The Romance of Norwalk

a sum of money in those days and the offer had its effect. In three days, Company F of the 17th was completely raised in Norwalk, with Enoch Wood as captain. One of the most enthusiastic of the younger soldiers in this company was John Batterson of 132 Woodward ave., pres¬ ent commander of the local Douglass Fowler Post, G. A. R., who tells his story a little later. Among the Norwalk men in the 17th who gave their lives during the war were the following: Lieut. Col. Douglass Fowler, Lieut. Col. Albert H. Wilcoxson, Sergt. Edwin R. Smith, Corpls. Thomas D. Brown, James Waterworth, Wil¬ liam W. Westlake; privates, Henry H. Aiken, George B. Hendrick, John W. Jackson, Calvin Nobles, George O. Tut¬ tle, Henry Burns, Joseph IT. Armstrong, Lewis Arnold, Nelson Beach, John W. Metcalf and William Smedley. Immediately after organization, the 17th Regiment pitched camp in Seaside Park, Bridgeport, with the follow¬ ing officers: Colonel, William IT. Noble of Bridgeport; Lieu¬ tenant Colonel, Charles Walter of Bridgeport; Major, Allen G. Brady; Adjutant, A. H. Wilcoxson of Norwalk, who was in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg where he distinguished himself by coolness and daring. He was pro¬ moted to be captain of Company I and afterwards to be lieutenant colonel of the regiment. He was mortally wounded at Dunn’s Lake, Florida, and died afterwards at Tallahassee while a prisoner. The regiment, leaving unnamed the towns which contri¬ buted in small numbers, received its quota from the follow¬ ing sources: Company A, all from Norwalk, excepting 18 men from Wilton; Company B, all enlisted from Stamford and Darien; Company C received 58 men from Danbury, from Bethel 16, from Ridgefield 12; Company D, 44 from Bridgeport, 17 from Monroe, 9 from Huntington; Company E re¬ ceived 51 from Westport, 25 from Newtown, 14 from Bridgeport, 10 from Weston; Company F, almost all from Norwalk, with the exception of 14 from Wilton; Company CIVIL WAR 299 G, Ridgefield 53, Bridgeport 23, Redding 20; Company H, mostly from New Canaan; Company I, mostly from Greenwich; Company K, 35 from Bridgeport, 35 from Fair- field. The captain of Company A of the 17th Regiment was Douglass Fowler of this city, after whom the Douglass Fowler Post, G. A. R., was named. Fowler was a captain in the three months’ service, afterwards captain in the Eighth Connecticut; promoted to be lieutenant colonel for gallantry at Chancellorsville and killed in the first day’s battle at Gettysburg. With Captain Fowler was 1st Lieut. John McQuhae, 2nd Lieut. John W. Craw, 2nd Lieut. C. Fred Betts. The captain of Company F was Enoch Wood of this city who raised his company in three days from nothing to 102 men. He resigned in March, 1863, because of ill health and was succeeded by Lieutenant Henry Allen of Nor¬ walk. Allen was afterwards promoted to be major and lieutenant colonel of the regiment which position he held at the close of the war, his three predecessors having been killed or mortally wounded in action. Other officers in the company were: Captain C. Fred Betts, 1st Lieut. William S. Knapp, 2nd Lieuts. William A. Kellogg, Charles E. Doty, George W. Shaw. Oftimes with empty knapsacks, dry throats, sore wounds and threadbare clothing, the 17th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers fought through the Civil War and left behind it a trail of glory. There is in Norwalk today, only one, who lives to tell the tale. He is John Batterson of Wood¬ ward ave., of whom mention has been made before. Briefly, let us follow the travel of the 17th Regiment and inciden¬ tally the trials and sufferings of the 198 Norwalk men who were staunch members of its ranks. September 3, 1862, the regiment left the camp at Sea¬ side Park, Bridgeport and took rail for Baltimore. From Baltimore, the men went to Washington, D. C., then to Georgetown and then to Gainesville, Vir. From here the regiment marched to Hopewell Gap and Antioch church, 3oo ROMANCE OF NORWALK then on to Chantilly, and then commenced a seven days’ march as reserves for Burnside’s movement on Fredericks¬ burg. The next stop was Bacon’s Race Course Church where the terrible cannonade of the conflict at Fredericks¬ burg was distinctly heard. On the men kept to Falmouth where they were ordered back to camp at Stafford Court House. Here the 17th which had saved its rations in going down, gave a supper to an Ohio regiment which had eaten up its own. The Ohio boys never forgot this. From the courthouse, the regiment marched to Belle Plain, back to Stafford Court House for winter quarters. April 26, 1863 the men moved westward to Hartwood church. The following night the Rappahannock was crossed and then the Rapidan. About 5 in the next afternoon, the battleground of Chancellorsville was reached. In the battle that followed, Norwalk lost many brave sons. Col. Noble was shot in the arm and later returned to his home. Lt. Col. Charles W alter of Bridgeport died from a head wound. The 17th suffered a loss of 120 killed, wounded and