Descending into a rabbit hole in 'Bloody Madison' County

Historical marker for the Shelton Laurel massacre.

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Seeking information about the Shelton Laurel Massacre of 1863, I connected last Saturday at coffee shop in the rural, hippy town of Marshall, N.C., with an “old, anarchist, ornery, hillbilly guy” named Shane, who connected me with the sweet lady at the hardware store down the street named Kathy, whose customer named Wilson, the dude with the excellent, braided gray goatee, warned me about traveling back into the area’s hollers without permission. That conversation led me to the funky bookstore across the street with the sign in a front window that read “Warning: No Stupid People Beyond This Point.” I went in anyway and visited with the proprietor, a man named Jamey, who suggested I visit in the department store across the street with Georgette, whose husband is a descendant of one of the massacre victims.

The 1970 slaying of VISTA worker Nancy Morgan
remains a mystery--at least officially.

Whew. I’m exhausted reading that first paragraph.

Georgette, who sold me an excellent fried apple pie for four bucks, connected me via phone with Vicki Lane, author of a novel on the massacre called “And The Crows Took Their Eyes.” She’s a longtime resident of this area in the rugged and mysterious Appalachians. And now I’m officially descending deep into the rabbit hole of this Civil War tragedy.

On Saturday afternoon, I had an enlightening conversation with Vicki about the massacre and the place she has called home since a move from Florida in 1975. As an outsider, she felt compelled to adapt to the ways of the locals in this county that earned the nickname “Bloody Madison.” 

“We came here to learn,” says Lane, who lives on a farm in the hills outside Marshall. “We learned how to make tobacco. We learned how to milk cows. And we learned how to butcher pigs.”

The Shelton Laurel Massacre cast a long shadow over this beautiful part of the country— once one of the country’s poorest areas. Some still live without running water. But “rich hippies” and other transplants have greatly changed the character of Marshall and the area.

“Marshall used to have a grocery store, a funeral home and two florists,” says Lane. “And a guy who swept the street with a push broom.” But most locals seem content with the changes, Lane says.

The Shelton Laurel Massacre—the murders by Confederate soldiers of area Unionists in January 1863—isn’t the only area tragedy to earn national headlines. In 1970, law enforcement discovered the body of a government worker for the VISTA program—an anti-poverty effort—naked and hog-tied in the back of her abandoned car off a mountain road near Hot Springs, N.C. The murder of Nancy Morgan remains unsolved, at least officially.

There’s no mystery who killed those Unionists. Lt. Col James Keith commanded the Rebel soldiers who murdered 13 near Laurel Creek—including members of the Shelton clan. Keith never faced justice, living out his final days in Arkansas.

Dozens of Sheltons still live in the area.

“A friend who was a mail carrier told me he’d have to deliver mail to 15 Daniel Sheltons and 18 John Sheltons,” says Lane. “He never knew if he was going to the right mailbox.”

For more, read my book, “A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime,” coming spring 2023. 🙏 For more on Lane’s book, go here or buy it on amazon.com.

VISTA worker Nancy Morgan was murdered near Hot Springs, N.C.

---

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

'Human gore': A catastrophic explosion at Bachelor's Creek

Accidental explosions, such as this one at Fort Sumter and the one at Bachelor's Creek, N.C., 
on May 26, 1864, occurred throughout the Civil War.  

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Shortly before one of the most horrific tragedies of the Civil War, United States soldiers eagerly gathered at the Bachelor's Creek station for the arrival of a military train from New Bern. In addition to supplies for Camp Claassen, base for the 132nd New York, the train delivered mail and newspapers — welcome news for the soldiers stuck in the backwaters of North Carolina.

The 4 p.m. train on May 26, 1864, also carried a deadly cargo: four crude mines. The U.S. military intended to deploy the "monstrous" torpedoes, built with large barrels packed with 250 pounds of black powder, with nine others already in the nearby Neuse River as a deterrent to Confederate warships.

132nd New York Colonel
Peter Claassen requested
 coffins from New Bern
after the explosion.

While soldiers clustered near the train platform, workers haphazardly removed the barrels from a boxcar. They rolled three from the train before a block of wood apparently struck the cap on the last mine, triggering a massive explosion that set off the other three. 

"Like the crush of a thousand pieces of artillery fired simultaneously," a newspaper described the sound of the blast.

Heard at least eight miles away, the explosion caused death and destruction on a massive scale. At least 40 soldiers and perhaps as many as 25 contrabands — escaped slaves — were killed. The blast obliterated a large signal tower and a 20 x 80-foot commissary building made of logs.

"The air was instantly filled with the torn and mangled remains of human bodies," recalled a 132nd New York soldier in a letter to the Niagara County (N.Y.) Intelligencer. "... Most of the victims were blown into fragments and for a distance of hundreds of yards human gore and remains were everywhere visable."

"The disaster," the New York Times reported, "was one of the the most appalling and heartrending that has happened in this country in a series of years."

Moments after the blast, soldiers frantically aided the wounded, but many of the unfortunates could not be helped. The disaster created a scene only Edgar Allan Poe might have envisioned.

