Letter from Antietam: 'Nothing but murder to place us there'

Walter Smith (upper right) and fellow veterans recounted their Antietam experiences in the
Hartford Daily Times on Sept. 17, 1915. Read my blog post on that here.

His teeth broken by a spent ball and weakened from loss of blood, Walter Smith, a 19-year-old private in the 16th Connecticut, jotted down a 700-word letter to his father a day after his regiment was thrashed at the Battle of Antietam.

Walter Smith in 1915.

"In a few minutes the Rebels jumped on to us when we were ordered to fire which we did," he hurriedly wrote on Sept. 18, 1862, from a hospital near the battlefield. "The Rebs gave us a regular hail of musket balls cutting us all to pieces. It was awful."

Orderly Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn, from Walter's hometown of Berlin, Conn., was killed instantly, Smith explained to his father, and found lying under a tree with the body of Sergeant Edward Parmalee. An aspiring dentist from Hartford, Parmalee was engaged to Washburn's sister. Private Charles Penfield, also from Berlin, lay with a shattered leg in a hospital, perhaps at the German Reformed Church on Main Street in Sharpsburg, where he died on Nov. 26.

Several other soldiers from Berlin survived the battle, wrote Smith, who bitterly noted that it was "criminal carelessness" on someone's part to order the 16th Connecticut into the battle, its first of the war. Confused during the chaos that Wednesday afternoon in the infamous 40-Acre Cornfield, the regiment suffered 75 killed or mortally wounded.  Another 16th Connecticut veteran noted, "Some of the boys got frightened and crawled down under the rocks and behind trees to protect themself [sic]."

"We stood no chance at all," wrote Smith, "and it was nothing but murder to place us there."

Smith was captured with most of the rest of his regiment at Plymouth, N.C, on April 20, 1864. Sent to Andersonville with about 300 others in the 16th Connecticut, he was paroled on Dec. 10, 1864, and survived the war. Smith died on Sept. 13, 1932, four days before the 70th anniversary of Antietam. He was 89 years old.

Here's a complete transcription of Walter's Antietam letter, obtained recently from a Smith descendant:
                                                                                   
                                                                           X X X 


6 miles from Boonsboro, Md.

Dear Father,

Thanks to  kind providence, I am at last permitted to write to you. I know you have been anxious to hear from me, but I have not had any time to drop a line since we left Arlington Hights [sic]. Since then we have been on forced marches for a week and a half, chasing after [Stonewall] Jackson.

16th Connecticut Captain Newton Manross 
was killed by a solid shot that took off his
 shoulder, Smith wrote to his father.

We came up with him the day before yesterday, and yesterday we had one of the toughest battles of the war.

Our regiment was ordered up to the front with most of the others, among them the 8th and 11 C.V. We were under fire from Rebel batteries almost all day. We were supporting some of our own batteries most of the time.

At 3 o'clock the fire of the artillery was tremendous, such as I never had conception of; shells burst in every direction, tearing trees and dirt and little pieces flying all around us.

About this time, we were ordered to advance in a cornfield between the two batteries, for what reason none of us could tell, as the Rebs were pouring a perfect storm of shell and grape across there; but we went on and did not halt until we were right before a Rebel battery when we were told Capt. [Newton] Manross (Bristol) was killed by solid shot taking off his shoulder and killing him instantly.

We were concealed from the battery by the corn, and were ordered to lie down and be ready to fire. In a few minutes the Rebels jumped on to us when we were ordered to fire which we did. The Rebs gave us a regular hail of musket balls cutting us all to pieces. It was awful.

I was struck in the mouth by a spent ball, cutting my lips and breaking two of my under teeth. With that exception, I escaped unhurt and am all right now, excepting that I am rather weak from loss of blood, as it bled rather freely. I have just bought an old hen and am having it cooked. The bully 16th is very badly cut up, as I believe they could not muster 600 men this morning.

                                       
        16th Connecticut lay in this hollow in the 40-Acre Cornfield before going into battle.
               (CLICK ON IMAGES FOR FULL-SCREEN INTERACTIVE PANORAMA.)


Lieutenant [George] Cook is all right without a scratch. Lieutenant [Henry] Beach was wounded in the shoulder but not seriously. Charlie Roys is all right; also, Henry Savage. Wadsworth Washburn has not been heard from, nor Ed Parmalee, and may have been taken prisoners. (Both found instantly killed and found lying under a tree together.)

A son of a minister,
 Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn was killed
 at Antietam.
(Connecticut State Library)

Charlie Penfield was reported to be lying wounded in one of the hospitals. ... Ed Moore, of Kensington, was wounded in the shoulder but is doing well in one of the hospitals.

H. Belden, O. Belden, M. McCrum, G. Welch, N. Baldwin are all right. W. Andrus, R. Barton and H. Tibbals were left behind sick, and the rest I have not heard from but may be well.

Where the blame lies for ordering us up there, I do not know; but I do know that was criminal carelessness some where, as we stood no chance at all, and it was nothing but murder to place us there.

