'Great cause for thankfulness': Antietam soldiers to remember

An image of  Raphael Ward Benton, mortally wounded at Antietam, in an unusual
mourning display that includes human hair. (Pat Lovelace | The Guilford Keeping Society)

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On the small village green in rural Northfield, Conn., one of the oldest Civil War monuments in the country honors soldiers from the area who gave the last full measure. Almost impossible to miss, the word "Lincoln" is spelled out in large raised letters on the south side of the brownstone memorial, dedicated in 1866. But it's a much smaller inscription, above the name of 16th U.S. president, that always catches my eye: "That The Generations To Come Might Know Them." In that spirit, let's remember these soldiers who were killed or mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862.

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PRIVATE RAPHAEL WARD BENTON, 14th CONNECTICUT 

Suffering from a bullet wound in the neck, Benton was carried from the battlefield and placed on a blanket. Apparently receiving little care, he later walked about a mile in search of medical aid before his strength gave out.  Still, he felt more fortunate than many. Two of his comrades in Company I -- privates Richard Hull and Edmund Field of Guilford  -- had died from their wounds.

Close-up of the intricately woven hair in the
mourning display for Raphael Ward Benton.
(Pat Lovelace | The Guilford Keeping Society)

The sights Benton witnessed on the battlefield were chilling.

"I can assure you," Benton wrote his wife, Hannah, the day of the battle, "I have seen all of the horrors of war that I ever wish to and I sincerely hope that it will soon be over." Although his wound bled profusely for awhile, he didn't think the injury was serious.

"I hope you will not be discouraged about me," the 41-year-old private wrote. "I am so much better off than hundreds of others. I feel great cause for thankfulness."

Added Benton: "Oh you don’t know the dreadful scenes we have passed through. The dead, the dying, and wounded are lying all around me, and I think may amount to thousands. Pray the Lord that this war may soon end."

Like hundreds of other Union wounded, Benton ended up in Frederick, Md., where he was cared for at General Hospital No. 1 -- the largest Federal hospital in town. Unless the neck wound bled again, Benton's condition did not seem "immediately dangerous," recalled 14th Connecticut Private Henry Dudley of Guilford, who came to his comrade's aid in Frederick. Advised by a doctor to monitor his friend, Dudley rubbed linament on Benton and spent considerable time talking with him.

"Oh, Henry," Dudley recalled Benton saying, "you can't think how much better I feel. If you can stay with me I shall get along first rate." But early in the evening of Sept. 25, Benton's condition worsened, and as he faded, he grasped Dudley's hand. "I would speak to him," the 14th Connecticut soldier remembered, "and he would answer by a slight pressure of the hand." At 6 p.m., the farmer from Guilford died "without a struggle."

Raphael Ward Benton's grave in Alderbrook Cemetery
in Guilford, Conn. (Find A Grave)

"The Doctor says his death was probably caused by not being taken care of," Dudley wrote. "He was allowed to walk here from the Battlefield. The day he arrived here he had walked 8 miles and had lost so much blood that he was very weak …"

When Hannah's brother, a private in the 27th Connecticut, received word of his brother-in-law's death, he was so overcome that he couldn't continue a letter to his "afflicted sister." Three days later, he finished what he had started.

"I had never in imagination pictured you ... Sister Hannah with children demanding your constant care but 'Man's destiny is not under his own control,' " Alvin Rose wrote.

Relatives recovered Benton's body and took him back to Guilford, where he was buried in Alderbrook Cemetery.  In addition to his second wife Hannah, Benton was survived by three children: Arthur, 16; Wallace, 6, and Webster, 1.

SOURCES:

-- Typed transcripts of Raphael Ward Benton letter to his wife (Sept. 17, 1862), 14th Connecticut Private Henry Dudley letter on news of Benton's death (Sept. 26, 1862) and 27th Connecticut Private Alvin Rose's condolence letter to his sister (Sept. 28, 1862), Guilford (Conn.) Free Public Library, accessed online Sept. 10, 2017.

