History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 62

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 62

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Mygatt ; 1808, Ebenezer Nichols, Epaphras W. Bull, Eliakim Bene- dict, Moss White; 1809, Joseph P. Cook, Frieud Starr, Eliakim Benedict, Jonas Benedict ; 1810, Friend Starr, Daniel P. Carrington, Daniel B. Cook, Nathan Cornwall; 1811, Daniel B. Cook, Nathan Cornwall, Ephraim M. White, Benjamin Hoyt; 1812, Friend Starr, Elias Starr, Alanson Hamlin ; 1813, Samuel Wildman, Elijah San- ford, Samuel H. Phillips, Phineas Taylor; 1814, Friend Starr, Daniel Comstock, Jr., Russell White, Daniel Hoyt ; 1815, Elijalı Gregory, Friend Starr, Eleazer Benedict, Jr., Eli Taylor: 1816, Elijah Gregory, Eliakim Peck, Peter Ambler, John S. Blackman ; 1817, Friend Starr, Elijah Gregory, Phineas Taylor, Nathan Seelye; 1818, Samuel Tweedy, Jr., Zalmon Wildman, Eden Andrews, Mathew Wilkes; 1819, Friend Starr, Zalmon Wildman; 1820, Eden Andrews, Samuel Tweedy, Jr .; 1821, Elijalı Gregory, Eden Andrews; 1822, Elijalı Gregory, Reuben Booth ; 1823, Sturges Sclleck, James Knapp ; 1824, Eli Taylor, Samuel Tweedy; 1825, Zadock Stevens, Samuel Taylor; 1826, Elijah Gregory, Oliver Shepard ; 1827, Russell Hoyt, Isaac H. Scelye ; 1828, Nathaniel Bishop, George Clapp; 1829, William R. Comstock, Starr Ferry ; 1830, Rory Starr, Abel Hoyt; 1831, Rory Starr, Ira Benedict; 1832, Peter Barnum, Rory Starr; 1833, Eli T. Hoyt, Russell Lacey ; 1834, Eli T. IIoyt, Starr Ferry ; 1835, Ephraim M. White, Abram Stow; 1836, Ephraim W. White, Hiram Benjamin ; 1837, Peter Barnm, David D. Wildman; 1838, David D. Wildman, Isaac I1. Seelye; 1839, Ephraim M. White, Charles S. Smith ; 1840, Starr Nichols, Levi Beebe; 1841, Orrin Knapp, Henry O. Judd ; 1842, William Peck, Nathan Seeley, Jr .; 1843, Sherman Ferry ; 1844, Hi- ram L. Sturdevant, William C. Shepard; 1845, Edgar S. Tweedy, Starr Iloyt; 1846, Lewis S. Hoyt, Charles W. Couch ; 1847, Richard Osborn,;William A. Judd ; 1848, Benjamin Stone, Horace E. Hickock ; 1849, Cyrus S. Andrews, Eli T. Hoyt ; 1850, N. H. Wildman, Joseph Taylor; 1851, George Ferry, Henry O. Judd; 1852, Ezra M. Starr, Charles S. Smith ; 1853, George Hull, Pierre A. Sutton ; 1854, Fred- erick S. Wildman, John D. Hart ; 1855, Nathan Seeley, Orrin Knapp; 1856, S. Tweedy, F. S. Wildman ; 1857, Giles M. Hoyt, William B. Hoyt; 1858, George Starr, D. F. Comstock; 1859, Judah P. Crosby, John Armstrong; 1860, David P. Nichols, Thaddeus Bronson ; 1861, George Starr, James S. Taylor; 1862, Abijah E. Tweedy, Aaron Pearse; 1863, Alfred N. Gilbert, David B. Booth ; 1864, David B. Booth, Orrin Benedict ; 1865, David P. Nichols, William H. Tweedy ; 1866, Samuel Mallory, J. S. Taylor; 1867, George H. Davis, S. Mal- lory ; 1868, Edward K. Carley, Roger Averill; 1869, Walker B. Bartram, John Tweedy ; 1870, Henry N. Fanton, Lyman D. Brew- ster; 1871, Henry N. Fanton, Edwin R. Hummiston ; 1872, David B. Boot, Henry L. Read; 1873, Isaac Smith, Charles H. Reed ; 1874, Henry Perry, Thaddeus Rooney ; 1875, Levi K. Wildman, Nathan B. Dibble; 1876, Norman Hodge, Charles H. Crosby ; 1877, Charles II. Crosby, Nathan B. Dibble; 1878, Lyman D. Brewster, Edward Davis; 1879, Lyman D. Brewster, Charles H. Hoyt; 1880, Benjamin F. Bailey, David P. Nichols.

