Searching for the Wadham Brothers

Some time ago, John Banks posted to his blog spot, a short report on his research on an ambrotype photograph of Justus Collins Wellington (1838-1862) of the 15th Massachusetts who fell in the West Woods.

He had found the ambrotype at an auction and then, going on just a name and no other information, eventually matched Justus with the 15th Massachusetts and contributed his research to Wellington's biography on the regiment's website maintained by Susan Harnwell.

Once lost and now found.
Tintypes of George Fergo
Fletcher and possibly
James Fletcher both
of the 15th Massachusetts.
Their parents are also
included in this collection.

Traveling to Antietam, he posed Justus by the regiment's lion memorial and snapped the photo displayed here. The complete post can be found here.

A week ago, John came across a set of photographs of members of the Fletcher family that an online auction house was offering.

One of the photos was of George Fergo Fletcher (see notes on the Fletcher story posted here on February 23 and April 1). This is posted here. Currently George is thought to be the image on the upper right while his brother James, killed at Antietam in the West Woods, appears in the upper left. Their parents are depicted below them.

He contacted the Fletchers to alert them to the offering and happily they were able to bring the tintypes back into the family.

Now John has undertaken a larger research project--that of finding three Wadham brothers from Litchfield, Connecticut. The most recent entry in this remarkable story was posted on April 9 and can be found at this address.

"My best helper in this matter 'passed over the river:'" John Purifoy, Ezra Carman, and Map Making

A map sketch from the
Papers of Ezra Carman, Library of Congress.
This one depicts Early's movements
countering Sedgwick's advance in the
West Woods. Notes the writer, "This
affair occurred about 10 o'clock, and enemy
[Sedgwick] was driven beyond the left of the woods.
Our troops going out into the field, when
they were drawn back."

The series of maps produced by the Antietam Battlefield Board in 1904 and revised in 1908 are valuable resources to anyone interested in the events of September 17, 1862. These maps have become known to many as simply the Carman-Cope maps. Thanks to the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress, both map series are available online in full format size and can be viewed and downloaded from the Library's website. Your local printer or blueprint shop, will be able to print the full color, poster-sized map series from the .tiff file you download from the site for about $25 per sheet.

The detail of each of the 20 to 30 minute segments is extraordinary and allows visitors to locate a unit by its juxtaposition to a fence, stone wall, rock outcropping, or farm lane. 

How were these maps created? 

Thomas Clemens' recently published The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Volume 1: South Mountain gives us valuable insights to how Carman went about his work. [1]

Clemens tells us that "Carman toured the Antietam battlefield in November of 1862, collecting information about the fighting and talking to civilians in and around the town. While there he confided to his diary that he was making a map and writing an account of the the battle." After the war, Carman "was active in veteran's groups and communicated with former comrades on a regular basis." In October, 1894 he was appointed to the Antietam Battlefield Board as Historical Expert. "His assigned task was to create a map showing the terrain and troop positions during the battle, which would be verified by surviving veterans." Four years later, the "base map" of the battlefield was completed and he asked for additional funding to create the series of fourteen sequential maps which appeared first in 1904 and revised into a final set in 1908. These are the maps that are now available from the Library of Congress. [2].

Carman's research is built on "letters he received from veterans of the battle, and the conversations he had with them when they visited the battlefield." The difficulty that Carman faced locating units on the map series is evident in a letter from John Purifoy to Carman on July 21, 1900. [3]

Lt. George S. Gove, Company K,
Fifth New Hampshire,
marked his company's positions on this
map and enclosed it in a letter to
Ezra Carman, March 24, 1896.
Papers of Ezra Carman, Library of Congress. 