The explosion scattered heads, bodies and limbs as far as a quarter mile. A distinctive ring on his detached arm identified David Jones, a commissary sergeant in the 132nd New York. Three soldiers from Company B of the 132nd New York, the hardest-hit regiment, appeared on a casualty list in the New York Herald as missing, "probably blown in pieces."

In the commissary building, a man who was bending over a barrel of rice had grains embedded in his face. He later died.

"An approximate idea may be conceived of the difficulty in identifying individuals when I state that three hard bread boxes were filled with fragments of flesh picked up on the spot," wrote Herald correspondent George Hart, "and the locomotive attached to the train was thickly covered with fragments of shattered humanity." All that remained from the four men handling the torpedoes, a witness claimed, was a small piece found 150 yards from the explosion.

The grave of torpedo explosion victim
Michael Brisco of the 132nd New York
at New Bern (N.C.) National Cemetery.
(Find A Grave)

Near the commissary building when the torpedoes exploded, a 132nd New York soldier got tossed about fifty feet. He landed on all fours but miraculously escaped without serious injury. Using the pen name "Hiawatha," he described the grim aftermath for the Buffalo Courier. 

"The train of last night brought up coffins and our men have been digging graves all night," he wrote. "Some eighteen bodies, more or less mangled, but recognizable, are now being buried. The condition of the dead ranged from a half mangled mass to a perfect jelly."

Continued "Hiawatha," who only suffered temporary deafness:

"The body of one man was thrown some two hundred yards, and on its way it passed a tree, taking a branch some three inches in diameter with it. The body fell some thirty feet beyond the tree. Another poor fellow was hurled about one hundred yards, and, the last fifty of his progress, the body grazed the ground carrying away in its passage a half rotten stump. Feet, hands and other fragments of bodies were thrown in all directions, but mostly towards the Sutler's shop three hundred yards distant. Taking it all and all, it was indeed a terrible scene of ruin, destruction and woe."

The explosion killed civilian Hezekiah Davis — “an old citizen of that neighborhood” — and seriously injured Frank Gould, a 10- or 11-year-old from New Bern. 

"Doctor," the boy pleaded, "I can stand any amount of pain, but don't take off my leg." 

The doctor saved the limb, but Gould's friend, Sergeant William Ennever of the 158nd New York, suffered a mortal wound. 

A woman who lived roughly a half mile from the blast sought the aid of a military surgeon for her injured arm, struck by a piece of wood thrown in the explosion.

Some had Lady Luck on their side. 

As Adjutant Joseph Palmer of the 158th New York neared the locomotive astride his horse, the animal "showed great uneasiness, being restive and apparently terrified." A few seconds before the blast, the horse bounded away, perhaps saving his rider's life. The blast tossed Thomas Stewart of the 158th New York into the air, but he somehow survived with only a few bruises. The explosion threw a soldier drawing whiskey from a barrel headlong into the spirits. He also survived.

Spotted weeping after the catastrophe, Colonel Peter Claassen of the 132nd New York telegraphed New Bern requesting medical aid and coffins. Horribly mangled soldiers received care at a hospital in the garrison town, but many of them didn't survive.

The gravestone at New Bern (N.C.) 
National Cemetery for Stephen Sanford,
killed in the explosion.
(Find A Grave)

"This sad accident, entailing such fearful consequences, has cast a gloom over the soldiers of the outposts which will require a long time for them fully to overcome," the Herald wrote.

But the enemy didn't feel the Federals' pain.

The State Journal of Goldsboro, N.C., a Confederate newspaper, reported "great consternation" in New Bern, adding, "Such a scene of wild confusion is said to have existed in the good old town as has never been exceeded, except in the vicinity of the explosion." 

In a final, evil dig at the United States military, the newspaper concluded, "We regret that the whole infernal race was not within easy range of the torpedoes."

In the days immediately following the tragedy, commanding officers wrote to loved ones of the victims. Captain John W. Fenton of the 132nd New York advised Private Michael Brisco's widow to hire "some honest lawyer or claim agent" to help her secure a pension. (See letter and full transcript below.)

"My regiment mourns a loss of 39 killed & about 25 wounded," Fenton continued. "I have lost out of my company 6 men killed. Yourself and little family have my sincerest & warmest sympathies for the sad affliction to you."

On June 8, Captain George H. Swords of the 132nd New York wrote Sergeant Stephen E. Sanford's father that it would be "impossible" for him to retreive his son's remains "as it would be contrary to orders." Come in the winter instead, he advised, but get a permit from the commanding officer in New Bern. (See letter and full transcript below.)

Perhaps to take the sting out of that news, the officer also sent to Mr. Sanford a memento of his son: a lock of hair cut off by a friend after Stephen's death.

fold3.com

Camp Claassen, 132d N.Y.Vols.
Out Posts, Bachelors Creek, N.C.
May 27th, 1864

Mrs. Brisco,

It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of your husband, Michael Brisco, formerly of my Company, who was instantly killed last evening by the premature explosion of a "Torpedo" at the time he was in the discharge of his duty. His remains have been interred in the Regimental Grave Yard; his papers will all be made out so that you can obtain his back bounty due him & also his back pay. They will be forwarded to Washington and by your making application to the Adjutant General you can get the money. You are also entitled to a pension. Place the matter in the hands of some honest lawyer or claim agent and ...

