behind AotW

a companion to Antietam on the Web

Year: 2022

  • Dr. Lesley Gordon’s Roster, 16th Connecticut Infantry (2014)

    While researching her 2014 book about the regiment, Dr Lesley Gordon compiled a roster after my own heart, including pre- and post-war details not usually found in military records. She shared a spreadsheet containing her data on her book’s page. I’ve posted a copy here in the event that page ever goes away.

    Here’s how she describes it:

    This database of men who served in the regiment originated with the state of Connecticut’s Adjutant Generals Office Reports from 1862, 1869, and 1889. As I accumulated more (and sometimes conflicting) information, I filled in gaps and made corrections (especially birth and death dates, and postwar occupations) from the biographical materials collected [by] Ira Forbes and George Whitney … Death and birth dates seemed to have had the greatest inconsistencies in the various sources, and I tried to confirm these by cross-checking the U.S. census, bound regimental records, pension records, obituaries, local histories, as well as a comprehensive unit roster compiled by Scott Holmes. Thus, readers should be alerted that some discrepancies still remain here …

    There may be discrepancies or minor issues, but it’s fantastic that she posted this online for anyone to use; it’s a rare and beautiful thing. Huzzah, Dr Gordon!

    And I wish I’d found this earlier. It would have saved me untold hours with its clues to some of the more elusive men of the 16th at Antietam.

  • The death of Lieutenant Samuel Hopkins Thompson

    Orators at many alumni gatherings have spoken of the gallantry of Lieutenant Samuel Hopkins Thompson, the young Civil War hero, who led his men to the charge at Antietam and died crying, “Form on me, boys, form on me.”

    — Claude Moore Fuess in Phillips Academy, Andover in the Great War, a talk at Yale, New Haven, CT in 1919 [online]

    Well, no, it probably didn’t happen that way.

    A former Phillips Academy student, Samuel H Thompson, the First Lieutenant of Company H, 16th Connecticut Infantry died at home in Connecticut on 22 October 1862. He was 19 years old.

    It’s not clear what killed him, though lots of literary and genealogical references – even his grave marker – attribute it directly to the battle of Antietam. His military record does not mention his being wounded in the combat there and he’s not on the usual hospital lists. An undocumented wound? An illness he caught on the Campaign?

    Something of a mystery.

    See also: his good friend and possibly romantic interest, best selling author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward.

    _________________
    This photograph of his grave marker was contributed to his Find-a-grave memorial by Jim Bancroft.

  • Lt John C Buchanan (1861)

    This fine image is from the collection of John Claudius Buchanan‘s great-great-great-granddaughter Sarah Boye. Buchanan enrolled as First Lieutenant in 1861 and was promoted to Captain of Company D of the 8th Michigan Infantry on 1 September 1862.

    20 years later he very succinctly described his part and that of his Company in the 1862 Maryland Campaign to his son Claude:

    … came to Alexandria and on through Washington to Maryland;
    under Gen McClellan.

    Marched through MD until 17th Sept [sic] and struck the Rebs at South Mountain;
    next day moved to Antietam;
    took and crossed the stone bridge at Antietam and crossed to the heights beyond;
    here wounded in right arm;
    went into Pleasant Valley and Nov 1 moved to Fredericksburg …

    This is from Claude Robinson Buchanan’s 1882 diary, in which he recorded his father’s War Records. Transcription thanks to Sarah Boye. The original is in the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

  • Not in Antietam National Cemetery

    There are several stones in the Antietam National Cemetery for men who were actually buried elsewhere.

    Readers occasionally ask about this, and I can never find them when I want them, hence this list.  It will evolve as I learn more.

     Rank Name Unit Death Actual burial place
     Pvt Bridgeman J. Hollister 16th CT Inf  25 Sept 1862  Wassuc Cemetery, Glastonbury, CT
     Pvt Oliver Cromwell Case  8th CT Inf  17 Sept 1862  Simsbury Cemetery, Simsbury, CT
    Pvt Henry Struble  8th PA Reserves 2 June 1926 St. John’s Reformed Cemetery, Greenburg, PA
    Pvt William Ayers Salisbury  34th NY Inf 17 Sept 1862 Norway Rural Cemetery, Norway, NY
    Pvt William H Lewis  34th NY Inf 16 Jan 1916 Oak Hill Cemetery, Herkimer, NY

     
    __________________
    The photo of Henry Struble’s marker is from his Find-a-grave memorial, and was contributed by user John in Maryland.

  • The Officers Imprisoned at Columbia, S. C. (1865)

    19 year old Private Wallace R Andrus was promoted to First Sergeant of his Company, “B” of the 16th Connecticut Infantry, on the field at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

    He was First Lieutenant of Company I by April 1864 when he was captured, along with most of his regiment, at Plymouth, NC. He ended up with many other officers of the 16th in the “prison pens” in Columbia, SC before being paroled and sent north in December 1864.

    The clipping here is an excerpt from a massive 8-column list on page 2 of the New York Times of 6 February 1865, transcribed through OCR online, and in images from the Timesmachine [subscription required].

    ______________________

    The officers of the 16th listed as Columbia prisoners were:

    Maj. Dewees, 6th Conn.[?]

    Capt. H. Hintz, Co. C, 6th [sic] Conn. [paroled 10 March 65]

    Capt. N. [M] C. Turner, Co. D, 6th Conn. [escaped 15 Feb 65]

    Lieut. John B Clapp, Adjt. 6th Conn. [paroled 30 Nov 64]

    Lieut. Geo. A. Bowers, Co. A, 6th Conn. [paroled 28 Feb 65]

    Lieut. Geo. Johnson, Co. B, 6th Conn. [paroled 30 Nov 64]

    Lieut. H. Landon, Co. D, 6th Conn. [escaped 15 Feb 65]

    Lieut. A.G. Case, Co. E, 6th Conn. [paroled March 65]

    Lieut. E.E. Strong, Co. F, 6th Conn. [paroled 2 March 65, Northeast Ferry, NC]

    Lieut. Wm.G. Miller, Co. G, 6th Conn. [paroled 10 Dec 64, Wilmington, NC]

    Lieut. A.A. Dickerson, Co. H, 6th Conn. [escaped 3 Nov 64]

    Lieut. W.R. Andrus, Co. I, 6th Conn. [paroled 10 Dec 64]

    Lieut. H. Bruns, Co. K, 6th Conn. [paroled 10 Dec 64]

    Lieut. B.F. Blakeslee, Co. G, 6th Conn. [escaped 3 Nov 64]

    Capt. T.F. Burke, Co. A, 6th Conn. [escaped 3 Nov 64]

    Capt. [C.] W. Morse, Co. E, 6th Conn. [escaped 14 Feb 65]

    Capt. T.B. Robinson, Co. K, 6th Conn. [escaped 3 Nov 64]