missing. In Greeley’s “American Conflict” where the author speaks of that “grand burst of Stonewall Jackson with 25,000 men upon the exposed flank of the 11th Corps,” the 17th Con¬ necticut is the only regiment specially noted and commended for its action. After the battle of Chancellorsville the 17th encamped on the north side of the Rappahannock river until June, 1863 when it followed the Army of the Potomac on par¬ allel lines to the march of the enemy until their movements culminated in the battle of Gettysburg. Here the 17th dis¬ tinguished itself. Gen. Gordon, later a senator from Georgia, who was in command of the enemy’s troops which charged upon the line of regiment at Gettysburg, meeting Lieut. Col. Allen when he was later in the Senate, learning that the Colonel was of the 17th of Connecticut, said to him that of all the trouble he ever had to force a retreat from any troops, he had the hardest work with the Seventeenth Route of Norwalkers in Civil War Key will be found in Appendix. CIVIL WAR 301 at Gettysburg; that it didn’t seem to know how to get away from its position, however strong the force attacking. From the battle of Gettysburg, the regiment went by rail to Alexandria then to Fort Monroe, Virg., then to Folly Island, S. C., then to Morris Island, approaching Fort Wag¬ ner. While there, the men heard the first gun fired on Fort Sumter. Several of the regiment were killed by bursting shells. February 22, 1864, the regiment went to Jacksonville, Florida, to St. Augustine, to Volusia, back to Jacksonville, over to Baldwin, thence to Magnolia and back to St. Augus¬ tine. June 1, 1865 found the 17th Connecticut again in Jacksonville, Fla. About the first of July it was ordered to take transport for Hilton Head to be mustered out of the service and at that post, on July 19, 1865, ended its duties as part of the Army of the Republic during the Civil War. THOSE WPIO ARE LEFT John Batterson of Woodward ave., present commander of the Douglass Fowler Post, G. A. R., of whom mention was made a short time ago, was a member of Company F of Norwalk, 17th Connecticut Regiment, and experienced with the other soldiers the gruelling years of struggle in the Civil War already retold. Mr. Batterson, in speaking of the bounties offered by states, counties, towns and cities, said that it was considered no disgrace for a man to accept money for his enlistment. In Norwalk as in other communi¬ ties, the bounty was a necessity which the men left behind them to take care of the women and children while they were gone, no other provision having been made for de¬ pendents. Mr. Batterson was wounded once at the battle of Gettysburg, a discharge of shrapnel lodging in the back of his left hand. During his 3 and 1-2 years in the Civil War, Mr. Batterson ran across a number of Norwalkers who were fighting for the Union. One of them was John Tracey, father of Dr. William J. Tracey of 637 West 302 ROMANCE OF NORWALK ave. John Tracey, who with his family lived on Cobble Hill in Broad River, was a brick layer and as honest a man and as hard working a fighter as ever lived. He was beloved by his comrades for his cheerfulness and wit. “Well I remember poor old Pat Purden, too,” said Mr. Batterson in retrospection. “Pat had large feet, such large feet that the government found it necessary to construct for him a special pair of shoes as there were none in stock large enough. Pat’s pals teased him slyly about the size of his feet and always said that if he were ever hit by the enemy, it would be in the feet. It so happened that at the battle of Gettysburg, the men, at one point of the en¬ counter, were required to lie flat on their stomachs on the top of a knoll, to shoot at the enemy which was fast sur¬ rounding them. One of the confederates, sneaking up from behind, caught sight of Pat’s feet looming over the hori¬ zon, and took a pot shot at them. Private Purden spent quite a time in the hospital thereafter.” Mr. Batterson also recalled Henry Allen, first lieutenant, captain, then lieut. col. in Company F, the 17th regiment, in which Batterson himself served. Allen was beloved by his fellow soldiers. He looked after their every need and Bat¬ terson says that when there were no rations left, he made it his business to find something for them to eat, from some¬ where. In Norwalk today there are two posts with their auxilia¬ ries, which stand as permanent monuments to the brave men who risked their lives in defense of the country during the Civil War. They are the Douglass Fowler Post, Grand Army of the Republic, South Norwalk, and Buckingham Post, Grand Army of the Republic, Norwalk. The first named was named in honor of Col. Douglass Fowler of Nor¬ walk who died on the Gettysburg battlefield. His body was never found, although it is known he fell there. The second was named in honor of Governor William Alfred Bucking¬ ham of Connecticut, the state war governor. CIVIL WAR 303 There remain in this city today, the year 1929, the follow¬ ing Civil War veterans: In Douglass Fowler Post, G. A. R.;