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.

A touching photograph of Union amputees at Gettysburg is published in print for the first time. The young soldiers looked so vulnerable

Peter Weaver took this image at Camp Letterman (Courtesy Fred Sherfy Collection)

Even after 160 years, unpublished photographs associated with the Battle of Gettysburg occasionally come to light, including one depicting Federal amputees and other wounded recovering at a hospital.

The Center for Civil War Photography and the Adams County Historical Society on Sunday evening unveiled a compelling image made by Peter Weaver at Camp Letterman, a military hospital that operated for several months outside Gettysburg.

The scene is a mix of wounded soldiers with civilians in front of a large tent. In the center, an older man places his hands on a young man and woman.

“My sense is that that man touching the two heads could very well be the father,” renowned Civil War photography expert William A. Frassanito told the crowd at a battle anniversary event at the society’s new “Beyond the Battle” museum in Gettysburg.

“He is touching the son and then the wife. It is not just happenstance, he just happened to be there. The young soldier, he is so very young, I don’t recall ever seeing a photograph with such a touching, almost family type connection with it,” said Frassanito.

The photograph was likely taken by Weaver in October or November 1863, a few months after the battle. The Center for Civil War Photography has published the image for the first time on the printed page in the new issue it historical journal “Battlefield Photographer.”

Copies were made available for the audience and they were given 3D glasses to view it and other Weaver photos in the issue. (About 70 percent of photos taken during the conflict were in 3D).

Fred Sherfy, whose family managed the Peach Orchard, the scene of furious fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg, obtained the albumen print and others from a collection in Hanover, Pa., where Weaver had a studio.

Weaver took about 75 photos after the battle at Camp Letterman and other locations. There are other known photos taken by other artists of the wounded at the hospital that treated thousands of soldiers from both sides.

Sherfy found eight Weaver prints wrapped in newspapers while going through a box, said Bob Zeller, president and co-founder of the CCWP. Three, including “A few of the Wounded,” had not been seen before. Sherfy is a member of the CCWP.

Camp Letterman operated for several months in 1863 (Library of Congress)

American Battlefield Trust chief historian Garry Adelman, a Gettysburg licensed battlefield guide and vice president of CCWP, told the large crowd, “I remain astounded that we continue to find images that haven’t been seen on the printed page.”

“I have never seen a photo with so many young wounded in it. Look at these kids,” Adelman said, adding their identities and circumstances are unknown.

In a press release about the unveiling of the Weaver image, Adelman says:

“This is a photograph that allows you to step back into the moment and be able to see soldiers who are vulnerable in a way that no other photo from Camp Letterman seems to show. In that sense, it is one of the most striking and emotional of all of the photographs at Gettysburg.”

Pennsylvania post office is named for an officer thought killed at Wilderness but who went on to a life of service in community

A.G. Williams, second from right, and other 63rd Pennsylvania officers

Andrew Gomer Williams nearly lost his life at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864 when he was struck in the temple by a bullet. According to Bill May, a historian in the Pennsylvania city where the soldier spent the last half of his life, Williams was found on the battlefield four days later – alive, but scarred. His comrades must have been overjoyed, thinking he had been killed.

After mustering out a few months later, the Union captain made the most of his remaining days, returning to a Pittsburgh-area community and recuperating before becoming a mill worker, lawyer, legislator and church choir director after he moved to Butler, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Williams was honored last week in Butler with the renaming of the post office on South Main Street to the Andrew Gomer Williams Post Office Building.

Ceremony last week in Butler, Pa., north of Pittsburgh (Rep. Kelly office)

"Andrew Gomer Williams is a true example of an American hero," U.S. Rep Mike Kelly said in a statement. "Mr. Williams lived a life of service to his community and country, and I am proud to cement his legacy in our nation’s history. I hope this honor will allow future generations to learn who Mr. Williams was, and to inspire Americans to live a purpose-driven life just like he did."

Williams, who was born in Richmond, Va., to parents from Maryland, served with Company E of the 63^rd Pennsylvania Regiment, enlisting in 1861 and helping muster three companies. He participated in numerous battles, including Gettysburg, and was wounded at least three times, according to regimental and other histories.

The 63^rd Pennsylvania suffered heavy casualties during the Civil War: 17 officers and 169 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and one officer and 133 enlisted men by disease. Total 320.

May, in a speech placed in the June 2021 Congressional Record, quoted Williams’ remarks made on the Gettysburg battlefield during a visit in 1889:

“Monuments are as old as our race and all along the history of the dim and dusty age down to the bright and joyous present we have been perpetuating the memory of heroic men.”

Williams (right), May said, was one of those heroic men.

The veteran was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic after the war and assisted comrades and families in Butler, including pension matters. He was on the board of directors for a Civil War orphans home. Williams served terms in the state House of Representatives and Senate.

Williams died in 1923 at age 82, leaving behind his second wife and several children. His grave received a new military headstone in 2021 due to a reenactor group and the local office of the Department of Veterans Affairs.