Windsor County Court June 11

Yvette White, DOB 3/16/69 pled not guilty to a charge of petit larceny in Hartford on April 24

Felicia Neboli, DOB 11/29/86 pled guilty to a charge of careless or negligent operation of a motor vehicle in Hartford on June 6

Joesph Robinson, DOB 5/7/82 pled guilty to a charge of unlawful tresspass in Hartford on April 19

Jennifer Copp, DOB 5/14/83 pled guilty to a charge of possession of fireworks in Hartford on April 23

Alisa Picknell, DOB 8/13/93 pled guilty to giving false information to a police officer to deflect an investigation in Hartford on April 21. 

Craig Devenger, DOB 9/24/67 pled guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license in Sharon on May 8

Adam Tlumacki, DOB 7/20/79, pled guilty to a charge of petit larceny in Bethel on April 22.  Tlumacki stole an heirloom watch from his girlfriend.

Bridget Reitnauer, DOB 9/22/92 pled guilty to charges of petit larceny and credit card fraud

Dwaine Ouellette, DOB 10/30/73, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Chester on May 20.

John Mosby, Union Hero

John Singleton Mosby, the Confederacy's Gray Ghost, was a daring marauder, commanding partisans who roamed Northern Virginia, harassing Union troops, sabataging telegraph lines, railroads, and bridges, and even occasionally capturing Union officers. The highlight of Mosby's career was when he woke up 2^nd Vermont Brigade Commander Edwin Stoughton out of his bed in the middle of the night by slapping him on the butt, and then took him prisoner.

That was the highlight of Mosby's career? He removed a commander the men hated, a commander who was more interested in his love life than commanding the Vermont troops in the war. Stoughton was vain, profane, and mean. His men complained about everything he did, and they were glad when he was captured.

When Colonel Blunt was in charge of the 2^nd Vermont, morale and discipline were high. When Stoughton assumed command, things fell apart. Howard Coffin, in "Nine Months to Gettysburg", describes increased incidents of fighting, drinking, and pilfering from neighboring farms after Stoughton replaced Colonel Blunt.

When John Mosby did the Vermont troops the favor of removing Stoughton, he was replaced by General George Stannard. Stannard was the exact opposite of Stoughton. He immediately began drilling the troops on military tactics. The troops respected Stannard. Rather than residing in comfort in the next town, Stannard lived with his men at their encampment.

One has to wonder, what would have happened at Gettysburg, had Mosby not captured Stoughton? The Confederates made it all the way to the Angle. The Union line was almost broken. Vermont's 13^th, 14^th and 16^th regiments were there to fight them back, using tactics they had practiced under Stannard's guidance during the months in northern Virginia in the spring. Would they have been able to execute the same manuevers under Stoughton? Would they have been as effective on the very front line, under Stoughton? Would they even have gotten to Gettysburg in time to join the battle under Stoughton? Stannard drilled the troops hard, back in Virginia. Then he marched them as fast as he could, under horrible weather conditions, through Northern Virginia and into Pennsylvania. Would Stoughton have been able to push them as hard and gotten them to respond as well, to give it all they had, day after day?

My answer to those questions is no. I think the outcome of Pickett's Charge might have been a lot different if our troops had been commanded by Stoughton instead of Stannard. Mosby certainly made a daring capture in March of 1863 when he took Stoughton prisoner in the middle of the night, and probably changed the course of the war. But not in the Confederate's favor.

I used a bunch of different resources in my research on the Vermont 16^th Regiment. Vermonters are really lucky to have so many internet resources devoted to their Civil War history.

Vermont in the Civil War (http://vermontcivilwar.org/index.php) is an amazing internet site. It has the rosters of all the regiments, the town each soldier was credited to, and each soldier's history in the regiment. The Vermont Historical Society (http://vermonthistory.org/research/research-resources-online/civil-war-transcriptions) has transcribed quite a few letters from Civil War soldiers and made thema available for reading on the internet.