Carman had asked Purifoy to mark his unit's location on a map of the Fox Gap area of South Mountain. Purifoy then tells Carman that he has “given the matters of inquiry therein due consideration, having consulted others who were with me on that occasion. If my conclusions as to the battle field at South Mountain, where D H Hill’s division fought on the 14^th of September, 1862, are correct, as drawn from the map enclosed by you, and supported by the reference to it in Gen Lee’s report of his Maryland campaign, the first position held by us was in the field South of the Wise field, and marked by me with a red cross….” [4]

A few lines later in the letter, however, he expresses second thoughts: “When the present map was submitted to me I marked the position as shown in this. Yet the more I study the map the less confident am I that I have marked the correct spot. Having read Gen Lee’s report, I am led to ask myself the question whether we were first located further south. The following questions present themselves to me. Is Fox’s Gap shown on the map higher or lower (more or less elevated) than the point marked with my red cross?  Is the Wise House and Wise field higher or lower than the point indicated?”[5]

Detail from the Carman-Cope
9 a.m. map (1904 edition)
Library of Congress

Purifoy laments “[m]y best helper in this matter ‘passed over the river’ in February last, having died before my letter of inquiry about Sharpsburg with map reached him. If you think, by enlightening me on the topography of the field as indicated by the questions asked, I will be enabled to more definitely settle on the first location, I shall be glad to make an other effort to do so. If I were to visit the field now I do not know whether I could definitely settle it. This is is suggested by a visit to another field made by me and the effort to locate the three positions occupied by the battery to which I was attached. I find it the most difficult thing to do in the world to find two or more participants in a battle who have the same recollection of the topography or location at which they battery did its shooting.”[6]

Sources:

[1] Thomas Clemens, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Volume 1: South Mountain (New York: Savas Beatie, 2010). See also, David A. Lilley, "The Antietam Battlefield Board and its Atlas: or The Genesis of the Carman-Copes Maps" in Lincoln Herald 82 (Summer 1980): 380-87.
[2] Clemens, Maryland Campaign, pp. xii-xv.
[3] John Purifoy (1842-1927) served in the Jeff Davis (AL) Artillery (Bondurant's Battery). Alabama Department of Archives and History, Official and Statistical Register, 1915, p. 19 and retrieved from http://www.archives.alabama.gov/conoff/purifoy.html; Brian Downey's Antietam on the Web under Jeff Davis Artillery; Clemens, Maryland Campaign, p. xvi.
[4] John Purifoy to Ezra Carman, Montgomery, Alabama, July 21, 1900, Papers of Ezra Carman, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Containers 15/16.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.

"Only 9 were left standing:" Company H, 15th Massachusetts in the West Woods, Part 2

This is a continuation of a previous post. In that entry, the relationship of the Fletcher, Chapin, and Whitin families were chronicled. The Whitinsville casualties listed in The Worcester Daily Spy were connected in various ways to each other, to the village from which they came, and to the commander of Company H, Lt. Samuel Fletcher, whose family, allied with the Whitens, provided much of the employment to residents of the Mumford River mill town. [1]

The previous post explored the fates of James B. Fletcher (brother of Samuel Fletcher), Edward Chapin (cousin of Samuel and James Fletcher), and Henry W. Ainsworth.

What of the others listed that day? The Roster and Genealogy Project of the 15th Massachusetts Online maintained by Susan L. Harnwell gives us some insights into their lives. Unless otherwise noted, this is the source for the biographical information that follows. [2]

Orlando W. Bacheler. Photo at
15th Massachusetts website.

Eighteen year old Private Orlando W. Bacheler (April 6, 1844-September 17, 1862), hailed from Sutton, Worcester County, Massachusetts. The only son of Jonas Batchelor (1803-1891) and Mary A. Young (1813-1894), Orlando gave his occupation as machinist when enlisting in Company H. According to the family history, when… “the father went south for the body and returned home with it. After this he was not quite the same man as before.” The spelling of his last name is in some dispute. The 15th website lists him as Batchelor but the photograph of his tombstone in South Sutton Cemetery taken by Gerry Dahlstrom shows the spelling as Bacheler. Further confusion comes from the History of Sutton which lists his father as Jonas Batcheller. 

Arthur J. Andrews (1841/42-September 17, 1862) of Northbridge, Worcester County, listed himself as a machinist on enlisting in Company G. His parents were William H. Andrews, a machinist (ca.1814-1872) and Susan Andrews (1816-nd). His younger brother Oliver, later enlisted in the 42nd Massachusetts and survived the war.

Private Isaac Marshall (ca. 1840-September 17, 1862), a machinist, enlisted in Company H with his friend Eugene Keith, 22, also a machinist. According to the 1860 Census for Massachusetts, both lived in a boarding house in Whitinsville. Eugene Keith was killed at Balls Bluff on October 21, 1861.

