Following the 65th NY Volunteers

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65th NY/1st US Chasseurs Blog

Welcome to my blog about the 65th NY Volunteers, also known as the 1st U.S. Chasseurs. I am launching this blog to go along with my recently published “No Flinching From Fire: The 65th New York Volunteers in the Civil War,” the first history of the regiment, which fought with both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Shenandoah during the Civil War. The book is available at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/No-Flinching-Fire-Volunteer-Infantry/dp/1794636617/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2ZO38WKY1263H&keywords=no+flinching+from+fire+book&qid=1572563625&sprefix=no+flinching+%2Caps%2C375&sr=8-2

A descendent of a Chasseur from Ohio, whose letters helped start me off on my primary research, shares an incredible array of sources on the 65th NY Volunteers

Private Charley Crockett, of Tiffin, Ohio, is apparently the 4th man in the front row of the group. Sgt. William H Kisinger is 6th. His postwar GAR application is in my private collection, and I have visited and photographed his grave in Tiffin’s Greenlawn Cemetery. I have never seen a group photo of members of the 65th NY Volunteer Infantry before.

Having just seen a sketch of the 65th NY fighting at the Battle of Malvern Hill, which I had never seen before, in Francis O’Reilly’s brand new book on the Battle of Malvern Hill, I am very excited! Thanks to Heather Callahan, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and a descendent of Private Charley Crockett, for sharing this amazing source on the regiment with me.

Ms. Callahan also shared his diary of 1861 and 1864 with me. Charley Crockett was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6th, 1864 . I will be sharing from his diary entries as I am able to.

Private Charley Crockett, 65th NY Volunteer Infantry

Finding 3 Chasseur officers and one private in New Jersey, and staying overnight on the shore.

An overnight trip from my home in Mamaroneck, NY into New Jersey to find and honor four Chasseur graves was relatively smooth and rewarding, even with a struggle to find Private Ackley’s rather worn stone.

Out just after 8:00AM, the trip across the dreaded Cross Bronx Expressway and the George Washington Bridge was not bad at all, and with the help of GPS I found the Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery in the middle of that dense place after about a one hour drive. Having located a train in the background of the online photograph of Lt. Peloubet on Findagrave.com in my pre-trip research, I was able to figure out where Major Peloubet’s gravesite lay in the medium-sized cemetery. Greeted by a local cat upon parking the car, I planted the flag within five or six minutes of my arrival, thanked Peloubet for his service with the Chasseurs, and was on my way south to Middletown, a bit outside the urban rush of Jersey City.

David A. Peloubet served from July 1861 to November 1862 as Captain of Company E of the 65th NY Volunteer Infantry . He was wounded at Fair Oaks and Antietam, before being discharged for disability.

Private Elijah Ackley served in Company B from September 1st to late December, 1861, when he was discharged for disability.

The Fairview Cemetery, less than an hour from Jersey City, was a large cemetery, larger than I had expected. With no grave location for Private Ackley’s burial place, I walked a good amount. I could skip the newer sections of the cemetery; the older section was still quite large, however. The Findagrave photo of Ackley’s grave offered only small clues as to the location, making the search much more of a challenge than Major Peloubet’s grave had been.

It turned out to be over an hour of walking around the older sections of the Fairview Cemetery. The very worn state of the stone, coupled with the current lack of a GAR flagstand, unlike the earlier Findagrave photo, made for a long search. Finally, about ready to give up, I called my daughter and fellow graveyard searcher Rachel, and asked her to look at the Findagrave photo so I could see if I was missing anything. Just then, I saw what could very well be the stone! Rachel helped me confirm based on comparing my own photos I sent her way with the earlier Findagrave photos. I was pleased I hadn’t given up, and that Ackley’s veteran status could be honored with a flag, even though the GAR stand is gone.

The trip to Neptune, home of the Mount Prospect Cemetery, right next to Neptune High School on a large hill overlooking the campus, was only about twenty-five minutes. I parked the car near the bottom of the hill and walked up, exposed to a stiff and chilly wind, but confident that I could find Lt. Charles Crowell’s grave from the background of the Findagrave photo, which featured a low wall behind enclosing another set of graves.

After walking about two-thirds of the circumference around the hill , around the huge obelisk above the grave to Frances M. Bennett, who died in 1897, “A True Woman,” I found Crowell’s grave in the hillside. Fixing the graveside fallen flag by planting it in the mostly broken GAR stand, and planting my own flag next to the stone as well, Lt. Crowell’s grave likely got more attention than it has had in a long while.

Lieutenant Charles Crowell served from September 1864 until war’s end. In that time, the Chasseurs saw action at the Battles of 3rd Winchester, Fishers Hill, Cedar Creek, and at the Petersburg Breakthrough.

The impressive and imposing grave of Frances M. Bennett at the Mount Prospect Cemetery in Neptune, New Jersey

The ten minute or so stop in Neptune was productive and interesting, and I was down to one last grave, less than thirty minutes away in Point Pleasant Beach, a boardwalk community on New Jersey’s Atlantic Shore. I was happy to reach Point Pleasant Beach as I had booked a room there at the Sand Pebble Motor Lodge, and I looked forward to being out of the car after four hours or so of driving or walking some of the cemeteries of New Jersey.

Directed by GPS to the cemetery, which was moderately sized and easy to walk, armed with a Findagrave photograph which should make it possible to figure out the gravesite, I was confident in finding the last grave of the day, that of 2nd Lt. Samuel Kellinger. The concrete and metal fence behind the grave in the photo narrowed the search in the White Lawn Cemetery, and I spotted the grave from a couple of rows away, after perhaps a ten minute search.

Lt. Kellinger served from August 1861 in Company G, until his discharge in July 1862.

The rest of the day encompassed checking in to my nearly empty motel, which was clean and nice, taking an hour long walk along Point Pleasant’s boardwalk and beach, then ordering and eating a delicious round pie from Rosie’s pizza. Though the TV gave me some trouble, and I was unable to watch the great Pittsburgh Steelers-Detroit Lions game as I had hoped, I contented myself with reading my good biography of President Grover Cleveland, “A Man of Iron” by Troy Senik, gifted to me by my friend and colleague Larry Fata, who has insisted as a nineteenth century history buff that I needed to read a biography of every President since Jackson if I hadn’t already. Months later, I now know more about Presidents W.H. Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James Garfield than I did before.

