Federal Regiment

8th Connecticut Infantry

Organized: Hartford, CT; mustered in Fall 1861
Disbanded/Mustered out: Hartford, CT 12/12/1865

Commanding Officers on the Antietam Campaign:
LCol. Hiram Appelman
Maj. John E. Ward

This Regiment's Chain of Command:
  Army - Army of the Potomac
  Corps - Ninth Army Corps
  Division - 3rd Division, 9th Corps
  Brigade - 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 9th Corps

Unit history

In response to President Lincoln's call to the states, the regiment was one of those organized in Hartford in the fall of 1861, a few months after the war began with the firing on Fort Sumter.

Company "G" initially had nearly eighty men from Stonington, under the command of Captain Hiram Appelman of Stonington, and with Stonington lieutenants Thomas Sheffield, Henry Morgan, and Andrew Morgan.

On the Antietam Campaign

The Eighth had been sent to ford Antietam Creek at the left, or south, wing of the battlefield and at great cost won a little hill on the far side. But the other regiments left the Eighth exposed and alone in a Confederate counterattack:

Colonel Appelman [he had been promoted to regiment commander] tells the standard-bearer never to leave the colors. He responds firmly. One of the color-guard falls; two; three; four; the last, and the standard goes to the ground with him. Private Charles H. Walker [of Norwich] springs forward, and seizes it amid the storm of death; strikes the staff firmly in the ground; and shakes out the flag defiantly towards the advancing foe.
No re-inforcements come. Twenty men are falling every minute. Col. Appelman is borne to the rear. . . . Men grow frantic. The wounded prop themselves behind the rude stone fence, and hurl leaden vengeance at the foe. Even the chaplain snatches the rifle and cartridge-box of a dead man, and fights for life.
"We must fall back," says Major John E. Ward, now in command. Some protest against what they feel is inevitable; and the hundred men still unscathed are faced to the rear, and marched back in unbroken and still formidable column down the hill. No regiment of the 9th Corps has advanced so far, or held out so long, or retired in formation so good.

The cost to the regiment in this great battle that had no real victor --Lincoln is said to have exclaimed, "What will I tell the country?"--was one hundred ninety-four killed, wounded, and missing, half of its strength.

Statistics

Initial Strength: 400; Killed in Action (KIA): 34; Wounded (WIA): 139;
Losses, % of Initial Strength: 43.3%

Maps Showing this Unit

Detail Map #8: Rodman's Division Crosses at Snavely's Ford (10 am-1 pm)
Detail Map #12: Burnside's Ninth Corps Climbs Toward Sharpsburg (3-4 pm)
Detail Map #13: AP Hill's Division Hits Burnside's Flank (4-5 pm)

Battlefield Tablets for this Unit

Tablet #56: Ninth Army Corps - 15 Sep, 7 AM to 16 Sep, 3 PM
Tablet #122: Army of the Potomac - 17 Sep, 10 AM to 17 Sep, 6 PM
Tablet #70, cont: Ninth Army Corps - 17 Sep, 3 PM to 17 Sep, 5 PM
Tablet #65: Rodman's Division, Ninth Army Corps - 17 Sep, 5 AM to 17 Sep, 5 PM
Tablet #70: Ninth Army Corps - 17 Sep, 7 AM to 17 Sep, 3 PM
Tablet #57: Ninth Army Corps - 17 Sep, 7 AM to 17 Sep, 5 PM
Tablet #67: Harland's Brigade, Rodman's Division - 17 Sep, 7 AM to 17 Sep, 5 PM

After the Antietam Campaign

"In December, 1863, three hundred and ten of the original members of the Eighth re-enlisted as veterans, and in January, 1864, went to Connecticut on veteran furlough ... March 1st found the regiment returned to the field for duty."
(from 8CV, CoA)

More on the Web

See a very fine page on the history of the 8th, and a series of articles and documents specific to the unit at Antietam - both from the reenactors of Company A

References & Notes

Antietam battle drama above from a Stonington History site.