Private Andrew Addison (ca 1844-September 17, 1862) was born in Scotland listed his occupation as machinist. He joined Company H with his father William Addison (1809-1892), who served as a “fifer,” and his brother, James Addison, listed as an apprentice mechanic. On 23 Jan 1862 William ended military service with the 15th Massachusetts due to disability. He returned, however, to duty in February 1865, with the 1st Maine Light Artillery, Company G serving as a "Major Fifer." The father survived the war. His other son James, appears on a list of the sick and wounded brought to New York from Fortress Monroe in late August 1862. James apparently deserted Company H just prior to Antietam on September 1, 1862. On August 28, 1891, however, his father included in an application to enter the Washington State Soldiers' Home in Oakedale that both sons were killed in the war.

Private George N. Smith (1842-September 17, 1862), machinist, joined Company H while his brother Edwin Jacob Smith joined  Company G. George was and currently is listed as missing and presumed dead. His brother Edwin was severely wounded in the neck in the West Woods. Captured and imprisoned at Libby Prison in Richmond, Edwin was eventually paroled and was taken home by his father.

Those listed in The Worcester Spy as wounded from Whitinsville are:

James S. Flannegan, (also, James S. Flanigan) (1812-1873), from Ireland, was 49 when he enlisted in Company H. He was the head of a household that included his second wife, her daughter and son from her previous marriage and his two sons from his previous marriage. His step daughter was married to Thomas Wathey also in the 15th. He was taken prisoner in the West Woods and sent to Libby prison in Richmond. The Worcester Spy, in its October 15, 1862 edition lists him among the "camp of paroled prisoners at Annapolis." He returned to the 15th and served until July 28, 1864.

Edwin Smith (1844-1924), brother of George N. Smith (see above).

Ebenezer Prest, (1837-1874), enlisted in Company H and listed as machinist. Wounded in the hand. Ended service Dec. 29, 1862 due to disability. Joined U.S. Navy the following year and was discharged as Acting 3rd Assistant Engineer in October 1865.

Charles H. Plimpton, 17 years old, (1845-1931), joined Company G with his two brothers Webster Daniel Plimpton and Franklin Amos Plimpton. A third brother, Amos Gardner Plimpton joined the 15th in July 1862 and was transferred immediately to the Andrews Sharpshooters. From the family genealogy “Near the close of Antietam, he [Charles] was severely wounded and taken prisoner. After being a prisoner 3 days, he was recaptured by his own regiment and conveyed to the battlefield hospital. The surgeons there decided to amputate his leg above the left knee joint. This he opposed so strongly, that he was left to care for himself. In intense suffering, by ambulance and by railroad he was taken to Philadelphia. There, by the aid of the most skillful surgeons and good nursing, he recovered.” Another brother of Charles, George Washington Plimpton, served with the Fourth Regiment, Massachusetts Cavalry. After the war Charles married Mary A. Bell from Virginia. He became a locomotive engineer and passenger conductor, and at age 84, was listed as a salesman for flour mills. He died in Waukegan, Illinois on October 7, 1931--86 years, 4 months, and 14 days old.

Ira Partin (also Parkis), (1840-1897) was a 21 year old clerk when he mustered into Company H of the 15th. He was wounded in the thigh at Antietam and in November 1863 transferred to the Veterans’ Reserve Corps. After the war he became a dry goods merchant in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Additional members of Company H listed as killed on the 15th Massachusetts Monument are:

Corporal Henry A. Collar, from Uxbridge,

Private Patrick Finnegan, from Worcester.

Private Christopher Young[s], Private at Antietam, from Northbridge.

Wounded and died are:

Private Samuel Emerson, Sept. 26, 1862, from Webster.

Private Franklin L. Hayden, Sept. 27, 1862, from Uxbridge/Sutton.

Private Charles D. Smith, Sept. 27, 1862, from Sutton.

Private Simon Sullivan, Oct. 21, 1862, from Worcester.

========

Notes

[1] The Worcester Daily Spy, September 25, 1862.

[2] This remarkable and unique online collection of individual histories, many with photographs, of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1864 is a valuable resource for any student of the Civil War. You can find it at http://www.nextech.de/ma15mvi/ma15mvi-p/index.htm.

