Colonial Williamsburg asking descendants of South Carolina soldier to provide DNA to determine whether he was among 4 Confederates buried near Powder Magazine

2023 excavation of graves (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation); 1907 view of church and Powder Magazine (Harry Mann photos, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary); Battle of Williamsburg (LOC)

Last fall, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation mailed out a handful of letters, the correspondence topped by a drawing of the old Virginia Capitol and beneath it the words: “That the future may learn from the past.”

The heading read: RE: Potential Ancestral Connection to Skeletal Remains at Colonial Williamsburg.

Contained in the letter’s five paragraphs was a request that must have jolted the recipients and, if they complied, help fulfill the mission of making the past relevant.

The letter explained the remains of four Confederate soldiers had been found in 2023 in a pit and grave near the history site’s Powder Magazine. They died from wounds suffered in the May 5, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg. Further, the letter stated, a handwritten list of those treated at a makeshift hospital – established in a Baptist church near the magazine – still exists.

Then the inquiry became very personal.

“We are reaching out to you because our genealogist has identified you, based on publicly accessible data sources, as a descendant of … one of the soldiers who is named on the hospital list.” That individual mentioned in the letter believed to be among the four remains.

One of Isabella T. Sully's hospital patient list pages she recorded at Williamsburg Baptist (Tucker-Coleman Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary)

“If this matches your understanding of your family tree, would you be willing to participate in a DNA study to help confirm the name of this individual?,” the letter continued.

Four descendants said yes. On March 2, a kit was mailed out to each. The recipients will provide DNA from their cheeks and mail the swabs back for analysis.

Their presumed ancestor, says Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, was from the Piedmont region of South Carolina. DNA analysis showed him to be in his 20s. The infantryman was mortally wounded in fighting at Fort Magruder.

The South Carolinian has the most robust family tree of the four, and the project decided to confirm his identity first, aiming the letters at his kin. The soldiers’ names are being withheld for now as research and analysis continues.

Hospital list made the search possible

Gary, who signed the letter and heard from one descendant within a few days, said the endeavor has already been remarkable -- with much more to learn.

“I have not experienced this in my career,” he told the Picket in a recent phone call. “Not many archaeologists have used DNA this way.”

Final resting place for four soldiers at Cedar Grove Cemetery (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

Gary’s team -- which includes staff archaeologist Eric Schweickart,  lab technician Evan Bell and Elizabeth Drembus, a genealogist at William & Mary -- are the beneficiaries of good fortune in their hunt to put names to the four sets of remains, which were buried last year at the city’s Cedar Grove Cemetery, near the graves of other Confederates killed in the battle.

Working from the hospital list, census, newspaper accounts, the ledger of an undertaker and other records, the team narrowed the possible identities to four men who served in regiments from Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia.

Without those documents, the effort would never have gotten off the ground.

“You have to have a known person to go off to trace their ancestry to the modern day,” said Gary (right, at another dig. Photo Colonial Williamsburg Foundation).

The list of names, made by a widow who visited the hospital and later raised money to rebury scores of Rebel soldiers who died at Williamsburg, was especially crucial.

It provided names and regiments of more than 60 soldiers and notes indicating if and when they died. Colonial Williamsburg did not see the hospital list until after the graves were found in 2023. Bell stumbled across it while doing research and the discovery opened the door.

Bell studied two versions to winnow the list of possible candidates down to the four soldiers.

Gary said, if the attempt to identify the remains is successful, descendants will know precisely what happened to the soldiers after they were sent to Virginia to fight. That knowledge will fill in gaps for each of their stories. Somehow, these four warriors were left behind when other hospital dead were moved to cemeteries.

Another aim is to eventually publish all four confirmed names.

“We should try to put a name back with the individual out of respect for human dignity,” Gary said of the South Carolinian. “If this is the man who we think this is, it will be incredibly rewarding.”

At Williamsburg, soldiers first saw the elephant

Hancock's Federal troops launch attack on May 5, 1862 (Library of Congress)

The inconclusive Battle of Williamsburg was the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, following a Confederate retreat from Yorktown. Most of the combatants had seen little or no action before the clash.

Federal Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s division attacked the Southerners at Fort Magruder, but was repulsed. Confederate counterattacks ultimately failed and they made a nighttime withdrawal toward Richmond. Casualties numbered more than 3,800.

Federal forces took the city, holding it for the rest of the war. A few hospitals sprang up to handle the influx of wounded on both sides.

Williamsburg Baptist Church, which was formed in the early 19^th century, had already been pressed into service before the battle, treating sick Confederates soldiers stationed at Fort Magruder and elsewhere.

Historic courthouse (left), the Powder Magazine and old Williamsburg Baptist church (right) / Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

It received the largest crush of the wounded. 

The church, which moved to a new location in the 1930s, kept no records during the Civil War. But an article provided to the Picket by church office administrator Haley Matthews claims the old site was “greatly abused” during the chaos following the battle.

