GREEN MOUNTAIN BOY KILLED AT THE WILDERNESS — LETTERS FROM ANTIETAM AND GETTYSBURG

“…Judge for yourself whether or not the Green Mountain Boys have done their duty…”

An exceptional CDV and letter archive of Corporal James Henrie Clarke of Company A, 3rd Vermont Infantry, featuring excellent battle content relating to Antietam and Gettysburg, as well as an account of his tragic death in action at the Battle of the Wilderness. The archive includes a wartime carte-de-visite portrait of Clarke in uniform, with his insignia visible, along with three letters written home to his sister and mother describing the extensive action he witnessed during his service. Also included is a letter written by one of his comrades giving details of his death in 1864. A complete list of included items follows the description.

Henrie enlisted in the summer of 1861 in Company A, 3rd Vermont Infantry, and the regiment soon moved to the vicinity of Washington, D.C. From there, he wrote the first letter included here to his sister Annie on 14 October 1861.

In that letter, ge reports on the enormous concentration of troops around the nation’s capital: “They say there will soon be 500,000 men around Wash. and in the army of the Potomac. That is quite an army, you know. We have a very large Camp now…I guess there is some 50 or 60 thousand troops right in the immediate vicinity of us. It would look rather curious, probably to you, especially in the night when all the tents are lit up and a lot of camp fires all round, with some kind of music agoing all the time.”

After completing the letter, he added a postscript after participating in a skirmish before mailing it: “Perhaps you read about our troops advancing and the rebels evacuating Falls Church. I was in the advance that night and it was considerable of a movement…one fellow in our Regt. got 5 shots through his clothes, and one through his hand, and was not injured in any other way. We thought he had reason to be thankful, but I tell you it makes a man dodge almost involuntarily but then there is nothing like getting used to it. But perhaps we may be like the horse that the man was trying to learn to go without eating. Just as we get used to it we shall die…There was about 5 or 6 dead horses at Falls Church when we got through firing. It was the first time I ever saw men laying keeled up dead in the road, without any body watching over them it probably will not be the last.”

The next letter included was written by Henrie to his mother Lucie shortly after the Battles of South Mountain, Crampton’s Gap, and Antietam. He recounts the action: “I have seen some hard times since I had wrote you. We were in the Battles of the South Mountain and at Sharpsburg we were under a pretty heavy fire some of the time at Crampton’s Gap, as it is called by some of the papers. The rebel artillery played on us fiercely for a spell. One place where we had to double quick across a plain they were playing across and one of our Batteries on the other side of us playing over our heads on to them. They keeled up one of our guns ‘right smart,’ (Southern phrase) it stood muzzle down and trail in the air. But our gunners also served one of their pieces in the same way. There was one shot struck in our ranks as we were crossing these plains and I saw a man fall where it struck. I expected to find nothing only his mangled corpse left when I got to it. But it proved to be that it had only stripped him of Haversack and Hat and he had gone along.”

He continues with glowing praise for his brigade commander, General William Thomas Harbaugh Brooks (1821–1870): “Our Brig. captured about one hundred prisoners and one stand of colors and two pieces of Artillery, besides a number of prisoners taken the next day. Our old ‘rough and ready’ Gen’l Brooks was right amongst us as he always is. He is a brave old fellow. He does not ask us to go where he dare not lead the way he was wounded again at Sharpsburg by a spent ball in the hip making a bad mark. We would not exchange him for weight in gold. When we are in Camp he often gets excited and flies around enough to tear himself to pieces. But in Battle he is always cool, calm, and collected as though he were in his own home, and gives his orders, and goes round himself to see that they are obeyed.”

The next letter included is a superb account written from “Camp on the Battlefield” just days after the Battle of Gettysburg. He writes to his mother of the Union victory and the ongoing pursuit of the enemy: “We were at the Battle of Gettysburg, although we were not engaged we were under fire. We have been driving the enemy from the South Mountains and vicinity of Boonsboro, we are on a Macadamized Pike leading from Hagerstown to Baltimore. We have driven the enemy something like four or five miles. Our cavalry and flying Artillery taking a Rebel battery of 5 guns. The skirmishers of our Brigade yesterday drove back and repulsed a Rebel line of Battle that was advancing on us. Our Regt lost some yesterday in killed + wounded. I don’t know how many, not very severely though. There are four Co’s out from our Regt. one of them is my Co. The 6th Vt. lost more heavily than we did. I being color-guard did not have to go skirmishing, we did not lose any at Gettysburg. There was a solid common bull stuck in the earth in front of our Colors yesterday throwing dirt and gravelstones in our faces. We have taken a great many prisoners in Md. & Pa. everything is looking cheerful for our side now, isn’t it? Vicksburg is taken. Rosencrans is pursuing Bragg’s retreating army, and capturing his stragglers, while the ‘Army of the Potomac’ is whipping them up in good shape in Md + Pa under command of Meade. And at Port Hudson, Miss we are fast getting ready to give them a warm reception unless they surrender. God grant that we may soon end this terrible struggle, which is fast draining the very life blood of the nation. Some of our best men have been sacrificed, but our cause is right, and so although we regret their loss we must not complain. As I said before every thing looks cheerful for our side and we will hope for the best.”

