The Romance of Norwalk

O’Connor of Company A, this regiment, according to Mr. Hallock, was the first soldier from Norwalk to be confined in Libby Prison. He was captured during the battle of Bull Run and remained in prison for ten months. An additional call for men having been sent forth, Con¬ necticut furnished another regiment and in that regiment were 25 from Norwalk. Among them was Moses A. Hill. Hill was afterwards promoted to a captaincy and he served with credit on the staff of General Burnside. Later he was a major. The Fifth Regiment was organized in the summer of 1861 and entered the service with Orris S. Ferry of Nor¬ walk (U. S. Senator) as colonel, Historian Hurd tells us. Fifty-four men from Norwalk were included, among them being: Colonel Orris S. Ferry, Chaplain George W. Lasher, Captain Alfred A. Chinnery, Lieut. Charles A. Reynolds, Lieut. Stiles G. Hyatt, Lieut. George F. Selleck and C. F. Hallock, father of Mrs. J. E. Stevens. FIRST TO DIE Nathaniel S. Wheeler of Company E of this regiment was the first enlisted man from Norwalk to die in the service, he coming to his end at Sandy Flook, near Harper’s Ferry, Va. The first to be killed in battle were: Color Sergeant Elijah B. Jones, Corp. Oliver S. Brady and Private Owen Murphy, all of Norwalk, who lost their lives at the battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia. Sergeant William A. Ambler was wounded in this battle. The Sixth regiment boasted 52 men from Norwalk. The soldiers saw a great deal of fighting and later it was deemed an honor to say “I belonged to the Sixth of Connecticut.” Lieut. James Hooton of Nor¬ walk, one of the 25 local men, who enlisted in the Seventh Regiment, was instantly killed in battle on James Island. Other Norwalkers who were killed or died in this regiment were: James L. Allen, Oscar Smith, Theodore B. Benedict and John T. Byxbee. The soldiers in this regiment were in both the siege of Charleston and the siege of Petersburg. Forty-eight from 294 ROMANCE OF NORWALK Norwalk served in the Eighth Regiment, Conn. Infantry, among them being Lieut. Col. P. L. Cunningham, Chaplain J. J. Wooley, former pastor of the South Norwalk M. E. church; Captain Douglass Fowler, Captain James L. Rus¬ sell, Lieut. M. L. Pelham, Lieut. Thomas S. Weed, Lieut. Justus T. Crosby, Lieut. Anthony R. Canfield. Among those in the regiment from Norwalk who were killed or who died were: M. S. Lyon, John Cockefer, Stephen H. Ferris, Charles E. Merrill, Peter Monehan, Peter Pound, Henry C. Taylor, Thomas E. Richmond. In the Ninth Regiment were two men from Norwalk. This regiment was known as the “Irish Regiment.” In the Tenth Regiment were 14 from here; in the 11th, four; in the 12th, 39. The local men who died or were killed were: Stanton Babcock, Sergt. Henry M. Prowitt, Corp. Samuel Clark, Sergt. George Maculess, William B. Hurd, James L. Brundage, Henry Vanderbilt, John Youngs. In the 13th Regiment were 14 from Norwalk. This regiment, organized in November, 1861 enjoys the distinc¬ tion of having been in the service longer than any other Connecticut organization. The 14th Regiment which con¬ tained 24 Norwalk men was mustered into service August 23, 1862. In the 15th Regiment were three from Norwalk; in the 16th none. The 17th Regiment was a Fairfield County regiment with two whole companies from Norwalk, one from Darien and one from New Canaan. Of the part which this heroic regiment took in the Civil War we will speak later. In the 1 8th and 20th regiments were none from Norwalk; in the 21st was Dr. James Barbour of this city; in the 22nd, none from here. This was the last of the regi¬ ments recruited for three years’ service. The 23rd, the first of the six regiments for nine months’ service, left New Haven for New Orleans, November 17, 1862. Norwalk had only two men in this regiment, but those two suffered enough for an entire company. Camped in a mud-hole near Jamaica, Long Island, in a week’s rain storm; sent to New Orleans in old ship hulks fit only to be CIVIL WAR 295 burned; shunned by paymasters for months, kept in service one year or even two instead of nine months and confined in rebel prisons for months at a time, no soldiers endured more indignities than they. In the 24th, 25th and 26th Regiments, this city had no men. In the 27th, Norwalk had 14 men. Among the dead from this community were William L. Bodwell, killed at Gettysburg, and Wilbur Nash, killed at Fredericksburg. NEARLY DROWNED The 28th regiment was the last of the regiments for nine months’ service. It left New Haven in November, 1862. Norwalk was well represented in this regiment, Company G being made up almost wholly of men from this city. Among those who gave their lives were George Beers, Ben¬ jamin F. Hanford, Thomas F. Dowd and John Roach. The regiment embarked for Louisiana aboard the “Che Kiang.” Part of the 23rd Connecticut was also on this steamer. One thousand four hundred men were crowded