Antietam: Wounds as 'large as a silver half dollar'

In a cabinet card image probably taken in the 1880s, Alonzo Maynard shows the effects of  wounds
 he suffered at an attack at Burnside Bridge during the Battle of Antietam. His wounds 
were highlighted in red by an unknown person,  perhaps a Grand Army of the Republic member. 
  (Photo: New England Civil War Museum, Rockville, Conn.)  

At the Battle of Antietam, more than 200 men and boys from Connecticut were killed or died from effects of wounds or other causes. Sometimes, the grievously wounded may have envied the dead. An 18-year-old private in the 11th Connecticut, Alonzo Maynard was shot four times during the attack at Burnside Bridge on the morning of Sept. 17, 1862. The entrance of some of the wounds, he said after the war, were as "large as a silver half dollar." Maynard was so terribly wounded that surgeons did not immediately tend to him because they figured he was a

Matt Reardon

lost cause.

But the teenager not only survived the Civil War, he lived until he was 63, dying on March 20, 1907. Maynard's post-war life was a great struggle, however, and he sometimes prayed that death would deliver him from the suffering caused by his battlefield wounds. His story may have gone untold were it not for Matt Reardon, who last spring shared the cabinet card image above of Maynard from the excellent collection at the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn.

Reardon, a passionate Civil War historian and executive director at the museum, has a direct connection to the war. His great-great-great grandfather, a private in the 8th Connecticut, survived Antietam and later imprisonment in a Rebel POW camp in Andersonville, Ga. Maynard's story, told in more detail in my recently released book "Connecticut Yankees at Antietam," is not unique. Many men returned from the war with grievous wounds, including Corporal Richard Jobes of the 16th Connecticut, who lost his left forearm to amputation after he was shot in John Otto's cornfield at Antietam. Other soldiers lost their minds. At least two soldiers in the 16th Connecticut who survived the horror of Antietam later died in Connecticut mental hospitals.

To learn more about Connecticut's Antietam soldiers, attend Civil War Day on Saturday at the Middlesex County Historical Society in Middletown, Conn., where I will appear with copies of my book available for purchase. Here's more on the book here and a Hartford Courant story here.

Alonzo Maynard was shot in the attack at Burnside Bridge, shown here in a photo probably
 taken by renowned battlefield photographer William Tipton in the 1890s. 
(Connecticut State Library)  CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

Antietam: Descendant reunited (briefly) with ancestor's rifle

As Civil War collector Jeffery Cook looks on, Matt Reardon of Tolland, Conn., holds his
 great-great-great grandfather's Sharps rifle, the first time a member of his family has 
held the weapon since 1864. Michael Farley used the rifle at the Battle of Antietam.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

The Sharps rifle was manufactured in Hartford. A close-up 
of the stock reveals six notches.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

On Sept. 17, 1862, Michael Farley, a 21-year-old Irish-born private in Company G of the 8th Connecticut, carried his Hartford-manufactured Sharps rifle into the Battle of Antietam. The soldier from Stonington, about 60 miles southeast of  Hartford, had enlisted in the Union army three months earlier, no doubt hoping that the Civil War would be brought to a swift conclusion. Farley survived Antietam and Fredricksburg as well as smaller battles in Virginia at Swift Creek and Walthall Junction, but he became a prisoner of war at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff on May 16, 1864. Farley disappeared into a series of Southern prison camps, including the most notorious one of the Civil War, at Andersonville in Georgia. Farley's Sharps rifle disappeared too, never to be in held again by the 8th Connecticut private or another member of his family.

Until Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to Connecticut Civil War collector Jeffery Cook, Farley's great-great-great grandson took temporary possession of the rifle carried by his ancestor so long ago. It was an extra-special moment for Matt Reardon of Tolland, Conn. -- and members of the audience -- at the Connecticut Civil War Roundtable event in Torrington, Conn. The rifle is on temporary loan from a New Jersey collector to Cook, who gave a presentation Saturday about his impressive collection that includes the blood-stained scabbard of a presentation sword of a 16th Connecticut 1st lieutenant who was wounded at Antietam.

