Unit

Federal Regiment

8th Connecticut Infantry

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

Commanding Officers:
  LCol. Hiram Appelman
  Maj. John E. Ward

Members of Interest:
  Pvt. Charles S. Buell, Co. E [ diarist ];
  Lt. Henry C. Hall, Co. I [letter writer]

Statistics for Maryland Campaign
  Initial Strength: 400
  Killed in Action (KIA): 34
  Wounded (WIA): 139
  Losses, % of Initial Strength: 43.3%

Maps Showing this Unit:
   Detail Map #10: Rodman's Division Crosses at Snavely's Ford
   Detail Map #11: Burnside Climbs Toward Sharpsburg
   Detail Map #12: AP Hill Hits Burnside's Flank

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

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

History of the Unit:
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.

In 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.

The remainder of the War:
"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, Sources, and other Notes:
Antietam battle drama above from a Stonington History site.

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