Faces of the Civil War: Lost arm at Antietam

8th Connecticut captain Eleazur Ripley of Windham was wounded 
at Antietam. His name is often misspelled Eleazer. This image, in
 the Connecticut State Library collection, was probably taken before the battle.

While researching the story of  a 16th Connecticut soldier at the Connecticut State Library on Saturday, I found an old, tattered album of soldier carte de visites. Among the Connecticut officers was the CDV above of Eleazur Ripley, a captain in Company C of the 8th Connecticut. From Windham, about 35 miles east of  Hartford, Ripley suffered the amputation of his left arm at Antietam.

Image of Ripley after Antietam, where he 
suffered a wound in his left arm, which was 
amputated. (Conn. Historical Society)

Ripley was wounded in the latter stages of the battle, his regiment at the vanguard of the Ninth Corps' attack before it was routed.

"Twenty men are falling every minute," a history of Connecticut's service in the war noted about that part of the battle. "Col. (Hiram) Appelman is borne to the rear. John McCall falls bleeding. (Jacob) Eaton totters, wounded, down the hill. (Marvin) Wait, bullet-riddled, staggers a few rods, and sinks. (Eleazur) Ripley stands with a shattered arm. (James) Russell lies white and still. (Henry) Morgan and (Edwin) Maine have fallen. Whitney Wilcox is dead.

"Men grow frantic. The wounded prop themselves behind the rude stone fence, and hurl leaden vengeance at the foe. Even the chaplain snatches the rifle and cartridge-box of a dead man, and fights for life." (1)

A Willimantic (Conn.) Journal correspondent made note of Ripley's condition in early October 1862 as the captain lay in a field hospital near Sharpsburg, Md.:

"I saw Capt. Ripley, of Windham, of whom you speak in your last number, in his temporary hospital, on the field of Antietam. He was lying on the straw-littered floor of a barn, by the side of Lieut. Mayne, of Brooklyn, your county, and among as many more of our wounded soldiers, mostly of the rank and file, as the floor could hold. On the outside, again, wherever in the barn-yard, stacks of straw, sheds, trees, or fences, could afford shade and obstacles to the unadvised footsteps of man and beast, there our wounded lay. Our two officers lay quietly abiding their fate, taking their soldier's fortune with soldierly fortitude. I was obliged to leave them hastily, as I left more than a thousand others of our brave patriot soldiers."

Disabled, Ripley was transferred out of the 8th Connecticut on Oct. 8, 1863, and joined the Veterans Reserve Corps. A friend of the blog owns Ripley's inscribed sword.

(1) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morris, 1869, Page 272-73

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MORE FACES OF CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it.

Antietam: 'Hurl leaden vengeance at the foe'

Edwin Main's gravestone in Center Brooklyn Cemetery in Brooklyn, Conn. A lieutenant
in the 8th Connecticut, Main was mortally wounded at Antietam. Below: A close-up of the 
gravestone,  which has been repaired. (Photo courtesy  Rob Grandchamp)

One of my favorite passages on the Battle of Antietam is from a book on Connecticut's Civil War service published in 1869, seven years after the bloodiest day in American history. Two descriptive paragraphs  capture the awfulness of what the 8th Connecticut faced. Fighting well ahead of most of the rest of the Ninth Corps, the regiment was eventually overwhelmed, suffering nearly 200 killed and wounded on Sept. 17, 1862.

"Twenty men are falling every minute. Col. (Hiram) Appelman is borne to the rear. John McCall falls bleeding. (Jacob) Eaton totters, wounded, down the hill. (Marvin) Wait, bullet-riddled, staggers a few rods, and sinks. (Eleazur) Ripley stands with a shattered arm. (James) Russell lies white and still. (Henry) Morgan and (Edwin) Maine have fallen. Whitney Wilcox is dead. 

"Men grow frantic. The wounded prop themselves behind the rude stone fence, and hurl leaden vengeance at the foe. Even the chaplain snatches the rifle and cartridge-box of a dead man, and fights for life." (1)

"Hurl leaden vengeance at the foe."

Ah, that's just great stuff.

For the past several months, I have been curious about what happened to the nine officers mentioned in that first paragraph.

