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| Part of the ornate, weather-worn iron fence around the grave of Wadsworth Washburn in Denison Cemetery in Berlin, Conn. Washburn was killed at Antietam. |
On a cold, late October day, I traveled 25 minutes from my house to visit the grave of Wadsworth A. Washburn, an orderly sergeant in Company G of the 16th Connecticut who was killed at Antietam. Denison Cemetery isn't off the beaten path, but it's tricky to find nonetheless, tucked away in a residential area in Berlin, Conn. In October 1862, Wadsworth's father traveled to Sharpsburg, Md., to retrieve his son's body, a sad duty for many Connecticut families in the days and weeks after the terrible battle. The ornate iron fence surrounding the soldier's grave in the little cemetery caught my eye, so I shot the close-up above. Although worn by the elements. it remains nice piece of craftsmanship. Wadsworth's 17-year-old sister, Emma, is apparently buried in the same plot. Wadsworth, 26, served barely a month in the Union army before he was killed in farmer John Otto's field outside Sharpsburg.
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| The well-worn stone on the fence surrounding Washburn's gravesite (below). |