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 CAPTAIN DAVID C. MYERS, 14TH BROOKLYN

"There was no music -- no ostentatious displays" at the funeral of Captain David C. Myers, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on Oct. 1, 1862.

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SERGEANT CHARLES W. BEAN, 5TH NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the thick of the fight for the Sunken Road, the 5th New Hampshire found inspiration from its colonel, Edward Cross, who, with a red silk handkerchief wrapped around his head, screamed, "Put on the war paint!"

"Taking the cue somehow," a soldier in the regiment recalled, "we rubbed the torn ends of cartridges over our faces, streaking them with powder like a pack of Indians and the Colonel, to complete the similarity, cried out, 'Give 'em the war whoop,'  and all of us joined him in the Indian war whoop until it must have rung out amid the thunder of the ordinance."

20-year-old Charles Bean's weather-beaten gravestone 
in Northwood, N.H. (Photo courtesy Sue Fetzer.)

Sometime during the savage fighting, Bean, who had been promoted to sergeant only a week earlier, fell wounded when a bullet smashed into his right thigh. The 20-year-old soldier from Northwood, N.H., was transported to a field hospital, then to Academy Hospital in Chambersburg, Pa. He lingered there until "the messenger of death bore him away from earth to that land where wars and fighting are unknown," according to a newspaper report. His died on Oct. 10 or Oct. 19, 1862.

In the account in The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper published in Boston, a friend, known only by the initials J.M.M, offered a touching tribute to Bean:

"He was a firm friend and school-chum of mine, at a seminary in a neighboring State, and I cannot refrain from paying his name and memory a passing notice. His life was a model one, and his character pure, without a stain. A firm friend of the slave, he saw in this grand uprising a hope for the 'victim race'; and if his life was to be offered up in their behalf, and to sustain a free government, then he was ready to make that sacrifice. 

"He was a true soldier, loved, honored and trusted, and when he fell, it was on a hard-contested field, with the glad shout of victory almost ringing in his ears. His comrades mourn that they shall hear no more that voice ..."

Bean's remains were transported back to New Hampshire, where he was buried in Northwood Ridge Cemetery.

"A life so willingly given as a sacrifice for the liberties of his beloved land should be remembered by the nation's historian," J.M.M poignantly wrote. "May God comfort the beareaved parents, brothers and sister of the deceased, in this the hour of their affliction!"

SOURCES:

-- Livermore, Thomas L., Days and Events 1860-1866, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1920.

-- The Liberator, Boston, Mass. Nov. 21, 1862.

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FOUR SOLDIERS FROM EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Private Lewis Briner of the 128th Pennsylvania and Captain Florentine H. Straub of the 3rd Pennsylvania Reserves were killed in action. Sergeant William C. Eben of the 128th Pennsylvania was mortally wounded, dying on Sept. 20. Only 17, Private Henry Haberacker of the 128th Pennsylvania was also killed in action. Obituary from Reading Times on Sept. 27, 1862. (Click on links for more on Find A Grave.)

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CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. MARSH, 4TH NORTH CAROLINA

While defending the Sunken Road, every officer in the 4th Regiment North Carolina State Troops was either killed or wounded. Among the casualties was regimental commander William T. Marsh, a wealthy farmer and lawyer, who, in 1861, strongly advocated that his state remain in the Union. Shot in the chest, the 32-year-old captain was taken to the house of a man named McQuilton, near Shepherdstown, Va., where “…he was kindly nursed and cared for.”

William T. Marsh's ornate memorial in
the Marsh family cemetery in Bath, N.C.
 He was re-buried here in 1867. 
(Photo courtesy Ray Gurganus)

Marsh died there on Sept. 24.

By early October, news of his death had reached North Carolina, where Marsh – the “heroic captain,” according to Major General D.H. Hill’s Antietam after-action report -- had served in the state legislature.

