The Connecticut war record, 1863-1865, Part 1

Author: Morris, John M., ed
Publication date: 1863
Publisher: New Haven : Peck, White & Peck
Number of Pages: 886

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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00824 6115

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CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD

1863-65

New Haven Peck, White & Peck

840

1770085

F 846 .01

The Connecticut war record ... v. 1-2; Aug. 1863-Aug. 1865. New Haven, Peek, White & Peck [etc.) 1863-65. 2 v. in 1. illus. (ports. ) 30'". monthly. J. M. Morris, editor. Includes an "extra number, with analy tical index," issued Aug. 1865.

1. Connecticut -- list .- Civil war-(Period. 1. Morris, John M., ed.

10-13065

Library of Congress

I:499.C75

6006 - - 2d set.

SHELF CARL

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD. 0

OUR STATE POINTS TO DEEDS, NOT ACRES.

PECK, WHITE & PECK, ) Publishers.

NEW HAVEN, AUGUST, 1863.

VOL. I. No. 1. $1 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE

United States. At the expiration of his term in the Senate he became again a Representative in Congress, but, having been elected Governor, he resigned his seat in May, 1834, before the first session of that Congress was completed. His public career ended with that year of service as chief magistrate of his native State. IIc died in 1846.

ANDREW HULL FOOTE, the second son of Samuel A. Foote, was born at New Haven, in what is now called " the Bud- ington house," on the corner of Union and Cherry streets, Sept. 12, 1806. From his seventh year, his home was in the beautiful village of Cheshire. His moth- er, Eudocia, daughter of Gen. Andrew Hull, was a woman whom all that knew her praised, faithful in every duty, and eminently diligent to secure the moral and religious welfare of her children. Andrew, from his seventh year to the be- giuning of his seventeenth, was trained in the simplicity and accustomed to the out-door activities of rural life, under the inspiring and restraining influences of an old-fashioned Puritan household. He grew up a bright, strong-willed, amiable boy, with a full share of that adventur- ous and daring spirit which sends so many boys to sea at sixteen years of age. le was educated at the Episcopal Aend- emy in Cheshire, where the present Sec- studied law at Litchfield; but the want ! retary of the Navy, (Hon. Gideon Welles,) was one of his schoolmates ; but his father, instead of urging him in- choose the very different course to which his genius prompted him. He entered the Navy as a midshipman, forty-one years ago. His first voyage was under the command of a Lieutenant who had gained experience and honorable distinc- tion in the war of 1812, and who, having with him the perils of sea and of battle, survives in a vigorous old age to share in a nation's grief at the death of his ilius-

For the Connecticut War Record.

Rear-Admiral Foote. of health compelled him to relinquish his chosen profession before completing lis Sixty years ago the firm of Hull & Foote studies, and to engage in a more active ; to college, wisely permitted him to employment. He resided in New Haven tion of commerce by the war with Great Britain, and the ineres ing infirmities of his aged father, induced him to remove.

was among the few importing honses in New Haven. General Andrew IFull of from 1803 till 1813, when the interrup- Cheshire, and his young son-in-law, Sam- uel Augustus Foote, were the partners. They were in that West India business which has always been the chief com- From the death of his father in 1813 he mercial interest of New Haven, and resided in his father's homestead. Ile which was never more prosperous than was greatly esteemed by his fellow-citi- had the privilege of training him for the in those days when the wars of Europe zens of Cheshire, whom he often repre- service of his country, and having shared consequent on the French revolution, sented in the General Assembly of the threw an immense " carrying trade " into, State. He was one of the Representa- the hands of American merchants.

tives from Connecticut in the fifteenth Samael A. Foote, son of Rev. John Congress, and in the sixteenth. In the trions pupil. The intimate and affection- years 1825 and 1826, he was speaker of ate friendship of forty-one years, between Admiral Gregory and Admiral Foote, was honorable to both.