Howard Coffin's book "Nine Months to Gettysburg" is the most readable and interesting book I've ever read on the Civil War. Of course, it's even better that it's about Vermonters, but Coffin is an excellent writer who includes lots of anecdotes and quotes about real people. He describes the camps, the marches, the places and people that lived in the areas our troops tveled through, and finally the action at Gettysburg, in a way that you as a reader can visualize them so clearly in your mind. When I read Coffin's description of the part the 16^th Vermont played in repulsing Pickett's Charge, my heart absolutely pounded with every turn of the page. I can't say enough about how excellent this book is and how highly I recommend it.

Another strong recommendation – visit Gettysburg. When you're there, spend the extra money to take a guided bus tour. We went there in April of 2012, and I thought the bus tour was pretty expensive, but it was worth every penny. The tour guides do a fabulous job of describing the action at the different sites. At one point, at Little Round Top, I had to walk away from the group because I just couldn't deal with hearing about the wholesale death and destruction. It is a very, very intense experience. They spend a lot of time at the Angle, the Copse of Trees and the High Water Mark, which are basically all at the same place. When they describe the intense fighting that took place there, they talk about the Union forces holding back Pickett's Charge, preventing the Confederates from breaking throught Union lines by the skin of their teeth, but they don't tell you that it was the 16^th Vermont, with troops from the Upper Valley, who were there at that very spot.

At Gettysburg, the tour guides and the displays in the visitor's center mention the "fishhook defensive line" a lot. At the time, I didn't understand it, but during the course of doing the research for this blog, I do understand it now, thanks in large part to the maps I got from Wikipedia. If you go, I hope reading this blog helps you understand the presentations there. I'm not sure if you should read "Nine Months to Gettysburg" before or after you go. Probably before you go.

After learning so much about our Upper Valley soldiers at Gettysburg, I want to go back there, and revisit the Angle, the Copse of Trees and the High Water Mark. My husband, the Old Redneck, is dyslexic, so I have been reading "Nine Months to Gettysburg" out loud to him, and it works very well as a read aloud. I have tried reading multiple other Civil War books to him, and never finished them because they were impossible to get through. Last week, we decided to visit our daughter in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and at the same time go to the 150^th Anniversary Reenactment at Gettysburg. If by any chance you're going, I'll be the woman in shorts and hiking boots with the guy that looks like a redneck Santa. I can't spend any money this week because all of our available funds will be going for this trip, but I'm going to look at the Listen Centers and Good Buy Store for a t-shirt that says "Vermont".

Now for the "rest of the story". A few statistics from "Vermont in the Civil War". There were three companies in the 16^th Vermont that had soldiers from the Upper Valley. Company A had 19 soldiers from Royalton, 1 from Barnard, and one from Norwich, out of 95 altogether. 51 of Company A's soldiers were mustered out at the end of their 9 month hitch, with no ill effects. 14 reenlisted. 18 were wounded at Gettysburg, including 4 from South Royalton. I researched these 4 on Ancestry.com and they all lived to be old. Company A lost 5 soldiers from disease, and 3 were discharged with disabilities. There were 4 soldiers killed in Gettysburg, including Philip Howard, age 19, from Royalton.

Company G was made up of all Upper Valley soldiers, with men from Barnard, Sharon, Hartford, Bridgewater and Pomfret, for a total of 111. 69 were mustered out no worse for wear. 21 members of Company G reenlisted. 5 died of disease, 5 were discharged with disabilities and 5 were wounded at Gettysburg. There were 2 soldiers killed in action.

Company H was mostly made up of Upper Valley soldiers, with a few from Reading. There were soldiers in Company H from Barnard, Hartland, Norwich, Sharon, Windsor, and Royalton, for a total of 87. Company H had 49 soldiers who were mustered out after an uneventful hitch. 17 men reenlisted. 3 men died of disease, 6 were wonded in action and 7 were discharged with a disability. 2 men were killed in action. Company H had two men desert. A couple of the men from this company who reenlisted became career army men. One of them joined the Frontier Cavalry.