into quarters fit for 800. On the way down the steamer ran into a terrific storm and battled with furious waves for 12 hours. During the night an officer sent the intelligence: “We shall never see another sunrise; the vessel cannot stand it much longer.” The vessel did, however, and finally reached port in safety. Among the Norwalkers in Company G of the 28th regi¬ ment were: Corporal Charles Doulens, (father of Deputy Sheriff Edward B. Doulens), Sergeant George Raymond, (father of D. W. Raymond and LeGrand Raymond), Charles Marvin and one Roberts. With the four was Robert Morehouse of Westport. They were all in the battle of Fredericksburg together, where Doulens was wounded. He was a corporal on the staff of Major General Frederick Burnside. Sgt. Raymond was the last man to leave Port Hudson, Virginia, before it was blown up. This charge was rated as one of the most desperate during the Rebellion 296 ROMANCE OF NORWALK but, “in that holocaust of fire not a man in that noble legion shrank from his duty.” Raymond and Doulens became firm friends for life after meeting in the regiment. The 29th Connecticut was the first regiment of colored troops raised in this state and Norwalk was represented by 27 men. In the 30th Conn. Colored Regiment, Norwalk had no soldiers. In the light artillery, in the heavy artillery and in the navy, Norwalk also placed her men during the Civil War. She had 1 6 men in the First, Second and Third Conn. Batteries of Artillery and 22 in the Second Heavy Artillery. In the navy were Edward G. Bishop, Joseph Skidmore, Captain George R. Bailey and Lewis E. St. George. The latter who lived at 274 East ave., died in Norwalk, June 24, 1929. Captain George R. Bailey, since dead, father of the present Henry O. Bailey of 10 Couch st., was an Ensign on board one of the northern steamers which blockaded Charleston, South Carolina, for two years. Captain Bailey was the founder of the Springwood settlement of Norwalk. He it was who purchased large sections of land in this dis¬ trict and built homes which formed a nucleus for the present settlement. Up to that time there had been nothing beyond Lowe st., except swamps. The countryside was pretty, though, being wooded, hilly and full of springs, thus the name — Springwood. The name Whistleville, by which this section is often known, was acquired during the time when the trains ran flat on the ground through Norwalk, and tooted loud and long when approaching the Monroe st. crossing, at the en¬ trance to Springwood. Speaking of the Springwood section of Norwalk, to Michael Olean, 202 Flaxhill road, must go the credit for having converted the land now comprising Lexington ave., from a swamp into livable property. But to return to Norwalk in the Civil War; Among the officers commissioned by President Lincoln was Major Gen¬ eral William T. Clarke, a citizen of Norwalk,, and who served with distinction on the staff of Major General Mc¬ Pherson, who was killed at Atlanta, July 22, 1864. The CIVIL WAR 297 following Norwalk citizens served in New York regiments during the Civil War: George H. Waterbury, William H. Bates, George I. Buxton, William Cockefer, Lewis W. Doty, Edward H. Fitch, James B. Hoyt, Charles G. Hyatt, Gould J. Jennings, Philo Johnson, John F. Lovejoy, John M. McLean, William E. Montgomery, Samuel B. Sher¬ wood and Stephen Maning. Justice Disbrow served in Ohio; Edward Holley in New Jersey; Frank B. Smith in Illinois; William R. Green and John O’Connor in New Jer¬ sey. “fighting seventeenth” Those who love to pore over the records of the deeds done by Norwalkers during the War of the Rebellion, will find their greatest interest centering around the 17th Regi¬ ment of Connecticut, two whole companies of which were raised in Norwalk, and one in Darien and one in New Canaan. Norwalk had to her credit in the regiment no less than 198 enlisted men. In an hour of national gloom and disaster, the 17th, the first localized regiment in the state and known from the start as the Fairfield County Regiment, was organized. William H. Noble of Bridge¬ port was commissioned as colonel on July 23, 1862. In less than 30 days after the call the 17th could have marched 1,000 men to the front. Nor had it been an easy matter to sign up soldiers. Pay was poor and uncertain, not more than $11 or $12 a month at best, and that only when the government happened to have the money. What was more, small provision was made for the families left behind. True, the state offered $5 monthly to care for the dependents of each soldier, but that $5 proved to be but a pitiful sum when divided between the needs of a wife and six or eight children. In order to encourage enlistments in Norwalk in the 17th, Legrand Lockwood of this city, one time millionaire and owner of the present Mathews property on West ave., opposite the Armory, offered a new ten dollar bill to every soldier who signed up. Ten dollars was quite 298 ROMANCE OF NORWALK