“We saw his servant on Saturday last, who showed us Capt. M's watch, which was struck by the bullet that caused his death,” a Raleigh, N.C., newspaper reported. “The watch is a small gold one, and was in his over-shirt pocket on his left breast. The ball struck the lower part of the watch, crushed and bent it, and passed into his body.”

Marsh’s roots in the North were nearly as strong as his ties to the South. His grandfather was a native of Rhode Island, and after his mother died in 1843, Marsh was sent to the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, Conn. He went on to attend Yale, earning a law degree in 1851. After graduation, he returned to Washington, N.C., where he practiced law, and he eventually expanded his business into neighboring counties.

Hoping to keep North Carolina in the Union, Marsh made speeches in the state legislature and “by skillfully using other parliamentary tactics delayed the passage of any secession resolution,” according to his Yale obituary.

“He was deeply interested,” the obituary also noted, “in the political questions of the time.” After President Lincoln called for North Carolina to furnish soldiers for the Union army, Marsh cast his lot with the Confederacy, raising a company of 80 soldiers.

In 1867, Marsh’s remains were disinterred near Shepherdstown and re-buried in the family cemetery in Bath, N.C. A lengthy inscription on his tall, marble memorial there recaps his life.  “He breathed his last eight days … in the home of strangers,” it ends, “who yet soothed his final hours with their sympathy and kindness.”

SOURCES

-- Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, Yale University, 1910.
-- Semi-Weekly Standard, Raleigh, N.C., Oct. 7, 1862.
-- The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume 19, Part 1, U.S. War Department, 1889.

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PRIVATE HUGH C.F. JONES, 16th MISSISSIPPI

Mortally wounded near the Sunken Road, Private Jones was eulogized by "J.M.B." in the Natchez (Miss.) Daily Courier on Nov. 4, 1862. Jones is buried in Charles Town, W.Va. (formerly Virginia.)

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PRIVATE ERRED FOWLES, 155TH PENNSYLVANIA 

155th Pennsylvania Private Erred Fowles and his wife, Martha. (ancestry.com)

As the 155th Pennsylvania neared Sharpsburg with the rest of the V Corps, Erred Fowles' mind may have drifted to his pregnant wife Martha and 1-year-old son William in tiny Callensburg, Pa.  While the battle raged, Fowles' regiment and the rest of the V Corps were held in reserve. But danger still lurked for the 29-year-old private in Company G.

Sometime the next evening,  as nervous pickets manned front lines in both armies, Fowles was shot accidentally through the back by another Pennsylvania soldier. The bullet passed through Fowles' lungs, lodging somewhere in his body and causing him immense pain for several days. Eight days after he was wounded, Fowles wrote Martha from a hospital near Boonsboro, Md.

Erred Fowles' gravestone in Antietam National Cemetery.
(Photo: Laura Van Alstyne Rowland)

"Dear Wife," the letter began, "thinking perhaps that you would like to hear from me." Fowles assured Martha his pain had subsided and that his brother, also a private in the 155th Pennsylvania, was aiding his recovery. He also told of the hard-fought battle at Antietam, one in which the Rebels suffered "double our loss."

"I hope that you will not grow uneasy about me," Fowles continued, "for I am doing as well as can be and have good care for brother William is with me taking care of me and as soon as I get well enough I am coming home and to be with you again. I do not want you to write until you hear from me again for a letter would not come through.

"I am now 10 miles from Middletown Md," he continued, "and as soon as we get moved I will write to you to let you know where we are moved to. As I do not think of any thing more that will interest you I will bring this letter to a close and write to you again in a few days."

In early October, Fowles took a turn for the worse -- an infection probably set in -- and he died on or about Oct. 6.  "The wound was of such serious character," his commanding officer wrote later that month, "that ... a severe illness caused his death."