DANBURY IN THE REBELLION.

The following excellent history of Danbury in the war of the Rebellion is an address which was.deliv- ered by J. M. Bailey, of the Danbury News, at the un- veiling of the Soldiers' Monument, May 27, 1880:

"Danbury was very quiet through the winter that preceded the war. There was a talk of war, to be sure, but four-fifths of those who talked it did not believe in its possibility. It was simply New England eloquence arriving at a burst in the pipe. There was an impression, I remember; that every State would secede excepting those which formed New Eng- land, and this would naturally bring the war prospect down to a very narrow compass; and then, again, there were those here who were sure Connecticut alone would remain in the Union, while every other State would go ont. This made many of us confident there was to be no war at all, and left us untrammeled in determining the number of the enemy we could slay in battle.

" These matters were thoroughly and ably discussed when the weather was sufficiently mild to permit with safety the occupation of the depot and Concert Hall steps.

" It was a gloomy winter, however,-gloomy because business was in- terrupted by the uncertainty of the immediate future. The summer and fall preceding had been seasons of prosperity. Our staple industry, hat- ting, was at full tide. Every shop was crowded with orders. Large prices were paid for help, and large profits were made. I came to Dan-

249

DANBURY.

bury that year, and I remember the surpriso I felt in seeing so many people indulging in watermelons and sweet potatoes. It seemed as if a millennium had set in, to which there never was to come an adjourn- meut. Strangers were moving into town, and in every part of the village buildings were going np at a lively rate.

" After the November election all this changed, Progress came to a stand-still as abruptly as if it had been mounted with an air-brake, Hat- tiug went under, and dragged with it, as is its custom, every other branch of industry. Men had little to do but to stand around and talk. And the result was as sure as taxes. Dyspepsia set in, and gloom followed. Danbury's liver was full of gall, and Danbury's blood crawled sluggishly through its yeins. Sumter was tho bluo pill for the occasion, and most thoroughly did it do its work.

" It was three o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday, April 13, 1861, when Danbury received the news of the fall of Sumter and the first vic- tory for the secessionists, All that day anxious men intestod the tele- graph-office in search of the intelligence they dreaded to meet. When it came there was a shock. It was as if the batteries that playod against the doomed fortress had been galvanic, with their wires running through our hearts' very centre.

" The next forty-eight hours were full of compressed life. They were mental yeast-cakes. No excitement equaled it since that April day uearly a century dead when the face of a foreign foo was turned our way and the tramp of an enemy's feet pressed our borders.

"Now we knew there was to be a war. Even tho most sanguino of a bloodless ending to the trouble gave up the hope of peace, but not the de- termination to win it. In that first flush of indignant shame party lines went under, and only the fact of the outrage and tho desire to avenge it appeared above the sea of patriotic passion that swept over Danbnry.

" You all know how thronged Main Street is on a Saturday evening. We have a sort of national reputation in this particular, But, as com- pared with that Saturday night nineteen years ago, tho oue of the present is as barren of life as a law library.

"There was but little sleep in Danbury that Saturday night; thero was none whatever the next day, although there were eight churches herc. St. Peter gave way to saltpetre in the theology of the hour.

"Danbury showed its colors promptly on the reception of the news from Sumter. The first flag appeared from the residence of Hon. Roger Averill, and others immediately followed,-in such numbers, too, that the village looked like an army with banners. An interesting incident occurred with the unfurling of Governor Averill's flag. Many presont distinctly remember the venerable Col. Moss White, Several years before the war he was stricken with paralysis, and never recovered from the shock. He moved about with great difficulty, and lost all control of verbal expression except two words, in the form of an injunction, which were, 'Come all!' On seeing the flag he smote his breast with both hands and cried aloud again and again, 'Come all ! Como all !' And the record shows that the able-bodied men of his native town almost liter- ally responded to the cry.

"On the Monday following the eventful Saturday, President Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand troops to march to the defense of the government. On Wednesday, Governor Buckingham's call for Con- necticut's quota of this number was received in Danbury, and on Friday -ouly forty-eight hours later-our dear old mother had a company of her sons, nearly all armed and equipped, on their way to the State ren- dezvous, ready for action. These were the Wooster Guards, the first com- pany to leave Danbury, and the first in the State to report for duty. Is not this something to be proud of? Glorious as is the name the dead Wooster left us, it received new brightness from the lustre of this act.

"The day the Wooster Guards departed for New Haven was an event- fnl one in the history of our town. It might have been called both Good and Black Friday,-Good because of the devotion to principle thus mani- fested, Black because of the gloom in the hearts of those whose trying mission was to stay at home and wait.