Left: Farley's muster-in papers. Right, his grave in Pawcatuck, Conn.
(Muster-in papers courtesy Tad Sattler; Grave photo courtesy Matt Reardon)
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

In beautiful shape, the Sharps infantry rifle, a breech-loader, includes six notches (Rebel victims perhaps?) carved on the stock below the band as well as the 8th Connecticut regiment designation and Farley's company carved on the butt. Understandably, Reardon, the enthusiastic executive director of the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn., was reluctant to part with the prized relic. Perhaps he'll find a way to add the pricey antique to his personal collection someday.

Enduring four prisoner-of-war camps, Farley was paroled on Nov., 19, 1864 in Savannah, Ga. He survived the war, becoming a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 18 in Westerly, R.I. and Hancock Post No. 81 in Pawcatuck, Conn., and eventually settling in Anniston, Ala. He died there on May 2, 1917, and is buried in Old St. Michael's Cemetery in Pawcatuck.

If he can't acquire the old weapon, Reardon would happily settle for a photograph of his great-great-great grandfather. If you find one, contact me here or Reardon here or through the New England Civil War Museum Facebook page. 

Matt Reardon holds the presentation sword of 16th Connecticut 1st lieutenant George S. Gouge, 
who was wounded at Antietam. The sword is part of Jeffery Cook's collection.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Close-up of the presentation sword of 1st lieutenant George Gouge of  the 16th Connecticut. The 
sword  was given to the Hartford soldier by  members of Company C. Wounded at Antietam, 
Gouge bled on the scabbard of the sword (bottom photo), collector Jeffery Cook said.  Gouge, who 
survived Antietam, resigned from the Union army on Dec. 24, 1862.
(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: Quirky pieces of history

Bela Burr of Farmington, Conn., was mustered into Company G of the 16th Connecticut as a
private on Aug. 24, 1862. Less than a month later, he suffered a wound in the left ankle
at the Battle of Antietam. Here are a circa 1890s X-ray of the ankle and the piece of lead removed.
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

Burr had this piece of flattened lead in his left ankle for decades before
 it was removed. Neither the piece of lead nor Burr's X-ray are currently
 on public display at the  New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn.

Perhaps these two photos explain why Bela Burr looks a little cranky in the photo of old soldiers on the wall of the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn. For perhaps 45 years, the private in the 16th Connecticut carried a souvenir from the Battle of Antietam: a piece of buckshot or minie ball in his left ankle.

Burr was wounded during the 16th Connecticut's disastrous experience in farmer John Otto's 40-acre cornfield outside Sharpsburg. The piece of lead was surgically removed sometime early in the 20th century. An X-ray of Burr's ankle, apparently taken in the 1890s, and the piece of  lead are two of the quirkier items -- Dunkard Church shingle, anyone?  -- in the collection of the outstanding little museum about 20 miles northeast of Hartford.

Burr's tale is amazing and quite sad.

Francis W Burr, Bela's brother and also a private in Company G of the 16th Connecticut, was shot in the groin at Antietam and died in Locust Spring Hospital near the battlefield on Oct. 11, 1862. Bela Burr, who also suffered a gunshot wound to his right shin, astoundingly lay on the battlefield 48 hours near the body of Captain John L. Drake of the 16th Connecticut before he was discovered and taken to the nearby Otto barn for treatment. Burr was transferred to a hospital in Frederick, Md., before he was sent to Knight General Hospital in New Haven in March 1863. Burr, who lived in Farmington, Conn., before the war, was discharged from the Union army because of disability on Nov. 20, 1863 and eventually settled in Rockville. (1)

Burr was listed among the Antietam casualties in the Hartford Courant
on Sept. 26, 1862. His brother, Francis, also was wounded at Antietam.
 He died of his wounds on Oct. 11, 1862.

Burr sought a $30-a-month government pension in 1908, prompting the Hartford Courant to trumpet his cause.

"Read the simple story of his experience," the Courant wrote, "and ask yourself if you think $30 a month paid to him in his old age is a national extravagance. Money can never measure the debt we all owe to the true heroes of the great struggle, among whom the quiet and unassuming men like Burr are as truly entitled to be counted as the great generals whose names are part of history."

A longtime newspaper editor and publisher in Tolland (Conn.) County, Burr died April 29, 1908. It's unclear if he ever received his $30-a-month pension.