Fold3.com

... you will have no difficulty. My regiment mourns a loss of 39 killed & about 25 wounded. I have lost out of my company 6 men killed. Yourself and little family have my sincerest & warmest sympathies for the sad affliction to you.

I am respectfully, 

John W. Fenton
Capt, 132d N.Y. Infty Vols.


P.S. His bounty due him is $75 U.S. Bounty and four months & 26 days pay. Your husband's effects will be sold & the proceeds placed to your credit on the pay rolls. Any little memento he may have I will send to you.

J.W.F.

Fold3.com

Head Quarters C Company, 132d N.Y. Inftry.

Out Posts of N.C., Bachelors Creek near 

New Berne, N.C., June 8, 1864
Mr. Stephen Sanford, 

Sir,

Your communication of 3d instant was received this afternoon. Your son's effects were forwarded June 1, 1864 per Adams Express Co. directed as follows viz.: "Mrs. Cordelia E. Champion, No. 163, York St, New Haven, Conn.

It will be impossible to send your son's remains home as it would be contrary to orders. In the winter it may be done by obtaining a permit from the Commanding Officer at New Berne. Enclosed you may find a lock of his hair which was cut off at the time of his death by one of his friends.

I wrote several days ago to Mrs. Champion and stated all the particulars of your son's death with  instructions what course to pursue in every particular.

Respectfully Your Obt. Servt.
Geo. H. Swords Jr.
Captain Commanding

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-- Have something to add, correct? E-mail me at jbankstx@comcast.net

SOURCES

• Buffalo Courier, June 4, 1864
• Michael Brisco and Stephen Sanford pension records, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C., via fold3.com
• New York Herald, June 2, 8, 1864
• New York Times, June 2, 1864
• Niagara County (N.Y.) Intelligencer, June 1864
• North Carolina Times, New Berne, N.C., June 4, 1864
• The State Journal, Goldboro, N.C., June 3, 1864

Video: Where North Carolina made its stand at Fox's Gap

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Before being driven off, vastly outnumbered regiments from North Carolina defended this area on Sept. 14, 1862, during the Battle of South Mountain, a prelude to an even greater battle in nearby Sharpsburg, Md., three days later. The rock wall the Rebels defended is easily seen in what was open field in 1862 but now is heavily wooded. Confederate General Samuel Garland, a Virginia attorney whose wife and son died of the flu in 1861, was killed near here. The monument to honor North Carolina's valor was dedicated in 2003. Listen carefully and you can hear thunder as a light rain begins to fall. (Or was that artillery fire?)

Monument dedicated in 2003 to North Carolina troops who fought at South Mountain.

Rock wall defended by North Carolina soldiers.

       North Carolina's soldiers' view of Union troops, who attacked toward the camera.
                          (CLICK AT UPPER RIGHT FOR FULL-SCREEN EXPERIENCE.)

Battle of Bentonville (N.C.) interactive panoramas/tour

Click here for my interactive Antietam, Cedar Mountain, Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, Harris Farm, Manassas, Malvern Hill, Salem Church, Spotsylvania Courthouse and Harrison's Landing panoramas. (Whew! That's a mouthful.)

Under a stand of trees and a bed of pine cones and needles rest the remains of 20 unknown Rebels who died at the Battle of Bentonville (N.C.). Outnumbered nearly 3-to-1 (60,000 to 21,000), the Confederates were routed here on March 19-21, 1865, suffering more than 3,000 casualties to about 1,600 for the Union army in a battle "remarkable both for the obstinancy with which the Rebels fought and the terrible fire which they maintained."

"Beautiful day," a 5th Connecticut soldier noted of the Sunday the battle began. "Peach trees in blossom and all the country seems lovely, but the sound of cannonading is heard." Less than a month before Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, eight soldiers in the 20th Connecticut were killed or mortally wounded at Bentonville -- including Corporal Abner C. Smith of East Haddam, Conn. He died March 28, nine days after his right leg had been amputated.

"The wound appeared to do well," the regimental chaplain wrote to Smith's wife from Goldsboro, N.C., "and we had hoped that he would recover from the shock. But he was very much exhausted by the long ride from the hospital near to the battle field to this place; and he never fully recovered himself. All was done which could have been under the circumstances: but it was in vain: he continued to fail till the morning of the 28th when he was taken from this scene of pain and sorrow to another world." ...

... Near the graves of Confederate unknowns, a memorial marks the site of a trench containing the remains of 360 Rebel soldiers, all gathered from the battlefield after the Civil War by Confederate veterans. Among the donors for the monument was Union veteran T. E. Harvey, who lost four fingers during the battle. At the dedication on March 20, 1895, Reverend J.J. Harper, son of the farmer on whose property some of the battle swirled, gave a prayer described by Confederate Magazine as "patriotic" and "comprehensive."

"And grant, O Lord," Reverend Harper said, "that the light of Thy presence, and warmth of Thy love and Thy strength of Thy mighty arm may ever be present and manifest to the brave sons of the South, who by Thy providence were preserved through the dangers and carnage of war, and the eclipse of the cause they loved, and who still linger on these mortal shores." ...