"Only 9 were left standing:" Company H, 15th Massachusetts in the West Woods

On September 25, 1862 The Worcester Daily Spy published news of the battle of Antietam and included this report from Whitinsville, Massachusetts.

"Whitinsville. This village has suffered severely by the loss of its volunteers, all of whom were connected with the 15th regiment. The killed, so far as heard from, are seven, as follows: Orlando Batcheller, Arthur W. Andrews, Henry W. Ainsworth, James B. Fletcher, Isaac Marshall, Andrew Addison, George N. Smith. The following are heard from as wounded: James S. Flannegan, Edwin Smith, Eben Prest, Charles H. Plimpton, Ira Partin. The intelligence has cast a deep gloom over the village. -- PWD."⁠[1]

Eight days before, the 15th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry had entered the West Woods with 606 officers and men under the command of Lt. Col. John W. Kimball. As they emerged from the West Woods soon found themselves “hotly engaged” with what was left of the divisions of J. R. Jones, Ewell and Hood, and a portion of D. H. Hill's division who were “well covered by the nature of the ground, field of grain, hay-stacks, buildings, and a thick orchard” that was the Alfred Poffenberger farmstead. For twenty to thirty minutes both sides exchanged volleys—and both stood firm. As the Fifteenth’s left wing pushed into the farmstead “under a most terrific infantry fire” to “not more than 15 yards” away when brigades from McLaw’s and Walker’s Divisions fell on their left and rear, “pouring in a deadly cross-fire” and forcing the regiment from the field. The cost to the regiment was high: twelve officers were killed or wounded and 336 enlisted men were killed, wounded, and missing. Of these casualties, twelve were from the small village of Whitinsville. This is their story.⁠ [2]

Whitin Machine Works, 1879
National Park Service

Whitinsville straddles the Mumford River Valley in south central Massachusetts. It shares the valley with other nearby small villages—East Douglas, Linwood, and Uxbridge—all of whom depended on the river to drive the small mills and factories that dotted the early 19th century New England landscape. As the number of the river-powered mills grew, machinists, carpenters, clerks began to fill the boarding houses and mill cottages. At first, most migrants to the Mumford valley were from the farms and villages of eastern Massachusetts but the late 1840s saw an influx of Irish, Dutch, and German workers. Of the mill villages along the Mumford, Whitinsville was one of the largest and most prosperous. [3]

Whitinsville’s rising importance during the first half of the 19th Century was fueled by the ambitions and fortunes of two families—the Fletchers and the Whitins. It is to these two families that the lives of many of the Whitinsville volunteers connect—either by birth or by commerce. [⁠4]

By the 1780s, the Fletchers had established themselves as Whitinsville’s leading family. Col. James Fletcher owned most of the land around the town and operated a prosperous forge established by his grandfather. The family’s growing business required a steady influx of apprentices, journeymen, and master machinists, clerks, and other skilled and unskilled labor. One of those who arrived to find work in Fletcher’s forge was Revolutionary War veteran from nearby Uxbridge, Paul C. Whitin.⁠ [5]

Starting out as an apprentice, Whitin’s talents quickly advanced his fortunes. His abilities must have pleased James Fletcher because he allowed him to marry, in 1793, Fletcher’s daughter Elizabeth. By 1815, the Whitin and Fletcher family fortunes combined in the Whitin & Fletcher Cotton Mill.⁠ At the same time, James Fletcher brought his two brothers Samuel and Ezra into the firm. The partnership lasted until 1826 when Whitin bought the Fletchers out and brought his sons (and James Fletcher's grandchildren) Paul Jr. and John Crane Whitin into the business. Renamed Paul Whitin & Sons, the firm added a state-of-the-art factory that employed power looms and new spinning technologies to weave cotton textiles. This factory was followed by two more, so that by the outbreak of war in April 1861, Whitin & Sons, ran three cotton manufacturing factories which also made them the biggest employer in the river valley.⁠ [6]

In July 1861, Company H of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was formed from boys and men from Whitinsville and surrounding farms and villages of Northbridge township. Those enlisting that month included the great-grandsons of Col. James Fletcher and the descendants of Paul Whitin as well as numerous machinists and mill workers many of whom worked in the mills and factories of Paul Whitin & Sons. Their common bond was Whitinsville but their greater one was to the brothers, cousins, fathers and sons who filled the ranks of these two companies. ⁠[7]