Despite his optimism, Henrie would not live to see the end of the war. The final letter is written by Mrs. Abbie Whitcomb of Springfield, Vermont, who had received news of Henrie’s death from E. D. Hutch. Writing to Henrie’s mother Lucie, she opens with her condolences and then transcribes Hutch’s letter, which provides extensive details of the Battle of the Wilderness and Henrie’s final moments, death, and burial.

In part: “Friend, I have sad news to write you if you have not heard of it before, that is our dear friend Henrie is dead, was killed in battle on the 5th of May, was shot in the head and breast while nobly fighting at his post of duty, for this our beloved country. We broke camp on the morning of May 4th crossed the ‘Rapidan’ and encamped about 4 miles from the river for the night. We started early the next morning and came upon the enemy about noon. The fighting commenced at one o’clock, and raged till dark, and was one of the hardest and contested fights on record, and it was the same the next day. Henrie fell in the first charge. The battle was fought in a dense woods of small growth and could not see a grey back 10 rods off. But our boys fought nobly, bravely, and forced the enemy back at all points…Our Generals say it was the heaviest firing known. The loss in our Brigade was over 1200 out of about 2800 muskets we had when we arrived on the ground. How our fatal loss since leaving camp is about 346 in the Regmt. And in the Brigade over 17000. Judge for yourself whether or no the Green Mountain boys have done their duty.”

He continues: “at the time Henrie fell the fighting was terrible, and many a brave one fell, no one could stop to attend to him, but the boys thought he had only a slight wound in the head, and some one reported afterwards that they saw him going to the Hospital slightly wounded, and we all thougth him alive, and would be all right in a short time. On the 6th, we drove the enemy back some 2 miles, and several of Co. A boys, I among the number, went up on the field to look after our killed, and wounded, and…to find our dear friend and companion + soldier brother dead lying beside another Corporal of the Color guard, and the Color Sergeant lying but a little ways off. Also Charley Cook brother of Henry Cook and many others lying around, all killed by the first volley I think from the enemy. We buried him as well as we could by the side of Charley Cook well rolled up in Rubber + woolen blankets and put up a board to mark the spot. He was buried better than most soldiers are, we buried his musket with him, and that had been struck by balls and shattered to pieces. The rebels held the ground where he fell the first night, they had taken everything out of his pockets and knapsack, so I could find nothing but his waist belt to remember him by. We all miss him very much, I think he had a presentment that if our Regmt. went into battle he would either be killed or wounded. Although he never said it in so many words, yet by words dropped by him from time to time I judged that to be the cause. And so he did doing his duty as a brave soldier should I think he was killed instantly or he lived but a short time after he was hit.”

An excellent archive preserving both the battle experiences and the ultimate death in action of a hard-fought Green Mountain Boy.

Complete list of included items: 

1.  Three-quarter length seated portrait. Albumen CDV. Springfield, Vermont: Merrill’s Photographic Gallery, [18 October 1862]. Photographer’s imprint to verso alongside blue-green 3-cent stamp with ink cancel. Modern ink inscription to verso identifies the subject. 

2. Autograph letter signed by Clark to his Sister, L. Annie Clarke. Camp A. Griffin, Virginia, 14 October 1861. 8 pages, 8vo. On illustrated “Union / Massachusetts” lettersheet. With corresponding illustrated “The Loyal States / Union / Massachusetts” cover with Washington D.C. cancel and red 3-cent stamp.

3. ALS by Clark to his Mother. Camp near Hagerstown, Maryland. 3 October 1862. Approx. 5 pages, 8vo, with cross writing. 

4. ALS by Clark to his Mother. Camp on the Battlefield, near Hagerstown, Maryland, 11 July 1863. 4 pages, 8vo. 

5. Autograph letter signed by Abbie S. Whitcomb to Clark’s Mother, Lucie Clarke. Mount Hope, Springfield, Vermont, 20 June 1864. 8 pages, 8vo. With original envelope with Springfield, Vermont cancel. 

6. E.W. Locke, poetry and music.  We are Marching on to Richmond. Sheet music. New York: S.T. Gordon, 1862. 1 page, 4to. INSCRIBED TO VERSO BY CLARKE: “For Lucie Ann. / From Henrie Clarke.” 

7. Five (5) additional Civil War-era covers addressed to Miss Lucie Ann Clarke (1) and Mrs. Lucy R.C. Clarke (4). Includes two (2)  “Eagle Talon Hooks & Eyes” of Springfield, VT, illustrated examples.

8. Newspaper clipping. [Vermont], [January 1913]. Obituary of Mrs. Lucy R.C. Clarke (1815-1913) at 97 & 8 months

[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]