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(1840 - 1920)
Home State: Connecticut
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
Raised in Suffield, CT, he had been a clerk with Lord & Taylor in New York City (1860-61) then in his father's clothing and tailor shop in Hartford. He enlisted in Hartford as a Corporal in Company A, 16th Connecticut Infantry on 15 July 1862.
On the Campaign
He was in action with his Company at Antietam on 17 September 1862:
Shells were coming our way and some men of the Eighth regiment we could see falling. A shell burst and a part of it flew up striking me on the side, and making a sore place which lasted several days ...
Then it was every man for himself. So I started to get out of danger. I laid down and began to crawl. I had on my haversack and a woolen blanket and a rubber blanket strapped to my back. These I gradually removed as I crawled along, and kept only my gun and cartridge belt. After awhile I crawled into a large open field and crossed that to a ditch where I found several other soldiers. This was the first notice I had taken of anyone else, as I was so occupied in looking after myself as I had no thoughts for any other men. I got down by Antietam creek, where I stayed all night. The next morning I found my regiment and for the next two days we were busy burying the dead.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Sergeant on 11 February 1864 and was discharged on 16 June 1865 at New Berne, NC.
After the War
He returned to his father's shop in Hartford, and was a partner in the business, known as Gemmill & Son (later Gemmill, Clarke & Company and Gemmill, Burnham & Company) to at least 1901.
References & notes
His service from the Record.1 His experience at Antietam from his recollection of the battle in the Hartford Daily Times of 17 September 1915; thanks to John Banks. Personal details from family genealogists, a bio sketch in Beers' Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County (1901), and the US Census of 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Celestia "Lettie" Morris (1840-1893) in Rutland, VT in September 1866 and they had 2 children, but both died in childhood.
Birth
01/05/1840; Suffield, CT
Death
08/06/1920; Hartford, CT; burial in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, 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, pg. 620 [AotW citation 27044]