USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1872, Vol. II > Part 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
Corresponding Secretary,-William Cothren.
Recording Secretary,-W. A. Gordon.
Treasurer,-Benjamin Fabrique.
Mr. Judd died in 1869, and P. M. Trowbridge was elected Pres- ident in his stead, Dec. 28, 1869. At the same meeting. Rev. Gur-
1297
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
don W. Noyes was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- nation of Rev. Mr. Little ; Rev. A. N. Lewis, to fill the vacancy of Rev. Mr. Bacon, and Rev. Joseph Gilman, to fill the vacancy of Rev. Mr. Pullman. Horace D. Curtiss was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of Mr. Trowbridge; William Cothren, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of R. J. Allen, who had never been able to cooperate with the Committee, on account of ill health-and Heman Botsford and Frederick C. Orton, were added as additional members of the Executive Com- mittee.
Then followed a series of festivals, sociables, concerts, &c., du- ring four years, for the purpose of raising the necessary funds to accomplish the work. The people with one accord manifested great interest in the undertaking, and gave generous aid. By the autumn of 1870, the funds thus collected amounted to about the sum of $1,500. Previous to this time, the General Assembly of the State had passed a law authorizing towns to appropriate monies from the treasury to aid in such laudable undertakings, and to assist in raising monuments to the memory of the heroic dead. It therefore became the general wish of those who had borne the chief labor thus far, and it was deemed fitting, that the whole community by tax should contribute to the praiseworthy object. Accordingly, at their solicitation, the following action was taken :-
NOTICE.
" The legal voters of the town of Woodbury are hereby noti- fied that a special meeting of said town will be holden at the Town Hall on Saturday, the 23d day of April, 1870, at 2 o'clock P. M., to take such measures as may be deemed expedient in re- gard to erecting a monument to the memory of all soldiers and seamen, resident of, or belonging to said town at the time of their enlistment, and who have died in the military or naval service of the United States, in the late war against the government of the United States.
G. B. LEWIS, S. B. MINOR, Selectmen.
J. G. CURTISS,
" At a special town meeting held pursuant to the above notice, on the 23d day of April, 1870,-Present, W. A. Strong, Clerk, William A. Cothren was chosen Moderator.
1298
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
" Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to the 1st Monday in October, at 9 o'clock, A. M.
W. A. STRONG, Town Clerk.
" At a special Town Meeting held pursuant to adjournment, Oct. 3d, 1870, for the purpose of appropriating money from the town treasury to build a monument in memory of the Soldiers and Sailors who fell in the war of the rebellion against the govern- ment of the United States-Present, W. A. Strong, Clerk,-Wm. Cothren, Moderator, the following votes and resolutions were passed.
" Voted, To appropriate the sum of one thousand dollars, to be drawn from the town treasury by the Selectmen, and laid out and expended by them, in addition to the sum of about fifteen hundred dollars raised by individuals, for the erection of a suitable monn- ment to the memory of all soldiers and seamen who were resi- dents of said town, or belonging thereto at the time of their en- listment, and who have died in the military or naval service of the United States, in the war against the government of the Uni- ted States. Said appropriation to be expended in conformity with Sections 39, 40, 41 and 43 of a statute law of Connecticut, enti- tled An Act concerning Communities and Corporations, and that the location of said monument be fixed by a Committee, consist- ing of Hon. Origin S. Seymour and Hon. John H. Hubbard, of Litchfield, and Hon. Robbins Battell, of Norfolk.
" Voted, That the above vote be passed upon by ballot. All legal voters of said town who desire to vote in favor of said pro- posed vote, will deposit in a box under the supervision of the moderator of this special meeting, a ballot with the word " Yes " written thereon. All voters who are opposed to the passage of said vote, will deposit a ballot with the word "No " written thereon. And said box shall be kept open in this special town meeting for the purpose of balloting upon said vote, until 4 o'clock P. M., when said votes shall be counted and declared.
" The votes in said box having been counted by the moderator, 1 Clerk, and one of the Constables of the town (Stephen H. Crane),
1299
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
after the closing of said box, the following result was declared, by the moderator, in open meeting :
For the appropriation, 158
Against the same, 61
"The resolutions were therefore declared to be passed.
" Voted, to dissolve this meeting.
Attest : W. A. STRONG, Clerk.