“Bloodstains were on the floors and the pews were stored in an open shed exposed to the weather. Soldiers were buried in the church yard near the west door, as many as 17 in one grave. Their bodies were afterwards removed to the cemetery.”

The 2023 surprise discovery at the Powder Magazine proved not all had been relocated.

Isabella Sully is the story's primary hero 

The Confederates treated at the Baptist church hospital were prisoners of war. The Union forces wanted to move those well enough to Fort Monroe.

But dozens, including these four, were grievously wounded and could not be sent elsewhere. Many died in the days and weeks following the battle.

Local residents and clerics came to the hospital, to give comfort to the wounded and send updates to family members.

Among them was Isabella Thompson Sully, a widow from Richmond who had traveled to Williamsburg. She and friend Cynthia Tucker Coleman provided riveting accounts of the suffering, with Coleman calling one drunken surgeon the “Head Devil.”

A 1937 article in the journal Religious Herald mentioned the 17 soldiers interred in the churchyard near the west door, “buried like sardines in a box.” The author said an African-American showed him the graves years before and they were removed to a cemetery.

In 1892, Sully wrote a letter (left, click to enlarge) that appeared in the Richmond Times, saying 25 of the Rebel dead were buried in the green near the Baptist church. She described the dearth of medicine and food until the Union army brought supplies.

“I shall never be able to tell how we managed to keep so many wounded and starving men alive, so that several days elapsed before I was able to make a list of those who remained,” wrote Sully.

As more men died, they were buried in pits near the first 25.

Critically, Sully in 1862 recorded the names of the wounded, their regiments and company. Dying soldiers were worried about being placed in unmarked graves

She recorded the date of death and burial locations, when possible. She gave the list to Coleman, and the latter’s papers ended up hiding in plain sight at William & Mary's Swem Library Special Collections.

Archaeologists at Colonial Williamsburg were aware of a list, but they had no idea where it was.

'They said they was goin' to take them up'

Following the Civil War, Sully and others raised money to move scores of Confederate soldiers from the graves around the church to Cedar Grove and Bruton Parish Church cemeteries.

A post-1892 monument at Bruton Parish (photo below) lists names of men allegedly buried there, but some apparently were laid to rest elsewhere in the city. One did not die at the battle, said Bell.

Bell believes the burial parties got those in the larger pits and trenches near the Baptist church but somehow did not come across the four soldiers. “It seems like they just barely were missed.”

Interestingly, a formerly enslaved woman mentioned those four burials in a conversation that appeared in a 1933 book.

"It is a pity, pity, pity, for people to treat each other so bad. Lots of men were buried around the Powder Horn. They said they was goin' to take them up, but I ain't never seen them do it,” Eliza Baker said.

I asked why officials did not excavate the graves after Baker mentioned the lost burials. Colonial Williamsburg as a tourist attraction had begun to take shape by the 1930s.

Archaeology was focused then on the site’s architecture and buildings, Bell said.

In 2023, archaeologists were working around the Powder Magazine, which was being renovated. A reconstruction of the 1757 Market House had replaced the old Baptist Church nearby. Both were near Duke of Gloucester Street.

At a reconstructed wall, they came across a single grave and a pit containing three men. All four had all of their limbs. Nearby was a pit with three amputated legs. It was a real surprise, since most histories indicated the dead from the hospital had all been accounted for and moved.

“There is a cluster of men who died around the same time,” Gary recalls. “We assumed they died the same day or one day and the next day. You are not going to leave a pit open.”

The research team determined the four soldiers died on and around May 15, 1862.

Cynthia Tucker Coleman (left), a writer and preservationist who advocated for the restoration of historic buildings at Williamsburg, provided a vivid account of the occupation of the town and the hospital.

“The writer can never forget seeing a dead soldier wrapped in his coarse blanket lying in the vestibule of the Church, his body kept for a comrade to die that the trouble of interment might be lessened – A Confederate woman placed a white rose upon his breast and shed a tear for those who loved him at home.”

Her account is kept at the William & Mary library and can be seen online here.

Bell recalls the archaeologists sanitized their excavation tools and wore personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep their own DNA away from the remains. Some of the deceased had personal items. They were not buried in uniforms.

Experts were able to extract genetic material from teeth and skull bones. Subsequent DNA analysis showed one soldier to be in late 40s or early 50s. One was maybe 15 while another was in his 20s and the fourth in his 20s-30s.

“We had well-preserved DNA,” said Gary, who has a theory as to why the skeletal remains were in relatively good condition.

The courtyard area around the magazine was paved with shell. “It is possible that the shell changed the pH of the soil, making it less acidic.”

His detective work soon began in earnest

Bell got to work on figuring out who these four soldiers were. The journey had a few twists and turns, but the key was finding Sully’s pages, which are kept at William & Mary.