... The Rebels made five attacks from right to left here but were stopped by the Union army's XX Corps. The Army of Tennessee made its last great charge of the war across this field, which is privately owned and still farmed today ...

... More than 500 wounded Union were treated at the house of John and Amy Harper, whose 11-member family was ordered to stay upstairs while a field hospital operated downstairs. After the Union army left the area, it left behind about 50 wounded Rebels, 23 of whom died in the Harper family's care and were later buried near the family graveyard. (Pan to the far right in the interactive panorama above to view it.)  It wasn't the first time the war hit home for the Harpers, whose 16-year-old son, Martin, a private in the 20th North Carolina, had been wounded at the Battle of South Mountain on Sept. 14, 1862. ...

... This pink granite monument honors the sacrifice of Texas soldiers at Bentonville. It's nearly identical to the state's monuments at Antietam and Gettysburg ...

... and this cenotaph honors all Rebel soldiers who fell at Bentonville. "Sleep soldier sleep in thy rough earthen tomb," begins the inscription on the side. ...

... Union soldiers, including those of the 5th and 20th Connecticut, are also remembered at Bentonville. This monument was placed on the battlefield by Sons of Union Veterans in 2013.

Death of Private Henry Ford: 'A priceless treasure to liberty'

"...his life was truly a sacrifice to his country,"
 Captain Edwin Lee (above) wrote of Henry Ford.
Lee also did not survive the Civil War.
(Photo: John Lee of Hartford Co. and His Descedants)

Teenager Henry Ford apparently was a good son, helping support his family financially before and during the Civil War and even purchasing a cow for his mother in 1861. Life must have been challenging for 46-year-old Rachel Ford, whose husband suffered from lung disease, so every little bit her eldest sons provided probably was greatly appreciated as she reared 10 children in Cornwall, Conn.

Along with his older brother William, Henry enlisted in the Union army on Oct. 4, 1861, and both soldiers were mustered into Company D of the 11th Connecticut in mid-November. The legal age to join the Union army was 18, so 16-year-old Henry probably lied about his age on an enlistment form. Perhaps he used a ploy of other underage soldiers, writing the number 18 on a slip of paper, putting it in his shoe and then telling the recruiting officer: "I'm over 18, and I stand on my word."

After the regiment left Hartford on Dec. 16, 1861, it settled into camps near Annapolis before it shipped out for its eventual destination of North Carolina as part of Burnside's Expedition on Jan. 8. The expedition's grand fleet, consisting of more than 125 vessels, was hampered by two major storms, fog and communication problems after it left Fortress Monroe at the southern tip of the Virginia peninsula.

"The auspices under which we have commenced operations are certainly not very encouraging," a New York Times correspondendent reported on Jan. 15, 1862. After the expedition arrived at Hatteras Inlet in North Carolina, a colonel and the surgeon of  the 9th New Jersey drowned during a trip back to their mother ship after a short visit ashore, "where they spent some time wandering the beach collecting shells." Nearly 90 horses suffered the same fate when the steamer Pocahantas wrecked near a lighthouse, and 500 11th Connecticut soldiers aboard the Voltigeur ended up stranded on a sand bar in the inlet for 23 days before they finally made it ashore.

The Union attempt to put a stranglehold on North Carolina did not start well.

Sketch artist Frank Schell drew this image of the stranded Voltigeur, with
 11th Connecticut soldiers aboard, in Hatteras Inlet in North Carolina in January 1862.
(New York Public Library Collection)

Shortly after the 11th Connecticut left Annapolis aboard the Voltigeur, Henry became ill with the "measles," according to his commanding officer, Captain Edwin Lee, who had him transferred to a more comfortable quarters in a cabin on the troop transport. Initially, Ford appeared to be recovering, but he eventually was overcome by "congestion of the lungs" and died on Jan. 16.

According to this death certificate, dated March 29, 1863, the 
cause of Private Henry Ford's death was typhoid fever.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

In breaking the news of  Henry's death to the soldier's father, Lee wrote that the teenager "died in the defense of his country's flag and sustaining our nation's honor although he did not die amid the roar and din of battle, in the face of our country's foe." The captain of Company D explained to Amos Ford that army regulations prevented his son's body from being kept long enough to take ashore, so he was buried at sea the morning after he died. That ritual undoubtedly was witnessed by a grieving William Ford, who also was aboard the Voltigeur. Lee assured Amos that should anything happen to his 20-year-old son, "I shall inform you at the earliest moment if I am spared but my chances are not better than others nor as good as many."

"But grieve not at your loss," Lee wrote in the three-page letter written the day after Henry's funeral, "but rather consider it gain that you have thus contributed such a priceless treasure to liberty of man and your country. (See full text and transcription of the letter below.)

Tragedy soon rocked the Ford family again. Amos, a farmer, died of consumption in 1862, and William, who transferred to the U.S. Army 3rd Heavy Artillery in October 1862, died of disease on Dec. 9, 1863. Lee, too, would not survive the Civil War. During a charge on Confederate entrenchments at the Battle of New Bern (N.C.) on March 14, 1862, the captain from Barkhamsted, Conn., was killed when artillery fire ripped open his abdomen. He was only 28 years old.