" It was only for three months that this devoted company were to be gone, but the eye of affection saw every bitter possibility crowded within that brief space, and hearts stood still at the siglit.

" You may rest assured that a hearty godspeod accompanied Danbury's first offering upon the nation's altar. People were suffering undor a mighty tension of excitement, and any escape that presented itself was promptly used. And so when this first company went away there was a parade, and the touching off of powder, and the waving of hats, and a shouting and yelling as if every man had a telephono of his own and wanted a doctor.

" The town's military hall was then on the top floor of D. P. Nichols' building, corner of Main and Whito Streets. There tho Guards assem- bled and received recruits, aud prepared for the advance, But it was iu

Concert Ilall, on the spot where to-day was unveiled the monninent, that the brave band wero consecrated to the holy cause of national life, and the God of battles was Invoked to watch over them. It was a tilminph- ant march to the hall, and a triumphant march from there to the railway- station, and all along the route the way was hedged in with sympathetic and effervescent humanity, At the station Itself the currents became an ocean into which the Guards were absorbed as completely as if they had gone down into a real ocean, Every man In that company was a hero in the eyes of the multitude, and every manifestation of approval was showered npon them. It was a wonder to us how the train ever got away from the station with its precions freight withont crushing scores of humans in Its moving. But it did move away free from all obstacle. and the Guards went out from among us with hearts so full of purpose that grief found no entrance therein.

"Capt. E. E. Wildman was in command; Jesso D. Stevens was first lieutenant; John W. Bussing was second lieutenant. These three men are still with ns. I am going to read to you the muster-roll of that band who took their lives in their hands to go out npon an untried enterprise. I would like to repeat from this platforn the name of every volunteer from our town, but time will not permit it. The chief interest centres about this company because it was the first, This is the list :

"Sergeants, Andrew Knox, Milo Dickens, William Moegling, Samuel M. Petit.

" Corporals, Georgo B. Allen, E. S. Davis, Alexander Kallman, Nathan Couch.

" Musicians, Edward HI. Dann, Grandison D. Foote.

" Privates, John Allen, Harris Anderson, C. II. Anderson, Jolin Bo- gardus, Charles A. Boerum, James Blizzard, William II. Blizzard, Thomas T. Bussing, James Bradley, Theodore B. Benedict, A. II. Byington, George W. Banker, Charles A. Bengor, Niramt Blackman, Thomas D. Browu, Henry E. Buckingham, William K. Cowan, Lemuel B. Clark, Williamu R. Doane, Josiah L. Day, Ed. HI. Day, Joseph L. Dunning, Ezekiel Eaton, C. Fieldstono, Denis Geliven, Christopher Grimm. Charles A. Gordon, II. W. Gibbs, Carl W. Hillbrandt, William O. Iloyt, W. P. Hoyt, David B. Hoyt, Alfred H. Hoddinott, Thomas Hooton, Otto Ilagement, James Howath, Jesse L. James, Earnest T. Jennings, Isaac N. Jennings, George D. Keeler, Morris A, Krazynsky, William J. Murphy, Emil C. Margraff, James Martin, Andrew B. Nichols, Horaco Purdy, Francis W. Platt, Joseph W. Raymond, James Reed, James R. Ross, Timothy Rose, George L. Smith, Alson J. Smith, Benjamin F. Skinner, David Sloane, Grandison Scott, Louis Shack, Eli D. Seeley, Augustus Staples, George Sears, James II. Taylor, Joseph Tammany, Darius A. Veats, Edgar L. Wildman, How- ard W. Wheeler, Joliu Waters.

"The papers of New Haven spoke highly of the appearance of the company, and lauded the promptness with which it responded to the nation's cry for help. It is a great deal to be the first in an enterprise fraught with danger, because the danger itself is untried and all the more formidable. It was a brave thing for the families of these men to give up their own, but both those who went and those who seut theun had no lack of the spirit which constitutes heroism.

" There are two incidents recorded in the New Haven Journal of that time which vividly show how bright and clear burned the fire of pat: iot- isni on the altar set up in Danbury. I quote from the Journal :

"' The men are in the best of spirits, and are determined to vindicate the untarnished honor of old Connecticut. One of them received a letter from his wife, Saturday evening, saying, "I do wish, Robert, you could return ; but if it is not consistent with honor and duty, go! Good- by, and remember always to be faithful to our country, and to fight man- fully for our glorious flag." Said the brave fellow, trying hard to repress a tear as he pornsed the precions missive. " Who couldn't fight when such a wife commanded it?" Another member of the company was met by his father on the green, who said, as he handed him a wallet contain- ing some thirty dollars in gold, " My son, take your father's blessing and this slim purse. It is all I can give yon. Do your duty. It is hard for your aged mother and me to part with yon, but God bless yon, go! If you full, give your dying blessing to your comrades. Good-by."'

