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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Numbers on granite blocks: Union unknowns in Fredericksburg

In Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery, the remains of 17 Union soldiers, all unknown, 
are buried under these markers. The second number on each marker denotes bodies in each grave.

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In life, Harvey Tucker was a farmer and blacksmith from northeastern Michigan. He had gray eyes, dark hair, a swarthy complexion and stood 5-7. Married in 1852, Tucker and his wife Lovina had four children 7 or younger by 1860.

On Sept. 10, 1862, Tucker enlisted in the Union army as a private in the 6th Michigan Cavalry, eventually rising through the ranks to corporal and then sergeant in February 1864. Surely aware by the spring of 1864 of the danger he faced as the opposing armies slugged it out near Fredericksburg, Va., Tucker was wounded through the hip during the brutal Battle of the Wilderness on May 6. Two weeks later, on his 12th wedding anniversary, he died of his wounds in an army hospital in Fredericksburg.

He was 37.

After his death, Tucker's body was placed in a coffin and buried in a soldiers' graveyard on Winchester Street. His name and rank were carved into a crude, wooden headboard. As he was laid to rest, the regimental chaplain noted, soldiers and a detachment of grave diggers uncovered their heads and stood in silence.

A post-war view of Fredericksburg National Cemetery.
The wooden markers were eventually replaced by stone markers.
(Courtesy Central Virginia Battlefields Trust)

In a massive Federal effort shortly after the war, remains of Union soldiers in the ravaged region were gathered and buried in a national cemetery completed in 1869 on Marye's Heights, a Rebel stronghold during the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. The remains of Tucker and 327 other Union soldiers buried in the graveyard on Winchester Street were among them.  The wooden headboard that once marked the Michigan sergeant's grave there likely had deteriorated or perhaps was used by fuel by local citizens. Without an ID disc or any other means to identify him, Tucker joined a long list of unknowns.

In the terraced national cemetery, graves of identified soldiers such as 6th New Hampshire Lieutenant colonel Henry Pearson are marked by rounded granite headstones. Graves of unknown soldiers are marked by small, square granite stones. The top number identifies the plot; the bottom number denotes the number of soldiers buried in the plot.

In death, Harvey Tucker became only a number.

Before the heavens opened up Wednesday morning, I shot photographs of  markers of  the unknowns. There was no shortage of subject matter. Of the 15,243 Union soldiers buried in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, 12,770 are unknown.

Thousands of Harvey Tuckers. 

Four soldiers' remains are buried in Plot No. 1690

Six are buried in Plot No. 3626.

Seven are buried in Plot No. 1687.

Eight are buried under Plot No. 3900.

In the immediate area of Pearson's grave, nearly all the soldiers are unknown.

Walk the grounds of the cemetery someday. It will open your eyes.

Remains of 43 unknown Union soldiers are buried under these 12 markers.

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-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCES:

-- 1860 U.S. census.
-- Harvey Tucker's widow's pension file via fold3.com National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.
---Harrison, Noel G., Military Images Magazine, "Victims and Survivors: New Perspectives on Fredericksburg's May 1864 Photographs," November-December 1998.

From Antietam to The Wilderness, a memorable Power Tour

A backdrop of a field of buttercups at Ellwood Manor, where Stonewall Jackson's arm is buried.

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And so my week-long Civil War Power Tour has ended. The final tally shows three states visited, six battlefields toured, nearly 45 miles hiked and more than 1,000 road miles logged. The special moments? Ah, those were numerous.

I was moved by the deep-purple violets in front of the graves of Connecticut soldiers at Antietam National Cemetery and the seemingly endless fields of buttercups at Ellwood Manor, the final resting place of Stonewall Jackson's amputated left arm. I stuck my head through the trapdoor hatch at the Philip Pry House to see what Union commanders may have seen while fighting raged in the West Woods at Antietam, and listened to the crunch, crunch, crunch of gravel as I walked behind the infamous stone wall at Fredericksburg.

While trudging just after dawn through The Wilderness forest near Saunders Field, where fighting raged in early May 1864, I had the eerie feeling that I wasn't alone. I don't believe in ghosts, but there is something deeply spiritual about that place. I huffed and puffed my way to the Maryland Heights overlook for a spectacular view of  Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and felt like I was on top of the world. Do yourself a favor and make that trip.

Violets in front of the grave of a Connecticut soldier at Antietam National Cemetery.

The fabulous view of Harpers Ferry, W.Va.. from Maryland Heights.

In the woods near Sudley Church at Manassas, a group of nearly 60 of us Civil War fanatics stared at unusual depressions in the ground. Those likely were once the temporary graves of Union soldiers, said tour leader John Hennessy of the National Park Service. One of John's favorite places, it was a poignant scene in a trip full of them. I want to go back there.

