclear how many soldiers from the 16th Connecticut battled mental depression, but several spent their final years in the state’s Insane Asylum. (4)

Sixteeen months after Antietam, Private Wallace C. Woodfoord's short life ended. Sometime during the middle of a New England winter, he was mourned and eulogized at West Avon Congregational Church. His body lies today in West Avon Cemetery beneath an 8-foot brownstone monument inscribed with these words:

"8 months a sufferer in Rebel prisons. He came home to die."

A closeup of Wallace Woodford's well-worn grave marker.

(1) Hartford Courant, Jan. 12, 1865
(2) "Life And Death In Rebel Prisons," Robert H. Kellogg, 1865, Page 166
(3) U.S. census
(4) “The ‘Rebs Took Us All”: The 16th Connecticut in War and Captivity, Lesley J. Gordon, 2009, University of Akron

Antietam visit: Roulette Farm video/photo journal

One of my favorite spots at Antietam is the William Roulette Farm, scene of terrible fighting during the late morning and afternoon of Sept. 17, 1862. The farm is not only rich in battlefield history, it's a photographer's dream -- especially in the early morning light on a fall day. And even when all you have is a Blackberry Bold to take photos (and video).

Until a couple walking their large dog arrived, I had the farm to myself last Saturday morning. I was especially keen on visiting the springhouse behind the Roulette farmhouse. That's where soldiers from Company B of the 14th Connecticut Infantry captured Rebel skirmishers by using good old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity. (Check out my video above for further explanation.)

Roulette Farm springhouse, where 14th Connecticut soldiers captured Rebel skirmishers.

William Roulette, known as "Billy" locally, was pro-Union. He encouraged Union soldiers to drive
the Rebels from his property during the battle. The house is on National Park Service property.

After the battle, William Roulette's prosperous farm was ruined. Like many houses in the Sharpsburg area, his was used as a field hospital. I have read accounts that the carpets in his parlor were so drenched with blood that they had to be soaked for hours in nearby Antietam Creek. Roulette's barn, a stone's throw from his farmhouse, also was used as a Union field hospital.

I had the good fortune to know lifelong Sharpsburg resident Earl Roulette, William's great-grandson. Earl, who died at 88 in 2008, enjoyed telling stories about his great-grandfather during my visits at his house on Main Street. Earl had quite a collection of Antietam battlefield relics and other interesting items handed down by his ancestors, including this ammunition chest and this wedding ring pulled from the finger of a dead soldier. Expect part of Earl's collection that was acquired by the National Park Service to eventually be displayed at the Antietam Visitors Center.

Entrance to springhouse (left), which dates to the late 18th century, and the spring.

William Roulette's barn was used as a field hospital during the battle. The Roulette
farmhouse is up the hill in the left background.

14th Connecticut monument on the Roulette Farm, near the infamous Bloody Lane. The
regiment lost  38 killed and mortally wounded and  88 wounded.

Antietam visit: 16th Connecticut's demise

16th Connecticut soldiers Henry Evans of Avon and Henry Aldrich of Bristol were killed at Antietam.

Antietam National Cemetery, on a hill near the edge of Sharpsburg, Md., remains one of the most beautiful, peaceful and sad places I have ever visited. On a crisp, fall afternoon, leaves dancing in the air, it sometimes is a magical place, too. The cemetery is the final resting place for thousands of soldiers, mostly those killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. 

The 16th Connecticut monument at Antietam.

On Friday afternoon, I visited the graves of two 16th Connecticut soldiers killed at Antietam: Corporal Henry D. Evans of Avon (where I reside) and Private Henry Aldrich of Bristol. (My thanks to my friend Jim Buchanan of  the Walking the West Woods blog for adding the small American flags for the photo above.)