Lt. Samuel J. Fletcher
Courtesy, Worcester Historical
Museum

First Lt. Samuel Judson Fletcher commanded the sixty-two men in the Whitinsville company; he was related to three. His brothers George and James and his cousin Edward Chapin had all joined Company H on July 12, 1861. Of the four, Sam and Edward Chapin had gone on to college—Sam graduated Brown in 1857 and Edward had left Harvard to join his cousins. On joining the company, each listed their occupation: Sam, civil engineer; Edward, student; George, mechanic; and James, clerk.⁠ [8]

The Fletcher brothers parents were Ephrahim S. Fletcher (1805-1868) and Margaret Ann Chapin (1808-1897) and their grandfather was Whitinsville founder Col. James Fletcher.⁠[9] Edward Fletcher Chapin’s mother was Margaret Fletcher (1807-1887) the sister of Ephraim S. Fletcher, and aunt to the Fletcher brothers. He was also descended from Paul Whitin, Jr. [10]

For Sam Fletcher, the day began with mail call.

“…Before going into battle our mail came My Brother George received Harpers Weekly_He folded it several times and put it in his blouse pocket a bullet struck the pocket and pierced the paper. He sent it home and it was found that this bullet passed through 64 thicknesses of the paper thus saving his life: this was where we lost the most men in a battle we were fighting not more than half an hour: my company had 62 when we went into battle and when I ordered them back only 9 were left standing: as I gave the order my brother James fell shot through the head. I caught him as he fell but he was dead. The Rebels were within 3 rods as we fell back. George and my Cousin Edward Chapin who left Harvard College to go as a recruit were of the 9."[11]

With the 15th vacating the West Woods there was little that Sam or others could do to recover their dead and wounded but wait. Sam continues...

"The Rebels held the ground for a day or two and then I had charge of the party to bury the dead of our regiment I had orders to be as quick as I could[.] I had a long grave[.] [T]he Soil was very hard the men brought the bodies and I helped place them in the grave laid them two deep and buried 43[.]"⁠[12]

Others from Whitinsville were searching for friends and family too. Roland Bowen in Company H describes his search for his friend Private Henry Ainsworth. 13

Locher Cabin, west side

“Now when I heard [Henry Ainsworth] was dead, which was 10 or 11 oc on Friday the 19th, I went righ[t] over to the battle field to find his body so that I could bury it in a separate grave. I looked over a number of hundreds of bodies but I could not find Henry any where. So I went down to the front of the wood, and here I found a burying party from the 15th under a Lieut[tenant] from Co. H. [14] I asked him if he had go the body of Henry Ainsworth. Yes said he and have just covered the corpes {sic} over. Said I. I am sorry. I wished to see it and bury it separately. But I was too late, he was buried. Perhaps you don’t know how we bury the dead. Let me tell you about this particular trench and that will suffice for the whole."

"The trench in which Henry is buried is situated near a log cabin just out side the garden fence. I believe it is on the West side.[⁠15] The trench was 25 feet long, 6 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. The corpes [corpses] were buried by Co., that is the members of each Co. Are put together. Co. H was buried first in the uper {sic} end of the trench next {to} the woods."

James S. Fletcher and
George F. Fletcher

"They are laid in two tiers, one [on] top of the other. The bottom tier was laid in, then straw laid over the head and feet, then the top tier laid on them and covered with dirt about 18 inches deep. Henry is the 3rd corpes from the upper end of the top tier next to the woods."

"Mr. Ainsworth, this is not the way we bury folks at home. I am sorry, but it was too late to have it different. Then there is a board put up at each end of the trench with the simple inscription. ‘15th Mass. Buried here.’ There is 39 men in the trench with Henry. There is others of our Regmt buried near by. Some of our men had their clothes taken off by the rebels. Henry did not have anything taken but shoes and what was in his pockets.”⁠ [16]

⁠While George Fletcher's luck held this day, it ran out the following July at Gettysburg where he was killed. His cousin, Edward Fletcher Chapin, severely wounded there, died the following month in Baltimore. Of the four Fletcher family members at Antietam, only Sam survived the war. Sam returned to the West Woods some time later "and took up the body and sent it home to Witensville.” He would return once more to the Woods, "with the regiment in Sept 1900 and we dedicated a monument there." [17]

To be continued...