I am at a hospital now writing on a drumhead on borrowed paper, as mine was all spoiled in my pocket.

I shall probably join the regiment again in a day or two, as soon as I get strong enough. The Rebels broke our center where we were yesterday , but it was closed again and we were reinforced last night with eighty thousand men, and I hope we shall be able to capture Jackson's whole army as he is almost entirely surrounded, when I shall hope we come home. I wish you could write to me often. I have received but one letter from Mother and she said that she had not received any from me. I do not know what to make of it as I wrote to her very soon after we came to Arlington Hights. Write me often and tell me what is going on.

Please excuse my bad writing as I have to write in a great hurry.

Yours truly,

Walter

Antietam: A horrible toll for the 16th Connecticut

Fragile document in the Connecticut State Library archives: Monthly returns for 
October 1862 for the 16th Connecticut.

A 30-year-old cigar maker, Henry Barnett went into battle singing
at Antietam. He was killed there on Sept. 17, 1862.

In a recent post, I included an image of the October 1862 monthly returns for the 8th Connecticut that showed the staggering death toll for the regiment at the Battle of Antietam. On Tuesday, I discovered in the Connecticut State Library archives the monthly returns for October 1862 for the 16th Connecticut. It's equally stunning to see on paper the toll that Antietam took on this green regiment, mainly recruited from Hartford County. The above image, slightly cut off on the right, includes the grunts -- the privates, corporals and sergeants. Some were listed as missing, others as having deserted. Thirty soldiers are listed as killed in action, far less than the final death count of 75. (Many of the wounded died in Sharpsburg, Md.-area hospitals after the battle.)

The battle took a steep toll on 16th Connecticut officers, too. Captains Newton Manross, Samuel Brown, John Drake and Frederick Barber were among those either killed or mortally wounded at Antietam.

Many of the soldiers on this list have been written about on my blog. Orderly Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn (No. 52), the son of a minister from Berlin, Conn., was killed in John Otto's cornfield. His father recovered his remains from the battlefield. Sergeant Edward A. Parmele (No. 28), an aspiring dentist from Hartford, was engaged to be married to Washburn's sister. Henry Barnett, soldier No. 27 on the list, was a 30-year-old cigar maker from Suffield. He left behind a pregnant wife and two children. Private Nelson Snow (No. 28), also of Suffield, was sick the day of the battle, but he fought anyway. "(Snow) went into the fight for fear someone would call him a coward," wrote Sergeant William Relyea, a comrade in Company D. "He was brave enough to die."

(Download my Excel spreadsheet of Connecticut Antietam deaths here. It includes name, rank, company, date of death, personal information for soldiers and more. Can't download it? E-mail me and I'll send you a copy.)

SOURCE

Relyea, William Henry. “The History of the 16th Connecticut Volunteers,” MS 72782, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.

Antietam: Berlin, Connecticut photo journal

Wadsworth Washburn's grave is surrounded by an ornamental wrought-iron fence.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Washburn, an orderly sergeant in Company G of the 16th Connecticut, was killed
at the Battle of Antietam. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Killed at Antietam, Private William North of the 16th Connecticut is buried in
Wilcox Cemetery in East Berlin, Conn. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

William North's name appears on a brownstone memorial
opposite Wilcox Cemetery. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

As the temperature nudged into the 50s this afternoon in the miniature state of  Connecticut, I drove to Berlin, where two soldiers in the 16th Connecticut who were killed at the Battle of Antietam are buried. Wadsworth Washburn's final resting place is in tiny Denison Cemetery, his marker surrounded by a beautiful wrought-iron fence topped by figures of angels. It's one of my favorite Antietam graves. A 26-year-old orderly sergeant, this son of a Congregational minister was felled by seven bullets in John Otto's 40-acre cornfield, according to a post-war account from a comrade in his regiment. At nearby Wilcox Cemetery, in East Berlin, I trudged through a foot of melting snow to find the grave of William North, a private who served in Company G with Washburn. Both soldiers have their names etched on a 20-foot brownstone memorial located just outside the gate of Wilcox Cemetery. Probably sitting along a country road when it was erected by the Washburn G.A.R. post in 1871, the memorial now sits on a tiny island of land along a busy residential street. According to sources, the monument has been struck at least a couple of times by wayward cars.

Erected by the Washburn Grand Army of the Republic Post in 1871, this memorial
honors the men from the Berlin, Conn. area who died during the Civil War.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

A close-up of the bottom of the memorial. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

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FACES OF THE CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
16TH CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS: Tales of the men in the hard-luck regiment.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it

Antietam: A father retrieves the body of his son

Orderly sergeant Wadsworth Washburn, 26,  was killed at the Battle of Antietam
on Sept. 17, 1862. His father retreived his body from the battlefield.
(Connecticut State Library archives.)

Kristen Duke, a former graduate student at Central Connecticut State, researched and wrote this story on 16th Connecticut Orderly Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn, who was killed at the Battle of Antietam.  If you have a photograph of Wadsworth Washburn, contact me here.