While Bell (right) was looking at documents relating to Cynthia Coleman, he asked one of the Special Collections assistants, Carolyn Wilson, about the hospital list. That’s when he learned the pages were kept in papers related to Charles Washington Coleman, Cynthia’s son.

He recalls thinking, “Oh, my God. This is the list Isabella Sully was talking about. The archivist there saved the day.”

Bell later found a somewhat similar list at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. The page is within the family papers of Samuel Blain. It is not known for certain who took those handwritten notes.

The Presbyterian minister visited the hospital and corresponded with the family of patient William Davis, who died in Williamsburg. The list at Washington & Lee helped Bell eliminate soldiers whose limbs were amputated.

The technician kept an Excel spreadsheet, ensuring the narrowed list did not mention men with amputations. He found some of the 60-plus patients at the church were buried elsewhere. Using the Blain list helped him cut the number of possibilities to 29.

Bell provided the Picket a breakdown of the numbers he used:

-- 66 names on the combined lists; this includes men who only stayed at private homes, not just the hospital.

-- 31 of the 66 survived Williamsburg leaving 35 men who died of their wounds after the battle.

-- 15 of the 35 have recorded burials or died in private homes leaving 20 men who died of their wounds after the battle, but do not have recorded burials. (At left, map of Fort Magruder, Library of Congress)

-- 5 of the 20 have recorded amputations leaving 15 men who died of their wounds after the battle, and did not have amputations. (11 of the 58 names on the Blain list have amputations)

That was how the list was reduced down to 15 names for analysis.

Death dates were key because three men were buried together, allowing the team to pinpoint soldiers who died about the same time.

 “We believe they were some of the first to die,” said Bell.

The four apparently were buried close to a wooden fence. “There is no space for any other burials.” That means they were off by themselves from other pits dotting the green.

Trying to bring closure more than 160 years later

The research team, which includes Dr. Raquel Fleskes at Dartmouth College, noted that the South Carolina soldier had no children but several brothers and sisters. They are in touch with male descendants of one brother. 

Those who responded to Gary’s letter have the same last name as the unnamed soldier, who died in his 20s. (Below, Powder Magazine, Wikipedia)

“If we can make a match with him we can likely confirm the other individuals,” said Gary.

Bell said the challenge with the other three soldiers is there are either few siblings to work from or almost no information available on their families.

Even if Colonial Williamsburg is unable to match DNA matches, the descendants will know their ancestors fought at Williamsburg and struggled for life in a field hospital before passing away.

“I want to see if my hypothesis is right and (we) bring closure to the descendants,” said Bell.

The result also could bring narrative stories to an American citizenry that doesn’t interact as much with history as they used to, he added.

Wow factor: Hi-res views of USS Monitor will be unveiled March 7 at Battle of Hampton Roads event. The aim is to promote education, protection in a new way

Monitor has been on the sea floor163 years (NOAA/GFOE); sonar vehicle used in 2025 (Tane Casserley/NOAA)

The public will have its first opportunity March 7 to see new “groundbreaking” sonar-produced images of the USS Monitor wreck and a 3D reconstruction of what the famous Union ironclad looked like before it sank during a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and Northrop Grumman officials will make the 10 a.m. presentation during the annual Battle of Hampton Roads event at the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Va.

About 60 people will be able to attend the program at the museum’s Explorers Theater. Those unable to attend can register here to watch the presentation online.

A Northrop Grumman unmanned underwater vehicle created scans of the December 1862 wreck site during high-resolution mapping in September 2025. The vehicle is equipped with a micro synthetic aperture sonar (µSAS) system.

A Northrop Grumman vessel deployed the technology last September (Tane Casserley/NOAA)

The system penetrated low-visibility conditions to generate extraordinary imagery of the wreck and its surrounding debris field, including detailed views of hull remains and internal structure, according the museum.

Discovered in 1973 and designated as the nation's first national marine sanctuary in 1975, USS Monitor rests nearly 240 feet below the ocean's surface.

“Along with these scans, Northrop Grumman created several new visualizations of Monitor for us to help interpret its historic legacy and its role now as a thriving reef,” sanctuary research coordinator Tane Casserley told the Picket.

The museum is hosting the daylong event remembering the March 8-9, 1862, clash between the innovative Monitor and the Confederacy’s Virginia.

Cannon damage on USS Monitor after clash with Virginia (Library of Congress)

The venue -- which houses thousands of Monitor artifacts -- said the aim is to improve interpretation and perhaps protection of the wreck, which is slow deteriorating.

Officials have been finalizing speakers for the program and have declined to release any of the sonar images ahead of the unveiling. The day’s activities (see details here) are aimed at inspiring young visitors to explore engineering, science and cutting-edge technology.

"By unveiling this new technology alongside hands-on STEM activities, we’re showing the community that history and innovation go hand-in-hand,” said Will Hoffman, director of conservation and chief conservator at the Mariners’ Museum. “These experiences provide visitors a new window into the past, enabling people to engage with USS Monitor through a different lens, and potentially, drawing in new audiences of all ages to learn about the little ship that saved the nation.”