The 16th Connecticut paid a terrible price at Antietam, its first battle of the war. After the 16th was organized in Hartford in August 1862, these Connecticut men spent most of their time getting on and off steamships and learning the basics of military life.  Part of General Ambrose Burnside's extreme left flank at Antietam, the rookie regiment was unfathomably sent into John Otto's 40-acre cornfield in the later stages of the battle and was hit smack in the left flank by veterans of A.P. Hill's division. Out of 779 men, the 16th Connecticut lost 43 killed, 161 wounded and 204 captured or missing. Some of those killed never even fired a shot, and many of the survivors never got over the carnage at Antietam.

After the war, a soldier from the 16th described the terrible night after the battle as "the saddest we ever experienced."

"All was quiet and silent as the grave," Lieutenant Bernard Blakeslee of Hartford wrote. "The stacks of straw which the rebels had fired burned slow and dimly. The cries and groans of the wounded that lay on the battlefield could be heard distinctly, and the occasional report of artillery sounded solemn and death-like." (1)

View of the back of John Otto's farmhouse. Connecticut
troops moved across his property on the afternoon
of Sept. 17, 1862 after crossing Antietam Creek.

Blakeslee also described the treatment of the wounded:

All houses and barns were converted into hospitals, and yards and fields were strewn with straw and the wounded laid there without shelter. Surgeons worked hard day and night, taking rest only when unable to stand up from weariness. At one of these hospitals about 25 of the Sixteenth were placed. Nothing was to be heard but cries, groans, and entreaties. … In a room about 12×20 a bloody table stood and around it were five surgeons. A wounded man was laid on the table and it took but a few seconds for them to decide what to do, and but a few minutes to do it. The amputated limbs were thrown out of a window. In forty-eight hours there were as many as two cart loads of amputated legs, feet, arms, and hands in the pile. (2)

On Friday afternoon, I also walked the ground that the 16th Connecticut covered on the Otto farm with Buchanan and fellow blogger Jim Rosebrock of South From The North Woods blog. It's a wonder those Connecticut men, unused to forming for battle, even made it to Otto's 40-acre field. The undulating ground was probably tough for even veteran units to navigate. (See my video clip below.)

A small  stone marker at Antietam
National Cemetery denotes the final
resting place for three unknown soldiers.

Henry Evans' fellow townsmen -- privates Newton Evans, Wallace Woodford and Robert Hawley -- were wounded at Antietam. Hawley died eight days later. (Woodford and Newton Evans later became prisoners of war; Evans died in Andersonvile on Sept. 9, 1864, and Woodford died at home on Jan 10, 1865.) There is a marker for Henry Evans in West Avon Cemetery in Avon, perhaps put there so his family could mourn him more easily. The wife and mother of Aldrich, who served in Company K, applied for his pension after he was killed. It's unclear if the government paid up, but that merits further research.

Evans and Aldrich were among the lucky ones, I guess. At least their tombstones have names, perhaps a result of the diligence and compassion of a soldier such as 16th Connecticut First Lieutenant John Burnham. Burnham, from Hartford, helped identify and mark the gravesites of the dead of the 16th Connecticut in the days after the battle in the hope that their loved ones could retrieve their bodies. Many of the dead at Antietam National Cemetery are unknown, their final resting place marked by small square white markers with numbers denoting the number of bodies in a plot. It's a sad result of an awful Wednesday nearly 150 years ago.

(1) The History of the Sixteenth Connecticut, B.F. Blakeslee, 1875
(2) Ibid.

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

'Sad work': Connecticut dead at Antietam

Alvin Flint, 18, a private from East Hartford in the 11th Connecticut, was among those listed in the
 Hartford Courant as killed in action at Antietam.

On Sept. 27, 1862, the Hartford Courant printed on its front page the "official" list of dead, wounded and missing from the 8th, 11th and 16th Connecticut regiments at the battle of Antietam 10 days earlier.

Cemetery markers for Connecticut men killed
at Antietam: Alvin Flint (Center Cemetery,
East Hartford), Joseph Mansfield (Indian
Hills Cemetery, Middletown), Henry
Evans (West Avon Cemetery, Avon).

The list took up 25 inches of newsprint.

25 inches.