Four days after Erred's death, Martha gave birth to a girl she named Ida. Fowles' body was disinterred after the war and re-buried in Antietam National Cemetery under Grave No. 3724.

Martha Fowles never re-married.

SOURCES

-- Erred Fowles widow's pension file, National Archives and Records Administration via fold3.com.
-- Fowles' letter to his wife, Sept. 25, 1862, copy transcribed by Antietam National Battlefield staff.

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10 to remember: 'What will father and mother do now?'

The Gettysburg grave of Corporal John Van Alstyne, killed at Culp's Hill on July 3, 1863.
(Photo: Laura Rowland)

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For this year's Memorial Day weekend post, I sought aid of my Civil War blog Facebook page readers, who submitted their own stories of soldiers who died during the war to go with some of mine. 

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CORPORAL JOHN VAN ALSTYNE, 150TH NEW YORK: When Lawrence Van Alstyne read the report in his hometown newspaper of  his older brother's death at Gettysburg, his thoughts quickly turned to his parents. "Dear me," the 128th New York private wrote in his diary on July 22, 1863, "what will father and mother do now?"

Another newspaper Lawrence received in the mail while stationed in Louisiana did not include John Van Alstyne's name among those killed, giving him hope his brother was still alive: "On this peg," he wrote, "I hang my hopes of a contradiction of this sad piece of news, and shall feel very anxious until I learn the truth.”

Post-war image of Lawrence Van Alstyne.
"Poor John!" he wrote in 1863 regarding
his brother's death at Gettysburg.

But on July 27, 1863, five days after the initial, sad report, Lawrence received confirmation from his sister Jane that John was indeed dead. He had been shot in the head and killed while defending Culp's Hill on July 3, 1863.

Described as one of "best men" in Company A by his commanding officer, Van Alstyne was standing next to Lieutenant Henry Gridley behind breastworks when he was hit by a bullet just below the corner of his eye. "John Van Alstyne has got it!" another soldier told 108th New York Captain Joseph Cogswell, who recalled seeing "the stalwart form of that big, good soldier sink slowly to the ground." Van Alstyne's "life-blood," the captain recalled, "gushed out in a torrent."

"Poor John!" Lawrence wrote of his 34-year-old brother, "I'll bet he was in the front ranks, for he always was in anything he undertook. He was instantly killed. To know he did not suffer, as some have to, is a great relief. I had hoped the Pine Plains Herald report was not true, but I can hope no longer. I feel so for father and mother. I must write them oftener now, for they will feel more than ever anxious to hear from me."

His sister reported their parents in Amenia, N.Y., held up well when they received the news, "but I know that sort of bravery cuts like a knife," Lawrence wrote. John's colonel wrote the Van Alstynes a "nice letter," telling them what a good soldier their son had been.

"I suppose his body can sometime be brought home," Lawrence wrote, "that is, if it can be identified. If many were killed they were probably tumbled into a long ditch together, for that is the way it is usually done."

Initially buried on George Spangler's farm, John's remains were later disinterred and re-buried in the national cemetery in Gettysburg.

-- Information submitted by Van Alstyne descendant Laura Rowland

SOURCES: 
-- Van Alstyne, Lawrence, Diary of an Enlisted Man, The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., New Haven, Conn., 1901.
-- The Dutchess County Regiment in the Civil War, Based on writings of Rev. Edward O. Bartlett, D.D., Danbury, Conn., The Danbury Medical Printing Co., Inc., 1907, Page 35

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GEORGE BATTLE, 4TH NORTH CAROLINA: Only 16 when he enlisted, Battle joined the Wilson Light Infantry, which would become Company F of the 4th North Carolina. Before the state seceded on May 20, 1861, he cheered the bombardment of Fort Sumter and hoped very much to become a soldier.

Teenager George Battle was
mortally wounded at
Seven Pines on May 31, 1862.