Point Pleasant Beach in December is not quite deserted, but things are pretty quiet.

All in all, it was a nice, manageable trip, and the fact that three out of four Chasseurs were officers of the regiment made it all the more fulfilling. Glad I made the trip.

A Photograph of Sgt. William H. Kisinger Brings Connections Back to Me

I recently received a text from Theresa Sullivan, who runs the Seneca County Museum, which included this photograph someone had brought her of Tiffin, Ohio native Sgt. William H. Kisinger. Theresa and her father met me at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Tiffin several years ago, and helped me to tour the cemetery, where several members of Company K of the 65th NY Volunteers are buried. Kisinger is among them.

I had taken a photograph of Kisinger’s grave then, and planted a flag there to honor him. To receive, out of the blue, this photograph that Theresa told me the person almost discarded before thinking about it and bringing it to her at the museum instead, was a treat. I have a further connection to Sergeant Kisinger, in that I purchased a few years ago his signed application to the Grand Army of the Republic, filled out years after the war when he was fifty-seven and worked as a mechanic and lived in Toledo, Ohio.

Finally, there is another connection to Sgt. Kisinger that makes this photograph an artifact of strong interest to me. Kisinger’s brother Sam, who was a Captain in the 65th NY, wrote letters home which served as a great source for me as I wrote about the regiment’s Civil War exploits in No Flinching From Fire: the 65th New York Volunteers in the Civil War. Captain Sam Kisinger must have also lived in Toledo, as I had found and honored his grave in the Woodlawn Cemetery there.

And so, this random arrival of Sgt. Kisinger’s photograph brought back all sorts of connections for me. Perhaps the best was the one with Theresa Sullivan, the Executive Director of the Seneca County Museum, who thought of me when she got the photograph of Sgt. Kisinger and shared it. These connections, formed through a shared interest in history, are the best ones. Below is a link to Ms. Sullivan describing the museum’s work.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4183240385234069

A trip to Kingston and Kerhonkson, NY to Honor Two Chasseurs

I found Sgt. Gillespie’s grave in the small Pine Bush Cemetery in Kerhonkson, in the Catskills, immediately upon pulling in to the cemetery.

Took a day trip up to Kingston and Kerhonkson to find and plant flags at the graves of 2 members of the 65th NY Volunteers. Though Sergeant John D. Gillespie is listed as having deserted the regiment on March 30th, 1863, he evidently re-enlisted in the 143rd Ohio. And Private Dubois VanDemark, discharged for disability May 10, 1862, died in 1864. As always, I thanked the two men for their service in the 65th Ny Volunteers during the Civil War.

A fun drive up and back, with some nice country roads out of the mountains on the way home.

Back In Virginia to Honor Ten Chasseur Graves at National Cemeteries

At the Alexandria Cemetery honoring Private Andrew Penny. Penny was wounded at Spotsylvania on May 12th, in fighting near the Bloody Angle, and died on July 25th, 1864, at a hospital in Alexandria.

The author’s daughter Rachel searching the lovely Alexandria National Cemetery for the grave of Private Albert Van Blarcoame, 65th NY Infantry

Having now located and visited 231 gravesites of 65th NY Infantry soldiers, my daughter Rachel and I have become adept at finding graves and honoring them with a flag placed there. This week we decided to find ten graves of 65th NY soldiers, who called themselves Chasseurs as they were also known as the 1st United States Chasseurs, located at six National Cemeteries in Virginia. Our travels took us to Alexandria, Arlington, Culpeper, Fredericksburg, Hopewell, and Hampton Virginia, over three days. We managed to squeeze in some visits to historic Civil War Era sites as well, so that the trip was not entirely about driving from gaveyard to graveyard. We also enjoyed some good meals in Old Town Alexandria and in historic Fredericksburg.

Our first day was consumed with the long drive to Alexandria from our home in Mamaroneck, New York, so our itinerary was brief. We first visited the beautiful Alexandria National Cemetery, and we honored the two Chasseurs pictured and described in the captions above. This was a new place for us.

With all of the challenges, political divisions, and struggles we face as a country, the United States still manages to do a fine job maintaining its National Cemeteries, and Alexandria’s cemetery was as peaceful, serene, and beautifully maintained as the others we have seen. Relatively small and with numbered graves, it did not take Rachel and I long to find the two Chasseurs that we know are buried there (there may very well be more we have not found yet) and to plant flags at their graves. Whether politically liberal or conservative, we think all Americans should approve of honoring these soldiers who fought in the American Civil War. Many, like Privates Penny and Van Blarcoame, gave their lives to help save their nation.

We had time before dinner to also visit the imposing George Washington Masonic monument in Alexandria. Coincidentally the author last week visited the site of General Washington’s headquarters in 1780 during the trial of Major John Andre, the British spy who tried with General Benedict Arnold to deliver the plans for West Point’s defenses to the British command. The DeWint House is also maintained by the Masons.

The George Washington Masonic Monument in Alexandria, Virginia, with the author’s daughter Rachel in the foreground.

Some very good Indian food in Old Town Alexandria completed the first day of the trip. Day Two would feature three cemeteries with some driving in between, but not like the first day’s long drive from New York to Virginia.

Often referred to as the United States’ “Most Hallowed Ground,” Arlington National Cemetery was our first stop on day two of our Virginia journey. As we continue to find Chasseurs by matching the regimental roster to the Findagrave.com data base, we continue to visit Arlington. In fact, this was Rachel and my third trip there together. A first for this trip, however, was the fact that I had an enlarged photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Henry G. Healy with me, and we planned to photograph his grave alongside the photograph of Healy in life.

Since we had been to Arlington before, we knew we had a hilly long walk ahead. However, given that the gravesites in national cemeteries are numbered, we figured that the two graves we would be looking for, Healy’s in Section One, and Private Orson Randolph’s in Section Thirteen, would be relatively easy to find. Indeed, Private Randolph’s grave, which I had located before the trip using the Arlington Cemetery’s online app, Rachel found and honored with a flag with little trouble. Randolph, a September 1st, 1864 transfer from the 67th NY Infantry, died at Carver Hospital in Washington D.C. on February 24, 1865, of disease.