It included Alvin Flint, an 18-year-old private from East Hartford who died in the 11th Connecticut's attack at Burnside Bridge. (Less than four months later, his father and 13-year-old brother both died of disease while serving in the Union army.)

It also listed Corporal Solomon Allen of  East Windsor. Killed.

Sergeant Cyprian Rust of New Hartford. Killed.

Lieutenant-colonel Hiram Appleman of Groton. Badly wounded in the leg.

Private Austin Fuller of Farmington. Missing. (He later became a prisoner of war.)

Corporal Leonidas Barber of Stonington. "Dangerously" wounded in the head.

Private George S. Wilcox of Wallingford. Three fingers amputated.

Private Hiram Blakeslee of Southington. Wounded in both feet.

For families of soldiers back in Connecticut, the fate of their loved ones may have been known less than 10 days after the battle 360 miles away in Sharpsburg, Md. Still, the publication of this list must have been an incredibly painful jolt for many readers of the Hartford Courant.

For families of the dead, a trip to bring home the bodies of their sons, husbands or brothers must have been even more agonizing. Fortunately, some members of the Union army tried to ease their burden.

In a letter to the Hartford Courant published Sept. 30, 1862, First Lieutenant John Burnham of the 16th Connecticut provided a detailed description of where those killed in his regiment were buried so "friends at home shall have authentic information as soon as possible."

Burnham described how the bodies were arranged for burial, key landmarks near the gravesites and the placing of small headboards marked with the names and companies of the dead men.

Top, crude headboards mark graves of Union soldiers killed near Burnside Bridge, which appears
 in the background. Bottom., that's me at approximately the same spot as the Civil War soldier. The
tree in the background at extreme left was there during the battle. (Top photo: Library of Congress)

John Burnham
(Mollus Collection)

"I have been particular to mention the precise locality of each," Burnham wrote in the letter dated two days after the battle, "so that in the event of the signs being displaced by the elements or otherwise, they may be found; and I trust that anyone who comes to the spot will be very particular and disturb none but those of whom they are in search."

Added Burnham: "The collection of the bodies was conducted under my own personal supervision, and after the men had reported them all picked up I examined the whole field myself, so that I am confident none were left on the ground."

For Burnham, a Hartford resident, the memory of this onerous work must have remained with him the rest of his life.

"If any mortal was ever rejoiced at the completion of any task," he wrote in the letter to the newspaper, "it was myself when this sad work was over."

A list of Connecticut casualties at Antietam published on the front page of the
Hartford Courant on Sept. 27, 1862. The list continued elsewhere on the front page
and did not include casualties from the 14th Connecticut.

Civil War under my nose: Deaths of Lee brothers

Edwin R. Lee, killed at New Bern, N.C. on March 14, 1862, is buried in
Riverside Cemetery, near the Farmington River, in Barkhamsted, Conn.

Worn by the elements, the words carved on Edwin Ruthven Lee's brownstone memorial still resonate nearly 150 years after he was laid to rest with military honors in Riverside Cemetery in tiny Barkhamsted, Conn.

"His last words were Go on for your Country.

"He died that his country might live."

Brothers Edwin and Henry Lee were killed during the
 Civil War. Edwin was never married. Henry left behind a wife
 and four children.
(Photos from John Lee of Hartford Co. and His Descendants)

A captain in the 11th Connecticut Infantry, Lee was just 28 years old when he was killed in battle at New Bern, N.C. on March, 14, 1862. His body was buried near the battlefield and eventually brought back north for burial.

A little more than two years later, Edwin's oldest brother, Henry Bryan Lee, suffered the same fate. A 37-year-old lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut Infantry, Henry was mortally wounded at the Battle of Deep Run (also called Deep Bottom), near Richmond, on Aug. 16, 1864. Although his name and place and date of death are carved on the side of his brother's grave marker, Henry isn't buried next to Edwin. His final resting place is in Virginia in a grave marked "Unknown," the sad fate of many Civil War soldiers.