By Kristen Duke

As thousands met their deaths on Civil War battlefields, families back home faced a grim task: the retrieval of bodies of loved ones -- an effort that was often expensive and considered distasteful by some.

This grim list of those killed at Antietam in the
 16th Connecticut --  including Wadsworth Washburn --
 appeared in the  Hartford Courant on Sept. 25, 1862.

“The desire to bring home from long distances the remains of deceased friends is, by some persons, regarded as evidence of a morbid sensibility, or a best an unreasonable expenditure,”Asahel Cornwall Washburn, a pastor noted for his deeply religious sensibilities, wrote in a letter published in the Hartford Courant on Nov. 12, 1862. “Others cherish that desire as a dictate of true love and in strict conformity with christian culture.”

Washburn himself faced the grim reality of death upon learning that his only son, Orderly Sergeant Wadsworth Washburn of the 16th Connecticut, had been killed at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862,  But for the pastor from Berlin, Conn., the decision about what he must do for his dead son was easy:

He had to bring Wadsworth home.

Thankfully for the Washburn family, Wadsworth’s temporary battlefield grave was well marked. John Burnham, the 16th Connecticut’s adjutant, supervised the recovery of bodies of soldiers in his regiment who had been killed at Antietam and carefully noted the location of their graves on the property of a 58-year-old farmer named John Otto.

"There is a stone road running due east from Sharpsburg to the Stone Bridge across the Antietam Creek, for possession of which hard fighting took place in the morning," Burnham wrote in a letter that was published in the Hartford Courant on Sept. 30, 1862. "It is about one mile from Sharpsburg to the bridge, and the spot selected for the grave is about midway between them on a hill on the south side of the road, just back of a white house with a high piazza in front, and opposite of which is a large house and a barn." Washburn was buried in a large trench along with Privates Henry Aldrich of Bristol, John Bingham of East Haddam and Theodore DeMarrs of Cromwell.

Describing his journey home to Connecticut with his son's body as a “sensation of relief,” Reverend Washburn was comforted by the idea that Wadsworth’s final resting place could be “planted with flowers, visited often by friends, moistened with their tears.”

“The dumb marble,” of his son’s gravestone, he added,  “will warn his former associates to also be ready.” (1)

Wadsworth Washburn, an orderly sergeant in
the 16th Connecticut, is buried in Bridge Cemetery
in Berlin, Conn. An ornate wrought-iron fence
surrounds his grave.

The aftermath of Antietam was agonizing for the state, with scores of  funerals held in Connecticut from late September through mid-October 1862.  "It is seldom that we are called upon to bury so many braves in so short a space of time," the Courant reported on Oct. 13, 1862.

Born Aug. 15, 1836 in Vermont, Washburn was 25 years old when he enlisted as a private on Aug. 8, 1862. Sixteen days later, he was mustered into the 16th Connecticut's Company G -- known as Hayden’s Company, in honor of its captain, Nathaniel Hayden of Hartford. Like many from the 16th who signed the oath that summer, he was killed about a month later in Otto’s cornfield. Ill-prepared for a major battle, the 16th Connecticut suffered severely in a desperate effort to turn the rebels' right flank. Of the four Connecticut regiments engaged that awful Wednesday, the 16th Connecticut suffered the most killed, 42.

On Monday afternoon, Oct. 13, 1862, Washburn received a hero’s funeral in Berlin, a small town 15 miles from Hartford.  Eight members of the 25th Connecticut carried his casket into the Congregational Church, which was filled with mourners. Reverend Wilder Smith, whose brother, Heber, had been killed at Cedar Mountain, Va., nearly two months earlier, conducted the services. A moving tribute was given by Lieutenant Jacob Eaton of the 8th Connecticut, who had suffered a leg wound at Antietam.

After a choir sang "America," Washburn's friends, who took a last glance at two photographs of him on the coffin, slowly filed past the dead soldier. The casket was then borne a short distance down the road to the cemetery, where Wadsworth Washburn was finally laid to rest. (2)

His grave surrounded by a beautiful, ornate wrought-iron fence, Washburn today lies buried beside his younger sister, Emma, at tiny Bridge Cemetery. Praised by the Hartford Courant  for his “heroic bravery” on the “fatal field of Antietam,” the seldom-visited gravesite, now tucked into a suburban neighborhood, is a moving tribute to a fallen hero. (3)

(1) "Soldiers Graves,” The Hartford Courant, Nov. 10, 1862.
(2) “Funeral of Sergt. Washburn,” Hartford Courant, Oct. 14, 1862.
(3) Ibid

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FACES OF CIVIL WAR: Stories and photos of common soldiers who served during the war.
MORE ON 16th CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS: Tales of the men in the hard-luck regiment.
MORE ON ANTIETAM: Read my extensive thread on the battle and the men who fought in it.

Wadsworth Washburn's funeral service was held at this Congregational Church in Berlin, Conn.