Foote, who served the Congregational Church of Cheshire in the pastoral office forty-six years, was a graduate of Yale

the House of Representatives in the Gen- eral Assembly of Connecticut, and from College in the class of 1797. He had 1827 to 1833, he was a Senator of the

The first cruise of the young milship-

THE

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

[AtGtsr,

man was not a holiday athir. The war |ning to be exalted and ennobled by the manhood had caught the inspiration of of 1812 was the last in a long series of sublime purpose to act for God. In that ; the great purpose always to net for tiod, wars among the maritime powers of purpose, quickened by the consciousness Christendom; and with the opportuni- of his relation to God, there was the germ ties which it had given to privateering, of a new and higher life. Such a pur- it had left the seas infested with pirates. | pose breathed by God's spirit into a man- Desperate men of all nations, accustomed to violence and inured to danger, were imitating the old buccaneers and sea-

rovers; and the evil had grown, especial- and daring in the expedition against the influence over them ; he became a moral ly in the Gulf of Mexico and among the pirates forty years ago, became the and religious teacher among them with- islands of the West Indies, till it had as- Christian patriot and hero whose burial sumed ahnost the proportions of ai war.

Midshipman Foote's first voyage was in the expedition against the pirates. In the course of it he distinguished himself by courage and enterprise as well as by diligence in the duties of his place, and thus he gave promise of the eminence to which he afterwards attained. His sec- ond voyage was under Commodore Hull in the Pacific Ocean.

HIis hope was that his next cruise would be in the Mediterranean, for he trusted that his father's influence woukl be able to obtain for him that privilege so much coveted by young officers in the navy. But in some way his expectation was disappointed, and with a mind not very well satisfied, he found himself as- signed to duty again in the West India squadron. While he was absent on that voyage, his mother received from him a letter which began with some such words as these : " Dear mother, you need not be anxious any more about your sailor boy. By the grace of God, he is safe for time and for eternity." From this announcement he proceeded to tell the story of a great change that had come

over him. Without reciting the story ; Islands, claiming and obtaining for them guns exploding at the water's edge. she here it may suffice to say that he had been led to the definite feeling and pur-[threats of the French naval commander pose, " Ilenceforth, in all circumstances, I will act for God." The high conscions- ness of his relation to God as a free and responsible creature, and as a sinner re- deemed by Christ, had taken possession of his soul; and with him all things had become new.

From that high purpose he never re- of commercial adventure, or of scientific exploration.

After so long a time of almost uninter- as executive officer through the whole saw in him when he came home from sca rupted service at sea, he was entitled to period of the Mexican war. In 1849-as such relief and rest as he might find in soon as his recovery was sufficiently ad- another sort of employment, and he was

ceded. Ilis surviving brothers testify how great the change was which they the third time. His mother's " wayward boy," as he called himself in the magna- nimity of an evangelical repentance, had become a Christian man. The natural qualities which made him attractive, and

Asylum in Philadelphia. Few, even of the best officers in any navy, would have which of themselves were a promise of won laurels at this post of duty, among eminence in his profession, were begin-

was not long in finding that even there God had a good work for him to do. Devoting himself with characteristic zeal and kindness to the welfare of the pen- ly soul, inakes that soul more manly. sioners under his command, he succeeded Thus it was that the young midshipman, who signalized himself by his activity

in winning their affectionate confidence; he obtained a high and beneficial moral

out impairing the dignity of his position as an officer ; and by persuading many of them to give up their spirit ration and to pledge themselves for total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, he introdneed into the navy a new principle which is destined to work out results not yet dreamed of-the principle of voluntary self-reformation and self-improvement among the common sailors.

There is no room here for the full story of his successive voyages in all parts of the world, and of his slow and well earned promotion. His commission as Lieutenant was dated eight years after he entered the service ; and in the mean- time he had been alnost continually at That principle was further established in his next cruise. As Fi- Tieutenant and executive officer of the . L'and, sea. Twenty-five years more of ardnons on the Mediterranean station, he pe. .. ed the entire crew to forego their in- memorial " grog," and to abstain from in- toxieating drinks. At the same time he became a volunteer chaplain to them, giving a lecture, every Sunday, on the berth-deck, to as many as chose to at- tend, and having a congregation of near- ly two hundred willing hearers-the Ice- ture being followed by a meeting for prayer in a more retired part of the ship. The Cumberland became as worthy of honorable memory from her association with that experiment of free moral and religions influence among the seamen of kind offices which he rendered to the our navy, as she afterwards became, when. with her flag still flying, and her service made him a Commander. It was only since the commencement of the present rebellion that he rose to the rank of Captain. After those early voyages to which allusion has been made, he vis- ited the Medityerranean. In 1838 he commeneed a voyage round the globe as first hentenant and executive officer of the ship John Adams. Two incidents of that voyage helped to make him more widely known among his countrymen. In an attack upon the pirates of Sumatra, who had murdered the crew of an Amer- ican vessel, he showed how terribly he couldl execute the justice of the Great Republic against its enemies. In the American missionaries on the Sandwich protection against the insolence and went down so heroically in that conflict which changed, in an hour, the entire in those seas, he led the way to the full system of maritime warfare till wars recognition and establishment of the principle that missionaries who go to bar- shall be no more. barons or semi-barbarous countries, on errands of Christian benevolence, have the same right to be protected by their government as if they went on errands

