History up close: In Willard brothers' footsteps

Civil War soldiers John and James Willard lived in this house in Avon, Conn.

I told the story last week of a woman from Avon, Conn., who honored Civil War soldier John Willard by putting a scoop of Connecticut dirt on his grave at the national cemetery in New Bern, N.C.

The Willard house dates to 1760.  Middle: The well-worn
front step  may be original to the house.  Bottom: 
Revolutionary War-era  buttons recently  discovered
 on the property by a local relic hunter.

Thanks to the generous current owners, I spent time this afternoon in the beautiful Avon house where John and his brother, James -- who also died during the Civil War -- lived with their mother. Jim and Maureen Dowse, who have lived in the 251-year-old house the past 10 years, also helped fill in gaps in the lives of both brothers and their family.

Damaris Williard, the matriarch of the family, endured her share of tragedy before and during the Civil War. Her husband Julius, a physician, died in September 1854, seven years before the start of the rebellion. Her youngest son, James, was only 20 when he was killed during the 7th Connecticut's rare nightime attack on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, S.C., on July 11, 1863.  James, a private in Company A, was originally reported to have been missing and taken prisoner, but his body was never recovered. (1)

Fifteen months later, Damaris lost her eldest son.

Thirty-two-year-old John Willard was a wagoner in the 11th Connecticut, transporting ammunition, medicine, food and other supplies to help keep the Union army running. In late September and early October 1864, a yellow fever epidemic ripped through the Union army in New Bern, N.C., killing many soldiers -- including John. A farmer before the war, he died on Oct. 3, 1864, and was buried in New Bern. Sadly, his mother probably didn't have the means to return his body to Connecticut.

Maureen Dowse obtained copies of some of the trove of documents on the Willard brothers at the Avon Free Public Library. They reveal a family probably not atypical of most during the Civil War.

1860 census: Widow Damaris Willard lived with her sons, John (top) and James Willard (bottom).
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Fifty-four-year-old Widow Willard was dependent on John and James, so the enlistment of two sons in the army in 1861 undoubtedly was a hardship for her. But like any good sons, the brothers endeavored to help their mother while they were away at war. In notes to Damaris during the war, James wrote about sending money home and thoughts of not surviving the conflict: (2)

• Jan. 14, 1862: "When we were at Hilton Island I sent fifteen dollars thinking you might need it."
• June 10. 1862: "If I never get home, I wish you to have what property I have, and use what you need of that I send."
• "I wish you to use what you want of the money that I send, and have sent, and if I never get home I wish you to have this, and what I have sent."
• April 21, 1863: "I will send sixty dollars. Do what you think best with the money."

In the spring of 1863, John Willard, a wagoner
in the 11th Connecticut, sought a furlough to return home.
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

John, whose 3-year-old son Frank died five months before the war, also longed for home and his wife, Cordelia. In fact, in the spring of 1863 while he was in New Bern, he requested a furlough because "he was anxious to return home."  (3) There is no record in the file I examined whether the furlough was granted.

Because James left no widow or children, Damaris Willard applied for a Mother's Pension after his death, and Uncle Sam evidently provided her with an $8-a-month-pension for many years. Widow Willard was 89 years old when she died June 5, 1890. She is buried in West Avon Cemetery near her husband Julius and the memorial markers for her sons, whose remains were never returned to their native soil.

(1) Hartford Courant, Oct. 20, 1864
(2) Mother's Application for Pension document, Jan. 8, 1869.
(3) Furlough document, April 19, 1863

Damaris Willard's husband, Julius, died seven years before the start of the Civil War. Her sons,
John and James, died during the conflict. Widow Willard lived in this house for many years.

A 'special bond' with a Connecticut soldier

Anita Marcotte is not related to Civil War soldier John Willard, but she feels a
special bond with him. She stands by his memorial marker in West Avon (Conn.) Cemetery.

Although the last shots of the Civil War were fired 146 years ago, the most traumatic event in our nation's history still tugs at us.

Anita Marcotte, a 40-year resident of Avon, Conn., knows that feeling.

Close-up of John Willard's memorial in
 Avon, Conn.   He died of yellow fever in
 New Bern, N.C. on Oct. 3, 1864. 
He is buried in a national cemetery 
in New Bern.

A little more than three decades ago, Marcotte wandered through West Avon (Conn.) Cemetery after dropping off her young son at daycare at a church nearby. While there, she discovered the well-worn headstones of two brothers from Avon who served -- and died -- during the Civil War: James and John Willard.

Curious, she intently examined these beautifully  carved words on John's marker:

Died
In the service of his Country
in Newbern, N.C.
Oct. 3, 1864
Aged 32
He is buried in that City.