Private Orson Randolph, 65th NY Infantry

Lt. Col. Healy, however, proved to be a challenge. Though the Arlington Cemetery app had shown he was in the cemetery, and Findagrave listed his grave as being in Section One (which is a bit more challenging to navigate than most sections of Arlington, as its numbering system is eclectic), we could not find his grave even after thoroughly combing over the entire section. Finally, sitting down and looking again at the app, I found a photo of Healy’s grave with another grave stone behind it. These background stones are often helpful in locating a small veteran’s grave in a large cemetery. This time, however, we saw no sign of the larger grey stone in the photograph. Rachel then had a brilliant idea. Seeing part of a name and the date of death on the stone in the photograph, she looked up that grave on Findagrave.com and figured out that it was in fact a long ways away in Section 3. We took the long walk along McPherson Drive and, having located Section Three, we found Healy’s gravesite within two minutes.

Healy, as the Major of the 65th NY, had been shot in the gut on May 3, 1864, at Hazel Run, as the 65th NY led the 6th Corps into Fredericksburg as part of General Jospeh Hooker’s Chancellorsville campaign. Though the wound was thought to be mortal, in fact Healy recovered, and he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in August 1863. Healy served until discharged for disability in November 1863. He lived until 1902, when he was buried in Section Three (not Section One!) of Arlington.

Walking through Arlington, one sees many notable graves and memorials. Here are a few I took pictures of as I wandered the cemetery.

Having walked over five miles in the beautiful, hilly cemetery, Rachel and I were anxious to get on the road, knowing we had two more cemeteries to visit that day. We also hoped to take in part of the Fredericksburg battlefield, and perhaps the Chancelllorsville battlefield as well, since our route would be taking us right through it. For now, our next stop was about an hour’s drive away at Culpeper National Cemetery. Though I had stayed in Culpeper on one of my research trips for my book, I had never visited the cemetery there. Featuring monuments to Pennsylvania and New York regiments which had fought at the 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain, along with many graves of veterans of other wars, the cemetery was yet another beautiful place, well maintained and peaceful. Rachel found Private Gustave Horn’s grave very quickly. We planted a flag, took a photo, and were on our way to out next stop, the Fredericksburg National Cemetery.

Mounuments to a New York regiment and to Pennsylvania soldiers buried at the Culpeper National Cemetery

Private Gustave Horn, enlisted in July 1861 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was listed as missing in action at the Battle of the Wildernss as of May 6, 1864. He was likely captured there, as the 65th NY lost twenty missing there, of fifty-seven casualties total. Unfortunately his name on the grave stone is mispelled.

After Culpeper, we had a relatively short drive to our final destination of day two of our trip, Fredericksburg. However, it was later than we had figured given our long search for Lt. Col. Healy at Arlington that morning, so we decided to skip the stop at Chancellorsville. Driving through the battlefield, I was able to show Rachel several spots of note, including the foundation stones of the Chancellorsville Mansion, destroyed in the battle there, along with the intersection where the 6th Corps headed south after the horrific fighting of May 5th and 6th, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness. We also spotted the monument to Stonewall Jackson, near where he was mortally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville. Arriving at Fredericksburg when the visitors’ center at the National Battlefield was closing, we still had time to walk along The Stone Wall, where General James Longstreet’s men mowed down General Ambrose Burnside’s multiple attacks in December 1862, inflicting a horrific thirteen thousand casualties on the Army of the Potomac. We also found the grave of First Sergeant Albert Benner at the national cemetery near the Stone Wall, and saw a great sunset from the cemetery itself. Benner enlisted in Tiffin, Ohio in August 1861, and he was repeatedly promoted, until he was killed in action on May 10, 1864 at the Battle of Spotsylvania.

Sunset at Fredericksburg National Cemetery

First Sergeant Albert Benner’s grave at Fredericksburg National Cemetery

A nice steak dinner at Harry’s in the historic center of Fredericksburg followed our exploits this day. Tomorrow, we would be off to Hopewell and Hampton, with a cool stop first at the first place where the 65th NY saw real battle action at Fair Oaks, Virginia.

The Adams House was the center of part of the Union position south of the Chickahominy River after a Confederate attack on May 31st split the Union forces in two, leaving a brigade-size force which included the 65th NY Volunteers under Brigadier General John J. Abercrombie holding on south of the river separated from the bulk of Union forces which had been pushed back by the rebel attack. Luckily for the Chasseurs, General Sedgwick’s division of General Sumner’s corps, along with the rest of Sumner’s corps later, reinforced Abercrombie’s force.

Unfortunately the exact position of the 65th NY at Fair Oaks is now covered by a housing development along the line the regiment took during the battle. In driving the area years ago in researching for the book, I bemoaned the lack of preservation, and settled for walking the small Seven Pines National Cemetery. With the Adams House property being purchased by the American Battlefield Trust, at least one small part of the battle can be preserved and interpreted. Author Vic Vignola, whose Contrasts in Command: the Battle of Fair Oaks is the best book about the battle, let me know via Facebook that a visit to get a look at the Adams House, which is locked up to visitors at this point, would be OK. So, seeing it added only five minutes to the trip to Hopewell, where one Chasseur grave awaited us in City Point National Cemetery, we added it to our day’s itinerary. We also planned a visit to General Ulysses S. Grant’s City Point headquarters during the latter stages of the war, during the Petersburg siege.

The Adams House, around which Union resistance to the rebel attack of May 31, 1862 coalesced. The current structure is post-Civil War, built on the original foundations of the house.

The GPS directed us directly to the driveway, which was gravel but not maintained, and we parked at the gate to the property, I snapped a quick photograph, then back on the road for us.

The drive from Fair Oaks to Hopewell was short, and we drove through a working class neighborhood to get to the cemetery entrance. It was another hidden gem, the familiar sandstone wall surrounding the rows of veteran graves, featuring a few beautiful and old trees.

Private William H. Hawkins enlisted in Auburn, NY on March 16, 1865; two months later on May 16, 1865 he died on the way to the hospital at City Point.