=========

Sources

Note: The Roster and Genealogy Project of the 15th Massachusetts Online maintained by Susan L. Harnwell provided much of the biographical information in this entry. This remarkable and unique online collection of individual histories, many with photographs, of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1864 is a valuable resource for any student of the Civil War. You can find it at http://www.nextech.de/ma15mvi/ma15mvi-p/index.htm. 

I would also like to thank Sherry Fletcher for her correspondence and for kindly forwarding Fletcher family information including photographs, correspondence, and a copy of Samuel J. Fletcher's manuscript account of his life with the 15th.


Thanks also goes out to the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Massachusetts for their permission to post Samuel Fletcher's photograph on this blog site. 

1 The Worcester Daily Spy, September 25, 1862 (Volume 17, Number 230), retrieved from The Roster and Genealogy Project of the 15th Massachusetts Online maintained by Susan L. Harnwell (hereafter 15th Massachusetts Online), entry for Henry Ainsworth, http://www.nextech.de/ma15mvi/ma15mvi-p/index.htm. 

<sup>2 Andrew Elmer Ford, The Story of the Fifteenth regiment Massachusetts volunteer infantry in the Civil War, 1861-1864 (W.J. Coulter, Courant Office, 1898), pp. 194-95; Lt. Col. John W. Kimball, "Report on the actions of The 15th Mass. during Battle of Antietam: Headquarters. 15th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Camp near Sharpsburg, September 20, 1862” (OR). The final figures were 330 casualties—75 killed and 255 wounded and, of these, 43 would eventually succumb to their wounds.

3 In 1835, the village of South Northbridge was renamed Whitinsville. Don Gosselin's Blackstone Daily website at http://www.blackstonedaily.com/whitinintro.htm; National Park Service, Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor at http://www.nps.gov/blac/planyourvisit/upload/whitinsville.pdf

4 National Park Service, Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor at http://www.nps.gov/blac/planyourvisit/upload/whitinsville.pdf

5 Col. James Fletcher's father was Samuel Fletcher, whose grandfather had established a forge in South Northbridge in the late 1700s. Steven D. Ittel, The Ancestors of Alexandra Carter Lundgren (n.p. 2006), pp. 48-49; Henry Chapin, Address delivered at the Unitarian Church, in Uxbridge, Mass, in 1864. (Worcester, MA. Press of Charles Hamilton, 1881), pp. 81-82; Library of Congress, American Memory Project (online) entry for Whitinsville; http://www.blackstonedaily.com/whitinintro.htm.

6  Retrieved from Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor at http://www.nps.gov/blac/planyourvisit/upload/whitinsville.pdf

7 Brothers Samuel J. Fletcher, James B. Fletcher, George Fergo Fletcher along with their cousin Edward Chapin and their brother-in-law George Davison enlisted in Company H of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteers. The Fletcher brothers were the great grandchildren of James Fletcher. Edward Chapin’s great aunt was married to Paul Whitin, Jr. Samuel Chapin Ancestors and Descendants (online), maintained by Deanne Driscoll at wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/.

8 15th Massachusetts Online; Henry S. Burrage, Civil War Record of Brown University (Providence, R.I., 1920), p. 23; Ancestry Online. Historical Data Systems, comp., U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009. Original data: Data compiled by Historical Data Systems of Kingston, MA] and citing Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Civil War Massachusetts GAR: Journal of the Annual Encampment. 

9 15th Massachusetts Online.

10 Paul Whiten, Jr. brought another prominent Whitinsville family into the Fletcher/Whiten nexus by marrying Sarah Richardson Chapin. And Samuel Fletcher's (b. 1779) son, Ephrahim (1805-1868) contributed to the three-family alliance by marrying Margaret A. Chapin (1808-1897). Margaret gave birth to three sons and a daughter Samuel J. Fletcher (1831-1924), James B. Fletcher (d. 1862), George Fergo Fletcher (d. 1863), and Abby E. Fletcher who eventually married George Davison. 15th Massachusetts Online, entry for Henry Ainsworth, http://www.nextech.de/ma15mvi/ma15mvi-p/index.htm; Steven D. Ittel, The Ancestors of Alexandra Carter Lundgren (n.p. 2006), p. 40.