There were 26 men from Norwich in Company K. 21 of them mustered out in fine shape. Company K lost 1 Norwich man due to disease, and two were discharged with disabilities. 1 was wounded at Gettysburg and 2 reenlisted.

In "Nine Months to Gettysburg" there are quite a few comments to the effect that more of the guys from hill towns died of disease than the boys that lived in towns along the lakes or rivers. As I was compiling these statistics I paid attention to this, and it does seem to be true. The guys themselves thought it was because the men that lived near water could tolerate the damp and fog better. Howard Coffin thought it was because hill town families were more isolated and therefor the guys hadn't been been exposed to as many illnesses as the men from bigger more centralized towns, and thus hadn't built up as many immunities. I wonder if the guys from the lake and river towns hadn't been fed a little better and were healthier to begin with.

After Gettysburg, General Stannard continued as a Union commander. He fought in many battles until he finally was wounded badly enough to lose his arm. After the war, he became the doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives. He died in Washington DC in 1886.

At the end of the War, John Mosby was a wanted man. He never surrendered because he

never commanded regular troops. He remained in hiding until he received a pardon from General Grant. Mosby and Grant became friends, and Mosby even became a Republican, to the disgust of his fellow Southerners. As a result of this, he received several death threats. When Grant ran for President, Mosby was his campaign manager. In 1878, Rutherford Hayes appointed him to the US Hong Kong consulate. Later, Mosby worked for the Department of the Interior and became Assistant Attorney General.

What about Charles Aiken? He was the man whose name I found, who led me to the 16^th Vermont. Aiken was from Barnard and had been married for four years when he enlisted as a nine month recruit. Charles Aiken left Vermont and traveled on a troop train through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City and Maryland. He lived briefly in Washington DC and then spent a winter in Virginia with his regiment doing picket duty in the enemy territory of Northern Virginia. His commander was captured in a midnight raid. At the very end of his nine month hitch, Charles fought in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, at Gettysburg. He returned to Brattleboro, Vermont, and was mustered out of the 16^th Vermont on August 10, of 1863, and reenlisted on December 4, 1863, and that very well might be another story.

Windsor County Court June 4

Eugenia Emerson DOB 01/10/81 pled not guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license in Springfield on January 23

Walter Wakefield, DOB 8/13/54 pled not guilty to a charge of domestic assault in Woodstock on May 2^nd. He also also had several other outstanding court cases. He pled not guilty to a charge of operating a vehicle with reckless or gross negligence, and a charge of his fourth DUI, on November 2,2012 in Pomfret and Woodstock.

David Goldstein, DOB 1/8/66, pled nolo contendre to a charge of simple assault/assaulting a law officer with fluids on May 6

Connor Horn, DOB 7/2/86 pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Royalton on May 25.

Cynthia Dillon pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI in Hartford on May 26

Gettysburg

At the end of June in 1863, three Union Army regiments from Vermont marched toward Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A Confederate commander had taken his troops there in search of shoes. Some of his troops had an encounter with Union men, shots had been fired, and both Union and Confederate Commanders had sent word for all available troops to get to the Pennsylvania college town as quickly as possible. All nine roads leading into Gettysburg began to clog with incoming troops.

The 2^nd Vermont Brigade was made up of five regiments, all comprised of men who had volunteered for a nine month tour. The 2^nd Vermont had wintered in Fairfax, Virginia. They had been in a few small skirmishes, and their original commander had been captured, but all in all, they had seen no real action. There were Upper Valley soldiers in three regiments, the 12^th, the 15^th, and the 16^th.

The 12^th Vermont regiment had companies from West Windsor, Woodstock, Tunbridge and Bradford, with men from Hartland, Barnard, Pomfret, Chelsea, Corinth, Bradford, Newbury and Fairlee as well. The 15^th Vermont had a company from West Fairlee, with men from Vershire, Thetford, Strafford, Bradford and Newbury. The 16^th Vermont had companies from Bethel; including men from Royalton, Barnard and Norwich, and Barnard; including men from Hartford, Sharon, Pomfret and Hartland.