Pvt.. Hawkins grave is under a beautiful old tree in the gorgeous City Point National Cemetery

Knowing General Ulyssses S. Grant’s headquarters from the fall of 1864 until war’s end in April 1865 were also in City Point, and having visited the lovely spot before, I thought it was worth Rachel seeing it, even though Grant’s simple headquarters would be closed for the season. The grounds themselves, with the view of the Appomattox and the James River at their convergence, was worth it. It is hard to envision this peaceful and generally quiet place as one of the world’s major ports in the closing months of the Civil War.

General Grant’s modest headquarters at City Point

The drive to Hampton was relatively uneventful, mostly along interstate 64 down the Peninsula. Names of rivers and towns associated with the Civil War were everywhere. White Oak Swamp. Malvern Hill. The Chickahominy River. Luckily we didn’t have to travel along courduroy roads in the rainiest of conditions as in the spring of 1862. Rather, it was sunny and crisp, and only a plethora of road construction slowed us down at all.

Once we arrived in Hampton, we struggled to follow our GPS to the Hampton National Cemetery, as it directed us to a gated road which led directly onto the campus of Hampton University. As it turned out, that is exactly where the cemetery is located, and after circling around a bit and finally finding a small brown sign for the cemetery, alongside a detour sign which slowed our entry into campus by just a bit of time, we were allowed in through the main entry into campus and directed straight ahead to the cemetery. Yet another beautiful place, the Hampton National Cemetery is home to no doubt more than the three Chasseurs we found and honored there. In fact, upon returning home and looking up one name on the regimental roster, we already know that Private Christian Hearle is buried at Hampton National Cemetery and we missed visiting him. I guess we will be back again.

Our trip to Hampton included a visit to the Fort Monroe National Monument. Some awesome views and interesting sites are there. We ended up in our nice hotel near the Hampton Coliseum and even caught a great sunset from our window. All in all, this Virginia trip was likely to be memorable to me, and hopefully for Rachel as well.

The impressive monument to the Union dead at Hampton National Cemetery

The Algernourne Oak is over 400 years old, just off the parade ground.

An Image Shared with Me of 1st Lt. John Berry, 65th NY

This is a photo shared with me by Scott Valentine of Military Images magazine after he purchased this CDV. Capt. Frederick Volk references Lt. John Berry, 1st Lieutenant of Co, F, 65th NY Volunteers, in his diary, so he is mentioned in No Flinching from Fire. Scott was kind enough to buy a copy of the book, and I was thrilled to get an image of him, of course. Killed in Upton’s Assault at Spotsylvania on June 10th, 1864, Berry’s body was never found and identified. He is likely buried in an unknown grave at Fredericksburg National Cemetery, where my good friend Larry Fata visited this summer. I love this image, as it helps make human the horrible carnage of the Civil War.

Following the 65th NY’s route towards Gettysburg on the 160th anniversary of their march

Edwards Ferry, Maryland, where the 65th NY of the 6th Corps crossed on a pontoon bridge on June 27, 1863

Crossing the little bridge over the C & O Canal at Edwards Ferry, I saw the lockhouse where I had considered staying the night. It was booked on June 27th, 2023, which was the only day I was interested in, as it was the exact 160th anniversary of the day that my great-great grandfather Corporal Timothy Carroll, along with his comrades in the 65th NY of the Army of the Potomac, had crossed the Potomac River in pursuit of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Lee’s army in June 1863 had unleashed its 2nd invasion of the northern states, and large parts of it were in Pennsylvania, seizing horses, grain, cattle, and supplies of all kinds. It was also seizing African American citizens and sending them south into the horrors of slavery.

The road from Edwards Ferry to Poolesville was lovely for walking.

The original plan for my latest trip connected to the 65th NY Volunteers was to walk the three days’ march routes of the regiment on the exact 160th anniversary of the marches. Having completed, with two friends, a 40 mile walk to Gettysburg in 2014 tracing the epic 6th Corps march of July 1-2, 1863 to get to the battlefield, and in 2017 a 36 mile walk tracing the route of the 65th NY as it marched from Barnesville, Maryland to Antietam, I was confident that 3 days of walks from 16 to 20 miles was consummately doable for me. However, not surprisingly, a walk from Edwards Ferry to Westminster, Maryland was less appealing to my two walking buddies than a walk which ended on a historic battlefield. Needing a partner to shuttle a car to the end of our walks, unless I was willing to use Uber in semi-rural Maryland, the lack of a walking partner meant the 3 days and 55 miles of walking would be complicated.

In the end, in a major compromise, I decided I would walk about five miles from Edwards Ferry to Poolesville, Maryland, then take an Uber back to my car parked at Edwards Ferry and drive to my hotel in Frederick that first day. That would mean I’d follow the end of the march route after the crossing of the Potomac by the 65th NY of June 27, 1863. Then, on June 28th and June 29th, I would drive along the roads marched on by the 65th, or at least some of the roads given the modernization of the Maryland roadways since the 1860s, and stop for lunch at the end of the latter two drives, pausing and eating and drinking in the same towns near where my great-great grandfather had paused and rested 160 years ago. In another adjustment to practicality, upon arrival on the 27th, the threat of thunderstorms on the route that day and the heat and humidity of the midday sun caused me to push the walk to the next day, and flip my itinerary so that I’d drive the June 28, 1863 march route to Hyattstown, Maryland on the 27th, and then do the walk to Poolesville in the morning, with nicer weather, on the 28th. The flip of routes also meant my old friend and college cross country and track teammate Hugh could meet me in Poolesville at a Mexican restaurant there and drive me back to my car parked at Edwards Ferry.

The drive to Hyattstown from Edwards Ferry quickly revealed how lucky I was that my orginal plan to walk the whole march route had not worked out. Featuring regular traffic, no shoulders along much of the road, and frequent blind curves, the route to Hyattstown, and indeed the roads I’d take later to Mt. Airy and New Windsor, were downright dangerous for walking. “You’d likely get hit,” exclaimed the caretaker of the St. Mary’s Catholic church in Barnesville, who I met as I paused there to take a picture of the same church where my friends Scott, Jim, and I had started on our 36 mile walk to Antietam in 2017. But I stopped at a spot where I had a nice view of Sugarloaf Mountain to the West, where a Union signal station and observation post had existed during the Civil War.