Sources: 
Ancestry.com
Henry Ford pension file, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.
New York Times, Jan. 25, 1862
1860 U.S. census

X X X

In a three-page letter to the father of  Private Henry Ford,  his commanding officer
 broke the news of the teenaged soldier's death ftom disease. Henry was buried at sea.
(SEE TRANSCRIPTION AND REMAINDER OF LETTER BELOW.)

Hatteras Inlet, Aboard Bark Voltigeur,  Jan. 18, 1862

Mr. Ford

Dear Sir

It becomes my painful duty as commander of company D 11th C.V. to inform you of the sudden death of your son Henry, a member of my corps. A short time after we left Annapolis he was taken sick with the measels. I immediately had him transferred from the men's quarters to a comfortable place in the cabin. He appeared to be getting along finely until Thursday the 16th. About 7 o'clock Wednesday afternoon he partook of quite a hearty supper. In fact he had some of it in his hand when he was taken with congestion of the lungs and expired within a few hours. We buried him the next morning at sea with all the ceremonies due the occasion.

We could not possibly keep him until we arrived on shore and regulations demand that they shall not be kept over 12 hours. Sir, I know full well how sudden, how sad a blow this must be to you and his Mother. Tis true the loss is irreparable ...

"He was a good soldier and an upright man," Captain Edwin Lee wrote of Henry Ford.
Pages 2 and 3 of the letter were spliced together using picmonkey.com.

... but I have the consolation to offer you: He was a good soldier and an honest and upright man. He died in the defense of his country's flag and sustaining our nation's honor although he did not die amid the roar and din of battle, in the face of our country's foe. Yet his life was truly a sacrifice to his country as it would have been had such been the case. And rest assured tis an honor of the highest nature to die for one's country. William is here in good health. He will send all of any value belonging to him. There is some money due him from the government viz. two months bounty from the state, $5.00. Also two weeks pay from the U. States government $6.50 and  One Hundred Dollar bounty from the United States government. I shall notify the authorities at Washington so that the proper measures can be taken to secure it for you.

I enclose for you a letter from Wm. (William). We expect soon to be called into action. If anything happens to your other son I shall inform you at the earliest moment if I am spared but my chances are not better than others nor as good as many. But grieve not at your loss but rather consider it gain that you have thus contributed such a priceless treasure to liberty of man and your country. You will receive this as soon as they will permit letters to be forwarded. If you wish any information concerning Henry's effects I shall be happy to contribute it any time you may desire it.

I remain truly yours

Capt. Edwin R. Lee
Co. D 11th Regt. C.V.

'Honey, I want to buy a war log'

Ed Jones and the "war log" he bought at the Gettysburg Civil War Show on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, I ever-so-briefly mulled working up the courage to ask Mrs. Banks if I could buy a Gatling gun. Now I want a "war log" just like the one Ed Jones, a Civil War collector/dealer from Archdale, N.C., bought at the Gettysburg Civil War show Saturday morning for 300 bucks. There are three bullets visible in the 5-foot hunk of tree, shot up at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in May 1864. And who knows what else may be inside this thing? A key to the city of Richmond? Jefferson Davis' false teeth? Another copy of Lee's Special Order 191? Jones, a descendant of several Confederate soldiers, plans to haul this log back his home in the mountains of North Carolina to display in his relic room. If I bought one, I would display it in our garage, next to the cot that I would be sleeping on for several months ... or years. Or forever.

Bullets from the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse embedded in the "war log."

Death at New Bern: 'You have lost a noble brother'

On a Civil War memorial in Collinsville, Conn., Private Isaac Tuller's name appears next
 to two other comrades in Company A of the 8th Connecticut who died during the Civil War.

On a spring day in 1862, a captain in the 8th Connecticut wrote a letter like thousands of other letters sent home to loved ones of soldiers during the Civil War.

Civil War memorial at Village Cemetery in Collinsville, Conn., 
honoring soldiers "whose bodies were never brought home."

"Your brother died at 2 o'clock on the morning of April 9th of typhoid fever," Henry Hoyt wrote to Isaac Tuller's sister, Hattie, on May 12, 1862. "...You have lost a noble brother. I have lost a man whose loss we all deeply feel. He was noble hearted and generous to a fault." (See complete letter below from mother s pension file.)

Tuller's death in an army hospital in New Bern, N.C., was especially poignant.

Only four months earlier, the former clerk and two other comrades in the 8th Connecticut penned a letter home from their camp near Annapolis, Md., thanking a woman for sending mittens and socks to the soldiers to protect them during a harsh winter. (The letter may be found today among the Civil War manuscript holdings at the Connecticut Historical Society.)

"We have this day been the recipient of some mittens and stockings which we are informed you helped knit." read that letter to Sophronia Barber of Canton Center, dated Dec. 16, 1861. "We thank you kindly for them, and as we are engaged in helping to maintain the government and wear these to keep our bodies warm, you may be assured that our hearts will warm toward those who have remembered the soldier in his need."

Close-up of memorial, erected in 1903.

"May the richest of Heavens blessing rest upon the ladies who so kindly remember us," the letter continued, "and we hope that this war soon be over and none of the Stars that now are emblazoned on the Flag of our Country be effaced and we be returned to our homes again and see our friends again in a free & united country, under the same old flag the heroes of the revolution fought under."