According to a sanctuary article, all data products from the project -- including 3D models, visualizations, and animations -- will be transferred to NOAA and made available for public use, “supporting transparency, education and long-term stewardship of the site.”

Casserley said images and more details on the project will be released March 7 at the sanctuary website.

March walking tour covers Civil War history of Alexandria, Va.

A March 14 walking tour shares the stories of soldiers, citizens, and self-liberated African-Americans in Civil War Alexandria, Va. It covers the military occupation, the conversion of public and private buildings into hospitals, and emancipation. -- READ ARTICLE

Concussion of thundering 1st Connecticut mortars at the Battle of the Crater left artillerist Chester Beckwith with bleeding ears and a lifetime of pain. Descendants have donated his 1861 rifle, accoutrements to a New England museum

Tom Therrien and Kimberly Beckwith with Springfield and cartridge box (NE Civil War Museum) and 1st Connecticut mortars at Yorktown, Company C (labeled 8) position near the Crater and the "Dictator," Company G, Petersburg (Library of Congress)

Amid the heat, flashes of fire and acrid smoke rising from belching siege mortars, Chester Beckwith furiously worked to prepare ammunition to support the Union assault during the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864.

The artificer with Company C, 1^st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, was cutting timed fuses in the bombproof/powder magazine of Fort Rice at Petersburg during the bombardment, according to his pension file kept by the National Archives.

“While so engaged the concussion produced by the firing of the heavy siege guns and mortars injured both of my ears so that blood came from them…during many months afterward I was troubled with a discharge of matter from both ears,” he wrote.

In the end, the company’s ten 10-inch mortars fired 360 rounds during the doomed assault that resulted in disaster and eight months of ghastly trench warfare.

A 2019 article on HistoryNet.com details the injury that cost Beckwith much of his hearing for the rest of his life.

Beckwith, a carpenter by trade who repaired artillery equipment as an artificer, served through the end of the war. He was plagued by his injury and the loss of his brother, Robert, who was mortally wounded at Second Manassas in August 1862.

Chester H. Beckwith’s military service and sacrifice will be remembered following the donation last fall of his 1861 Springfield rifle-musket and accoutrements to the New England Civil War Museum & Research Center in Vernon, Ct. (Photos at left and below courtesy of the museum)

Dan Hayden, the museum’s executive director, told the Picket conservators will prepare the artifacts for exhibit rotation.

“We focus on bringing to life individual people of the time period, but more importantly, to create a way to highlight the emotional and human elements that show how similar we are to them, even today,” said Hayden.

Two cousins, Kimberly Beckwith, a Connecticut native currently working in the Netherlands, and Tom Therrien, who moved from Connecticut to North Carolina a year ago, traveled to the museum to make the donation.

The artifacts for years were kept by Beckwith’s late father. The gift seems especially appropriate because Alfred Pierce Beckwith was a highly skilled machinist who could fix almost anything, she wrote in an email

“So he was sort of artificer too (he was also a jet engine mechanic in the Air Force in the late ‘50's to the early ‘60s.) It seems those skills run in my family of handy Yankees who served their country.”  

His younger brother Robert died at 2nd Manassas

The 1^st Connecticut Heavy Artillery saw extensive service during operations in Washington, D.C., Virginia and North Carolina. Company C participated in the Peninsular Campaign and ended up at Fort Brady on the James River by the end of the war.

Chester Beckwith was 35 when he mustered in for three years in March 1862. His pension records indicate he had red hair and blue eyes. While 22 men from the Vernon area served with the 1^st Heavies, Beckwith hailed from Windham, nearly 20 miles away.

Beckwith’s younger brother, Robert, was living in Pennsylvania when joined the 1^st New Jersey Infantry. Some of Robert’s letters to relatives have been published on HistoryNet and the Spared & Shared blog.

In July 1862, Robert wrote to friends about a visit from Chester at his camp in Virginia.

“Oh, tell Susanna that I was surprised the day I was sitting in my tent & who should come & look in but Chester. He has been [in] one fight with me but I did not know it at the time. He is in the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. They lay about one mile from me. We are to go there 2 or 3 times a week. I expect him over tomorrow -- Sunday. He was paid off the other day & sent $40 dollars home to Minerva (Chester’s wife). Chester said he had written to you the other day.”

Robert was mortally wounded at Manassas a month later, apparently dying days later while being held prisoner. His grave in Windham may be a cenotaph. 

(I have been unable to find a photo of Chester. Robert’s image can be seen here. I have been unable to locate the current owner to obtain permission to include it here. Photo at right by Matthew Dingler, town of Windham)

Chester was detailed as an artificer on January 10, 1864, a role that acknowledged his skills and ability to repair the critical equipment that the 1st Heavies operated, a museum Facebook post says. When his original term expired on March 18, he reenlisted, serving until September 1865.