On June 28, 1863, as the men marched to Hyattstown, the Army of the Potomac learned that it had a new commander, General George Gordon Meade, formerly the commander of the 5th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Relatively unknown outside the 5th corps, he was a solid commander who replaced General Joseph Hooker, who resigned in frustration over friction with army commander General Henry W. Halleck. Hooker’s star had fallen after the calamitous defeat in early May at the Battle of Chancellorsville, along with differences with President Lincoln over what to do to counter Lee’s invasion into northern territory.

As I finished my drive to Hyattstown and had lunch of a caprese salad at Laurienzo Brick Oven Cafe just north of town, I was glad about the adjustments I’d made in planning this latest trip and happy about how well the first day had gone. Back at my hotel in Frederick, in the midst of the typical suburban sprawl on the fringes of most towns in America, I looked forward to my walk the next day, along with revisiting the National Museum of Civil War Medicine with my friend Hugh, then enjoying a Frederick Keys baseball game.

St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Barnesville, Maryland

Starting from Edwards Ferry at 10:30 AM, I was lucky to have a bit of cloud cover and a nice breeze as I walked. Edwards Ferry Road, though paved, hadn’t likely changed that much since the day 160 years earlier when Timothy Carroll marched on it. Horse farms lined the road. An unseen rooster crowed a couple of times. The road was either flat or followed a slight uphill from the river towards Poolesville, and with the weather conditions as they were, it was a pleasant walk of about an hour and 40 minutes, just less than five miles. I was following the tail end of the June 27, 1863 march route. The fact that I carried a small backpack with a bottle of water, a rain jacket, and a protein bar in it, as compared to my great-great grandfather’s burden of perhaps a sixty pound pack with a knapsack, haversack, a supply of ammunition, some change of clothes, an overcoat and rubber blanket, and likely a tent half, made my task significantly easier than his. Of course he also had to tote a rifled musket all these miles. However, he was in his early 20s, and I was sixty years old, so there was that.

My route took me north-northeast on Edwards Ferry Road for a little over two miles until I reached a fork where I turned right onto Westerly Road, which headed into Poolesville. Though I couldn’t prove that the 65th NY had followed this exact route, the road was likely the same or similar route which the 65th NY took towards Poolesville, though they may have made part of the route on an adjoining farm road to help relieve congestion on the Army of the Potomac’s march route as it hurried to meet the threat posed by Lee’s army. I was confident that the route I walked was reasonably close to that pursued by my relative. I followed Westerly Road east-northeast until it reached West Willard Road and a seemingly new housing track development on the outskirts of Poolesville. Turning left, walking on the sidewalk which fronted the development, I headed northward into Poolesville. Reaching Maryland route 107, I turned right and I was in the historic center of Poolesville, just as Corporal Timothy Carroll likley had been in late June 1863. After another quarter mile or so of walking, I reached the Mexican Grill, where my old friend Hugh awaited me. As decided, a meal and a cold beverage in the town near where Timothy Carroll camped 160 years ago was my way to celebrate, a celebration made more meaningful in that I shared it with an old friend who I had seen little of in years. The guacamole and chips, and the rice and beans, were delicious if not historically accurate, and Hugh and I caught each other up on our lives as we lingered over lunch.

After driving me back to pick up my car at Edwards Ferry, Hugh dropped me off and we both drove separately to Frederick, where we met up again at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick. A nice little museum, which I had visited in 2000 near the end of a week-long graduate course/bus tour of the eastern campaigns of the Civil War, it taught among other things that medical practices were better than is sometimes believed today in the Civil War, and that Major Jonathan Letterman, known as the “Father of Battlefield Medicine,” was instrumental in improving the care of wounded and ill soldiers, greatly improving mortality rates and lessening the suffering of those Union troops. After about an hour in the museum, Hugh and I returned to my hotel to take a break, then headed off to see the Frederick Keys play a game versus the Williamsport Crosscutters at Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium. Though the Keys lost the game 2-1, it was a lot of fun to watch just to the first base side of home plate a few rows back, and Hugh and I continued to enjoy our reunion.

The main plan for the next day was to drive the approximate march route of June 29, 1863 from Hyattstown to New Market to Mt. Airy to New Windsor, on the 160th aniversary of the march. Again, the lack of shoulders and the speedy traffic convinced me that my original goal of walking this march route would have been downright dangerous. I was glad to be driving.

Since my hotel was only seven minutes from the beautiful Monocacy National Battlefield, a place I had visited once in the 1990s but which had been significantly expanded and enhanced since then, I had planned to start my last day of the trip with a battlefield tour. This little known and underappreciated battle, fought on July 9, 1864, during Jubal Early’s raid on Maryland, was a Confederate victory, but it served to delay Early’s army for a full day, enabling Ulysses S. Grant to send two divisions of the 6th Corps and two divisions from the 19th Corps to supplement the relatively sparse local Washington D.C. troops and adequately man the forts protecting the city, especially Fort Stevens. One of those 6th Corps divisions, under General David Russell, included the 65th NY Volunteers of General Emory Upton’s brigade. So there was a small connection between the Monocacy battle and the 65th NY, even if the 65th NY were not part of the battle itself.

General Early was forced to retreat after a battle at Ft. Stevens on July 11th and 12th, when it was clear that his forces were no match for the Union contingent. Thus, the little battle at the Monocacy River had made a big impact, and General Lew Wallace, the Union commander and later author of Ben Hur, who put together his force out of Baltimore forces and one division of the 6th Corps which Grant sent north, and chose to fight it out on the Monocacy River, deserves more credit than he gets for it.

The Monocacy battlefield is a little jewel, and for me it was the surprise of the trip. A car tour to five key spots, and walking trails for those wanting to spend more time on the field, reveal a battlefield which can be understood fairly readily if one is willing to read and look at the maps. The Monocacy River, the Best Farm, the Worthington Farm, and the Thomas Farm form the key geographic features to interpret the battle, and a couple of hours of driving and walking caused me to strongly appreciate what these Union troops did for their country. I leave it to others to more deeply explain the battle, and I will let the photos of regimental monuments and key battlefield features suffice here. That said, I have walked many battlefields over the years, often repeatedly, and the Monocacy Battlefield has become one of my favorites. It is a triumph of preservation in the midst of the sprawl of development outside Frederick, and I loved it so much that I returned the morning of my departure back home to New York to go for a short run on a trail on the Thomas Farm.