The letter was signed by Tuller, Henry D Sexton and Martin L. Wadhams, all privates in Company A. The young men in their early 20s were probably good friends.

Nine months later, each was dead.

Like Tuller, Sexton died of disease, losing an agonizing battle with jaundice on Jan. 7 aboard a hospital ship in Annapolis harbor. "It took five of us to hold him and keep him from tearing his face with his hands," a friend in the 8th Connecticut wrote of Sexton. Wadhams was killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862. Sadly, the remains of all three soldiers were not brought home. The final resting places of Wadhams and Sexton are unknown, and Tuller is buried somewhere in New Bern, N.C., perhaps in the national cemetery.

Along with the names of 36 other Connecticut soldiers, Tuller, Sexton and Wadhams are honored on a bronze plaque on the north side of a seldom-visited Canton memorial at the bottom of a hillside cemetery in Collinsville. On the reverse of the memorial, etched in granite, are these words:

"In memory of the men of Canton who offered up their lives a sacrifice in the Civil War 1861-65 and whose bodies were never returned home."

Camp near Newbern, N.C. May 12th 1862


Miss Tuller

"Your kind letter of the 30th was rec'd on the 8th. Your brother died at 2 o'clock on the morning of April 9th of typhoid fever. He was in the General Hospital at Newbern. The last time I saw him was a Slocum's Creek (March 18th) where I had to leave him on board the Gunboat Chapman -- the regiment being ordered to lay siege to Fort Macon about 40 miles from Newbern. Your brother was then taken from the steamer to the Hospital. He was at that time now sick, but the surgeon informed me that he did not consider him dangerous. I heard from him occasionally and that he was getting better. About the 15th we were startled by the news of his death. The reg. returned to Newbern on the 4th of this month where I found two letters for Isaac. I ..."  (Continued on Page 2.)

" ...opened them in order to find the address of his friends so as to send his effects home. These letters you will find with the other things. I have made enquiries at the Hospital about his last moments. He was deranged for a number of days before his death. The steward informed me that he called often for his mother and sister. You have lost a noble brother. I have lost a man whose loss we all deeply feel. He was noble hearted and generous to a fault. Dr. Leathry (since died) was very much attached to him. He had been assisting the Dr. for a few weeks in putting up medicines. He was buried in the Newbern Cemtery with his uniform on. I found his overcoat, 1 pr. of boots and 2 pouches monies containing $100 and postage stamps. The boots and cap I have sold for $5.50. There is owing to him by members of the Co. $13.00 and the Lieut. has $4.00 of his money. There are other ... " (Continued on Page 3.)

"...articles of clothing which I send by express. The money that is owing I will collect on next pay day to send to you by express. There is due from the U.S. from 31st Dec. to the time of his death. Enclosed find an inventory of effects. By presenting these docs to the Pay Master Genl. at Washington you will get the amount due. There are persons in most places who make it their business to procure the pay of deceased soldiers. I by placing the papers in the hands of an agent of this kind you will get the money without trouble. His boots and cap were somewhat worn and I thought it was better to dispose of them than to send them home. I shall be pleased to hear from you to know if you have rec'd the package. I hope to be able to send the money in a few days. Hoping that my transactions will meet your approval. I remain your friend.

Henry M. Hoyt
Capt. Co. A 8th Reg C.V.

Faces of the Civil War: Edwin Ruthven Lee

Edwin Lee, a captain in the 11th Connecticut,  was killed at
New Bern, N.C. on March 14, 1862.


Nearly a month after a Confederate shell ripped open his abdomen and killed Edwin Lee on a North Carolina battlefield, his body lay in state at the City Guard Armory in Hartford.


Edwin Lee's final resting place is in Riverside Cemetery,
next  to Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church
in Barkhamsted, Conn.

A U.S. flag, "mingled with black and white," draped the walls inside the armory, the Hartford Courant reported, and "hundreds of sorrowing citizens" paid their respects to a young man who only a couple years earlier had worked at the nearby Colt Armory and Sharps Rifle Co. Members of the City Guard, a Connecticut militia group of which Lee was once an important member, stood watch all day that Thursday in mid-April 1862.

The 28-year-old captain's cap, sash, blood-stained sword, torn belt and his broken pistol, which was struck by the shell that killed him, were placed upon the coffin, likely closed because of Lee's terrible wounds. A canopy of stars and stripes over the bier was topped by a placard that included the final words Lee supposedly uttered:

"Go on For Your Country." (1)

Edwin Ruthven Lee, the well-respected captain of Company D in the 11th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, was home for good.

Ever since I first discovered Lee's impressive brownstone grave marker in a rural Connecticut cemetery on a gray winter day four years ago, I was eager to find out more about him.

Who was this man buried in Riverside Cemetery next to the small, white Methodist church near the Farmington River?

An account of Lee's funeral appeared in the
Hartford Courant on April 19, 1862.
The funeral was actually on April 18,
not April 19 as appears in the story.

Did his loved ones travel south to arrange for the return of his body back home, as many families of soldiers killed during the Civil War did? 

Who mourned for Edwin Lee?