But this trip was especially about people. In a hotel in Hagerstown, Md., a tall, slender man and I laughed about the names Southerners and Northerners call a certain battle in western Maryland. Is it "Sharpsburg" or really "Antietam"? Don't laugh: More than 150 years later it's still debated. For our First Battle of Bull Run tour, a gentleman told me he left Connecticut at 3 in the morning to get there by 9 a.m. And when the seven-hour tour was over, he headed right back home. That's crazy... in a cool sort of way.

A landscaper named Joe and I trekked through the woods and a clearing to see where Jackson's arm had been amputated in 1863. Peaceful today, that scene near Wilderness Tavern was awful more than 150 years ago, when thousands of wounded Rebels were treated there after Chancellorsville. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it.

Leaves mask depressions that likely were once graves for Union soldiers in the woods at Manassas.

The Wilderness, near where Confederate General Leroy Stafford was mortally wounded.

I drank beer and swapped war stories (literally) in Fredericksburg with Civil War photo expert John Cummings and his friend, James. Afterward, John pointed out the location just blocks away of a graveyard in 1864 for Union soldiers, many of whom were victims of the brutal fighting throughout that war-torn area. Long gone, the burial site today is partially in  the back yard of a house painted blue. There's a child's play set there now..

Unfortunately, I didn't get to speak with the man who sat in the grass at Fredericksburg National Cemetery. Deep in thought, he had just completed shooting close-ups of a grave of a Union soldier. More than 15,000 Union soldiers, most of them unknown, are buried in the terraced cemetery on Marye's Heights, which once was dotted with Rebel artillery.

Do yourself another favor: Visit there, too.

And most of all this trip was about Henry Pearson. Mortally wounded at the Battle of North Anna River in 1864, the lieutenant colonel in the 6th New Hampshire was only 24 years old, just three years older than our eldest daughter. I had goosebumps as I walked the pathway in the national cemetery in Fredericksburg to place a tintype of him next to his grave there. Let's not forget young Henry and thousands of others like him.

Henry Pearson "returned" to his gravesite at Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery.

6th New Hampshire officer Henry Pearson 'returns' to his grave

On a muggy spring morning, I returned to Henry Pearson's grave with a war-time tintype of him.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

 Henry Pearson is buried under Grave No. 4103 at Fredericksburg (Va.) National Cemetery.

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Sometime during the Civil War, maybe shortly after he joined in the Union army, Henry Pearson posed in a studio for a tintype photograph. Grasping a long sword, the boyish-looking soldier with neatly combed hair stood proudly in his officer's uniform.

Perhaps the image was meant as a keepsake for his parents, a girlfriend or other loved ones. Somehow the photograph left the family, passing from Civil War collector to who-knows-where to auction house to another collector ... until it ended up with me. I bought it for a small price on eBay several weeks ago with the hope of finding out much more about Pearson.

Sadly, Henry did not survive the war. A lieutenant colonel in the 6th New Hampshire, the 24-year-old officer was mortally wounded at North Anna River in Virginia on May 26, 1864. Pearson's body was placed by comrades in a large, wooden box found at a nearby abandoned residence and hastily buried, the soldier's gravesite marked with his name on a piece of a bread box. Then "... we left him alone," another officer noted, "in his glory."

After the war, Pearson's remains were recovered and reburied in the national cemetery in Fredericksburg, Va. -- one of more than 15,000 Union soldiers buried in the beautiful grounds on Marye's Heights. This morning, the image of Henry returned for a visit to Pearson's final resting place, a small way to honor a young man who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Pearson, 24, was mortally wounded at North Anna River on May 26, 1864.

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Lt. Colonel Henry Pearson: 'Left ... alone in his glory'

6th New Hampshire Lieutenant colonel Henry Pearson was killed at North Anna River
on May 26, 1864.  The case is not original to the image. (Author's collection)

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Soon after Lieutenant George E. Upton of the 6th New Hampshire spied a Confederate battery through his field glasses, 24-year-old Lieutenant colonel Henry H. Pearson stepped up on a stump and peered above the Union field works to have a look for himself.

The time was about 4 p.m. on May 26, 1864. The 6th New Hampshire served in the IX Corps of the Union Army, which was pressing the Confederates near the North Anna River, about 25 miles north of Richmond.

The sun shined on Pearson and reflected off his field glasses, possibly providing an excellent mark for a Rebel sharpshooter, who squeezed his trigger and sent a bullet crashing through the 6th New Hampshire officer's head, near the temple. Pearson fell backward into the arms of Upton and another lieutenant, Lyman Jackman. They placed him upon the ground.