On his return from the two years' cruise in the Cumberland, he was dis- abled for a while by a painful disease of the eyes. After a six months' leave of absence, he was ordered to the Navy- yard at Charlestown, Mass., where, being still unfit for service afloat. he remained

vanced-he was put in command of the therefore assigned to duty at the Naval brig Perry, and was ordered to the West African station, that squadron being then commanded by Commodore Gregory. The services which he was there permit- pensioners. But he who in his earliest [ted to render, deserve a grateful remem-

was honored by a nation's grief, and whose memory the nation will keep among its brightest jewels.

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

1863.]

brance. Our flag now glorious in the un dimmed light of liberty and justice, had long been dishonored on that coast and along the hellish " middle passage" to Cuba and Brazil, by being made the pro- tection of a slave trade, so infamously unjust and cruel that the national legisla- ture, in earlier and better days, had de- nounced all partakers in the traffic as guilty of piracy-enemies of the human race. Whoever may be blamed for this national dishonor, it is believed that the

Christian benevolence, and especially in year ago-pale, feeble, but full of that such as seek to promote the welfare of indomitable spirit which had overcome seamen. During that period of rest hej the greatest obstacles, which would not succumb to the agony of a painful wound, nor to the depressing influence of bodily prepared and published the well-known volume entitled " Africa and the Ameri- can Flag "-a vohnne full of condensed | weakness and disease, nor to the heavy information and valuable for its practical suggestions. The nation has always been proud of its navy, and its pride was increased by his command of the Perry, and the fruits of it. tidings of sorrow at home, and which had kept him on his flag-ship till the day had come and gone beyond which it had been predicted by his medical advisers that he would not be alive if he remained there. His fellow-worshipers in the

One more long cruise in eastern climes ! officers of the navy never were responsi- and his career as a navigator on the | First Church in New Haven, saw him in ble for it. They have always been natu- ocean was ended. Seven years ago in the month of June, he sailed from the Chesapeake Bay, the Commander of a

rally and reasonably sensitive for the honor of the flag which it was theirs to display in every sea, and to defend magnificent sloop-of-war, the Portsmouth. against every insult. But politicians had found it expedient for their ends to divert publie attention from the main point of suppressing the slave-trade, and protecting and encouraging a legitimate commerce with the natives of Africa and with the Americo-African colony, to a side-issue about the sometimes insolent interference of British cruisers with American vessels. In the judicious ar- rangements which were made by Com- modore Gregory, the duty came upon Lieut. Foote of conducting a volumin- ous correspondence with British officials on that coast, which contributed some- thing to the removal of jealousies and difficulties, and to cordiality of co-opera- tion between the British and American squadrons in conformity with existing treaties. At the same time by his stren- uons activity against the piratical traders in human misery, he did much to break up the slave trade that had found safety under our flag, and to remove the na- tional disgrace that had so long and so often made the cheeks of Americans to

their assembly on the first Sunday in August, when, in circumstances of pe- culiar and tender interest to himself and his family, (joy mingling with repeated sorrows,) he kept the Sabbath with them for the first time since his return, and for the last time before his leaving home again to take the burthen of new

Two years afterward he returned, having in the meantime distinguished himself by the bombardment and storming of the barrier forts in the Canton river. The limits of this sketch give no room for responsibilities at Washington. Physi- more than a transient allusion to that conflict, and the honor which it won for cally, he was even then unfit for those responsibilities. He knew it-he eould not but feel it ; but he was ready to sac- rifice himself to the service of his coun- try, which was to him the service of his God. He went, and his great executive abilities were well employed in organi- ¡zing a new bureau in the Navy Depart- ment. As soon as it became evident that the American flag. It may suffice to re- member that the crews of British men- of-war manned the rigging and cheered the starry banner as the Portsmouth dropped down the river, while the music of our national airs floated from beneath " the meteor-flag of England."