The gravel road past the Thomas Barn was a great place for a morning run.

The Best Farm, where Lee’s famous Order #191 was lost in 1862, to be found by Union troops wrapped around two cigars, and where Confederate artillery took up positions at the outset of the Battle of Monocacy.

After leaving Monocacy battlefield, I drove back to Hyattstown, to where I had driven on day one of this trip, to pick up the march route of the 65th NY to New Windsor, following a path which Corporal Timothy Carroll had marched 160 years ago to the day. North on modern day Maryland route 75, crossing I-70, which of course didn’t exist in 1863, then southeast on route 144, the old National Turnpike, through the historic village of New Market, then further southeast to Mt. Airy. There, I turned northward on south Main street (current route 808) through the historic town of Mt. Airy. A left turn on Prospect Road then a right on the old Annapolis Road to the Woodville Road reflected my thinking that it was plausible that this might have been the route taken to New Windsor from Mt. Airy, as it was relatively direct and would have kept the more major roads to Westminster open for other units of the Army of the Potomac to march. Woodville was aptly named, with the Woodville Road going through forested tracts until it neared Unionville. The route continued north on the Clemsonville Road until it intersected with the New Windsor road (modern day route 31). A right on New Windsor Road, which passed through beautiful rolling hills with corn fields and wheat fields all around, took me to historic New Windsor, where the 65th NY ended its long June 29, 1863 march and rested. True to my plan for the trip, I parked the car right down the block from Matty’s Eatery, a restaurant in a historic brick building on the New Windsor Road which Timothy Carroll likely marched past 160 years ago. The grilled cheese on sour dough bread, with delicious homemade potato chips on the side washed down with a Baltimore brewed lager beer, was a perfect culmination of the three day trip. I couldn’t be happier with how this trip went, even given the change from walking to driving the bulk of the trip. Indeed, as stated earlier, making the change worked out for the best. I had done the entirety of the march route and survived. A drive to Westminster, the first part of the June 30, 1863 march, completed the circle for me as I had done the July 1-2 march route from Manchester, Maryland, through Westminster, and on to Gettysburg in 2014. That time I walked the whole route; this time I was far less footsore but no less historically enriched.

The historic old village center of New Market, Maryland

Connecting with and Honoring Chausseurs at Arlington National Cemetery

Before our recent visit to Arlington, Rachel and I were lucky enough to get a private tour of the Blenheim House in Fairfax, Virginia, where many Union soldiers had marked their names or drawn grafitti art on the walls as they passed through. Private Joseph Welte, a member of the 65th NY Volunteers, was among those men, and Rachel and I got the special chance to see his signature from the spring of 1862 on a wall in a back room there. Welte was killed on May 6, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness. This unique Civil War site was well worth our venturing out to Fairfax to see it.

Any visit to Arlington National Cemetery is bound to cause the visitor to ponder and appreciate the dedication of so many thousands of people willing to risk their lives for their country and serve. For those choosing to walk the grounds in search of particular graves, the long uphill walk and the sheer size of the cemetery can be daunting. However, when my daughter Rachel and I recently came in search of six members of the 65th NY Volunteer Infantry, we benefitted from an unseasonably mild and sunny day, as well as the fact that the section and numbering system of the national cemeteries makes a search much easier than in a private cemetery, even given the enormity of the place.

Able to pass through the security at the entrance with my half-dozen flags, we set out uphill. Knowing Private Reuben Miller was far from the other five graves, we set off to find his grave first. After a long walk among Section 27’s graves, we finally found him in a somewhat separate section of graves which were likley among Arlington’s earlier ones.

Private Miller 21 years old. enlisted at Tiffin, Ohio, to serve three years, and mustered in as private in Co. I on February 18, 1862; he was wounded in action, May 12, 1864, at Spotsylvania, Va., and he died of his wounds, June 20, 1864, in Armory Square Hospital at Washington, D. C. His stone mistakenly names the 15th rather than the 65th NY Regiment, and alo gets his date of death wrong..

Private William H. Osborne transferred to Co. C of the regiment on September 1, 1864 from the 67th NY and died later that month, possibly in the 3rd Battle of Winchester of September 19, 1864.

Ronemus Shlatter was 39 years.old when he enlisted late in the war on April 4, 1865 in New York City, to serve one year; he mustered in as a private in Co. A. He died of disease on June 25, 1865, in Division Hospital, at Halls Hill, VA. He also suffered the indignity of having his name badly misspelled on his tombstone.

Sergeant Lorenzo McBride was 31 years old when he enlisted in New York City, to serve three years in Compnay B.. He re-enlisted as a veteran on December 26, 1863, and he was wounded before being transferred to Co. A, Fourteenth Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps on July 30, 1864. He died, March 10, 1865, at Augur General Hospital, near Alexandria, Virginia.

Private Charles Brereton transferred, with the rest of the 67th NY Infantry, to the 65th NY Volunteers on September 1, 1864. Serving in Co. E., he was wounded in action, May 12, 1864, at Spotsylvania, Va. but he survived to be mustered out at war’s end on July 17, 1865, at Halls Hill, Va.

The final grave to find in Arlington was the most important to me, as his letters held by the New York Historical Society had been a great source for me as I wrote about the early years of the 65th NY Volunteers for my book, No Flinching From Fire: the 65th New York Volunteers in the Civil War. A researcher and writer becomes attached to his sources in a unique way, and having read many letters by Tailof I felt like, to a degree at least, that I knew him. Among other things, I knew he didn’t care much for Major Alexander Shaler, 2nd in command of the regiment who went on to command it and eventually became its brigade commander before being captured at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. Tailof thought Shaler was a hardass, but he kissed up to him as his orderly sergeant, hoping to secure a commission as an officer. He must have kissed up enough, as he ended up as a captain within the 65th and a major of a veteran regiment after three years with the Chasseurs.

Major Ivan Tailof started as a Sergeant in the 65th NY, serving three years and ending his time with the regiment as a captain, and ended up a major in a veteran regiment.

Of course there are more than just Civil War veterans bried at Arlington National Cemetery. Rachel and I visited the burial place of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginzberg as well.