The wound undoubtedly was fatal.

Lieutenant Lyman Jackman on Pearson's
wound: "... the ball had passed directly
through his brain."
(Image courtesy Mike Pride)

"A stretcher was procured at once," Jackman recalled, "and he was taken to the field hospital in the rear, but we all knew as soon as we saw the wound that he was beyond help, for the ball had passed directly through the brain. He never spoke, and was unconscious till he died at eight o'clock in the evening.

"It was a sad night for the Sixth Regiment, and we all felt that it would indeed be hard to find another to fill our lost commander's place," Jackman added. "Major [Phineas] Bixby was quite overcome, and with misgivings succeeded as ranking officer to the command. He soon found accorded to himself the confidence and affection that had been so lavishly bestowed upon his predecessor." 

The lieutenant colonel's death crushed soldiers in Company C, the unit Pearson had commanded as captain with the regiment in November 1861.

Bixby ordered Captain Josiah Jones of the 6th New Hampshire to arrange for the transportation of Pearson's body to Washington. Unable to find the means, Jones ordered his men to dig a grave for the lieutenant colonel, whose remains were placed in a large, wooden box found at an abandoned residence nearby. Because it was raining and the army was on the move toward Totopotomoy Creek and Cold Harbor, soldiers hastily buried Pearson on the eastern bank of the North Anna River. Jones and regimental chaplain John S. Dore remained behind to cover Pearson's grave, marked with a crude, wooden headboard made from a piece of a bread box.

Then  "we left him alone," Jones noted, "in his glory."

On May 31, 1864, with Union Army on the move again, Dore hurriedly wrote a condolence letter from a military hospital in Virginia to Pearson's father in Illinois, where Henry grew up. Published in The Pantagraph of Bloomington (Ill.) on June 21, 1864, it included a graphic description of Henry's wound and an account of the beloved officer's nighttime burial. Wrote the chaplain:

In 2016, I took my tintype of Pearson to his grave in Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

"The regiment lay during the afternoon of that day behind the breastworks, with sharpshooters in the advance. About 4 p.m., the fire between the sharpshooters becoming more brisk, and the bullets whistling thickly over our men, the Colonel arose from his seat where he had been reading, and, with that utter disregard for his personal safety so characteristic of the man, stood erect, looking at the enemy through his field glass. 

"He had been standing thus but a few moments, when the fatal shot was received, which was without doubt fired by a rebel sharpshooter. The bullet struck directly in front, crushing the left temple bone and passed through the head. Nearly one-third of the entire brain immediately protruded. He was brought to the division hospital, where he lived three hours. He was not probably sensible of any pain for a single moment after he was struck.

An illustration of Henry Pearson
based on a photograph appears
in the 6th New Hampshire
regimental history.

"He breathed his last at 7:15 p.m., May 26. We prepared a rude coffin and made arrangements to have the body taken to Belle Plain, where we thought it possible to have him embalmed and sent thence to his friends; but this could not be done, for already our forces had begun to re-cross the North Anna river, near which was our hospital, and to move down to this point where we now are, and the battle of the 30th and 31st, is now going on. We loaded our wounded in ambulances, and moved on also. 

"It was near midnight, and there was no alternative but to bury our beloved commander. Capt. Jones, of Co. F, and myself, with a few others, remained; and at that hour, with nothing to break the stillness save the muffled tread of our passing columns, we performed the last sad funeral rites. Could we help thinking of and comparing his burial to that of Sir John Moore?

"The surroundings of the spot where we buried him are such that I can give no description that would enable a stranger to find the same without difficulty."

Dore said Pearson's comrades deeply admired him, noting, "We, as a regiment, loved him with a tenderness such as brothers are capable of loving." The chaplain  requested Mr. Pearson provide instructions for where to send Henry's effects and a plan for what to do with his horse. With the letter, Dore also included a few bloody locks of Pearson's hair.

After the war, a Pearson’s body was disinterred from near the North Anna River and re-buried in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, where his remains rest under grave No. 4103. Perhaps he is among the lucky ones: Of the 15,243 Union soldiers buried at the national cemetery in Fredericksburg, only 2,473 are identified.

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SOURCES

• Jackman, Lyman, History of the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment in the war for the Union, Concord, N.H., Republican Press Association, 1891
• The Pantagraph of Bloomington (Ill.), June 21, 1864. (Hat tip: Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles) 

(For more on Pearson and other New Hampshire Civil War soldiers, check out Mike Pride's excellent "Our War" blog.)