The deaths of the Lee brothers is another reminder of the immense toll the war took on some Connecticut families. During the past two years, I have found four western Connecticut families who lost multiple members during the Civil War. Three Wadhams brothers died in battle in Virginia in the summer 1864. Elijah Bacon, awarded the Medal of Honor for capturing a flag at Gettysburg, was killed in battle at the Wilderness, and his brother, Andrew, died in a prisoner-of-war camp in South Carolina. Brothers Alvin and George Flint, as well as their father, Alvin Sr., also died in service to their country.

I often pass by the Lee brothers' 10-foot marker, a stone's throw from the Farmington River, during bike rides along scenic River Road near People's State Forest. Until today, I knew little about them. Here's some of what I have uncovered:

Edwin Lee, described as a "young man of a clear head and earnest convictions," was a supporter of  Abraham Lincoln, often making speeches for the Republican  candidate during the 1860 presidential campaign. (1) Inspired by the Union cause, Edwin raised a company of men, enlisted from Hartford as a captain in the 11th Connecticut on Sept. 27, 1861, and was commissioned into Company D two months later. One of three brothers who served in the Union army (another brother was rejected as unfit to serve because of a disability), Edwin was a rifle maker before the war. (2)  He was employed at the Colt Armory and Sharps Rifle Company in Hartford, both of which supplied a large number of small arms to the Union army during the war. (3)

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. In early January, the 11th broke camp and eventually made its way to North Carolina as part of Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Expedition.

Edwin Lee's occupation was listed a rifle maker on the 1860 U.S. census.

In early March, the 11th Connecticut moved from Roanoke Island to take part in an attack near New Bern, an important link in the Confederate supply chain and thus a key military target. In helping overwhelm the poorly trained and hugely outnumbered rebels, the 11th Connecticut suffered 14 wounded and six men killed.

"It was a sickening sight that met us, dead horses, mangled men, broken cannons, knapsacks and guns were slung in every direction," an officer in the 11th Connecticut wrote of the battle's aftermath.

Among the dead was Captain Edwin R. Lee, struck in the abdomen by a shell that also killed five other men. Lee, just 44 days short of his 29th birthday, died shortly after being wounded as he was leading a company into line. "Tell my brother I died at the post of duty," he said shortly after suffering the mortal wound. "Good-by. Go on for your country!" (4)

Edwin Lee (upper right) was listed as killed in action at New Bern in the
Hartford Courant on March 20, 1862.

A day after the battle, Lee was buried on the bank of the Neuse River. Because he was an officer, Lee's body probably was handled with care and eventually shipped back north, perhaps at the army's expense, for burial. "I was conversing with him the morning of the battle," Henry Roger Jones of New Hartford, a sergeant in the 8th Connecticut, wrote after the war. "He was killed about 9 o'clock a.m. ... He was a young man of talent, and a gallant soldier." (5)

Like his brother Edwin, Henry apparently also was well regarded by his comrades. A machinist who resided in Derby, Conn,  about 45 miles southeast of Hartford, Henry was described as a "brave, faithful, uncomplaining soldier" and an "honest, conscientious, devoted patriot." (5) Henry, who enlisted as a sergeant on Sept. 9, 1861, was married to a woman from Massachusetts. He and wife Arre Ann had four young children under 10 years old at the start of the war in April 1861: Ellen, 7; Emma, 4; Charles, 2; and Maria, 2 months. (Another child, Henry, died shortly after he was born in March 1853.) (6)

Against his brother's wishes, Henry Lee re-enlisted in the army in 1864

When Henry's enlistment was up in 1864, William Wallace Lee, the brother who was rejected for service in the 2nd Connecticut Artillery because of a disability, urged him to stay at home with his young family. But Henry re-enlisted anyway and was promoted to Second Lieutenant on March 1, 1864.

"I will fight the enemies of my country while I live," Henry replied to William. "I'll see the end of this, or it shall see the end of me." (7)

Henry B. Lee, a lieutenant in the
 7th Connecticut,  died at Deep Run, Va.,
 on Aug. 16, 1864.