"John's struck me as I am from Cherry Point, N.C.," said Marcotte, whose father served in the Marines during World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  "... I never had heard of any battles fought there, and I could not figure out how he died there.

"I tried to find his grave on one visit to New Bern, but the town hall had burned down and no records were available to me. They sent me to the town cemetery where Civil War soldiers were buried. A nice sexton showed us to the area where these graves were, but I had no luck. I finally told him that John Willard was a Northerner, to which he replied: 'We don't bury any Yankees here!'

Although she's not related to the Willards, Marcotte decided to do some digging -- and thus plunged into a search that wasn't completed until more than a decade after she first found the brothers' granite markers.

This document shows John Willard was 
discharged for physical disability on 
Feb. 9, 1864. The period from February to his
 death merits further research.
(Conn. Historical Society)
CLICK TO ENLARGE.

John Willard, a 28-year-old farmer, enlisted in the Union army on Oct. 23, 1861, six months after the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. The oldest son of Julius and Damaris Willard was mustered into Company D of the 11th Connecticut Infantry a month later in Hartford. John, who stood 5-10 and had blue eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion, was a wagoner in the 11th Connecticut, transporting ammunition, medicine, food and other supplies to help keep the massive Union army running. (1)

With the 11th Connecticut, John saw his share of the horrors of the Civil War during battles at Antietam and Fredericksburg. But nearly a year before the war started, John and his wife, Cordelia, faced a personal tragedy. Their 3-year-old son, Frank, died. (2)

Like his brother, James was probably caught up in the patriotic fervor of the day. He enlisted on Aug. 20, 1861, and nearly a month later was mustered into Company A of the 7th Connecticut Infantry as a private. From October 1861 to July 1863, the 7th Connecticut fought in small engagements against Confederates in fortifications along the South Carolina coast.

On July 11, 1863, the 7th Connecticut was part of a rare night attack against Fort Wagner, near Charleston.  (A week later, in an attack made famous in the movie Glory, the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts were defeated after a fierce battle at Fort Wagner.) Greatly outnumbered, the Connecticut regiment suffered 105 killed, including the 20-year-old son of a physician from Avon. James' body, perhaps thrown into a burial trench by the rebels afterward, was never recovered.

"He sleeps where he fell," the memorial marker in West Avon Cemetery notes.

John Willard's occupation was listed as a farmer in the 1860 U.S. census. His
17-year-old brother James' occupation was listed a laborer.  John's 3-year-old
son,  Frank, died later that year. He is buried to the left of John's marker.

A little more than a year later, the Willards lost another son.

Yellow fever swept through the Union army in New Bern, N.C., in the late summer and early fall of 1864, killing many soldiers. "In the history of this rebellion, no city which has been captured and occupied by our forces, situated as far North as New Berne, North Carolina, has been visited by a sweeping pestilence so completely decimating as the late terrible scourge of yellow fever," wrote a Union doctor in a book on the epidemic published in 1865. (3)

Among the victims was John Willard, who had transferred to North Carolina in late winter 1864. Likely contracting the disease in late September, the farmer from Avon died Oct.  3, 1864. His body was not returned to Connecticut, perhaps because his family didn't have the means.

"After the epidemic had passed, there remained two trunks of gold and silver watches, and a safe containing thirty thousand dollars left by these poor victims, " according to a post-war history of Connecticut's Civil War service, (4)

Markers for the Willard brothers are adjacent to each other in West Avon (Conn.) Cemetery.
Neither brother, however, is buried in Connecticut.

Nearly 130 years later, Anita Marcotte finally discovered John Willard's final resting place in North Carolina. "I felt like he wanted to come home," said Marcotte, who sensed from her research that John was very homesick.

Before her visit to the tidy national cemetery in New Bern, Marcotte went back to West Avon Cemetery, grabbed a handful of dirt from near John Willard's marker and stored it away for a visit South.

After arriving at the national cemetery, Marcotte asked a caretaker for permission to honor the young man who died nearly 700 miles from home.

"The man at the cemetery said it was OK to put it on his grave," Marcotte said, "so I dug a little hole and placed the dirt there.

"I feel a special bond with him."

(1) John Willard's pay voucher certificate, Feb. 9, 1864, Connecticut Historical Society Civil War Manuscripts Collection.
(2) Letter from Virginia Willard, a descendant of the brothers, to Anita Marcotte.
(3) The Great Epidemic in New Berne and Vicinity, W.S. Benjamin, 1865, Page 3
(4) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morrism, 1869, Page 711

Several members of the Congregational Church of Avon who served in the Union army died
during the Civil War, including  John Willard of the 11th Connecticut and James Willard
of the 7th Connecticut. West Avon Cemetery is out of the photo to the right.