Orrin Chandler Spencer

In 1860 he was a 16 year old farm boy living with his parents and 4 siblings on their farm at Pomfret, CT. He enlisted on 2 December 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company F, 11th Connecticut Infantry the next day day.

He was wounded by a gunshot which fractured his skull in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was stunned and attempted to walk, but could not get far, and was carried to an aid station.

He was sent to a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD, then, on 22 September admitted to the Capitol Hospital in Washington, DC. Two days later he was transferred to the DeCamp Hospital in New York harbor. In October he had surgery to remove pieces of skull bone. He still had severe pain and dizziness when was discharged for disability on 11 November 1862.

He had a disability pension by 1868 but by 1870 he was a farmer, along with his brother Lewis, on his own place at Pomfret, CT. In 1880 he was a shoe maker there.

His service from the Record.1 Wound and hospital details from the MSHWR 2 and Civil War Washington. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Jim Buchanan for the nudge to look into young Private Spencer.

He married Emma Zeruah Adams (1844-1923) in March 1865 and they had 3 children.

c. 1844 in CT

04/20/1899; Pomfret, CT; burial in Pomfret Street Cemetery, Pomfret, CT