Why did the old soldier, a member of the Rockville G.A.R. post that eventually became the museum, save the piece of lead and X-ray? People collect stuff -- weird stuff like this, this and, quite sadly, this. It's only human nature.

(1) Hartford Courant, March 19, 1908, Page 8

Thomas Burpee: 'He was a pure patriot'

Mortally wounded at Cold Harbor on June 9, 1864, Thomas Burpee died two days later.
He is buried in Grove Hill Cemetery in Rockville, Conn.

A sword adorns the brownstone gravestone of
Colonel Thomas Burpee at Grove Hill Cemetery
in Rockville, Conn.

At the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn, there is an outstanding collection of the personal effects of Thomas Burpee, a colonel in the 21st Connecticut who was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor on June 9, 1864. Even the sharpshooter's bullet that eventually killed him is there. A short distance from the museum, in the vast Grove Hill Cemetery, I found Burpee's gravestone, an 8-foot slab of brownstone that includes words I found especially poigniant:

"In the hour of national peril, he gave his life to his country, leaving this testimony that he was a pure patriot, a faithful soldier, and a sincere Christian."

A finisher in a wool mill before the Civil War, Burpee raised a company of men in the 14th Connecticut and was named captain of Company D in July 1862. A short time later, he was promoted to colonel of the 21st Connecticut.

In his last letter home, Burpee wrote of his devotion to the Union.

“The lofty inspiration of this cause is worth a lifetime to feel,” the 34-year-old soldier wrote his wife. “And, if I had a thousand lives, I would not withhold one of them. Should I be laid in the grave, remember our heavenly Father doeth everything well. Look on the bright side, and the bright side only. God bless you and the children!” (1)

I'll tell much more about this soldier -- "a man of earnest piety" -- in the coming weeks. (2)

(1) The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-65, William Augustus Croffut, John Moses Morris, 1869, Page 600.
(2) Memorial of Deceased Officers of Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, Henry Goodard, 1869. Page 30

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The stained-glass window at the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn.
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)

These photos of a stained-glass window at the old Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Rockville, Conn., don't really do it justice. I popped into the Hall, which now houses the terrific New England Civil War Museum, for a quick visit last weekend. Civil War veterans swapped old war stories and probably hoisted a beer or two in the place back in the day. Today, Civil War artifacts such as this fill cases throughout the second-floor room.

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Antietam: Rare Dunker Church artifact

Helen Mumma, a Sharpsburg, Md. resident, painted a scene of the Dunker Church on this original
shingle from the church. She sold the shingles to veterans who returned to the battlefield, according to
Matt Reardon of the New England Civil War Museum. Below: Close-ups of front and reverse of shingle.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

At the New England Civil War Museum in Rockville, Conn., there are plenty of wonderful artifacts as well as some weird and bizarre ones.

X-ray of a 16th Connecticut Infantry veteran who had a Civil War bullet embedded in his body?

Got it.

Flattened bullet removed from the above soldier?

Check.

In this 1884 photo, two men sit on the front steps of the Dunker Church
 in Sharpsburg, Md. (Mollus Collection)

Forage cap that belonged to 14th Connecticut veteran Benjamin Hirst?

It's there.

Bullet that mortally wounded 21st Connecticut colonel Thomas Burpee at Cold Harbor?

Ditto.

Also among the period letters, rifles, swords and photographs of soldiers is an unusual relic from the Battle of Antietam: a shingle from the Dunker Church, the small, whitewashed building around which savage fighting swirled during the first phase of the bloodiest day in American history.

In the decades after the Civil War ended, Sharpsburg resident Helen Mumma collected original shingles from the Dunker Church and then painted scenes of the small building on them. Mumma sold the shingles at a small souvenir stand in Sharpsburg, according to Matt Reardon, the very enthusiastic executive director of the museum. (See video below.)

Reardon isn't sure how the Dunker Church shingle ended up in the New England Civil War Museum, which is housed in the second floor of what once was the local Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) headquarters. Four Connecticut regiments fought at Antietam, so it's likely a veteran bought it from Mumma and brought it back from Sharpsburg after a trip to the battlefield, Reardon said.

The New England Civil War Museum is only 25 minutes east of Hartford, just off I-84. The museum is open two Sundays a month; admission is free, but donations are accepted. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a visit.