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.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.
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.
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? | Details* |
---|---|---|---|---|
A | Pvt | Babb, Ervine | WIA 09/17 | |
A | Corp | Brooks, Albion D. | ![]() ![]() | |
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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- We have details beyond name and rank
Click on their last name to see more