" Theso are specimens of the men who went in that first company from Danbury, and of those who gavo them up. Of the umterial that com- posed this band the larger part reappeared to credit in subsequent organ- izations. Somo of them reachod distinction as officers. Many of them are with us to-day. Mauy have passed through the Valley of the Shadow. One who marchod in the ranks on the departure from Danbury does not appear in this list. He was objected to on account of age, and although lio tried in various ways to be mustered in was not successful. This was Nelson L. White, afterwards lientenant-colonel of the First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and now gone to his eternal rest.

" Another prominent name is that of William Moegling, who entered

r B.

250

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

the Eleventh Regiment as captain of one of the companies, became the lieutenant-colonel, was twice wounded, came home disabled, and died here on the 26th of October, 1864.

"The encampment of the First Regiment, to which this company was assigned, was, while in the State, a rather pleasant affair, something in the line of a picnic. This was the experience of all the regiments. The food was good, every man had a plate, knife, and fork, the tents were clean, beds were furnished to sleep upon, passes were freqnent, the uui- forms were new, and there were plenty of admirers. After leaving the State and getting into the field another and an entirely different order of things developed, and the progress to it was somewhat like falling down stairs. There was but very little apple-sauce in the field, and scarcely any cologne, while the man who had a knife and fork was looked upon with considerable suspicion. Straw tieks gave way to bare ground, and shoe blacking to stone bruises, and if a man had a whole erown to his hat he flattered himself that he was doing very handsomely by the government. When the news reached the Seventeenth Connecti- cut, reclining in the frozen mud of Chantilly, Va., of the complaint of a newly-organized regiment at home that only one bundle of straw was given to each man, very heavy gloom settled upon Chantilly, and may be there yet. All the misery of war is not coufined to the battle-field, . although that appears to be the generally received impression outside the army,

"The First Connecticut left New Haven for Washington on the 9th of May. Gen. Scott's comment upon it was brief but to the point. He said, ' Thank God, there is one regiment on hand ready for service !'

" Early in the morning of July 21st the regiment went to the front, and Danbury received its baptism of fire in the war of the Union. All that day the regiment was marched and countermarched in the multi- tude of changes in position, and much of the time it was subject to a severe fire from the enemy, but came out of that dreadful disaster with scarcely a mark. The only loss the Danbury company sustained was the capture of two of its members, Alfred II. Hoddiuott and Isaac N. Jennings.

"The regiment was mustered out of the service on the 31st of July, and the Wooster Guards were given a picnic reception in James Nichols' woods, in Great Plain District, on Saturday, August 3d, at which there was great rejoicing and an unlimited supply of sandwiches, in connection with music, poetry, and pies.

"Within ten days from the departure of the Wooster Guards for New IIaven a second company for three months' service was formed and ready to depart. This was on the 29th of April. The organization was called the Danbury Rifle Company, and was commanded by the gallant and lamented James E. Moore. His first lieutenant was Samuel G. Bailey, and his second lieutenant Charles H. Hoyt. Lieut. Hoyt resigned six weeks later and F. W. Jackson, a sergeant, was promoted to the vacancy. The company was mustered into the United States service as Company ( of the Third Regiment, and numbered seventy-seven men. The de- partnre of this body of citizen-soldiers was signalized by a general ont- pouring of the people of Danbury. The company was escorted through the village by a spirited cavalcade, and at the railway-station there were elaborate preparations for an enthusiastic send-off. A platform was erected, which was mounted by the clergy, who fired the hearts of the volunteers and others with new zeal, and a band of music added to the electricity. The company departed amid a volley of cheers and a burst of music, while the air was white with the waving of handkerchiefs moist with tears.

" Ah, it is something to have lived in those days of delirium !

"The company was mustered into the service on the 14th of May, at Ilartford, and on the 25th of that month left the State for Washington.

" The Danbury Rifles took an active part in the tragedy of Bull Run. The regiment was exposed to a severe fire, and acquitted itself most creditably. From its ranks Danbury offered her first living sacrifice. This was John R. Marsh, fourth sergeant of the company, a name that heads Danbury's list of martyrs in the war for the Union. IIe was struck and killed by a piece of flying shell. Private A. E. Bronson was made a prisoner.