In April 1861, the Wilson militiamen helped secure Fort Macon before they were sent to Garysburg, N.C., to officially became part of the army. George's official enlistment date is June 28, 1861. The regiment arrived in Manassas, Va., a few days after the first major battle of the war and stayed there until the spring of 1862.

During the winter, George's father -- a prominent Baptist minister and founder of Wake Forest College -- tried to get his son out of the army, citing his age. George, however, did not want to leave, and his captain, Jesse S. Barnes, supported him, saying the teenager was big for his age, a good soldier and everyone liked him. He also promised the worried father he would look out for him.

The 4th North Carolina saw its first real action at the Battle of Seven Pines, near Richmond, on May 31, 1862. It was there that George was mortally wounded by a gunshot to the head. He lingered in a Richmond hospital for a few days before succumbing to his injuries, never fully regaining consciousness.

The teenager's death was a hard blow for his older brother Walter, who served in the same company. The captain who had promised to look out for him was killed outright in the same battle. George's final resting place is unknown.

-- Katharina Schlichtherle

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PRIVATE DAVID SCHRACK, 51ST PENNSYLVANIA:  In the summer of 1862, Schrack was sick three or four days with erysipelas, an acute infection that typically results in a skin rash. His health quickly took an ugly turn for the worse.

David Schrack's grave in New Bern (N.C.)
National Cemetery. "Daniel" was 
incorrectly carved on the marker.

"His face and head swelled frightfully," noted Samuel Weed, ward master at Hammond Hospital in Beaufort, N.C. "He could not talk any after he was taken on account of the swelling and the last two days he seemed to be insensible except a very short time before he died. He spoke of his friends [and] wished [he] could see them once more and send his last dying words of love to them."

Schrack, who had the "best of care," according to Weed, died on July 12, 1862, six days before his 29th birthday.  "Twas willed that he should die another martyr to his country's liberty," the ward master wrote to the soldier's sister, Annie.

Unmarried, Schrack was buried in the hospital cemetery, his grave marked by a wooden headboard upon which his name, regiment and company were carved. His death was recorded in the hospital records, Weed wrote, "so he can be found at any time even years after the war, for the records will be sent to Washington and there kept.

"I would say for your comfort in the great trial that he had a good, decent Christian burial," Weed assured Annie, "and that he bore the name of a good, faithful soldier."

Perhaps Schrack's well-marked grave ensured his remains were recovered after the war. At an unknown date, his body was disinterred and re-buried in New Bern (N.C.) National Cemetery.

SOURCE: Schrack's pension file, National Archives in Washington D.C., via fold3.com.

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PRIVATE AUSTIN FULLER, 16TH CONNECTICUT: When Fuller was exchanged along with other sick and wounded POWs in December 1864, the 23-year-old soldier was just a shell of the man who enlisted in the Union army in August 1862. Eight months' imprisonment in squalid Andersonville in Georgia could wreck a man. In fact, after he finally arrived home in Farmington, Conn., the day after Christmas 1864, he "was taken immediately to his bed, which he never left." Never regaining his health, he died on Jan. 8, 1865. Fuller "expired very suddenly and expectedly," the Connecticut doctor who treated him wrote in February 1865, "very much as I am told many of the men died at Andersonville during the last summer." On a recent visit to Greenwood Cemetery in Avon, Conn., his grave was adorned with two American flags and an old Grand Army of the Republic marker.

SOURCE: Fuller's widow's pension file in National Archives in Washington D.C., via fold3.com.

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PRIVATE ROBERT TYLER, 38TH VIRGINIA LIGHT ARTILLERY -- Under cause of  Tyler's death on an application for a widow's pension in 1914, 73-year-old Emily Tyler wrote: "Mashed and cut into pieces by the cars." Apparently returning to his regiment from a furlough, Tyler was struck and killed by a train near Fredericksburg, Va., in 1863. According to records, Private Tyler was AWOL in August 1862, and was listed as a deserter later in the war.  His final resting place is unknown. Emily Tyler never re-married.