The long drive home on the New Jersey Turnpike happened to go nearby a grave we had in our spreadsheet, 65th NY Surgeon John B. Petherbridge. The fact that he served for three long years with the Chasseurs, and that the graveyard where he lay was small made a visit to find him an added part of our trip. The bad traffic on a Friday meant we arrived in Crosswicks, New Jersey after dark, and Rachel and I searched the small graveyard with our phone flashlights. Rachel looked closely at the photograph of the stone which we had from Findagrave.com, and she saw a large stone behind it which would make it easier to find Petherbridge’s relatively small stone. Sure enough, I spied the large stone nearby first, then was able to find our man despite the darkness. The stone decribed Petherbridge as “A Patriot, a Christian.” We honored him with a flag and thanked him for his service for the men of the regiment anf for his country, then got back on the road home.

John B. Petherbridge was 35 years old when he enrolled in New York City, to serve three years, and mustered in as surgeon, June 11, 1861; he was discharged on June 27, 1864, to accept an appointment as an assistant surgeon of U. S. Volunteers. The fact that he died at age 41 in 1867 says that his war service might have affected his health.

All in all it was a good trip this time, and though we had skipped a visit to honor the two Chasseurs Rachel had found online at Alexandria National Cemetery, being too tired from our five miles of walking at Arlington, we made up for it by stopping in New Jersey to honor the man who served three years with the regiment as a surgeon. With Chasseur graves found online in City Point, Culpeper, and Hampton National Cemeteries along with Alexandria, it seems likely that we will be back in Virginia again some day.

The National Cemeteries of Baltimore and Washington D.C.

While most people are familiar with Arlington National Cemetery, our nation’s “Most Hallowed Ground,” and thousands of visitors tour the grounds on tour buses or on foot, the lovely grounds of the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery and the Loudon Park National Cemetery, in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, respectively, see few visitors. On a recent visit there, my daughter Rachel and I shared the Loudon Park cemetery with only a lone worker blowing leaves off the ground; at the Soldier’s and Airmen’s Home cemetery we were the only two people on the grounds. The beautiful array of wreathes on many of the graves, however, was a testament to the recent efforts of the Wreathes Across America volunteers. These volunteer efforts were admired by many at Arlington this past week, but in the other two cemeteries only Rachel and I witnessed them, at least on the day a few days after Christmas, when we visited.

Rachel’s efforts at finding soldiers of the 65th NY Volunteer Infantry, aka the 1st United States Chasseurs, had revealed a number of Chasseur gravesites in the three cemeteries, and we set out last week to find them and honor them by planting flags there. The sheer number of graves in Baltimore and D.C. was evidence of the Civil War’s cost not only in battlefield casualties, but in the ravages of disease taking a toll in soldier hospitals.

The beautiful Loudon Park National Cemetery in Baltimore is well maintained, though Rachel and I were the only visitors there when we arrived.

The four graves of 65th NY soldiers found by Rachel Barry using Findagrave and the 65th NY regimental roster. As we struggled to plant flags in the frozen ground near the stones, we reflected on the likelihood of other Chasseurs who we have yet to identify being buried here.

Private Peter Kohl mustered in at New York City at the age of 44, to serve three years, and mustered in as private in Company B in late August 1861; his advanced age may have worked against him as a soldier, as he died in a hospital in Annapolis, Maryland on January 5, 1862. Veteran Private Dominic McCall transferred into Company E of the 65th along with the rest of the 67th NY on September 1, 1864; he was wounded in action on October 19, 1864, at the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia. He died of his wounds, likely in a Baltimore area hospital, on October 26, 1864. Another victim of Cedar Creek, a battle where 90 Chasseurs were killed, wounded, or missing, was Private Michael Kelley, another transfer from the 67th NY. Kelley, of Co. D, was wounded in action there and died of his wounds on November 1, 1864, at Jarvis Hospital in Baltimore. Private William H. Andrews transferred to Co. H of the 65th on June 30, 1863, just before the Battle of Gettysburg; Andrews died of fever on November 11, 1864, at Patterson Park Hospital, Baltimore. Rachel and I were glad to pay tribute to these four veterans of the 65th NY on a beautiful winter day. The beautiful tribute to Maryland’s unknown Civil War dead was moving and worthy of a photgraph as well.

After our visit in Baltimore, Rachel and I moved on to the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. We had seen it before at a distance when we visited President Lincoln’s Cottage nearby. This time we had eight Chasseurs to honor, and we revisited Lincoln’s Cottage on the Soldiers’ Home grounds, where Lincoln resided for over a quarter of his Presidency, in the summer months to escape the heat and humidity of Washington.

The three graves with flags all contain members of the 65th NY Volunteer Infantry

Private James Rooney enlisted in the Chasseurs in Providence Rhode Island in August 1861. He died in March 1862 in a D.C. hospital.

44 year old Private Squire Avery enlisted in Ithaca, NY in July 1861. He was discharged for disability on December 21, 1861, and likely died soon after in Washington, D.C.

George I. Davis enlisted at age 32 in August 1861, in New York City, to serve as a private in Co. G. He died on January 18, 1862, at camp near Washington, D.C.

Thomas Kennedy was 25 years old when he enlisted in New York City to serve three years,. He served in Co..E until he died on March 7, 1862, at Bridge Hospital, Washington, D. C.

Since Lincoln’s Cottage is near the cemetery and a fascinating, beautiful, and and underappreciated spot in D.C., we took a tour before ending our day at our hotel in Bethesda. The next day our plan was to visit the historic Blenheim House in Fairfax, Virginia, where Chasseur soldier Joseph Welte left his signature in grafitti in the pring of 1862, and then visit 6 Chasseur graves in Arlington National Cemetery. That day’s pictures and description will follow this post.

3 Days of Honoring Chasseurs from Rhode Island

Having found about twenty members of the 65th NY Volunteers from the Providence area, my daughter Rachel and I recently spent a few days in the area looking for their grave sites and placing flags there. Companies B, E, F, and H of the regiment were partially recruited in Rhode Island, and soldier correspondents “Sergeant Drill” and “Veteran” both wrote numerous letters to Providence newpapers which were great sources for No Flinching From Fire. Rachel is great at both finding these Chasseur graves through her online research, and locating them at the cemeteries themselves. She is also great company, and we arranged for a nice AirBnB stay on Federal Hill, within walking distance of the fine Italian restaurants there. Then one night in Jamestown, near Newport, staying with my old friend and former principal Scott and his wife Pam. General Isaac Stevens, who commanded part of the Chasseurs when they played a part in an early foray and skirmish at Lewinsville, Virginia in September 1861, and who was killed while rallying his division at the Battle of Chantilly in August 1862, and General Gouverneur Warren, who was never directly affiliated with or commanding over the 65th NY, but as Chief Engineer and then the 5th Corps commander of the Army of the Potomac was a noteworthy historic figure, are each buried in Newport’s Island Cemetery.