Did they survive Antietam? Or, like so many other soldiers from Connecticut, were they killed? Where are they buried?

The puzzle slowly comes together.

John McCall, a captain in Company K in the
 8th Connecticut, was killed at Drewry's Bluff, 
near Richmond, on May 16, 1864.
 He is buried in Yantic Cemetery in Norwich, Conn.

Friend of the blog Ron Grandchamp recently e-mailed me a photo of the gravestone of Lieutenant Edwin Main, who's buried in Center Brooklyn (Conn.) Cemetery. As noted on his marker, Main was wounded at Antietam and died a little more than two months later at Locust Spring Hospital, one of several makeshift hospitals in operation in or near Sharpsburg after the battle. Before the Civil War, Main was a tavern keeper in Brooklyn, a small farming community about 45 miles east of Hartford. Married to Mary Butts, the couple had no children.

Last week, I wrote about Ripley and several months ago, I posted on McCall and Wait.

Taken prisoner after he was wounded, Captain McCall, from Norwich, was later paroled. Killed at Drewry's Bluff, near Richmond, on May 16, 1864, he's buried in Yantic Cemtery in Norwich -- the same cemetery where Wait is buried. Ripley, from Windham, lost his left arm after he was wounded at Antietam.  Disabled, he was transferred out of the 8th Connecticut on Oct. 8, 1863, and joined the Veterans Reserve Corps.

A short account in the Willimantic (Conn.) Journal in early October 1862 mentioned Main and Ripley receiving care in a field hospital near Sharpsburg.

"I saw Capt. Ripley, of Windham, of whom you speak in your last number, in his temporary hospital, on the field of Antietam. He was lying on the straw-littered floor of a barn, by the side of Lieut. Mayne, of Brooklyn, your county, and among as many more of our wounded soldiers, mostly of the rank and file, as the floor could hold. On the outside, again, wherever in the barn-yard, stacks of straw, sheds, trees, or fences, could afford shade and obstacles to the unadvised footsteps of man and beast, there our wounded lay. Our two officers lay quietly abiding their fate, taking their soldier's fortune with soldierly fortitude. I was obliged to leave them hastily, as I left more than a thousand others of our brave patriot soldiers.

Ordering his color-bearer not to abandon the national colors, Captain Hiram Appleman, from Stonington, was carried from the field after he was wounded in the leg. I wonder if he saw 8th Connecticut Private Charles Walker pick up the fallen colors after several color-bearers were shot, plant the staff in the ground and defiantly shake the flag at enemy. Appleman, who survived the war, was promoted three times after Antietam, finishing the war as a lieutenant-colonel.  Troubled by his Antietam leg wound the remainder of his life, he died on Sept. 4, 1873 in Groton, Conn., and is buried in Elm Grove Cemetery in Mystic.

From left: Captain John McCall survived Antietam but was killed later in the war;
19-year lieutenant Marvin Wait was killed at Antietam; lieutenant-colonel Hiram Appleman
was wounded at Antietam and carried from the field. He survived the Civil War.
(Wait photo Matthew R. Isenburg collection; Appleman photo courtesy Matt Reardon)

Slightly wounded in the left leg at Antietam, Lieutenant Eaton resigned from the 8th Connecticut about a month after the battle. In 1863, Eaton wrote a glowing remembrance of 19-year-old Wait, the 8th Connecticut lieutenant who was killed at Antietam, and he mustered into the 7th Connecticut on March 29, 1864. A pastor at Hanover Congregational Church in Meriden before the war, Eaton served as chaplain in the 7th Connecticut. He died of typhoid fever, probably contracted while ministering to sick soldiers, in Wilmington, N.C., on March 20, 1865.

"White and still" after suffering a severe wound to his left arm, Captain Russell eventually recovered and was discharged from the army on New Year's Day 1863. Severely wounded in the left leg, Lieutenant Morgan was discharged from the army on Jan. 17, 1863. From Stonington, he was buried in Jordan Cemetery in Waterford. The final resting places of Sergeant Wilcox of New Haven, Eaton, Ripley and Russell are unknown.