The 7th Connecticut served in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida from April 1862 to late February 1864 before being moved to Virginia in May 1864. Believing he could end the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, General Ulysses Grant concentrated his forces, including the 7th Connecticut, on Rebel entrenchments near the James River beginning Aug. 13, 1864.

Three days later, Henry B. Lee, the father of four young children, was mortally wounded in another assault on Confederate entrenchments in the Battle of Deep Run.  The eldest Lee brother died in enemy hands as the Union army hastily retreated, and was buried on the battlefield. (8). Henry was later reburied in Fort Harrison National Cemetery, near Richmond, where his body lies with many other Union soldiers whose tombstones are marked "Unknown." (9)

(1) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morrism 1869, Page 175
(2) 1860 U.S. Census
(3) Ellery Bicknell Crane. Genealogy of the Crane family (Volume 1)
(4) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, Page 175
(5) Barkhamsted And Its Centennial, William Wallace Lee and Henry Roger Jones, 1881, Page 175
(6) John Lee, of Farmington, Hartford County, Conn., and His Descendants, Sarah Marsh Lee, 1878, Page 144
(7) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, Page 655
(8) Ibid
(9)  John Lee, of Farmington, Hartford County, Conn., and His Descendants, Sarah Marsh Lee 

Two Grand Army of the Republic markers and two American flags adorn the gravesite of
Edwin R. Lee, a captain in the 11th Connecticut. The fate of Lee's brother,  Henry, is also
carved into this brownstone memorial in Barkhamsted, Conn., but he is buried elsewhere. 

Faces of the Civil War: Unknown V

A full-plate tintype, possibly of a soldier from Maine.

I bought this full-plate tintype at Dallas gun show in the mid-1990s. Based on writing in the paper case that holds this photo, I believe this soldier is from Maine. The full-plate size is uncommon, so I parted with $75 to add this faded image to my collection of Civil War photography. ("Sucker!") This photo was obviously in a picture frame at some point. The buttons are tinted gold on the uniform of this bearded soldier. He merits further research, but this guy's name is probably lost to history.

Civil War under my nose: Flint family tragedy

I have come across several especially tragic stories involving Connecticut families during the Civil War in the past two years. The Wadhams family of Litchfield lost three sons in battles in Virginia within an 18-day span in the summer of 1864, and the Bacon family of Berlin lost two sons -- one in battle at the Wilderness and another at a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Florence, S.C.

In a letter published in the Hartford Courant
on Oct. 29, 1862, Alvin Flint Sr. lamented the
 death of his 18-year-old son  at Antietam.  "My boy
 was brutally murdered by
a band of midnight assassins," he wrote.

But the story of the Flint family of East Hartford, Conn., may be even more heartbreaking.

I first read about the Flints nearly 30 years ago in William Frassanito's excellent book, "Antietam: The Photographic History of America's Bloodiest Day." Tapping into the 1860 census and other sources, Frassanito did a masterful job detailing Alvin Flint Jr.'s service in the Union army and the history of the family.

One of two sons of Alvin and Lucy Flint, Alvin Jr. enlisted as a private in Company D in the 11th Connecticut Infantry on Oct. 1, 1861. He was just 17 years old.  Perhaps the young soldier from East Hartford was acquainted with George Bronson, a hospital steward in the 11th Connecticut from nearby Berlin whose story I told in this post.

On Dec. 6, 10 days before young Alvin Jr. departed Hartford for the war, his mother died of consumption. She was nearly 50 years old.  While serving at the front in North Carolina in mid-January, Alvin received word of another family tragedy: his 15-year-old sister, Evaline, had also died of consumption back in East Hartford. (1)

By September 1862, Alvin Jr. undoubtedly was well aware that a Confederate army under Robert E. Lee moving north. The Union army would move from its encampments around Washington for Maryland, where it fought Lee's army at the Battle of South Mountain, near Boonsboro, Md. At Fox's Gap on Sept. 14, 1862, the 11th Connecticut was not heavily engaged.