We have 85 individuals in the AotW database who were on the Maryland Campaign with this unit:

Co.	Rank	Name	Casualty?
A	Pvt	Babb, Ervine	WIA 09/17
A	Corp	Brooks, Albion Dennis
A	Pvt	Evans, Leverett F.	MWIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Frost, Oswin S.	MWIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Lord, Orton L.	KIA 09/17
A	Corp	Marsh, George H.	KIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Wadhams, Martin Luther	KIA 09/17
A	Lt	Wait, Martin	KIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Wheeler, Lucius	MWIA 09/17
A	Sgt	Wilcox, Whiting	KIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Bowen, James M.	WIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Boyle, Robert	MWIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Case, Oliver Cromwell	KIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Dixon, John A.	MWIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Mann, Peter	MWIA 09/17
C	Corp	Beach, Samuel	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Burns, Patrick	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Caghan, William	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Castle, Morton W.	MWIA 09/17
C	Sgt	Clapp, George W.	WIA 09/17
C	Corp	Elmore, Harvey E.	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Knight, William H.	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Nighting, John	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Robinson, George W.	KIA 09/17
C	Sgt	Rust, Cyprian H.	KIA 09/17
C	Sgt	Strickland, Henry E.	MWIA 09/17
C	Corp	Tillotson, Lafayette	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	White, Elijah	KIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Blumley, Edward	POW 09/17
D	Pvt	Burke, Robert W.	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Eldredge, Nathaniel C.	MWIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Ellsworth, Frederick	MWIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Fanning, Henry O	MWIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Fanning, Theodore	MWIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Lathrop, Oliver Woodworth	MWIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Wilson, Frederick	KIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Beeman, Charles	WIA 09/17
E	Corp	Booth, George F.	KIA 09/17
E	Lt	Bronson, Nelson	WIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Buell, Charles Sidney
E	Pvt	Bunnell, Wesley	WIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Mason, Thomas	KIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Morse, Henry	MWIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Nichols, Jerome	MWIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Taylor, Orrin	KIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Tuttle, John E.	KIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Yemmons, Joseph R.	Died (d) 11/10
F	Corp	Austin, Albert
F	Pvt	Baldwin, George	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Bemis, Nelson Amariah	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Bently, John	MWIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Carey, Dwight	KIA 09/17
F	Corp	Kimball, Andrew	MWIA 09/17
F	Sgt	Lewis, Charles E.	KIA 09/17
F	Lt	Main, Edwin G.	MWIA 09/17
F	Capt	Marsh, Wolcott Pascal
F	Pvt	Neff, Henry H.	KIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Rouse, Horace G.	KIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Sweet, William A.	KIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Trask, Francis	KIA 09/17
G	Corp	Barber, Leonidas A.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Bedford, Thomas	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Casey, Thomas	WIA 09/17
G	Corp	Hewitt, Oscar Winslow	KIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Birch, George J.	KIA 09/17
I	Corp	Ferriss, Robert Bruce	KIA 09/17
I	Lt	Hall, Henry C
I	Corp	Lake, David	KIA 09/17
I	Capt	Roberts, William Jay
K	Pvt	Allen, Lewis	WIA 09/17
K	Corp	Allen, Lyman D.	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Burr, Henry C.	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Camsell, George	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Dagle, George V.	KIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Doolittle, John K.	MWIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Finkin, Henry	KIA 09/17
K	Corp	Lewis, William G.	KIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Pratt, William M.	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Richards, Alonzo I.	KIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Richmond, Willis B.	KIA 09/17
K	Corp	Simons, John H.	KIA 09/17
K	Capt	Upham, Charles Leslie
F&S	LCol	Appelman, Hiram	WIA 09/17
F&S	Surg	Storrs, Melancthon
F&S	Maj	Ward, John Edward

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