Sufficient funds being now provided to accomplish the work in- tended in a creditable manner, plans, specifications and prices were solicited from contractors, and in due time the Plymouth Granite Company were engaged to furnish the monument. Mean- while, the surviving members of the 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery, of which a large number of the dead soldiers had been members, had been invited to hold their annual re-union here, at the time the monument would be erected, and assist in the solemn cere- monies of its dedication. Everything was, therefore, made ready. The whole town engaged in the work of preparation for the re- ception of the invited guests. Not only the 2d Heavy, but all the surviving soldiers of the town, from all the regiments, together with the near relatives of the deceased soldiers, were invited to attend, and take part in the honors of the day.
The dedication of the Soldiers' Monument to its patriotic pur- pose, occurred on the 26th of September, 1871. The surviving soldiers above mentioned by special invitation, provided an escort and guard of honor, to the long procession of distinguished in- vited guests, near relatives of the deceased soldiers, whose mem- ory the monument perpetuated, and civilians, who swarmed in from the counties of Litchfield, Fairfield, New Haven and Hart- ford. It rained in the early morning, but the clouds broke away, and the ceremonies proceeded as arranged. Woodbury has had many publie celebrations, but none has ever been conducted with a more hearty enthusiasm and general acquiescence, than this. Pre- vious to the march of the Regiment, Deacon P. M. Trowbridge, who was very nearly interested in the soldiers' welfare during the war, addressed the surviving veterans. When the procession to the monument moved, the entire street, some two hundred feet wide, was packed from fence to fence, from Deacon Linsley's house to
1300
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
that of Hon. N. B. Smith, a distance of nearly a mile. There could not have been less than seven thousand persons present. Good judges estimate the number as a larger. Everything proceeded in accordance with the pre-arranged plan, at the monument, which is erected in the south central portion of our extended village, on a beautiful eminence at the intersection of four ways, a most lovely place for the purpose, being the same place which had formerly been occupied by the Second Ancient Church for the period of nearly seventy years. The monument was built by the Plymouth Granite Company, of Waterbury, B. P. Chatfield, President, from pure white granite from their Quarry at Plymouth. The lower base is six feet square and twenty inches high, surmounted by the sub- base, four and a half feet square and fourteen inches high. 1 Over this is the die, three feet square at the base, and three feet ten inches high. At the corner are ornamental consoles, and the plane surface is paneled, the panels being finely polished, and containing the names of the deceased soldiers. The pediment cap is three feet ten inches square, and one foot high. The plinth on which the shaft rests, is three feet square, and two feet seven inches high. On the front side, the State coat of arms is handsomely chiseled in bold relief. Above this rises the shaft, beautifully proportioned, and twenty feet in heighth, making the total altitude thirty feet. It tapers gracefully, terminating at a point. The general order of architecture is Corinthian, the outlines are sharp, and the whole effect is excellent, reflecting great credit on the taste of the design- er, R. W.' Hill, Esq., of Waterbury, as well as on the Plymouth Granite Company. .
The exercises at the monument opened with a dirge by the Newtown Cornet Band. This was followed by an introductory address by the writer, President of the day, as follows :-
SOLDIERS AND FRIENDS :- It was a beautiful custom of the abo- riginal inhabitants of this lovely valley, when the chief of their people, or a distinguished brave died, to make his grave beside some rippling water, or some ever murmuring cascade, and lay their forest paths beside his resting place, and, ever after, each hunter in pursuit of game, and each warrior on the war-path, cast a stone upon it, as a mark of reverence and respect to the honored dead. Thus in process of time a notable monument arose from
1 On the sub base is the inscription, " Erected to the Soldiers of Woodbury who died in the Rebellion of 1861."
1301
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
these individual and reverential offerings. In like manner do we to-day raise this monument of stone, beautified by the hand of art, and erected on the very place occupied by an ancient church of God for nearly seventy years; to the good, and true, and brave men, who went forth from among us to suffer and to die in de- fence of the dearest rights possessed by any people. It is a sub- lime-a glorious honor, when a whole community assembles, with its highest and loveliest ones, to do honor to its martyred dead. It is a scene sublime, and an act historic, that will be handed down the ages to those who shall come after us. It shall stand as an example of all that is tender and noble in a people's gratitude.