At Petersburg, the regiment’s companies were stationed at a couple forts, with Beckwith’s at Fort Rice near the larger Fort Sedgwick. They were in the thick of action during the Battle of the Crater.

The 1^st Heavies' most famous mortar, the massive “Dictator,” was operated by Company G.

Company C was in the thick of things

Much has been written about the siege of Petersburg in 1864-65; I won’t be able to get into detail here. But the Federal force depended on heavy guns like those used by the 1^st Heavies.

National Archives map shows Fort Rice (center right) across from Rives Salient (click to enlarge)

Company C was across from Confederate Rives Salient and adjacent to the original location of Confederate Battery 22, part of the initial Confederate Dimmock Line, said Emmanuel Dabney, chief of resource management at Petersburg National Battlefield.

“Keep in mind much work was done by Union troops in July 1864 to dismantle the original Dimmock Line which lay behind the Federal fortifications,” Dabney told the Picket.

The line was a series of 55 Rebel artillery batteries and connected earthworks. They were built to protect Petersburg’s vital railroads and industry.

The 1^st Heavies were among the artillery units meant to suppress Confederate resistance as the attack unfolded on July 30, 1864.

The Battle of the Crater dashed Union hopes for an end to the siege and, for that matter, the Confederacy. After a massive explosion from a mine set off by engineers, Federal troops, including U.S. Colored Troops, rushed in, only to be rebuffed by dazed Confederates who held strong.

According to Beckwith’s pension files from the 1870s, a sergeant from Company C wrote a letter to pension officials detailing the artificer’s injuries. The article on HistoryNet describes how gunners were told to place canister rounds into 10-inch shells to be fired from mortars.

Union artillery on July 30; Fort Rice is numbered 8, click to enlarge (Baylor University Digital Collections)

Sgt. Elisha Jordan wrote the following:

“…I was on duty…near Fort Rice in front of Petersburg Va on July 30th 1864. I know that Chester H. Beckwith was an artificer…and was on duty in the bombproof sawing fuses during the explosion of Burnside’s mine and attack on enemy line….I was ordered to go in the bombproof and direct said Beckwith to put 27 grape shots into a shell which I did and found Beckwith with his ears bleeding badly….I know that ever after this day while in the service Beckwith was excused from roll call because his hearing was bad.”

The HistoryNet authors obtained the pension information from the National Archives in Washington. I have been unable to travel there for those purposes.

A lot of suffering for Chester and Mary

Chester Beckwith returned to Connecticut and worked as a carpenter. His wife Minerva passed away in 1879 and he married Mary E. Beckwith in 1903.

Dana B. Shoaf, editor in chief of HistoryNet in 2019, wrote Mary recalled occasionally “the blood would run out of his ears and head,” and that “he was [in] dretfull suffer as long as he lived.”

Chester died of a “lingering illness” in Hamburg (North Lyme), Ct., in November 1909 at age 82 or 83. Half of his 10 children survived him. His body was returned to Windham, where he was buried at Windham Center Cemetery. At one point, a U.S. flag and Grand Army of the Republic marker were evident at his grave.

An ailing Mary’s application for a widow’s pension in 1912 apparently was denied because the government determined Chester’s wartime injuries did not cause his death, Shoaf wrote.

I have been unable to determine when Mary died and where she is buried.

(Matthew Dingler, Windham’s cemetery sexton, was of great help to me as I researched the resting places for the Beckwith family. He mentioned the history and Victorian homes of Willimantic, which is part of Windham. A mill drew many immigrants. He also mentioned the humorous Battle of the Frogs story. Read about it here)

A trove of weaponry and an ode to hard tack

The inscription about Chester Beckwith is slowing fading away (Courtesy Kimberly Beckwith)

Kimberly Beckwith grew up believing Chester and Minerva were distant a distant uncle and aunt. Not many stories were passed down, though her father said they underwent some kind of tragedy, Beckwith told the Picket.

After further research, Kimberly now believes Chester and Minerva were her great-great-grandparents. To this day, the family has deep ties to the Windham area.

She turned to the museum in Vernon for the donation after doing online research. She and her late sister, Lynda, inherited the items after their father died in February 2023. (Lynda thought first of donating the items to a museum in Pennsylvania, where she lived.)

The items were Chester’s Springfield, bayonet and seven-rivet scabbard, percussion cap box, cartridge box, belt buckle and a book with regimental history. The family also donated an early edition of John Billings' “Hard Tack and Coffee,” a memoir containing tales of the war and illustrations.

The cartridge box still bears the pressed stamp of Gaylord contractors in Chicopee, Massachusetts, with a late pattern percussion cap box and bayonet with seven-rivet scabbard.

The museum says this of the artifacts:

“Though his belt and cartridge box sling have passed out of existence, the buckle remains, as most notably does the musket sling. Along with an early edition of John D. Billings' 'Hard Tack and Coffee,' the remainders of Chester's service with the 1st Heavies will be proudly conserved and interpreted for future visitors at the museum.”