Thanks to assistance from Paul Hart of the Barkhamsted Historical Society, Gordon Harmon of the Canton Historical Museum and some Internet detective work, I now have a more complete picture of Lee's life and death.

Before the Civil War, Lee was a major supporter of Abraham Lincoln, often giving speeches for the Republican candidate during the 1860 presidential campaign. Described as a "young man of a clear head and earnest convictions," Lee was employed as a riflemaker at Hartford's Colt Armory and later Sharps Rifle Co., both of which supplied a large number of small arms to the Union army during the Civil War.

On Sept. 27, 1861, a little more than five months after the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Lee enlisted in the Union army in Hartford. He had raised a company of 19 men from Hartford, 19 from Canterbury and Winsted and the remainder from small towns west of the state capital. (2). The Lees, who came from Revolutionary stock, were a patriotic family -- two of Edwin's brothers also enlisted and another attempted to enlist but was rejected because of a disability. (Another brother was a sutler during the war.)

On  the morning of April 18, 1862, a crowd gathered at the Collinsville train depot to await
the arrival of the coffin containing Edwin Lee's remains. The depot, shown in a post-Civil War 
photo, no longer exists. At right, the site today. (Left photo courtesy Canton Historical Musuem.)

After drilling in Hartford, Lee and his comrades headed for New York, where the 11th Connecticut left by steamer on Dec. 17, 1861, bound for Annapolis, Md. The 11th Connecticut  broke camp in early January and sailed to North Carolina as part of Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Expedition. In early March, Lee and his comrades moved from Roanoke Island to fight in their second battle of the war, an attack near New Bern, N.C., an important link in the Confederate supply chain and thus a key military target.

As Rebel artillery fire shrieked through the air around 9 a.m. on March 14, 1862, Lee wheeled his men into line to attack an enemy behind entrenchments several hundred yards away. Suddenly, an artillery shell crashed into the captain, killing Lee and five other Union soldiers, according to one account.


Lee's funeral cortege went through New Hartford, Conn., a short distance
 from where he was buried. Flags were at  half-mast along the route that day.

Although it seems unlikely after being struck in the abdomen by an artillery shell, Lee reportedly uttered these final words: "Tell my brother I died at the post of duty. Good-by. Go on for your country!" (3) The last sentence was later carved on Lee's tombstone.

A day after the battle, Lee was buried on the bank of the Neuse River, a short distance from where he was killed. His body was later disinterred and then shipped back north by the army on April 11 aboard the transport ship U.S. Jersey Blue, under the care of Reverend George Soule, the chaplain for the 11th Connecticut. Rank has its privileges, even in death. Four days later, the Jersey Blue arrived in New York, where Lee's family or his friends in the City Guard likely arranged for the final leg of the sad journey to Hartford. (4)

On Friday morning, April 18, 1862 -- a day the Hartford Courant reporter described as "one of the finest of the spring" -- Lee's remains began the meandering journey by train from Hartford to his funeral in Barkhamsted, about 30 miles away. Nearly 50 of Lee's former co-workers at the Sharps Rifle Co. and 44 City Guards were aboard as the train slowly wound its way through New Britain, Plainville and Unionville before finally arriving in the small Farmington River manufacturing town of Collinsville. (The Collins Co. in Collinsville supplied pikes to John Brown that the abolitionst intended to use to help incite a slave rebellion in Harper's Ferry, Va., in 1859.)

By 10 a.m., a large crowd had gathered at the Collinsville train depot, including many of Lee's friends, and the soldier's coffin was loaded into a coach for the 10-mile journey to Barkhamsted. As the cortege traveled up the steep hills before descending into the valley, "the sun and dust conspired to make the trip rather uncomfortable," the Courant reporter wrote, and the journey became tedious. But all along the route, through the small towns of Pine Meadow and New Hartford, the U.S. flag was displayed at half-mast in respect for Lee.

Edwin Lee's coffin was placed on a bier in front of this Methodist church in
Barkhamsted, Conn. At top, an early 20th century photo of the church before it was
expanded in the 1990s. Lee's grave marker is just to the right of the big, leafy tree.
Bottom, the church today. (Top photo courtesy Barkhamsted Historical Society)

The funeral cortege finally arrived at Pleasant Valley Methodist Church at 1 p.m.. Edwin Lee's coffin was removed from the coach and placed on a bier on the grass in front of the church  A large crowd had gathered, including Lee's grief-stricken family, parents Henry and Mary, and his brothers and sister.

A choir sang "When Blooming Youth Is Snatched Away," and an address and a prayer were offered by two local reverends. Lee's coffin was then carried to his gravesite about 25 yards away. The diligent Courant reporter described the scene:

The City Guard fired a volley over the grave, and again formed in marching order. The Armory Band, which played a durge during the march to the grave, played a lively quickstep as the company went away. "The King is dead; long live the King."

(1) Hartford Courant, April 20, 1862, Page 2
(2) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morrism 1869, Page 129
(3) Ibid, Page 175
(4) New York Times, April 16, 1862

Faces of the Civil War: Wiley S. Boon

Wiley Simeon Boon, who served in the 35th North Carolina Infantry, was killed
at Malvern Hill, near Richmond, on July 1, 1862. (Photo courtesy of Brian Farrell)

An imposing Bowie knife in his hand and a kick-butt expression on his face, Wiley Simeon Boon certainly looked the part of a rebel when he had his photo taken, probably shortly before or after he enlisted in the Confederate army on Sept. 20, 1861.