It is with solemn awe that we approach the ceremonies of the day. We would do fitting honors to the loved and lost. We would tread lightly over the sacred dust of our slumbering heroes. We would perpetuate their deathless fame. We can never forget what they dared and suffered for us. They have written their names on a scroll of bright memories. We will ever revere those who fell in the strife. We have carved their names in enduring granite. Never, till the hills melt with fervent heat, shall this memorial which our hands have made, cease to remind us and our descendants of the glorious dead. Till then, the successive generations will never cease to remember the brilliant deeds of an honorable ancestry.
Shall we call the Roll ? Shall we recount the names and deeds of this glorious Roll of Honor ? Shall we speak of Barnum, who, tenderly and carefully reared in our midst, in the first bloom of glorious manhood, when the first cannon thundered forth its trai- torous threat in the harbor of Charleston, and Fort Sumter made a feeble reply, rushed eagerly to the front with the first volunteers, and who, after an honorable career, and after deserved promotion, received his death-wound in the bloody vale of Cold Harbor? Shall we speak of Dutton, young, educated, socially connected with the best in the State, established in the profession of the law at Litchfield, with high hopes and brilliant prospects, who left all, and came to Woodbury, when the first insult was offered to the flag at Sumter, drilled the awkward squad on our North Cemete- ry Plains, day after day, went gladly to the front, and, finally, in that cruel and unnecessary massacre of Cedar Mountain, after deeds of daring equal to the boldest, and after the eighth man who bore the colors in the van, had been shot, seized the standard of the Union and fell, covered with many wounds, breathing out
1302
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
his young life in the flame and smoke of disastrous battle ? He lies sweetly sleeping with the " unknown dead," though his hon- ored father, the late Governor Dutton, while guerillas swarmed thickly around, sought his body, with tears. Shall we speak of Whitlock, the genial and whole-souled friend, one who went out and in among us, admired and beloved of all, one who would go further, and do more than most, to fulfil a social duty, who, patri- otic, to the full degree, incensed by his country's wrong, volun- teered as a private, won his way to promotion, and while in the article of death received his Lieutenant's commission, too late to comprehend that his just ambition had been rewarded ? Shall we speak of Conrad, the gentle and the true, enlisting in that drear winter, when hearts were faint, and many thought the issue doubt- ful, serving with eqnal fidelity and hope, whether in the old 13th Conn. Vols, or the 1st Louisiana, and at last falling by severe di 3- ease in the far south, and giving up his life in the holocaust of the Union, receiving his commission on his death-bed, and now sleep- ing in a patriot's grave in the National cemetery on General Jack- son's battle-ground of 1815, below New Orleans ? Shall we speak of the next in rank, though non-commissioned, the true, the faith- ful Orton, who, from all-controlling conscientious motives, bade adieu to wife and children, and all the hopes and roseate tints of life's young morn, served faithfully in the field, and fell, mortally wounded, at Winchester's bloody field ? Shall we speak of his comrades, whose life-blood enriches the same ensanguined plain, and wooded slopes ? Then name with honor the patriotie Barney, Bunnell, Flushinen, and Locklin ? Do we remember Newberne ? Castle, Cogswell, and Patterson, ascended thence to their rest.
Do we reeur again to Cold Harbor, with its fire of Hell from the left ? There fell Briggs, Crommey, Galpin, Kane and Wheeler. At Hatcher's Run, Allen and Walsh breathed out their heroic lives. At New Orleans, James L. Atwood and Abram A. War- ner were a patriotie sacrifice. In the death-giving swamps of Alexandria, Harvey HI. Fox, Polley, Charles and Horatio Thomas, and White, offered up their lives that the country might be saved. Do we call to mind Sherman's glorious march to the sea, and the scaling of Kenesaw mountain ? . Then we shall never forget those two brave and noble boys, who went out with the Woodbury Reds, Myron G. Bishop and Charles A. Squire, who went down amid the glare and smoke of battle on that bloody mount. He who remembers the Heights of Fredericksburg, will never forget
1303
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
Frank G. and Seth W. Percy. Root and Holmes perished in the far, forbidding mountains of Arkansas. Port Hudson received the sacrificial lives of Tracy and Wellman ; and Johnny Tuttle, brave as the bravest, fell, pierced through the heart, in the bloody vale of Antietam. Do we remember with a shudder the prison pen of Salisbury ? Bubser died there. Do we tremble when we con- template the fiendish horrors of Andersonville ? It was thence the spirit of Gosley ascended to its rest, from a scene of intolera- ble suffering. In these commemorative services, we will not for- get the deeds of the colored soldiers. We will not forget Free- man, who died at Annapolis. We will remember Rice, who fell at the seige of Petersburg. We will not forget that some of the colored 29th Connecticut were the first infantry to enter Rich- mond. Has any patriot forgotten, can anybody ever forget the murderous conflict in the deadly gorge of Cedar Creek, when glo- rions Phil. Sheridan, after his desperate ride from Winchester, ral- lied his men, and with clarion voice uttered that electric, prophetic command : "Steady boys! You are going back to your camps ! Forward, March !" Does anybody forget, that the victory which followed was the salvation of Washington ? Dwight S. Atwood, Brady and George E. Judson, gave up their lives in that deadly charge, to aid in this great salvation !