The 1861 Springfield was used by most soldiers from Vernon and many New England soldiers in general. 

Museum serves up soldier artifacts and library

The Civil War museum in Vernon is housed in the former meeting place of the Thomas F. Burpee Post #71 of the GAR. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Alden Skinner Camp #45 meet in the building today.

Highlights of the permanent collection include New England and GAR artifacts, a wartime uniform of Seth Plumb of the 8th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, a pair of trousers owned by James Baldwin of the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and personal effects of Thomas Burpee, including spurs, belt, shoulder boards, tin cup and the bullet believed to have mortally wounded him at Cold Harbor, Va., in 1864. 

1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery monument near Capitol in Hartford (Cosmo Marino, hmdb.org)

Thirty-six Vernon men died during the war, 14 of them killed in battle and 11 dying in Confederate prison camps, said Hayden.

The research center and archives contains letters, diaries, journals

“We curate the library to help researchers find sources around the everyday soldier, as well as to the general public for finding information about their relatives who served during the Civil War. Notably, famed artist Don Troiani donated his research archive he collected while preparing to paint his Civil War works of art. These are being scanned and will be made available for public access,” the director added.

The New England Civil War Museum & Research Center, 14 Park Place, Vernon, is open 10 a.m.- p.m. on Saturday and Sundays. Call 860-870-3563 for more information.

Brother, where art thou? A dogged New Yorker traveled twice to Virginia to retrieve body of sibling killed at the Wilderness. A Fredericksburg park volunteer and a descendant put together the poignant story, which is showcased in an exhibit

2nd Lt. Horace Hill (NY State Military Museum via Wayne Historians Organization), national colors of the 111th New York (NY State Military Museum) and park volunteer Steve Morin 

In spring 1864, Francis Abner Hill set out to do something thousands of others in his situation would have wanted to do, but did not have the money, time or tenacity.

Francis planned to bring back to Upstate New York the body of his younger brother, 2^nd Lt. Horace Gilbert Hill, killed just a week before, on May 5, while leading his company at the Wilderness in Virginia.

The military action was still too hot in the area and Francis wasn’t allowed to search for the grave. But signs of his persistence were evident in his many visits to military hospitals in Washington, D.C., apparently to glean helpful information from wounded members of the 111^th New York Infantry. He wanted to know if any of them knew where Horace was laid to rest.

Those interviews and letters sent to veterans and families after his return to Wayne County set the ground work for his second – and successful – trip to find Horace and bring the 23-year-old home (Hill family monument, right, courtesy Nancy Rosin).

“Francis Hill’s successful recovery efforts were not a common occurrence in the Civil War,” wrote Steve Morin, a retired federal government researcher and volunteer at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, in a report about the sibling’s search for Horace. And such efforts did not blunt the pain.

“Returning a Civil War soldier’s remains helped to establish a degree of closure, but it didn’t erase the lifelong anguish caused by the loss," according to Morin.

For years, the volunteer has transcribed documents for the park’s historical database. His curiosity routinely takes him to the internet to learn more about his subjects, as was the case in the Hills.

This spring, Morin turned to Ancestry.com for photographs and learned of a Hill family tree put together by Nancy Rosin of Rochester. “She answered my Ancestry message and I was floored when she told me she was Francis’s great-great-granddaughter,” he told the Picket in an email. Rosin is related through the maternal side of her family.

Using records (including a copy of Francis Hill's diary) already held by the park and letters and photographs from Rosin, the pair completed a compelling portrait of a family that sought closure amid its grief. 

On Friday evening (5p-7p Jan. 2), Morin spoke at a reception at the city's Fredericksburg Visitor Center about the project. The reception kicked off an exhibit about volunteers and their roles in supporting the mission of the federal park. 

“Finding Nancy was fortunate because she possessed so many letters, images, etc. that filled in gaps and provided personal insights into the family members,” Morin said. (At left, Francis and his wife Sophia, courtesy Nancy Rosin)

The researcher told FXBG Neighbors he likens his work using primary documents to solving a puzzle. (Read this Picket article about how he helped identify a grave at Fredericksburg National Cemetery)

“I have always loved the way he views history,” Ashley Ranalli, volunteer coordinator at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, told FXBG Neighbors.

“To me, Steve is looking to understand the people he is researching and make a connection.”

Rosin told the Picket that Morin provided context on documents her family kept for 165 years. Other relatives also have material related to the brothers.

Lt. Horace Hill's 1864 pocket diary (NPS photo)

"My collaboration with Steve centered on the letters themselves. In the collection, there were about 40 letters written following Lieut. Hill’s death, from fellow soldiers and military officials tending to the details of pay owed, the return of personal effects, etc." Rosin said.

