Antietam: Remembering Private Frederick D. Culver

Broken marker for Private Frederick Culver in Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn.

State-issued marker for Culver, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.

Like most Civil War dead, 11th Connecticut Private Frederick D. Culver never made it home. After he died of his Antietam wounds on Oct. 6, 1862 at Crystal Springs Hospital in Keedysville, Md., he probably was buried near the hospital and his remains were disinterred after the war and re-buried in the national cemetery in Sharpsburg, Md., under Grave No. 1110. 

Perhaps the marker in Center Cemetery in Rocky Hill, Conn., 100 yards from the grave of another soldier who met his end at Antietam, brought some comfort to Culver's wife, Emily, and infant daughter, Nellie, who never knew her father. 

Only 27, Culver was a private in Company K of the 11th Connecticut, which on the the morning of Sept. 17, 1862, was ordered to attack Rebels entrenched on the bluff above Antietam Creek. During that charge near Burnside Bridge, Culver received a wound that proved mortal. According to my downloadable Excel spreadsheet of Connecticut Antietam deaths, he was one of 217 soldiers from the state who were killed or mortally wounded during the bloodiest day in American history.

                  See Culver's grave at Antietam National Cemetery by panning to the left.

Frederick Culver's name appears on this list of soldiers who died at Crystal Spring Hospital,
 a field hospital near the Antietam battlefield.  It notes he died Oct. 5, 1862, not Oct. 6 
as listed on his marker. This list  was compiled by Dr. Truman Squire, the
 89th New York surgeon who was in charge at the hospital. 
(Chemung, N.Y., County Historical Society)

In this document, dated March 12, 1864, 11th Connecticut surgeon James Whitcomb
 noted that Frederick Culver was "severely wounded" at Antietam and
 died Oct. 6, 1862.  (fold3.com via National Archives)