16th Connecticut reunion ribbons and visit with Joe Newman

Joe Newman, 83, served in the U.S. foreign service in London, Paris and Rome.

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Spend 90 minutes with 83-year-old Joe Newman, a gregarious New Jersey native, and this is what you'll probably discover:

He's passionate about baseball. (He officially "retired" from playing in 2008.)

He enjoys telling tales about his family. (Newman wrote a book about growing up in Maplewood, N.J.)

He's a stickler for grammar.

As a private in the 16th Connecticut, Augustus Funck was 
wounded at Antietam and survived imprisonment at 
Andersonville and Florence, S.C.
(Photo: Connecticut State Library archives)

And he loves history, especially Civil War history.

On a raw, rainy day in Connecticut, Newman bounded from room to room in his beautiful, early 19th-century house, showing me his vast collection of books, art and historical treasures, some of which were collected during his days as a U.S. foreign service officer in Paris, London and Rome.

In his office/library, he pointed out first-edition memoirs of Grant and Sherman; a huge history book published in 1611 that he purchased in London; a typewritten letter written to him and signed by LBJ and a magnificent, rare early 20th-century book on the history of baseball.

In the living room, near several other shelves of books, he showed off two metal lanterns and then handed me a small box that included an old tag. The lanterns, the tag noted, were from Old North Church, the one of Paul Revere fame in Boston.

"And here's the piece de resistance, John," he said, gesturing to a large box on a table in another room. Inside it were original New York newspapers that covered the shelling of Fort Sumter that ignited the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, Lee's surrender at Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination.

Of course, I was most captivated by the collection of 16th Connecticut reunion ribbons on a four-foot, brown wooden board mounted high on the wall in his library/office. Newman's ancestor, Private Augustus Funck of the 16th Connecticut, was wounded at Antietam, captured at Plymouth, N.C., on April, 20 1864, and survived nine months in Rebel captivity in Andersonville, Ga., and Florence, S.C. (His brother, Henry, perished in Florence.) As did many of his fellow veterans, Augustus attended post-war gatherings of his comrades, including an excursion to Antietam at which the 16th Connecticut monument was unveiled on Oct. 11, 1894.

An immigrant from Germany, Augustus was a self-made man, taking over his father's undertaking/furniture business after the war and becoming a prosperous businessman. "He worked harder than anybody else in the business for years," the Hartford Daily Courant noted in his obituary in 1911, "and the success of the big enterprise was due to no one else but himself."

After our visit concluded, Newman put on his hat and gloves and headed out into the light rain for a short walk on his 150-acre property. "Come back again, John," he said with a wave and a smile. Makes sense to me, Joe, makes sense to me.

16th Connecticut veteran Augustus Funck's reunion ribbons.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

 Augustus Funck attended a gathering of 16th Connecticut veterans at Antietam on 
Sept. 17, 1889,  the 27th anniversary of the battle.

16th Connecticut reunion ribbons from 1894 and 1895.

Funck attended 16th Connecticut reunions in 1898, 1899, 1903, 1904 and 1905.

Augustus Funck survived Andersonville, but his brother died in a Rebel prison in Florence, S.C.

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16th Connecticut private survived Antietam, POW camps

Veteran Augustus Funck, who survived Antietam and POW camps, posed for this photo
 in his hometown of Bristol, Conn.  (Connecticut State Library archives)

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Sporting a thick, gray mustache, Augustus H. Funck appeared confident as he posed in his hometown of Bristol, Conn., for a cabinet card image early in the 20th century. The 16th Connecticut veteran was one of the wealthiest men in town, having turned his father's furniture and undertaking business into a fortune -- a fabulous achievement for the "poor German boy" who immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1846.

"He worked harder than anybody else in the business for years," The Hartford Daily Courant noted in 1911, "and the success of the big enterprise was due to no one else but himself."

Funck probably learned a lot about grit and determination during the Civil War, when he faced more than his share of hardship. A carpenter as a civilian, he enlisted with his brother Henry on July 22, 1862, his 26th birthday. Less than a month later, Private Funck was wounded in the foot at Antietam, one of more than 200 casualties in his regiment in the 40-Acre Cornfield. Nineteen months later, he and his brother were captured with nearly their entire regiment at Plymouth, N.C., and sent to POW camps. Funck spent four months in Andersonville and five more months in captivity in Florence, S.C., where Henry died, before he was paroled.

After the war, Funck was married twice (his first wife died in 1883) and raised eight children, eagerly participated in local Grand Army of the Republic events and served as jailer in Bristol. In 1910, veterans of Funck's Company K celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary to his second wife by giving the couple a silver bread tray that was inscribed with a reference to his service in the 16th Connecticut.  The undertaking business that he jump-started in the late-19th century remains active to this day in Bristol.

A defender of family honor, Funck legally dropped the "c" from his last name shortly before his death in 1911 to "prevent mischievous corruption of the company name by less-than-savory characters who hung around the railroad depot across the street." The veteran's grave may be found in Bristol's West Cemetery, near the final resting places for many of his 16th Connecticut comrades.

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