11 Manuscript of reminiscences by Samuel Fletcher.

12 Manuscript of reminiscences by Samuel Fletcher.

13 Henry W. Ainsworth (1838-1862). Elam Waldo Ainsworth, blacksmith, b. 11 Aug 1810, d. 24 Feb 1864 and mother Candace Allen b. 3 Jan 1800, d. 6 Jun 1861. When he enlisted in Company H, he listed himself as a clerk. The 1860 Census shows him living in a large boarding house run by the Burgess family. Rank at Antietam, private. His brother Samuel A. Ainsworth joined the First Massachusetts Sharpshooters. At the time of his enlistment he listed himself as a gunsmith. 15th Massachusetts Online</sup>

14 This was Lt. Samuel Fletcher. In another letter, Bowen writes: "“The Lt. has a brother buried there. He says he thinks he shall remove his remains another winter, …”⁠ Roland Bowen to Carrie Ainsworth, (no date, no place) and published and published in From Ball’s Bluff to Gettysburg…And Beyond: The Civil War Letters of Private Roland E. Bowen, 15th Massachusetts Infantry, 1861-1864. Gregory A. Coco, editor. (Gettysburg, Pa: Thomas Publications, 1994),  pp. 128-29.

15 Walter Gale, a 15th Massachusetts officer reported that the dead of the 15th “were buried in a small garden-spot, quite near the scene of action. It is known as Lucca Place, and is about one mile from the village of Sharpsburg. Any one in the neighborhood will point out the location, -- the exact spot is marked by a headboard, -- and the proprietor has promised that this, together with those near it, shall be preserved.” The "Lucca Place" is the Locher Cabin. Walter Gale to Mary Ann Allen, September 24, 1862 and published at 15th Massachusetts Online.

16 Roland Bowen to Elam Waldo Ainsworth, Bolivar Heights, Va, September 28, 1862 and published in From Ball’s Bluff to Gettysburg…And Beyond: The Civil War Letters of Private Roland E. Bowen, 15th Massachusetts Infantry, 1861-1864. Gregory A. Coco, editor. (Gettysburg, Pa: Thomas Publications, 1994), pp. 124-28 [hereafter Coco]; identification of Mary Derby from 15th Massachusetts Online.


17 Manuscript of reminiscences by Samuel Fletcher.

Images

Image of Samuel J. Fletcher published with permission of the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester Massachusetts. Image of James Fletcher's gravestone provided by Sherry Fletcher. All other images retrieved from National Park Service Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor at http://www.nps.gov/blac/planyourvisit/upload/whitinsville.pdf

Notes on the Missing

Pennsylvania State Archives card for David Carter,
72nd Pennsylvania (see below)

In an earlier post I listed six members of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment who went missing in the West Woods on September 17. I reported on William Butler and made another report on Charles C. Cooper at a later post. On Friday I visited the National Archives to  continue the search for the missing from the 72nd Pennsylvania. I was able to retrieve the records of each of the six but found nothing more than what had been previously known--that on September 17 all went missing in the West Woods. While searching, however, the records revealed the fate on a seventh member of the 72nd who went missing that day and shed light on the whereabouts of another who went missing at a later engagement. Here is the report.

William H. Butler was 20 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company B on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. Due Sutler $4.00.” U.S. National Archives, Washington (Hereafter: NARA) Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35022 (Bonefon to Byrnes).

Charles C. Cooper was 22 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company E on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Wounded at the Battle of Antietam, Md. September 17, 1862.” He was carried in subsequent Company Muster Rolls as “absent, wounded” until January and February 1864 when the clerk entered “Supposed dead. Nothing heard from since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862.” NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35024 (Coady to Crossin). As reported on an earlier post, both Butler and Cooper disappear from their family census records after the 1860 enumeration.

Listed but not reported in earlier posts are the following missing.

John H. Cornwall was 21 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company C on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17/62” and he is “dropped” from the roll on the March and April 1863 report. NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35024 (Coady to Crossin).