On July 1, our boys from Vermont had been on forced march for five days, in weather that was alternately rainy, humid, dry and dusty, but always, always hot. As they got closer to Gettysburg, the roads became more and more packed with regiments on the move. Howard Coffin, in his book “Nine Months to Gettysburg”, quotes Private Ralph Sturtevant of the 13^th Regiment. “The morning of July 1 was cloudy and gloomy, all was commotion and confusion and the vast army all about was moving in the direction of Gettysburg....a grand and imposing spectacle. Every road was filled with a moving mass of soldiers occupying every available avenue, path or field over which an army could march. Everything seemed to be on the move, the forest, cattle-dotted meadowlands, fields of waving grain, the clouds about and the land beneath, all apparently moving in the same direction.”

The numbers alone are almost too overwhelming to comprehend. The 2^nd Vermont arrived at Gettysburg at sundown, after the first day's battle was over. Statistics vary, but the most commonly. quoted numbers are more or less 20,000 Union troops and around 30,000 Confederate troops on that first day. 50,000 soldiers fighting in a college town roughly the size of White River/Wilder. If you imagine White River downtown as the town, and Wilder being mostly flat farmland with ridges all around it, you could get a somewhat reasonable picture of the size of the battlefields, with the battlefields extending all the way from, say, the top of the hill where Hartford High School is to Dothan Brook School, but much wider, really wider than you can see. On that first day, while the 2^nd Vermont was still marching, fighting was fierce in the ridges, woods and stone walls around the town, sometimes spilling over into the town itself. Day One was a defeat for the Union. They withdrew through the town, forming a three mile long defensive line in a fishook formation, on Cemetary Hill and Cemetary Ridge south of the town.

You can see from the map (which I got off of Wikipedia) that on day one the fighting started north of town, the Union forces were driven through the town, and they managed to form a defensive line on Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge. If Lee had been able to regroup his troops real quick at the end

of that first day, and break through that fishhook line, Gettysburg would have been a one day battle and a Confederate victory. Confederate commanders decided not to try to take Cemetery Ridge because they felt their troops were too exhausted and that it would be better to wait for reinforcements.

                                           The view from Cemetary Ridge.  I think this road is the Baltimore Pike, and I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't a tree
                                                                     from the Copse of Trees

The Union's defensive position on Cemetery Hill and Ridge was crucial. Cemetery Hill right in the middle of all the roads leading into town, and also gave a commanding view of the town. The Baltimore Pike, running right in back of Cemetery Hill, was the most important road to the Union. This road ran north from Westminster, Maryland, which was the location of the railroad station where the Union Army offloaded supplies destined for Pennsylvania. General Mead, Commander of the Army of the Potomac, used the telegraph office in Westminster as his communication line to Washington.                                                                                   

The 2^nd Vermont arrived at Gettysburg at dusk on July 1. The battle was over for that day, but the evidence of battle would have been everywhere. They were directed to lay down to rest near a copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge. Keep these trees in mind.  Our guys didn't move far from this copse of trees until they left Gettysburg. Upon arrival, the 12^th regiment was ordered to go back 20 miles, to guard supply trains in Westminster. Howard Coffin quotes a letter from Roswell Farnum, from Bradford, second in command of the regiment. Farnum says, “Most of them (the troops) have blistered feet and I saw one man today whose feet were purple over two thirds of the bottom from blood settling. We marched eight days in succession and marched twenty-three and a half miles on the last day. It rained every day but one. The roads were very muddy and the mens' shoes gave out entirely in some instances.” The 12^th was about to march for 20 more miles. The next day, the 15^th regiment was ordered to guard supply wagons 2 ½ miles outside town. This left the 13^th, 14^th, and 16^th regiments on the battlefield.