"Of the Rifles several afterwards rendered distinguished service in other commands. Chief was the gallant captain who crowned his unsel- fish devotion by yielding np his life at the head of lis company on the blood-saturated field of Gettysburg. There also Brouson gave up his life, dying by the side of his leader. Corp. Milton Daniels and Private Henry Quien became captaius of the Danbury company in the Seventeenth.

"The Rifles returned to Danbury on Wednesday evening, the 14th or August. On Saturday, the 17th, they were entertained by a grove dining at Oil Mill, and by speeches and music in Concert Hall.

"I have said that there was considerable demonstration when the

Rifles went away. In the escort on that day was a company of young men whose very hot blood found some expression in the impulsively sug- gestive title of Zouaves. The Zouaves numbered sixty members on that day, and they averaged nearly six feet in stature. They were in some respects the most remarkable body of men sent to the war from Danbury, The larger portion of them were the full-blooded and high-spirited boys of the period, full of life and dash, and a credit to the east side of Main Street any afternoou or evening.

The Zouaves became Company A of the Fifth Regiment, and were the first company of three-years' men to go out from Danbury. I think the author of that rather vigorous poem, 'Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,' must have been a member of the gallant Fifth. Nowhere else could he have got more inspiratiou. Colt's factory was to have fur- nished the regiment with revolving arms. Nature gave them their revolving legs, and never before or since was Nature more generons. No body of men from Danbury equaled this company in the extent of ser- vice. This is a distinction indeed among a number of bodies no one of whom brought discredit upon our dear old town, and most of whoni were subject to severe tests of physical endurance and courage.

"The Zouaves were commanded by Capt. Henry B. Stone, the lieuten- ants were James A. Betts, first, and William A. Daniels, second. They left Danbury for Hartford on the 16th of May. The demonstration made over their departure exceeded that made on either of the preceding oc- casions. Nearly all the Zouaves were well known and well liked in this community, and they had a large following of friends. It was the biggest day Danbury witnessed in that volume of big days. Many of you re- member it. There were several local organizations in the line of march through the village. One of them was the Home Guards, another was the Union Cadets, a third the Anderson Guards, which was composed of Irish citizens. In addition to these were the fire companies. Most of the Zouaves had ' run with the machine,' and ran with it enthusiastically, too, you may be sure, and so the fire-lads were out in force. Then there were the village brass band and a long line of horsemen. Twenty years ago Danbury didn't think it could parade with any decency whatever unless it was a-straddle of a horse. There were the ringing of the bells, the discharge of cannon, the strains of music, flights of oratory, and cheers that made the cheerers hoarse for a week after. What added a deep significance to the affair was the prospect that the parting was to be for a much longer period than three mouths, and to the hearts of those left behind, shivering in the very glory of the parade, three months looked long enough, looking forward to it. Well for those poor souls bravely fighting down their pain that they could look no farther into the future than they did !

"The company was originally designed to apply to the three months quota, but before its muster-roll was completed the quota was full, and it was then a choice with them whether they would enroll for three years or stay at home. You will readily compreliend how severe a test to their zeal was this choice. But they were equal to it, as they proved themselves to be equal to every test the military geuius of friend or foe subjected them to.

"The Fifth left Hartford on the 29th of June for the seat of war, or rather for the war-path, for it was a regiment that saw but precious few opportunities for sitting down. In the years of its service the regiment marched over fifteen hundred miles, at one time being on the move for nineteen consecutive days, aud marching in one day the unusual distance of forty-five miles. It took in more scenery than any other regiment from Connecticut. It began in Virginia and brought up in North Caro- lina, by way of Tennessee and Georgia. The only reason why it did not see the Yosemite Valley was because there happened to be no fighting there. It fought eleven battles, among them being Cedar Mountain,- where it met its heaviest loss,-Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Six of the Zonaves were killed outright or were fatally wounded, and nine- teen of them otherwise wounded. Of the original company only three died in the service from disease, which shows the superior physical condi- tion of the men. Perhaps no company from Danbury witnessed so many changes in its officers as did the Zouaves.

"Its first commander, Henry B. Stone, was promoted to be lieutenant- colonel. He was wounded at the battle of Cedar Mountain, and died on the 20th of January, 1862, from the effects of that wound. His bravery was without a flaw. First Lieut. Betts was also promoted to be lieutenant- colonel. Second Lieut. Daniels was made first lieutenant, and was mus- tered out of the service because of disability. First Sergt. Theodore Dibble was made a captain, Second Sergt. Lewis K. Carley, who recently died, became the quartermaster of the regiment, and made a model officer in that difficult and very important department. Third Sergt. George N. Raymond was made a first lieutenant. Fourth Sergt. James Stewart reached a captaincy. Corp. Edgar A. Stratton was promoted to be first

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 62

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572