Soldiers and friends ! We have now called our Roll of Honor. We have engraved it on this beautiful memorial. We invite you to assist in its dedication. Kindred of the immortal dead ! The dust of your beloved rests peacefully on many a glorious battle- field of the Union, carefully guarded by the Eye that never sleeps ! Soldiers! the fame of your comrades is secure, and that secures your own ! Their reward is on high !
" They're mustered out; the grizzled sire, The son in boyish beauty ; From life's forced march -- from battle fire, They're resting after duty."
Prayer was then offered by Rev. John Churchill, of Woodbury, which was followed by the singing of an original ode to the mem. ory of the dead, by Messrs. Linsley, Walker, Gordon, and the writer, members of the "Soldiers' Glee Club," as a quartette. The air was one familiar to the soldiers :- "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground "-
1304
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
We're gathered to-day to honor the brave, Who fell in the deadly strife ;
Who fought, who died, and gave up their all To save the Nation's life.
CHORUS -- Many are the graves of the soldiers at rest, On mountain, glen and vale ;
And they peacefully sleep on the earth's kind breast ; They're tenting o'er hill and dale- Tenting to-day, tenting to-day, Tenting on the old camp grounds.
Oh! gloriously sleep the honored brave ! To them the shaft shall rise; And the storied urn, and marble bust, Shall e'er salute the skies.
CHORUS --
"Tis ours, through all time, to honor the men, Who died in the mortal fight ; The men whose valorous actions brought The triumph of the right. CHORUS --
Then followed an interesting and eloquent dedicatory address, by Colonel Augustus H. Fenn, of Plymouth. It was peculiarly ap- propriate that Colonel Fenn should be invited to deliver this ad- dress, as, for a time, before his deserved promotion to a 1st Lieu- tenancy in Company K, he was a private in the Woodbury Com- pany I, under Capt. Eli Sperry, of Woodbury. He left his right arm at Cedar Creek, and could feelingly speak of his dead com- rades of Company I.
SPEECH OF COL. A. H. FENN.
"FELLOW CITIZENS AND FELLOW SOLDIERS :- I feel to-day as if the heavy stone had been rolled away from the door of the sepul- chre of our dead, and the two angels in white were sitting, the angel of love at the head, and the angel of gratitude at the foot, where the bodies of our comrades have lain. The country for which they died, the community from which they went forth, have taken these our brothers in its bosom, and bears them forever upon its great heart of love.
.i is my privilege to-day to speak to you in a double capacity, as a citizen and as a soldier. As a citizen-as one of those for whom these brave men have toiled and struggled and died. As
1305
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY
one who, while they have labored, has entered into the fruits of their labors. As a citizen of this great republic, knowing the love which they bore to it, the peril from which they rescued it, by blood and with their lives. I tell you that what you consummate to-day in the dedication of this beautful, appropriate, durable and costly memorial, they have widely earned and fully merited. It is but the discharge of a debt of gratitude which you owed to them, and I know that you my friends are very far from consider- ing it anything more. It is but an act of simple justice to keep in affectionate and lasting remembrance the name and fame of those who from amongst us have given their lives that the nation might live. It is not for us to honor them, but it is they who have honored ns, and beautiful, appropriate and generous is the act which we here complete. It finds its highest symbolism in the lives of those it commemorates, in the fact, that, after all, it is not so much for them as for others we have done it, even as they laid down their lives, not for themselves, but for their country and for us. They whose names are inscribed upon that monument need no such memorial, but we who stand here do. They who died gloriously on the field of a nation's honor, need no witness but God, but woe to that nation, woe to that community which dares to forget them. The storied urn or animated bust can never call the fleeting breath back to its mansion. The voice of honor can never provoke the callous ear of death, but when from the top of the lofty pyramids of Egypt forty centuries looked down upon the soldiers of Napoleon, the hearts of the living were made valiant, by the silent witness of the dead. And when from the top of yonder monumental shaft, the muse of history shall look down upon this favored community, the hearts of your young men shall be made strong, the fires of patriotism shall be lighted, and from these sacred ashes and from this hallowed spot shall go forth that controlling and pervading spirit that shall guard and animate the country of their love.