Three days later, on the bloodiest day in American history, the 11th Connecticut was ordered to cross a stone bridge and attack Confederate forces atop the heights overlooking Antietam Creek.  Sometime during the charge across the creek, 18-year-old Alvin Flint Jr. was killed, one of 36 soldiers in the 11th Connecticut to die during the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. That stone bridge would become one of the most famous sites of the war: Burnside Bridge.

The Flints in the 1860 U.S. census, compiled on July 23, 1860. Nearly 2 1/2 years later,
they all were dead. Alvin Jr. was killed near Burnside Bridge at Antietam.

"I do not know the name of the creek," George Bronson wrote his wife, Mary Anne, after the battle, "but I have named it the creek of death. Such slaughter I hope never to witness again. The fight was very severe."

For Alvin Flint Sr., the death of a third member of his family within a year must have been excruciating. In August 1862, Flint Sr. and his youngest son, 13-year-old George, had also enlisted, in the 21st Connecticut Infantry. Flint Sr., a papermaker before the war, happened to be serving near Sharpsburg after the battle and went to search for the grave of his son. According to Frassanito's account, he never found the grave, but Flint Jr.'s body was eventually sent back to East Hartford by someone for burial. (2)

In a letter to the Hartford Courant a little more than a month after the battle, Flint Sr. lamented the loss of his oldest son.

The Flints are buried in Center Cemetery in East Hartford. The cemetery dates to 1709.


"You doubtless are aware that I have come to the land of Dixie, to engage in this killing business," he wrote. "Three weeks ago last Sunday night, at 12 o'clock, we were called up by the beat of the drum, to receive orders. We were sent to Frederick City, where we remained two days and thence marched to Sharpsburg.. We arrived Saturday night, near what I call "Antie-Dam," where my boy was brutally murdered by a band of midnight assassins. Oh that I could revenge on them, as Sampson did upon the Philistines! I was leaning upon that dear boy, as a prop in my declining years; but if my life is spared, I shall knock out some of the props that hold up this uncalled for, and worse than hellish, wicked rebellion. Hardly had the sadness of the death of my dear daughter in January worn off, when this sad, sad calamity should come upon me."

Civil War monument in Center Cemetery.
Alvin Flint Jr, Alvin Flint Sr. and George
Flint are listed on the monument.

Incredibly, tragedy hit the Flint family again. Alvin Flint Sr., 53, died of typhoid fever on Jan. 10, 1863, while the Union army was encamped near Fredericksburg, Va. Five days later, young George also died of the same illness. (3)

Earlier this afternoon, I made a 25-minute drive to East Hartford to find the final resting place of Alvin Flint Jr. Center Cemetery, just off Main Street in East Hartford, is one of older cemeteries in the state, dating to 1709. It looks it. The grounds are not well-maintained and many of the gravestones, including several for Revolutionary War veterans, are cracked or broken.

On a knoll 25 yards from the entrance to the cemetery stands a large brownstone monument dedicated to the citizens of East Hartford who died during the Civil War. The names of Alvin Jr., Alvin Sr. and George are listed on one side of the monument.

I didn't know the exact location of the grave of  Alvin Jr., and in a cemetery of several thousand headstones, one would expect the search for Flint's to take at least an hour. But I seem to have a sixth sense for finding Civil War graves in Connecticut. Sure enough, I quickly found Alvin Jr., just 20 yards or so down a path near the East Hartford Civil War memorial. He is buried near his brother George, father Alvin Sr., sister Evaline and mother Lucy.

It was nice to finally meet him.

Private Alvin Flint Jr. (upper right) is buried near his brother, George, and father,
Alvin Sr.,  at Center Cemtery in East Hartford, Conn. His mother and sister,
both of whom died of consumption in  the winter of 1861, are also buried nearby.

(1) Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, William Frassanito, Page 233
(2) Ibid, Page 234
(3) Ibid, Page 235

Civil War under my nose: Hartford, Conn.

Some guy named Lincoln and Connecticut Civil War governor William Buckingham speak
Saturday at a commemoration ceremony for the Solders and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford.