Ilis next post of duty was that of ex- the work which he had been doing could ecutive officer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he remained three years, [asked for more active and more perilons be safely committed to other hands, he The beginning of this great rebellion duty. He was assigned to the command found him there; and immediately his? of the South Atlantic Squadron, and in large experience in naval affairs, his won- derful promptitude, and his executive

that command he expected to die. It was in vain that friends and physicians ability were put in requisition. In the'entreated him to spare himself, and to rapid march of events for these last two ask from the Government the relief years, we have already half forgotten which would have been granted to the how much was to be done for the navy slightest expression of his wishes. Ile at that crisis, and how much was done | was determined to do his utmost for his tingle with shame. But not the least in in the Navy Yard at Brooklyn. But country, at whatever sacrifice. His life, from those duties he was soon summoned he said, was not his own, and should be to the more arduous duty of creating freely surrendered at his country's call.

Ilis preparations for going to his new

his estimation among the honors of that cruise, was the fact that through the many months of activity and exposure on that coast, so often fatal to life, the liquor ration was voluntarily and reso- lutely banished from the Perry, and among her officers and crew there was not a death, nor a man disabled.

and commanding an inland navy on the į waters of the Mississippi. . What he did command were completed, and all things for his country there is too recent in our ; were in readiness for his departure from memory to need description. Yet it New York, where he had just arrived should be said that if his countrymen after parting with his family at New would appreciate the hero they have lost, Haven, when the disease which his vig- they must think not only of the victories; orous constitution had long resisted, and

For a few months after his return he had another period of relief from active of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, but which had gathered strength from the service of rest in the bosom of his fami- also, and still more, of the gigantic and hardships and fatignes incident to his exhausting brain-work by which, under ! preparations for his new command, over- all sorts of embarrassments and discoar- agements, those victories were prepared came him, and he lay down to die. After he had lingered about ten days in in the creation of the flotilla at St. Lonis. great suffering, his decease took place at the Astor House, in New York, on Fri- day, the 26th of June, between the hours ly. Yet his rest was not idleness. Those who were members of the same church with him, remember how ready he was for every good word and work at home. Others remember how often he appeared abroad, speaking and otherwise acting

His fellow citizens in New Haven saw him when he came among them, after that in various enterprises of associated | great achievement, a little more than af of 10 and 11 P. M.

THE CONNECTICUT WAR RECORD.

[Atorsr,

Not thus had he expected to die; not

the organization and supply of military in the midst of those who were bound hospitals. Whatever may be the merits to him by the tenderest ties; not eneir- of the hundreds of such institutions, cled and tended by the gentlest assidui- there is one in our midst which compares ties of domestic love ; not breathing out favorably with them all. his soul upon the free air of these north- The " Knight Hospital" -- a name happi- ern climes. He had expected rather to ly chosen in honor of one of the bright- est ornaments of the medical profession in this State-first threw open its gates for the reception of wounded sons of al- most every loyal State, on the 9th of June, 1862. It was then the Connee- die in the malaria of the Carolina sea- islands, tended by the rongh bnt loving hands of fellow-warriors on the sea; or in the roar and fiery storm of battle. Where he should die, or how, was to him a question of little moment. Yet tient State Hospital, and the patients when he found his time had come, he were under the care of the " Hospital So- ciety." This special arrangement be- tween the State Hospital Society and the War Department continued until April 7th of the present year, when the care of the sick and wounded soldiers was for- mally transferred to the Government and could not but be thankful for the oppor- tunity of dying among those whom he had loved most tenderly, and of breath- ing his last words of blessing into the ears of wife and children. Brothers and kindred were at his bedside day and night through the protracted agony. this became a United States General Others too were there in the privilege of Hospital, under the charge of Dr. P. A. friendship, strong-hearted men, the he- Jewett, Surgeon U. S. 1.

