Gavette Burt Holcomb

In 1860 he was a 15 year old farmer on his father's place in Simsbury. At age 17 he enlisted as a Private in Company E, 16th Connecticut Infantry on 9 August 1862.

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

He was promoted to Sergeant on 13 February 1864 but was captured at Plymouth, NC on 20 April 1864 and was a prisoner at Andersonville, GA and Charleston and Florence, SC. He was paroled on 28 February 1865 and mustered out with the regiment at New Bern, NC on 24 June 1865.

By 1880 he was working his mother-in-law's farm in Simsbury. In 1871 he was a Selectman in Simsbury and was a member of the School Board there by 1886 and to at least 1905.

Service information from the Record 1 with details from Gordon.2 His presence at Antietam from a letter he wrote on the battle anniversary in 1863, quoted in Dr. Gordon's Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut's Civil War (2014). Personal details from family genealogists, the Connecticut Register and Manual and Report(s) of the Board of Education, and the US Census of 1860 and 1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph provided by James Silliman, from his collection.

Gavette was his mother's family's name.

He married Ellen Maria Humphrey (1847-1911) in December 1870 and they had a daughter Grace Elizabeth (1877-1954).

Gavette's papers, including that 1863 letter, are at the Simsbury Historical Society.

01/10/1845; Granby, CT

01/26/1914; Simsbury, CT; burial in Simsbury Cemetery, Simsbury, CT