On the second day, fierce fighting occurred all around the Union's fishhook defense line on Cemetery Ridge. If you look at the map, there were engagements in the Peach Orchard, Devil's Den, and from Wolf's Hill, all with Cemetery Ridge as their ultimate objective. These engagements are all worth studying. The fighting at Devil's Den and the fighting over Little Round top are especially legendary. The 2^nd Vermont was not the only Vermont Brigade at Gettysburg. The 1^st Vermont was there and ^th Vermont, which,  along with the 13^th and 14^th, stayed on the defense line at Cemetery Ridge. Although the battle didn't reach the ridge, they were being shelled and fired on.

held a reserve position at the rear of Big Round Top. There were Vermonters in three companies of sharpshooters, who fought on the second and third days. Here, I am just focusing on the the 16

Toward evening, a gap developed in the Union's line. Advancing Georgian soldiers almost made it over Cemetery Ridge, but Union soldiers, including the 13^th Vermont, beat them back, with the 14^th and 16^th as backup. The three Vermont units then took their places to fill the gap on the front line. At the end of the day, the fishhook was intact, although two days of brutal fighting had certainly taken its toll.

When night had finally fallen, Colonel Veazey posted a picket line along the ridge. Howard Coffin quotes Francis Clark from Bridgewater, who described the scene at about 9:00. “Here and there the moon revealed, amid the trampled grain, prostrate forms, whom no long roll, or reveille, could rouse again. The air was tremulous with sound, low and almost indescribably, resembling a far-off and just audible moaning of a forest of pines. It was the groaning of the wounded swelling up from field and wood and blending for miles in one low inarticulate moan.” The 16th Vermont ended their day sitting on cemetary ridge, in the dark, hearing the sounds of many thousands of wounded and dying men,

For the three Vermont regiments, the morning of July 3^rd began with incoming cannonfire. Lee's plan for July 3^rd was much the same as for the preceding day. July 2^nd had ended in an unsuccessful Confederate attempt to capture Culp's Hill. Looking now at a map of the battle on Day 3, Culp's Hill

is  on the right flank of the Union line. The curved part of the fishhook ends at Culp Hill. The fishhhook is a little bit longer. The Union has lengthened the defensive line to include Little Round Top hill and Round Top hill. Starting with the cannonfire at 4:30 AM, Confederate troops attacked Culp's Hill for 7 hours. At 11:30, Lee realized this tactic wasn't going to work. At noon, the fight for Culp's Hill was over.

Lee was still determined that this was it. The Confederate forces needed to damage the Union here at Gettysburg. He felt that this was the decisive moment of the war. He had attacked both ends of the fishhook, and had failed at both. Efforts to capture Little Round Top and Round Top during the morning on early July 2^nd had failed. Efforts to capture Culp's Hill during the evening of July 2^nd and morning of July 3^rd had failed as well. At noon on July 3, Lee decided that the Union line was weakest in the middle, and that would be the spot to focus Confederate strength.

For the boys from Vermont, noon was dead quiet and blisteringly hot. Some of the guys went to a nearby spring to fill canteens, and were shot at by rebel sharpshooters sitting in trees within range of the Spring. A quote from Coffin's book says that our soldiers are about one-third of a mile south of Cemetery Hill, at the foot of the west slope of Cemetery Ridge.

For an hour, there was dead quiet. Then at 1:00, all hell broke loose. 150 Confederate cannons began a bombardment that lasted for an hour and a half. The Union responded in kind, and both sides became enmeshed in an earsplitting exchange of shot and shell. In “Pickett's Charge”, by Richard Rollins, a soldier says, “The bombardment opened up with a fury beyond description. The earth seemed to rise up under the concussion, the air was filled with missiles, and the noise and din were so furious and overwhelming as well as continuous, that one had to scream at his neighbor lying beside him to be heard at all. The constant roar of nearly four hundred cannon on both sides, was terrific beyond description. Men could be seen bleeding from both ears from concussion.” With the bombardment, Lee hoped to weaken the Union defenses enough to make them easier to overwhelm by an attack. In reality, most of the shells landed to the rear of Union forces. On the other hand, Union shells met their mark, and inflicted a fair amount of damage.