Joseph Henry was 25 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company F on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17.” He is carried on the rolls until the Company Muster Out Roll of August 24, 1864 and there is listed as “Wounded & Missing in Action since Sept. 17, 1862.” NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35030 (Harringan to Himes).”

John J. McCanna was 21 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company D on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17 1862.” The Company Muster Roll for November and December 1862 shows him as “Wounded at Antietam…” but no other mention is made of his condition other than “missing” until he is “Dropped” from the roll in March & April reports. NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35035 (Martin to McGrittigan).

Theodore Pike was 22 years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company D on August 10, 1861 in Philadelphia. The Company Muster Roll for September and October 1862 shows him “Missing since battle of Antietam, Sept. 17/62.” The roll for March / April 1863 shows that he owed the Sutler $6.00. NNARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35038 (O’Brien to Potts).


David Baxter was 31 years old when he mustered in a Camp Lyon, Philadelphia, Pa on August 10, 1861. Although the muster-out roll dated August 24, 1864 and filed in Philadelphia states that he was “Wounded and Missing in Action since Sept. 17, 1862” a “Record of Death and Internment” in his papers at NARA show that he died on September 30, 1862 of tetanus at the U.S. Army General Hospital Number 5 in Frederick Maryland. He was buried there at grave number 101, Area M. A clerk, Thomas W. Dalton, noted on his “Casualty Sheet” that upon death he had “No effects.” NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Box 35021 (Baldwin to Boland).

The following entry is for Ferdinand Beideman who was at Antietam with the 72nd Pennsylvania but did not go missing until nearly two years later. I am including him in this list because most published sources still carry him as missing.

Pennsylvania State Archives card for
Ferdinand Beideman, 72nd Pennsylvania

Ferdinand Beideman was 21 years old when he enlisted with the 72nd Pennsylvania, Company F, in Philadelphia. He stood 5 foot 8 and 3/4 inches, was dark complexioned with black eyes and black hair. He listed his occupation as a lumberman. He was with Company F as it fought near the Dunkard Church. He continued with the regiment until he went missing on May 8, 1864 at the Potomac River, Virginia. Most records, including the Pennsylvania State Archives card catalog show him as missing after that date. In fact, he was taken prisoner of war at Spottsylvania Courthouse on May 10, 1864 and confined at Andersonville, Ga. to an unknown date. On December, 11, 1864 he is paroled at Charleston, S.C. and sent to Camp Parole, Maryland on December 17, 1864. By 1878 he has moved to Maryland, where on October 17, 1878 he applied for invalid pension benefits. On December 28, 1894 his wife Susan E. Beideman applied for widow's benefits.  NARA Record Group 94 (Adjutant General’s Office), Civil War (Union) Compiled Military Service Records, Memorandum from Prisoner of War Records, Army of the U.S. Certificate of Disability for Discharge, Box 35021 (Baldwin to Boland); Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 Record for Ferdinand Beideman (retrieved from ancestry.com).
 

Memorials

At Antietam, ninety-six monuments dot the battlefield landscape from the edge of the North woods to south of the Burnside Bridge. Most are to Union regiments; five are to Confederate. Individuals are remembered in ten monuments and mortuary cannons mark where six commanders--three from each side--fell.

In the West Woods are other monuments not marked on official maps. A cairn of rocks stacked atop one another; odd constructions of sticks bound with vine hanging from branches; flags and flowers placed to accompany iron War Department tablets. The most elaborate of these unofficial memorials is a collection of objects--a plastic flower, an owl, a dove, and an angel. Who put this here? Why?

Cicero tells us that "the life of the dead consists in being present in the minds of the living." These monuments and memorials constructed by states, regiments, and individuals are calling us to remember those who stood in these fields--from places such as Worcester, Massachusetts and Cleveland County, North Carolina. Present in the minds of the living, they are with us still.

Historically Appropriate Transportation Returns to Antietam

Forget the car, here's a new old way of getting around the battlefield. I snapped this couple on Sunday touring the field in a reproduction Amish buggy (complete with padded seats and disc brakes).

Although the engine is only 1 HP,  this six-seater cruises nicely over all the roads including the Sunken Lane. Gardner would be envious.

Hourly tours are available at the Visitor's Center Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and on Monday through Thursday by appointment. To make arrangements, call 1-304-876-1307. This conveyance is National Park Service approved.