-- Submitted by descendant Lorraine Kish

SOURCE: National Archives, Washington D.C., via fold3.com.

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PRIVATE PETER MONNEY (Or MOONEY), 57TH MASSACHUSETTS: Of the 15,243 Civil War soldiers buried in Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery,  only 2,474, about 16 percent, are identified. Count Pierre "Peter" Monney among the "fortunate" few.

Marker in Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery
for Peter Mooney, a Swiss-born private
in the 57th Massachusetts.

Born about 1816 in Fribourg, Switzerland, he served with the military in Naples, Italy, in 1850. In 1853, he emigrated to America with his wife and three children, eventually settling in Berkshire County, Mass., where he worked as a laborer. (His name also appears as Mooney in various records.)

Monney, who stood 5-10 and had a dark complexion, blue eyes and brown hair, was mustered into the 57th Massachusetts in February 1864. His service in the Union army was brief. During the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 12, 1864, he was shot in his right breast while the 57th Massachusetts supported the assault on the eastern side of the Mule Shoe salient, the regiment's first major fighting of the war. He died in a field hospital a day or two later.

Originally buried at Widow Alsop's farm, he was reinterred in Fredericksburg after the war.

-- Information submitted by descendant Sherrie Westmoreland.

SOURCE: American Civil War Research Database

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Found in Richard Morrell's widow's pension file, a record from the family Bible with the birthdates
of his 10 children with his wife, Margaret. (National Archives via fold3.com)

CORPORAL RICHARD MORRELL, 108TH NEW YORK: When he went into battle at Antietam the morning of Sept. 17, 1862, Morrell bore immense responsibility. The 45-year old shoemaker had a family that included his wife, Margaret, and 10 children -- four boys and six girls -- ranging in age from 17 to 11 months. The Morrells had emigrated from England in the 1850s, settling in  Rochester, N.Y.

Despite his family obligations, Morrell enlisted in the 108th New York as a private in July 1862 -- he was promoted to corporal later that month. Less than two months later, he marched through a farmer William Roulette's field with rest of the 108th New York en route to an assault on the Rebels' position in a sunken farm lane.

Sometime during the attack on Bloody Lane, a bullet or piece or artillery shell tore into Morrell's arm, which required two operations. He was taken to General William French's division hospital at Otho J. Smith's farm, less than a mile from the battlefield.

While Morrell recuperated there, a man from Rochester visited with the grievously injured soldier, whom he noted was in dire condition. "[He] is well cared for, but the Doct is much concerned about him," S.D. Porrter wrote Sept. 28 in the one-page note, presumably to Margaret. "He may recover, but you must be prepared for bad news."

The bad news came in a short note to Morrell's wife dated Oct. 14, 1862, from Bolivar Heights, Va., and signed by two 108th New York officers:

"Dear Madam, I take this opportunity to inform you of the death of your husband. He died on or about the 4th day of this month after having his arm amputated twice. Once at the elbow and again at the shoulder. He seemed to be getting along well when lockjaw set in and after intense suffering [of] three days died. His remains were neatly draped and he was buried at Sharpsburg, Maryland. His personal effects I will forward to you by Express tomorrow. Anything further in regard to him will be cheerfully furnished by your obdt. svt. and sympathy in affliction."

Although Morrell's final resting place is unknown, he may be buried among the thousands of other Union soldiers at Antietam National Cemetery.

                  Antietam National Cemetery, where the body of  Corporal Richard Morrell
                         may lie today. (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)                   

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Guttermuth's grave at
Antietam National Cemetery.
His name is spelled Gutemuth
on the marker.
(Find A Grave)

FREDERICK GUTTERMUTH, 20TH MASSACHUSETTS -- There was no dignity in death for Guttermuth, a 31-year-old cabinet maker from Boston. After the Battle of Antietam, a burial party found the German immigrant's body "stripped by the enemy," a common occurrence. The 20th Massachusetts -- the famed Harvard Regiment -- was one of the regiments in General John Sedgwick's I Division that was flanked in the West Woods.