"But many of the letters were from area families whose sons had also died in the Wilderness and who, similarly, wanted to bring their remains home. Those letters were very helpful in unraveling the story of Francis’s recovery of his brother’s remains."

'Ready to defend the stars and stripes'

Horace Hill enlisted early in the war when he was 19 years old, Rosin said.

"A description of him written by a friend described him as popular with the girls and fond of staying out late at parties/social gatherings. When he left for the war, Horace and a young woman named Amanda Franklin were in a serious relationship and some of his letters home indicate they were planning a life together at war’s end," she wrote in an email. (Horace, left, before the war. Courtesy Nancy Rosin)

Hill served in another New York regiment before joining the 111^th. He rose to sergeant and then second lieutenant in 1863. He fought in numerous battles, including Gettysburg, where the regiment suffered heavy casualties.

In March 1863, he wrote to Francis saying he wish he had expressed more appreciation for their relationship. "Your kindness is fully appreciated by a brother who tonight is a soldier sitting in his tent shedding bitter tears of regret as he remembers how little he manifested the love of a brother in days gone."

Horace Hill had a premonition of his death, according to a fellow officer with the 111^th.

On the evening  of May 5, 1864, in the vicious fighting at the Wilderness, Company A tangled with Confederates. According to “Military History of Wayne County,” Hill was waving his sword, trying to rally his men, when he was instantly killed by a ball passing through his chin and neck. His body was found after Confederates retreated.

NPS map of Wilderness fighting around the time Lt. Horace Hill was killed.
The 111th New York is indicated near rectangle bearing Barlow's name. Click to enlarge

The young officer was buried at a farm with other soldiers. His family did not know the location.

The Rochester Express carried this pithy article about his death, according to a Facebook page about the 111^th New York.

“Lieutenant Hill was almost idolized by the men under his command. He had gained that respect, not only by being an ever true and faithful soldier, but also by kindly caring for his men. His heart swelled with proud emotions at the thought of his country's glory, and he was ever ready to defend the stars and stripes from the insults of traitors. Though comparatively unknown his name may well stand side by side with Ellsworth, Lyon, Wadsworth, Sedgwick, and a host of others; heroes whose names generations yet unborn shall love to read and revere. He fell as a hero falls. Amid the carnage of battle, he yielded up his life, a noble sacrifice, for ‘God and home, and native land,’ and that God in whom he trusted will surely reward him.”

Francis Hill, an Ontario, N.Y., businessmen who cared for his ailing parents rather than enlist, decided to quickly find his brother’s remains. He used Horace’s 1857 diary, according to Morin, to take notes of his trip, including expenditures and notations. 

The diary highlighted the extensive planning, research, logistics and costs associated with returning Lt. Hill to his home near Lake Ontario, according to Morin. While he was not permitted to travel to the front in May 1864, Francis visited numerous hospitals in the Washington area.

Morin’s report -- which includes an extensive bibliography -- summarizes what Francis learned during and after his first visit to Virginia. Among the findings was his brother was buried near fellow New York 2nd Lt. James W. Snedaker (right, courtesy Wayne Historians Organization).

The plots were on the farm of William A. Stephens of Spotsylvania County, close to the battlefield.

Interestingly, Horace’s sword and scabbard had been sent to a Washington hospital after his death. The family later acquired it but Rosin said she is unaware of who has it in their possession.

Brother, father of another soldier communicated

Francis Hill, who was often called Abe or Abner by friends, planned to return to Virginia in late November 1864 and he received a letter (left, click to enlarge) from the U.S. Army authorizing his travel to the grave site. 

Business and personal matters, however, delayed his trip to summer 1865, shortly after the war ended.

In the diary, Francis noted directions to the Stephens farm, which held the bodies of several 111^th New York soldiers.

At some point, Francis communicated with Adrastus Snedaker, father of killed Lt. James Snedaker. Francis and Adrastus had been in touch with a private who saw Horace after the latter's death and helped bury him, carving out a marker with an ax.

"This soldier wrote a very detailed letter to Francis that described his brother’s burial, the condition of the remains, and what he carved on the grave marker," said Morin. 

Adrastus Snedaker retrieved his son’s body in June 1865, one month before Francis was able to go and find Horace’s remains. Horace Hill was laid to rest at Ontario Center Cemetery. (Findagrave.com photo below courtesy Bob Davis)

"Horace now lies buried in a small pioneer cemetery on Ridge Road in Ontario, just a short distance from the Hill family homestead and the old mill pond, surrounded by three generations of his family," Rosin told the Picket.

One of his older military coats belongs to the Sterling Historical Society in New York.

For his part, Francis Hill, a prominent farmer, miller and town official, was married to Martha Sophia Patterson and they had five children, three of whom lived to adulthood. Their daughter, Martha Stella Hill, is Rosin's great-grandmother.

According to a diary, Francis wrote on April 24, 1874, about being at the beside of his dying mother.