Wiley S. Boon was listed as a farmer on the 1860 U.S. census. He
and his wife, Ann,  had a 10-month-old son, John. (CLICK TO ENLARGE.)

A farmer from Chatham County, near Raleigh, Boon was a private in Co. D, known as the "Haw River Boys," in the 35th North Carolina Infantry.  The regiment was comprised of men from 10 counties, many of them young farmers like Wiley, who was 24 when he enlisted. Boon's home county was mainly agricultural, but its coal mines also helped fuel the Rebel cause.

The 35th North Carolina didn't distinguish itself in its first battle of the Civil War, at New Bern, N.C., on March 14, 1862. According to General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch's official report, the 35th "quickly followed the example of the militia, retreating in the utmost disorder." Lack of leadership from its commanding officers, many of whom were soon replaced, was to blame. (1)

Union artillery fires on the Rebels at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, in this sketch
by Civil War artist correspondent Alfred Waud (Library of Congress)

"That it was attributable to want of leadership the Thirty-fifth Regiment did not behave better on this, its first field of battle, is established by the fact, that in every subsequent battle of the war in which it was directly or remotely connected,it never failed to act in such a manner as to deserve and win the encomiums of its commanding officers," Captain William Burgwyn wrote after the war. "And that the conduct of their Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel at New Bern was such as to cause the officers to lose all confidence in their military capacity to lead them, is evidenced by the fact that at the reorganization of the regiment (10 April, 1862), neither of these officers were re-elected ; while the one who had shown both capacity and bravery, the youthful Petway, was advanced higher in command and elected Lieutenant-Colonel." (2)

Confederate troops attacked up this slope at Malvern Hill.


Following the Battle of New Bern, Private Boon's Co. D fought well as a rear guard as Rebel troops retreated to Kinston. "Special praise is due to Company D, commanded by Captain (Hardy) Lassiter, for the alacrity with which they volunteered to defend our retreating columns when the enemy's cavalry was reported to be upon us," Burgywn wrote. (3)

After re-organizing under new leadership in Kinston, the 35th eventually was ordered to join the Army of Northern Virginia defending Richmond during the Seven Days campaign. It was involved in sharp fights near Seven Pines from June 25-28, 1862. But in the final battle of the Seven Days campaign, at Malvern Hill near the James River on July 1, the 35th North Carolina was mauled. (Click here for interactive Malvern Hill panoramas.)

Failing to take out the many Union cannon on a ridge, Robert E. Lee's army made ill-advised  direct assaults on an impregnable position. As Rebel troops emerged from the woods, they were cut to pieces by well-aimed artillery and later canister as some got closer to Union guns. One can only imagine what was going through the mind of Wiley Boon, who surely saw the earlier carnage, as he waited in the woods before moving up the slope of  Malvern Hill with his comrades late that afternoon.

View from Confederate position at Malvern Hill.

"As each brigade emerged from the woods from fifty to one hundred guns opened upon it, tearing great gaps in its ranks, but the heroes reeled on and were shot down by the reserves at the guns which a few squads reached," Confederate General D.H. Hill wrote in his after-action report.

Among the 5,300 Rebel casualties were both commanders of the 35th North Carolina, who were killed in the assault. And somewhere on the expanse of Virginia farmland, Wiley Simeon Boon, the young farmer from North Carolina, lost his life. He left behind a wife, Ann, and a 2-year-old son, John. Boon is probably buried in a unmarked grave somewhere near Richmond, according to Brian Farrell, Boon's great-great grandson.

Although no Civil War-era correspondence from Boon is known to exist, the remarkable tintype above was handed down through Farrell's family through the generations. Farrell, who bears a striking resemblance to Wiley, answered questions about his Rebel relative after contacting me through my blog:

Q: When did you first find out you had a relative who fought during the Civil War?

Farrell: About eight years ago one of my aunts found Wiley’s photo in an old trunk in her attic. She then took a picture of the picture and sent it to me because she thought she saw a resemblance. This actually got my kin on my mom’s side of the family to do a picture search and they found a picture of Eli Griggs, my great-great grandfather on my mom’s side who also served the South in the Civil War. Unfortunately, his photo is when he was an old man. He lost his arm at Marye's Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He was in the artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Brian Farrell of Austin,
Texas  bears a striking
resemblance to his
great-great grandfather. 

Q: Have you visited the sites where Simeon served the Confederacy?

Farrell: I have not, but I would love to. I have been to Marye's Heights, which I enjoyed very much.

Q: What's the most interesting story told about Wiley in your family?

Farrell: According to our family history, it is believed that he was eventually promoted to major. If true, that's pretty good considering he started as a private and was a farmer before that and considering how long he survived.

1) Histories of the Several Regiments from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-65, Volume 2, Written by Members of the Respective Commands, Edited by Walter Clark, Lieutenant Colonel Seventeenth Regiment N.C.T, Published by the State, 1901, Page 595
2) Ibid, Page 595
3) Ibid, Page 596