But in that other capacity in which I am permitted to address you, as a soldier, as the comrade of these your guests to-day, as the comrade of these others, your honored, silent guests to-day, speaking in behalf of these my brothers, and of those dead lips, that now cold and still in the silence of the grave, will never speak to you themselves again, I have to thank you and to bless you. I thank you in behalf of the living, that in the rich and generous welcome, in the full and overflowing hospitality with
1
1306
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
which you have greeted us, you have embraced these also, our dear ones and yours. I remember how in those dark days which are gone forever, after the smoke of battle had died, and its thun- der was stilled, we have sat down together in the twilight shad- ยท ows and talked of those who had gone up higher. I remember we said that in the days to come, when this cruel war should be ended, we might meet again amid the dear familiar scenes of child- hood and of home, That we might meet but that they no more should come with their soft voices to greet us. They had gone before, they had passed from death unto life, they could not come to us, but we should go to them. But as I stand here to-day it almost seems to me as if the old familiar forms had come back again, and stood in their accustomed places. As if the thinned and decimated ranks were full again, and Kellogg, our master and our king, stood before us in majesty and waved us on to battle. I hear the thunder of the cannon, the roar of the musketry, the trumpet sounding the charge.
" But the vision passes, and. I stand in this peaceful place and mingle my tears with yours beside the memorial of the dead. I thank you also in behalf of these my dead brothers for what you have done for them. I was their comrade, and I tell you their last thoughts were of you, the loved ones at home. Their last prayers were offered up for you, their last blood was freely shed for you. And I tell you it is a peaceful thought, even amid the throes and agonies of death, to feel that we shall not be forgotten by those we love. It, matters not so much perhaps where our bodies may lie, though who would not rather that his ashes should mingle with the dust of kindred, but it does matter, that some- where, away down in the heart of hearts of those we love, is a spot where our memory is kept sacred, and somewhere near the dear place that gave us birth, beneath the leafy bower, or by the purling brook, or in the quiet church-yard, is a spot kept green for us, and a stone that bears our name and keeps our memory when we are gone. These men, dying thus for you, never doubted that you would so remember them, and as their comrade, I thank yon, with a full and grateful heart, that you have this day so fully, so nobly, so generously redeemed their trust. To you then, our neighbors, brethren and friends, you who went forth from our midst when the call of an imperilled country was heard ; you who kept step to the music of the Union, but who came not back to us with the scarred and thinned battalions, the rent -and torn stand-
1307
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
ards and battle-flags, that told of conflict and death ; you whose places are left vacant in many a quiet home and peaceful family circle; yon upon whose portraits we love to gaze, on whose mem- ories we love to linger, but whose forms we shall see no more for- ever ; you whose remembrance comes back to us out of the mists and darkness of the past like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land ;- to you my comrades, and the comrades of these my soldier brothers, present to-day in your honor, you who marched with us in the closed ranks, step to step, elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder, you who dined with us in the same mess, who drank with us from the same canteen, who slept with us under the same blanket, the same ground beneath us, the same sky above us, the same thoughts of home and loved friends in our hearts. You went with us from this beautiful place, you shared with us the privations of the camp, the sufferings of the march, the perils of the picket, the dangers of the field. True comrades of the old 19th, brave boys of Company I, you were always present or ac- counted for. And though you came not back with us, when we marched in triumph and joy from the hard fought fields you help- ed us to win, though yours was the sufferer's cross and our's the victor's crown, thank God, you are with us here to-day in Glory wearing the halo of martyrdom, shining with the light of God.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.