“Her sufferings have been severe, but her death was peaceful and apparently easy and she retained consciousness almost to the last moment. A few minutes before she ceased to breathe and while laying partially on the left side she opened her eyes in apparent pleasure and exclaimed 'Horace G: Why Horace' as though she saw him & then spoke to him.”

Francis died in Ontario, N.Y., in 1903 at age 68.

"This story is important because it describes in such a personal way the impact of war on the lives of ordinary people. I think of my family, living in a small farming community, then their lives upended by the outbreak of the war," said Rosin.

"People often focus on the 'pomp and circumstance' of war -- the battles, the valor, etc. I think the story of Francis and Horace brings home the loss and grief in war’s aftermath. And of course, it’s a very touching story about the love of family…as Lieut. Hill put it, 'those near and dear to me.'”

Exhibit will look at work of park volunteers

Ranalli, the volunteer coordinator at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, said the exhibition will be in place through Feb. 2. The visitor center is at 601 Caroline St., Fredericksburg, Va.

Morin was given the Hill documents to transcribe and found them to be intriguing, Ranalli said.

“Steve’s research into the story of the Hill brothers was inspired by several primary sources from the park’s bound-volume collection,” she said in an email. “This collection was started in the 1970s by then-chief of Interpretation Bob Crick, who sent college students to campuses across the country to photocopy primary documents related to the park. In the 1990s, the collection was opened to the public, and this particular item was likely donated by a visitor, possibly a relative of the Hill family.”

Rosin said the Francis Hill diary came to the park through relatives of one of his sons. She was not aware it existed until the park contacted her.

The exhibit portion about the Hills is entitled “In Search of Rest” and was created in partnership with the Fredericksburg tourism bureau.

“This marks the first time the Fredericksburg City Visitor Center has featured an exhibit highlighting the work of National Park Service volunteers,” added Ranalli.

A letter from Horace to his mother Elvira

Rosin provided the Picket a letter Lt. Horace Hill wrote to his mother shortly before his death.

Camp of 111th N.Y.V. Inf.

                                                                                                  April 23/64

My Dear Mother

     It being a kind of lonely dreary night and not feeling much like going to bed yet awhile I have taken my pen to write you a little. For the past two weeks we have been busy much of the time in preparing to move & we have gotten about ready so that should it not storm within a day or two, I think we will strike tents & be off for where of course I know not. But most likely it will not be very long ere we come upon the enemy at some point. With what anxiety are the soldiers of this army contemplating the results of the next few months which are fast drawing near. Not only the army but those at home are anxiously awaiting to know the fate of our army. Nearly everyone has a son, brother or some near relative here who is about to risk his life amid the dangers of the battlefield. Some will fall. A battle cannot be fought without some lives being lost. Who are the fated ones is the question asked by all of us. None of us think that it is ourselves or at least have a hope that it is not yet. We all run the same risk. I have been lucky thus far but for all of that I may be the first of many to stand in the way of some fatal shell. But I feel it is my duty to stand by my country as long as she is in trouble & if I fall while protecting her right against her enemies I shall die in a noble cause. One for whom thousands have laid down their lives. Am I not ready and willing to do as much if it will help to plant the standard of right over our nation? I am. Is it not better to die than live under the hand of tyranny, despotism?

     Yet when I think of home & friends who are dear I cannot help feeling sad & in a measure dread what is before us. I may pass through unharmed but there are many who will not. They have parents and friends who to them are as dear as mine. It is the same for them to leave them that it is for me. O Mother it is a sad, sad thing to look upon & I would to God that this evil war would cease before another life is lost upon the battlefield. But there are not such thoughts that cheer the soldiers’ hearts as is the thought of the happy days in store for him when he shall have cleared the land of the nations enemies & he shall have laid down his implements of warfare & returned to his home there to meet again his friends & associates & enjoy their society in peace under a reunited government.

     This perhaps is if we move the last letter I shall write to you for some time & may be the last one I shall ever write to you. Dear Mother do not feel sad because I speak thus for your boy is under the protection & guidance of Him who rules the universe. In Him is my trust. His will and mine be done. I go forth ready to receive whatever fate is in store for me.

     Should this be the last time given me to address you I would for your comfort have you know that although I am a wild and sinful boy yet have I remembered my God & through His power & agency have I learned to look for protection amid the trying scenes of life. Through His power alone can I be spared to return to you. Therefore let us trust it all to Him & all will be well in life or in death.

     Write as often as you can. Your letters may not reach us immediately. But it will come round after awhile. Give my love to father & tell him that I would like a taste of his sugar sap & that maybe I will be home next fall before it is all gone…I will close by bidding you goodnight. With much love

 I am ever affectionately your son      

­­                                                                                           H. G. Hill­

At the bottom of this page Horace’s father Ira Hill had written:

This is the last letter written by Lieut. Horace G. Hill to his mother.

                                                                                     Ira A Hill

Hill was killed 13 days later, May 5, 1864, at the Wilderness