UPDATE:  Friend of the blog Mary Falvey, a cemetery sleuth, e-mailed that the final resting places for Wilcox, Eaton and Russell are not so unknown afterall. "There is no record of a gravestone for Eleazer Ripley -- could be buried without a headstone, but that's rare for CT Civil War veterans since the state provided a stone for free," she wrote. "Eaton is buried in Cornwall Cemetery  ...  James L. Russell is buried in Pine Island Cemetery, Norwalk. Whiting Wilcox has a gravestone at Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven."

(1) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morris, 1869, Page 272-73

Faces of the Civil War: Private Charles H. Walker

Charles Walker of  the 8th Connecticut Infantry posed for this image
 in a photographic studio on Main Street in Norwich, Conn., his hometown. 
Walker survived Antietam physically unharmed.  
(Photo: Matthew R. Isenburg collection)

As the 8th Connecticut Infantry came under intense artillery and musket fire from its front and both flanks during the latter stages of the Battle of Antietam, one of its color-bearers was shot.

Another man picked up the flag and he, too, was wounded.

And then another man grabbed the flag with the same result.

And then another.

And another.

Charles Walker's signature appears on the reverse
 of his CDV image.
(Matthew R. Isenburg collection)

Finally, Charles H. Walker, a  20-year-old private from Norwich,  courageously grabbed the fallen national colors and "seized them in a storm of death." In a singular act of defiance, he planted the flag and shook it out before the rebels as the enemy advanced.  (1) Flag-bearers were prime targets for soldiers on both sides of the war.

"Twenty men are falling every minute," a history of Connecticut's service in the war published in 1869 noted about that part of the battle. "Col. (Hiram) Appelman is borne to the rear. John McCall falls bleeding. (Jacob) Eaton totters, wounded, down the hill. (Marvin) Wait, bullet-riddled, staggers a few rods, and sinks. (Eleazur) Ripley stands with a shattered arm. (James) Russell lies white and still. (Henry) Morgan and (Edwin) Maine have fallen. Whitney Wilcox is dead.

"Men grow frantic. The wounded prop themselves behind the rude stone fence, and hurl leaden vengeance at the foe. Even the chaplain snatches the rifle and cartridge-box of a dead man, and fights for life." (2)

Ordered to fall back, Walker, clutching the flag, and the hundred or so remaining members of the 8th Connecticut retreated from the field. Although whipped by the rebels, no regiment of the Ninth Corps advanced farther on the left flank, a fact trumpeted in post-war accounts. "By their stubborn fight they have saved many others from death or capture," the post-war history noted, "and by their orderly retreat they save themselves."

A C.H. Walker from Norwich, aged 18, is recorded in the 1860 census. (CLICK TO ENLARGE.)

Incredibly, Walker survived physically unharmed but no doubt shocked by the carnage. The 8th Connecticut suffered 34 killed, 139 wounded and 21 missing that Wednesday afternoon just outside Sharpsburg, Md.

For his courage on Sept. 17, 1862, Walker earned a prominent mention in an after-action report written by Major John Ward  two days later. "I will notice particularly the conduct of Private Charles Walker, of Company D," Ward wrote, "who brought the national colors off the field after the sergeant and every corporal of the color-guard were either killed or wounded." Walker's action probably was the reason for his promotion to ordnance sergeant of Company C one month after the great battle.

As an anonymous reader of this blog
pointed out, the star denotes Charles Walker
was promoted to an ordnance sergeant.

On a trip back to Connecticut after his promotion, Walker plunked down a couple bucks at a Norwich photographic studio at 103 Main Street, where he proudly posed wearing his uniform with sergeant's stripes for a carte de visite image. On a break from the war, Charles may have been in Norwich visiting his parents, Francis and Mary, who had three other younger children, Worthington, Abby and Henrietta. The Walkers lived on Cliff Street, and Francis was employed as a cabinetmaker; Mary was a housekeeper. (3)

Walker, who had originally enlisted in the Union army in September 1861, re-enlisted on Christmas Eve 1863. He apparently fell out of favor with superiors early the next year, as he was demoted to private on Feb. 22, 1864. Walker was mustered out of the Union army on Dec. 12, 1865, eight months after Lee surrendered to Grant in Appomatox, Va.

(1) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morris 1869, Page 272-73
(2) Ibid
(3) 1860 U.S. Census