Sergeant Benjamin Hirst

Another chronicler of the Fourteenth Connecticut was Sgt. Benjamin Hirst of Company D. Hirst was born at Stockport, England, near the city of Manchester. His family worked in the textile industry, and when the Hirsts emigrated to the U.S. in 1847, they again found work in textile manufacturing, and lived in the area of Chester, PA. In 1852, Ben married Sarah Quinn, to whom he would write many of his Civil War letters.

Benjamin Hirst enlisted July 16, 1862 and was mustered as a sergeant. His service with the Fourteenth was cut short at Gettysburg, when he was wounded in the shoulder during the repulse of Pickett’s charge. He was transferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps (a.k.a. Invalid Corps) until his discharge on July 9, 1865 because of medical disability. Sergeant Hirst lived until 1909, and died in Springfield, MA at the age of 81.

Hirst”s letters comprise nearly a day by day journal of the history of the Fourteenth Connecticut as he saw it and lived it. He lets us in on life at war and far from home for the average infantryman. His language is engaging and his writing is quite good, but alas, his spelling? Not so much.

Fiction Connection: Benjamin Hirst’s English roots provided part of the inspiration for my character Sgt. Needham. Hirst”s letters gave me valuable insight into how a husband and wife communicated with each other during the war and the everyday issues they dealt with. It was particularly informative to learn what information Ben revealed to Sarah, and what he chose not to tell her.

Details provided above were drawn from The Boys from Rockville, edited with commentary by Robert L. Bee, University of Tennessee Press, 1998.

     Captain Samuel W. Fiske

In early August, 1862, Samuel W. Fiske, 34, enlisted as a private in the Fourteenth Connecticut Volunteers. Fiske left his wife, Lizzie, who was eight months pregnant, and his one year old son, George.

What makes Fiske memorable to me and to history is that this man was the full-time minister of the Congregational Church in Madison, CT. He was granted a one year leave by the congregation, which Fiske termed a “vacation,” and he could have enlisted as a chaplain, but he wanted to fight with the infantry. He also wished to write accounts of his experiences for the public at home, and the editor of the Springfield (MA) Republican newspaper was more than happy to have his own dedicated war correspondent. On September 8, 1862, the first of Fiske’s accounts appeared in the Republican under the pen name Dunn Browne.

While with the Fourteenth, Fiske experienced all the hardship, humor, frustration, friendship, terror and tragedy that was the American Civil War, and he was never reluctant to take pen in hand and write about it. Before the regiment left Hartford, Private Fiske was made a 2nd Lieutenant, and in January, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of captain and placed in command of Company G.

Captain Fiske was taken prisoner at Chancellorsville (May, 1863) and had the unique privilege of reading his own obituary in the Republican. Paroled within a few weeks, he was back with his regiment in time to take part in its heroic stand at Gettysburg. During the battle at the Wilderness, just a few miles from where he was captured the year before, he was shot in the chest on May 6, 1864 and died on May 22 at Fredericks-burg. The last words he wrote to his readers were, “for God and freedom throughout the world.”

Details provided above were drawn from Mr. Dunn Browne”s Experiences in the Army: The Civil War Letters of Samuel W. Fiske, edited by Stephen W. Sears, Fordham University Press, 1998. (This book is truly excellent and a worthy addition to any Civil War library.)

In his history of the Fourteenth, Charles Page wrote: “No Connecticut regiment ever took to the front a more noble representation of the best elements of the state than did the Fourteenth. Many of the men had already become moving forces in the social, religious, commercial and industrial activities of the state. It was indeed a regiment from the state at large, a regiment of the people.”

While it is true that men from 87 of the state’s 163 towns were mustered into the regiment before it left Hartford, nine of those cities and towns supplied over two-thirds of the enlistments. Middletown sent 126 men with 93 in Company B. Waterbury sent 112 with 88 of them in Company C. Vernon sent 84 with 75 of them in Company D. Rounding out the top nine towns represented were New Britain (68), Madison (65), New London (62), Bridgeport (61), Hartford (52), and Norwich (46).

One soldier in Company A, David H. Farrar, hailed from Harrisville, Rhode Island, which is in the northwest corner of that state. Another soldier came a bit further – from China. Joseph Pierce has the distinction of being the only Chinese man to serve in the Army of the Potomac. There are several variations on the story of how he came to be in Connecticut and how he got his American name, and rather than recounting them here, you may find out more about this unique citizen soldier here (text article) or here (article with photos).

Nearly four of every five of these original members of the Fighting Fourteenth would never return home. It was a common thing during the Civil War for companies of infantry to be raised by a town or a county, and while this brought a degree of comradeship and local pride to their company, it is easy to imagine the profound sorrow of a single town if its company suffered greatly on the field of battle.

Fiction Connection: Only four men from the town of Naugatuck enlisted in the 14th before it left Hartford, three in Company C, and one in Company I. In An Eye for Glory, I placed four men from Naugatuck in Company C, and all four are fictional characters.