Richard Henry Lee

In 1860 he was a 19 year old farmer on his father's place in Granby, CT. Known by Henry, he enlisted as 2nd Sergeant of Company E, 16th Connecticut Infantry on 29 July and mustered on 1 August 1862.

He was with his Company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

Before I left home I said that I hoped I should see a fight before We went home. I have seen it, And such a fight as boys do not always See ...

Late in the afternoon, the 16th was ordered into a corn field together with the 4th Rhode Island. Here we took position, the 4th R.I. to the point and left of us. The artillery on both sides playing in fine style, Shells bursting in our midst, in a way not acceptable to those engaged in other business. We were soon engaged with the rebel infantry who had chosen their position ...

We were considerably cut up but the boys held their own first rate. Our Granby boys behaved particularly well. It was an easy matter for me to keep the ranks closed up, for every one was bound to do his duty.

He was promoted First Sergeant on 4 March 1863. He was captured, along with most of his regiment, at Plymouth, NC when that garrison was surrendered on 20 April 1864, and was a prisoner in Richmond, VA, Florence, SC, and Andersonville, GA. He mustered out on 15 June 1865 in York, PA.

By 1870 he was an agent (for C-- and horses?) at Faribault in Rice County, MN. He died in Lansing, Iowa in 1876 of tuberculosis and probably other ailments, attributed to his time at Andersonville, just 35 years old.

His service from Ingersoll.1 The quote above from his letter of 21 September 1862 to his cousin Adelaide Rhoda "Addie" Holcomb (1838-1903). Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 and 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to great-great-grandson James Silliman for further details, a transcription of that 21 September letter (original in the Salmon Brook Historical Society, Granby, CT), and his picture, from an excellent photograph in his collection.

His mother was a Holcomb. He married Mary Elizabeth Holcomb (1844-1925), the girl (nearly) next door, in Hartford, CT in April 1866, and they had two daughters, Henrietta Isadore (b. 1867 Chicago, IL) and Mary Gertrude (b. 1869 in MN).

02/08/1841; Granby, CT

05/27/1876; Lansing, IA; burial in Granby Cemetery, Granby, CT