On our drive up from our home in Mamaroneck, New York, we planned on trying to locate and honor four Chasseur graves with flags. We managed to find all of them, even William Latham, who is buried in a small, wooded family graveyard off of the road and hard to see. Findagrave.com had GPS coordinates for the site, and these made it much easier to find.

Pvt. Hollingsworth enlisted in Rhode Island. He is buried in Woodstock, Connecticut.

Simeon Rounds was killed at the Bloody Angle at the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864.

Henry Rounds was orginally buried in Scituate, Rhode Island, but he was moved to the Acotes Hill Cemetery in Glocester, Rhode Island, next to his brother and fellow Chasseur Simeon Rounds.

William Latham is buried in a small out of the way family plot in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Our second day had an ambitious agenda: we visited six graveyards in Providence, Pawtucket, and East Providence, with the hope of finding ten or eleven grave sites and placing flags there. It was hot, but at least all of the graveyards were not too far from our base on Federal Hill. We began the day at the North Burial Ground, then to the Swan Point Cemetery, where one member of the regiment was buried, along with Army of the Potomac commander and later Rhode Island governor General Ambrose Burnside. From there, it was off to the Pawtucket area to the Saint Francis cemetery. Then we visited the Walnut Hill cemetery, and the Mohassic cemetery, both also in or near Pawtucket. Finally, we were off to East Providence to circle back towards Federal Hill. We would struggle to even find the Newman Cemetery, and we could not for the life of us find Thomas Congdon’s grave in the Springvale Cemetery, even though we had a very good picture from Findagrave and figured given our expertise and experience that we would find Congdon relatively easily.

As it turned out, we would have to return to Springvale and Newman cemeteries on our third day, before heading southward to Cranston and Warwick on our way to Jamestown. Still, the pictures below reveal we had a productive second day and managed to find a and honor a large number of Chasseurs.

Private Potter rests in the Civil War section of the North Burial Ground in Providence.

Lieutenant Elisha Gregory’s grave in the North Burial Ground has a nice reference to his service with the Chasseurs on the side of the stone.

Isaiah Horton is buried in the lovely Swan Point Cemetery in Providence.

General Ambrose Burnside’s grave at Swan Point. He commanded the Army of the Potomac from late 1862 into early 1863, presiding over the horrible Battle of Fredericksburg and the disastrous and demoralizing Mud March of January 1863 before he was relieved of command.

The graves of Private Michael Holland and Michael McCarty are both in Saint Francis Cemetery in Pawtucket.

The impressive Civil War memorial in Saint Francis cemetery

Albert Colvin’s grave at the Walnut Hill Cemetery in Pawtucket was a bit hard to find.

Though we could not locate Welcome B. Arnold’s grave, we did find his daughter’s gravestone, with his name on it, and as we knew he was buried here at Walnut Hill cemetery, we honored this grave with a flag befoe leaving.

Corporal Isaac Campbell is buried at the Mohassic Cemetery.

Our last day of the trip started with a return to East Providence to once more try to find Thomas Congdon’s grave. Once again we struggled to find it, and I was finally ready to give up. Just before leaving, however, Rachel managed to find the grave, right where we had expected it to be, and where we thought we had already looked. Given how relatively easy our searches had gone on this trip, Congdon’s grave might have been some sort of karma or payback. But we were glad we found him and left a flag at his grave. Then having located the nearby Newman Cemetery, we found Hiram Bucklin’s grave quickly in a family plot that stood out in the large and old cemetery.

Hiram Bucklin’s grave, Newman Cemetery , East Providence

We found Charles McKenna’s grave in the Saint Ann Cemeery in Cranston in les than thirty seconds.

Charles W. Briggs’ grave is in the criminally ill kept Oakland Cemetery in Cranston. We have never seen a cemetery so poorly maintained as this one.

Sergeant William Humes’ resting site in Oakland Cemetery deserves better. I was glad to find him despite the high weeds and grass all around, as I wonder if he may have been soldier correpondent “Sergeant Drill.”

We could not find the small grave of Arthur Gardiner after driving around the Oakland Cemetery. Nor did we have any intention of wandering around on foot, given the overgrown state of the graveyard. Gardiner was the only grave we didn’t find on this trip. The google rating for this cemetery was 1.0, which we were curious about until we arrived. Piles of garbage lay about, and even though the cemetery is still open for internments, the neglect and decay of the cemetery is simply appalling. Some folks were there seemingly working to clear out the areas around their relatives’ graves. I left this place shaken. These people deserve better.

Henry Miller’s grave in Warwick. Miller only served briefly with the 65th NY until his dicharge and later enlistment in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers. The small Brayton Cemetery was a perfect place for a quick picnic lunch, and its condition was a relief after what we saw in the Oakland Cemetery.

The author and daughter Rachel at the impressive grave of General Isaac Stevens, killed at the Battle of Chantilly. Stevens had an early association with the 65th NY at the skirmish at Lewinsville. He is buried in the Island Cemetery in Newport.

The author and friend Scott at General Gouverneur Warren’s grave in Newport

At the end of a long three days of looking for and honoring graves, and all the driving in between, it was good to get a bonus of finding Commodore Oliver Perry’s grave at the Island Cemetery in Newport. Then a restful visit to old friends in Jamestown, and back home. One could argue these trips are more than a little crazy, but it seems to me that finding and honoring members of the 65th NY Volunteers, who fought for their country, some giving their lives for their country, is a worthy pursuit. These men deserve the little bit of recognition that Rachel and I give them. Placing a flag, thanking them for their service, and connecting with members of the regiment I have spent so much time researching and studying, strikes me as honorable and purposeful . And doing it with my daughter Rachel makes it even more special.