A married father of 2-year-old son named Hermann and a 1-year-old son named Frederick, Guttermuth was buried beside his comrades, wrote 20th Massachusetts Captain George Macy, who added: "I am pained to lose so good a man -- he fought well always and did nobly in defense of his country." In 1870, Guttermuth's wife, Mary Mathilda, re-married.

SOURCE: Guttermuth's widow's pension file, National Archives, Washington, D.C. via fold3.com

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COLONEL HUGH MCNEIL, 13TH PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES (BUCKTAILS) -- Nearly two months after the highly respected officer's death in the East Woods at Antietam on Sept. 16, 1862, a Pittsburgh newspaper published an unnamed soldier's account of the colonel's supposed feat of marksmanship at South Mountain:

Colonel Hugh McNeil was killed
in the East Woods at Antietam
on Sept. 16, 1862, the day
before major fighting there.

During the battle of South Mountain [Sept. 14, 1862] the rebels held a very strong position. They were posted in the mountain pass, and had infantry on the heights on every side. Our men were compelled to carry the place by story. The position seemed impregnable; large craggy rocks protected the enemy on every side, while our men were exposed to a galling fire. 

A band of rebels occupied a ledge on the extreme right. As the Colonel approached with a few of his men, the unseen force poured upon them a volley. McNeil, on the instant, gave the command: 

"Pour your fire upon those rocks!"

The Bucktails hesitated; it was not an order they had been accustomed to receive; they had always picked their men. 

“Fire!” thundered the Colonel, “I tell you to fire at those rocks!” 

The men obeyed. For some time an irregular fire was kept up, the Bucktails sheltering themselves as best they could behind trees and rocks. On a sudden McNeil caught sight of two rebels peering through an opening in the works to get an aim. The eyes of the men followed the commander and half-a-dozen rifles were leveled in that direction. 

Hugh McNeil's shattered gravestone
in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, N.Y.
(Doug Nightingale Jr. | Find A Grave)

“Wait a minute,” said the Colonel, “I will try my hand. There is nothing like killing two birds with one stone.” 

The two rebels were not in line, but one stood a little distance back of the other, while just in front of the foremost was a slanting rock. Col. McNeil seized a rifle, raised it, glanced a moment along the polished barrel; a report followed, and both the rebels disappeared. At that moment a loud cheer a little distance beyond rent the air. 

“All is right now,” cried the Colonel; “Charge the rascals.” 

The men sprang up among the rocks in an instant. The affrighted rebels turned to run, but encountered another body of Bucktails, and were obliged to surrender. Not a man of them escaped. Everyone saw the object of the Colonel’s order to fire at random among the rocks. He had sent the party around to their rear, and meant this to attract their attention. It was a perfect success. 

The two rebels by the opening in the ledge were found there lying stiff and cold. Col. McNeil’s bullet had struck the slanting rock, and passed through both their heads. Their it lay beside them, flattened. The Colonel picked it up and put it in his pocket.

The body of the 32-year-old commander of the famed Bucktails was transported to New York for burial in Auburn, where he lived before the war.

SOURCE: The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette, Dec. 8, 1862.

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A tintype of Henry Pearson atop his gravestone in Fredericksburg, Va.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL HENRY PEARSON, 6TH NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Soon after Lieutenant George E. Upton of the 6th New Hampshire spied a Confederate battery through his field glasses on the afternoon of May 26, 1864,  Pearson stepped up on a stump and peered above the Union field works to have a look for himself. Moments later, a bullet crashed through the 24-year-old officer's head, killing him. Last year, I purchased on eBay a tintype of Pearson. Weeks later, I took it to Henry's grave at Fredericksburg National Cemetery for the photograph above. Read more.

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