It's not every day that you see a governor, a senator, a U.S. president and a dictator.

Today was one of those days.

Detail of the Soldiers and Sailors
Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park.

On a crisp fall-like morning, the 125th anniversary of the dedication of the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford's Bushnell Park was marked by speeches by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, as well as by impersonators of William Buckingham, Connecticut's Civil War governor, and ol' Honest Abe himself.

I've chugged under the arch several times during Max's O'Hartford 5K runs but never really knew much about its history until today. (Cue the tour guide voice.) The arch commemorates the 4,000 Hartford men who served in the Union army and navy during the Civil War. About 400 of them died, losing their lives in battle in such places as Sharpsburg. Md.,  Cedar Mountain, Va., and Irish Bend., La., or in POW camps such as  Andersonville in Georgia. The memorial was formally dedicated in 1886, 25 years after Antietam -- the bloodiest day in American history and in Connecticut's history as well. The 8th, 11th, 14th and especially the 16th Connecticut Infantry suffered casualties at Antietam.

When the morning sun hits the brownstone just right, the arch is a photographer's dream. Rich hues. Blue sky. Ornate monument details. Ahh, that's nice stuff.

Of course, no Civil War-themed day is complete without checking out a  cannon and a whole bunch of old lead. Several Civil War memorials are located near the gold-domed State Capitol building, a short walk from Bushnell Park. The most intiguing is the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery monument that is topped with a squatty cannon on steroids. Actually a 13-inch seacoast mortar and nicknamed the "Dictator," it was capable of lobbing 200-pound shell several miles. The First Connecticut may have used this one during the sieges of Yorktown and Petersburg, although that's in some dispute.

A rare Civil War relic monument pyramid.

At the Museum of Connecticut History across the street from the capitol building (free admission today!), museum administrator Dean Nelson was kind enough to show me exhibits of guns made in the state during the Civil War. (The Connecticut River Valley supplied a huge number of arms to the Union army.) As a bonus, Nelson took me to a small back room where the museum keeps items currently not on public display --- including Samuel Colt's Civil War uniform (cost to state: $150K) and a rare Antietam relic monument pyramid.

In the years immediately after the war, relic collectors and war veterans made displays of bullets, shrapnel, belt buckles, bayonets and the like to commemorate a battle. Until today, I've only seen one of these highly collectible and rare relics in books or on the Internet. The Horse Soldier, a Gettysburg antiques store, offers a similar Antietam relic monument pyramid for $22,500; Nelson said the one in the museum is probably worth $12,000 to $13,000. I don't think I'll be adding one to my collection anytime soon.

I really needed a Civil War fix today, the 149th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, so a trip to the Hall of Flags at the State Capitol building was a must. Thanks to terrific -- and costly -- conservation work, Civil War battle flags carried by Connecticut regiments at places such as Gettysburg and Cold Harbor are displayed so the fragile cloth relics won't be damaged further. Most Civil War battle flags in other states are too deteriorated to display.  Kudos to Connecticut for making these unique pieces of history available to the public.

Say hello to my little friend! A 13-inch mortar on the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery
monument on Capitol Street in Hartford. The state capitol building is in the background.

The beautiful Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Hartford's Bushnell Park.

The arch was dedicated on Sept. 17, 1886 -- 25 years after the Battle of Antietam. 

Regimental flags in the Hall of Flags in the State Capitol building in Hartford.

Remembering another tragic September day

Confederate dead at Antietam in a photograph taken by famed Civil War
photographer Alexander Gardner. (Library of Congress collection)

On the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks last weekend, Americans honored the memory of 2,977 people killed in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pa. The anniversary of  another tragic September day likely will pass Saturday with little notice.

On Sept. 17, 1862, nearly 3,700 soldiers -- Yankees and Rebels -- died in the farm fields and woodlots surrounding Sharpsburg, Md. Many more wounded in the awful battle of Antietam died in Sharpsburg-area houses, barns or fields in the days and weeks following the battle. Antietam remains the bloodiest day in American history, a dubious record if there ever was one.

