A haunting final entry in 16th Connecticut soldier's diary

In 1864, 16th Connecticut Private Henry Adams recorded entries in this small pocket diary. 
(Connecticut Historical Society collection)

The battles in which the 16th Connecticut participated are noted in the diary. The regiment
 played only a small role at Fredericksburg. At Antietam, its first battle of the war, 
the 16th Connecticut was routed.

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By happenstance in early September 2015, I discovered a memorial stone for 16th Connecticut Private Henry H. Adams among gravestones at a small, out-of-the-way cemetery in rural Eastford, Conn. An old, cast-iron Grand Army of the Republic marker and a fresh U.S. flag adorned Adams' marker. "Thy memory will be cherished," read the words at the bottom of the slate-gray memorial.

Like thousands of other Civil War dead, Henry's body was not recovered for burial on his native soil. He probably was haphazardly buried with other Union POWs in a trench in Florence (S.C.) National Cemetery.

A memorial honors  16th Connecticut
 Private Henry H. Adams
 in General Lyon Cemetery
 in Eastford, Conn.

Adams enlisted in the Union army in the summer of 1862, mustering in at Camp Williams in Hartford as a private in Company G on Aug. 24. Less than a month later, on Sept. 17, he was among the 204 casualties in the 16th Connecticut, which was routed at Antietam. (For more on the 16th Connecticut, read Lesley Gordon's excellent book, A Broken Regiment.) Henry recovered from his wound, but was captured with most of the rest of the 16th Connecticut at Plymouth, N.C. on April 20, 1864. "Taken prisoner in the morning," Adams wrote in his diary that day.

Like others in his regiment, including this soldier, Henry recorded his experiences as a POW. In short entries in a 4 1/2 x 3 1/2-inch, leather-covered pocket diary, he noted his arrival at the notorious Andersonville prison camp in southwestern Georgia in early May  ("15,000 prisoners inside"), deaths among his comrades ("two men died in Co. K") and his own health, which gradually deteriorated while in captivity. In many entries, he also noted the weather.

In mid-September 1864, Adams recorded that he was "getting very weak." Nearly two weeks later, he couldn't walk. As Sherman's army marched through Georgia, Confederates transferred Andersonville prisoners to other camps throughout the South. On Oct. 8, Adams was sent to Florence, S.C., where initially he did well. 

At the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford, I read Henry's diary, which somehow survived the war. Opposite the title page of the journal, someone — probably Henry himself — recorded 16th Connecticut battles. But the most compelling, and haunting, entry in the fragile diary are the 10 words written in someone else's hand on Oct. 20, 1864.

Here are selections from Henry Adams' 1864 pocket diary:

April 18, 1864: Battle of Plymouth

"Fort Wessels captured. Heavy fireing in the morning between fort Gray and Reb batteries. Tuscany & Gunboat Bombshell sank. The Rebs charged on the works but were repulsed.

April 19, 1864

"Heavy fireing in the morning. The Rebel ram came down and sank the gunboat Smithfield. Pleasant. 

April 20, 1864: Captured

"Taken prisoner in the morning. Lines out on the Washington Road all night." 

May 4, 1864: Arrives at Andersonville

"Went inside of the stockade. Our company in the 44th Mess, 30th mess Drawed 1 days rations. There is 15,000 prisoners inside. Pleasant." 

August 16, 1864: Deaths

"Drew (?) cooked beans and beef.  Cool and pleasant. Had a small shower just at night. Another man died from our company."

August 17, 1864

"Had our roll call. Cool and pleasant. Had to help draw rations from our team. Two men died from Co. K." 

October 13, 1864: Florence, S.C.

"We are in a very pleasant place but have no shelter. The women are very kind and bring in some nice things but the sickest get more."

October 16, 1864: Florence, S.C.

"Another cool and pleasant day. We are getting along very well only we do not get enough to eat." 

October 19, 1864: Exchange?

"Cool and pleasant. We heard a sermon preached in our ward. There is talk of an exchange of the sick but can't tell."

October 20, 1864: The end

"The writer of the foregoing died at 9 o'clock pm."

Hundreds of Union prisoners of war from the Florence, S.C.,  stockade are buried in trenches 
at the national cemetery nearby. The body of Henry Adams probably is among them.

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