roes of many a conflict, confessing by The commection of the writer of this their silent tears how inneh they loved ; with this Hospital ever since its organi- fortune. him. Voices that had rung out loud and zation enabled him not only closely to clear, and were soon to ring again, in the observe the superior manner in which its tempest of battle, trembled and broke in affairs were managed, but to witness the tenderness of grief beside his death- bed. Assured that he inst die, he festing itself' in the patient, uncomplain- waited calmly for the end ; for he knew fing endurance of untold suffering.

in whom he had believed. His last. in- It is scarcely possible to say more in telligible words were, "I thank God for praise of the skill and faithful attention all Ilis goodnesses to me-for all His lov- of the Medical and Surgical Corps, than ing-kindness to me ; He has been good to to mention the fact, that out of the der- me; I thank him for all his benefits."

mains cahn and serene, and we will show yon a true hero. Instances of such exhi- bitions of bravery could be addueed alost without number.

There are those now in the Knight Hospital who received wounds in the memorable battle of Fair Oaks, fought over a year ago, wounds which have caused them unremitting pain to this day, and yet no word of complaint has ever been heard from their lips ; on the con- trary, kind visitors who, with pitying look and the irrepressible tear of sympa- thy in their eyes, approached the suffer- er's couch, have been startled with won- der and surprise when they were wel- comed with a cheerful smile which seem- ed to say, Ah, do not pity me, but rather see how I have loved my country !

Often we have seen a face pale from suffering grow radiant with a feeling of noble pride as the sufferer held up the bleeding remnant of a limb, repeating the story of his bravery and of his mis-

May Connectient never cease to re- member and to honor her sons who have added to the lustre of her fair fame by many exhibitions of noble heroism mani- daring bravery on the field of battle and noble fortitude in the hour of bitter pain!

For the Connecticut War Record. The Gallant "Eighth " C. V.

For the Connecticut War Record.

The Knight U. S. General Hospital.

When on Antietam's bloody field the in hundred patients only thirty-sis have battle raged most furiously, a detachment died, the majority of whom were brought | of which the Eighth Connecticut form- here direct from the battle-field of Fair Oaks, in a hopeless condition.

ed a part, was out-flanked by the enemy, the order to retreat was given by the commander of the regiment named. On

Whilst we then give due credit to the One of the most obvious duties of our officers, surgeons and nurses for the faith- went the Eighth. Again the order was Goverment in these times of war is ad- fil discharge of their duties and snecessigiven and repeated, and the men who equately to provide for the relief and ful endeavors to relieve the sufferers, let never hesitated to go forward, even had comfort of those who have received ns not be mmmindful of the virtues dis- ; they knowen their march to be one to wounds or lost their health whilst being played by the objects of their care. Do, death, refused to obey the order to fall | we account the man a hero who, in the back. Why? The starry banner was

engaged in their country's defense.

Brave men who have sherificed that - hour of battle, goaded on by the univer- still floating high, carried by a noble sou which is dearest to man, and have, in or- sal excitement, follows, in the face of dan- of Connecticut, and beside it the banner der to save their country's honor, under- ger and of death, the flag he loves ? He that reminded the men of home and the gone privations, sustained injuries and . deserves our admiration. But heedless- vows made there never to disgrace the heroically faced sufferings and death. ness to innninent pail and firmness of the of their State. Those two banners have an indisputable right to demand of nerve in view of possible suffering are, waving in the front, side by side, spoke their country tender care, skillful medical not the only standard of bravery. Hlv in tones not to be drowned by the roar treatment, and a temporary home, if in' who amid suffering actual and present- of rebel artillery or the voice of the com- the providence of God and in conse- not persilde and future-retains a proper mander. They spoke, as they were dim- quence of service faithfully rendered, balance of mind and nerve shows a val- ly seen amid the smoke of battle, di- they have contracted disease or sustained or commanding our highest admiration, rectly to the hearts of Connecticut's bodily injury.

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The Connecticut war record, 1863-1865, Part 1

Author: Morris, John M., ed Publication date: 1863 Publisher: New Haven : Peck, White & Peck Number of Pages: 886

Author: Morris, John M., ed
Publication date: 1863
Publisher: New Haven : Peck, White & Peck
Number of Pages: 886