George Bronson, a hospital steward
in the 11th Connecticut, witnessed
the carnage at Antietam.

New England -- and Connecticut, in particular -- suffered greatly at Antietam. Funerals for Civil War soldiers were commonplace in the small towns of the Connecticut River Valley in late September and early October 1862. Over the past several months, I have posted stories of soldiers who served and died at Antietam.

Justus Wellington, a private in the 15th Massaschusetts from West Brookfield, Mass., was killed in the West Woods. A shoemaker before the war, Justus sent his army money back home to help support his family, which was not well off. Wellington's grave site is unknown. He was just 24 years old.

Joseph Mansfield, a 58-year-old Union general from Middletown, Conn, was mortally wounded in the East Woods, three days after he was given command of the XII Corps. It was his first field command of the war.

Corporal Henry Evans, one of 15 men from Avon, Conn. to serve in the 16th Connecticut, probably was  killed in John Otto's 40-acre cornfield. Antietam was the first battle of the war for the young men of the 16th Connecticut. There's a marker for Evans in the West Avon Cemetery, about two miles from my house, but he's actually buried in the beautiful national cemetery, gravesite No. 1,084, on a hill at the edge of  Sharpsburg.

George Bronson, a 34-year-old newlywed from Berlin, Conn., survived the battle but undoubtedly never forgot what he saw there for the rest of his life. A hospital steward in the 11th Connecticut, Bronson treated the wounded after the battle at a farmhouse near the Burnside Bridge.

"337 wounded dressed in this hospital," Bronson wrote his wife, Mary Anne, on Sept. 19, 1862. "3 of the men from our Reg. had their legs amputated. The last I do not think can long survive."

And late this afternoon I visited the grave of  George Booth in West Cemetery in Litchfield, Conn., about a 25-minute drive from my house. Booth, a  Litchfield resident, enlisted as a corporal in the Union army on Sept. 6, 1861 in Hartford, and was mustered into Company E of the 8th Connecticut 19 days later. Less than a year later, he was dead, probably killed in action after the 8th Connecticut crossed Antietam Creek near Burnside Bridge.

The casualty toll at Antietam -- there were also about 17,000 wounded -- shocked people in the North and South. Take a moment Saturday to remember the sacrifices that George, Justus, Henry, Joseph and thousands of others made 149 years ago.

Civil War under my nose: Simsbury, Conn.

The Civil War memorial in Simsbury, Conn., just off Route 10.



Joseph R. Toy is one of 194 names etched
on the Simsbury Civil War memorial. Toy
died of disease in 1862.

Visit almost any small town in Connecticut and you're bound to stumble upon a Civil War memorial. Western Connecticut, in particular, is rich with Civil War history.

In Simsbury, about 15 miles from Hartford, the Civil War memorial is just off Route 10, near the Farmington Trail path and Abigail's restaurant, which dates to 1780 and, of course, is haunted. Runners and cyclists probably seldom venture off the trail for a peek at the gray granite war memorial that was dedicated before a crowd of 2,000 on a rainy Fourth of July in 1895. (1)

Out of a population of about 2,400, 217 men from Simsbury served in the Union army. Thirty-five of them died -- 10 in combat, eight as prisoners of war and 17 of disease -- in places such as Sharpsburg, Md., Andersonville, Ga., Drewry's Bluff, Va., and Kinston, N.C. (2)

Joseph R. Toy, a captain in Co. H of the 12th Connecticut Infantry, is one of those 35 unfortunate Simsbury sons who gave his life to the Union. Toy, whose name is etched on the left side of the memorial, died of disease on June 21, 1862, probably while serving near New Orleans.

(1) Connecticut's Civil War Monuments web site
(2) American Civil War Research Database

A modern plaque, dedicated in 1995, sits at the front of the memorial.

A good deed

Kudos to this man for returning an Abraham Lincoln-signed Antietam-related document, apparently stolen years ago, to the National Archives. Here's the story.