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C.L. Upham
(1839 - 1929)
Home State: Connecticut
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 8th Connecticut Infantry
Before Antietam
He was a clerk in John Ives' dry goods store in Meriden, CT before the war. He enlisted on 25 April 1861 and mustered in Hartford as First Sergeant of Rifle Company B, 3rd Connecticut Infantry on 14 May 1861. He mustered out at the end of their 3 months service on 12 August. He enrolled again and was commissioned Captain of Company K, 8th Connecticut Infantry on 23 September 1861. He was wounded at New Berne, NC on 14 March 1862.
On the Campaign
He led two companies of skirmishers from his regiment along Antietam Creek well below the lower bridge sometime after noon on 17 September 1862 to locate Snaveley's Ford.
The bank of the stream was quite heavily wooded, with dense undergrowth, but Upham soon reported that he had found a practicable ford, and the column [of General Rodman's Division], Fairchild's Brigade in advance, marched down to it. Whiting's Battery supported by the 8th Connecticut was put in position on a hill just below the ford to cover the crossing. Much time had been lost and it was nearly 1 o'clock ...
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Major on 23 December 1862 and Lieutenant Colonel on 9 March 1863. He transferred as Colonel to the 15th Connecticut Infantry on 18 April 1863 and mustered out with them on 27 June 1865.
After the War
From 1865 to at least 1920, by then 80 years old, he was a dry goods merchant in Meriden, CT, a founder of the Ives, Upham & Rand department store there. He also served two terms as Meriden's Mayor (1873-74).
References & notes
His service from the Record.1 The Antietam quote is from Carman.2 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1880-1920, the New Haven Morning Journal-Courier of 14 August 1894, and Francis Atwater's Memoirs ... of the city of Meriden and its people (1922). His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a c. 1863 portrait photograph at the Library of Congress. Thanks to Jim Smith for the pointer to Captain Upham and the Carman reference.
He married Emily M Clark (1842-1864) in November 1863 and they had a daughter Emma; Emily died at her birth. He married again, Elizabeth L Hall (1844-1923) in July 1877 and they had 5 children.
Ives, Upham & Rand was in business in Meriden to at least 1955.
Birth
05/24/1839; Townsend, VT
Death
05/28/1929; Meriden, CT; burial in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Meriden, CT
1 State of Connecticut, Adjutant General's Office, and AGs Smith, Camp, and Barbour, and AAG White, Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Army and Navy of the United States during the War of the Rebellion, Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, 1889, pp. 329, 355, 590, [AotW citation 29407]
2 Carman, Ezra Ayers, and Dr. Thomas G. Clemens, editor, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, 3 volumes, El Dorado Hills (CA): Savas Beatie, 2010-17, Vol. 2, pg. 428 [AotW citation 29408]