At 2:30, the shelling stopped as suddenly as it started, and an eerie silence returned. Then, in the distance, a mile-long line of Confederates stepped out of the woods and began a slow, measured march across the fields in front of Cemetery Ridge. From the beginning of their mile-long march toward their objective of a clump of trees on the middle of the ridge, the Confederate soldiers were mowed down by guns defending the Union line. Returning fire the whole way, the rebels closed ranks and kept coming. A quote from Coffin's book says, “On they came, regardless of the carnage among them, nearer and nearer, until horse and rider, officer and private, standards and banners waving in the lead plainly seen, almost within musket range, the right wing now face to face with Stannard's brigade.”

As the Confederates advanced closer and closer to Cemetery Ridge and the copse of trees in the middle, they seemed to be headed directly toward the 14^th Vermont. The three Vermont regiments opened fire and “at every volley, the grey uniforms fell thick and fast” (Coffin). The attack was headed toward “The Angle” a part of the Union line that made a corner around a stone wall. The Confederates kept coming, regardless of the fact that Union fire had made huge gaps in their line. It looked like, in spite of overwhelming odds, the southern onslaught was going to break through the Union line

As the Confederate wave attacked the Union position at the angle, George Stannard realized that their right flank was completely exposed. He ordered the 13^th and the 16^th to swing around at a right angle and face the attackers at their right flank. All that time spent drilling while they were hanging out in Vermont ended up being time well spent, as this was a maneuver our guys had practiced many times. The 13^th and 16^th fired at almost point-blank range into Confederate ranks. This drove the Rebels back and made them bunch up, making them even more vulnerable to Vermont firepower.

It appeared that the fighting at The Angle had ended, with Vermont's men taking hundreds of prisoners and the flag of the 8^th Virginia becoming a possession of the 16^th Vermont, when yet another enemy contingent attacked. Again, Stannard sent his men into the fray, and hundreds more prisoners were taken, and another flag captured, the flag of the 2^nd Florida, taken by Charles Brink, of Weathersfield, also of the 16^th.

In later years, the spot of the engagement between Vermont troops and the Confederates from Virginia and Florida at the Angle would become known as the “High Water Mark”, the northernmost spot where Southern troops advanced into Union territory. There, Vermont troops overpowered the Southern invaders and sent them back into the South. The war would last for another two years, with the Confederacy always on the defensive.

After that final encounter, the three Vermont regiment returned to their original position, and weathered a last barage, delivered by Confederate artillery as a cover for their retreating infantry. During those final moments, General Stannard was wounded by a piece of shrapnel that hit his thigh and went down deep into the muscle. Although in agonizing pain, Stannard waited to receive medical care until he was sure all his remaining men were safe.

Of the original 2400 men at Gettysburg, 342 of the 2^nd Vermont were killed, wounded or missing in action. Of the 5 regiments comprising the brigade, there were soldiers from the Upper Valley in the 12^th, 15^th, and 16^th, and only the 16^th saw action on the actual battlefield at Gettysburg. An article by Anthony Buono, originally printed in “America's Civil War Magazine” available online at Historynet, quotes praise from Major General George Meade and Major General Abner Doubleday regarding Stannard and his Vermont regiments. “Meade said, 'There was no individual body of men who rendered a greater service at a critical moment then the comparatively raw troops commanded by General Stannard.' Major General Abner Doubleday said: 'It is to General Stannard…that the country is mainly indebted for the repulse of the enemy's charge and the final victory of July 3. [His] brilliant flank movement… greatly contributed to if it did not completely insure our final success.”

 

(I didn't want to interrupt the narrative of Pickett's Charge with a map, but here is a map depicting the charge.  You can see that of all of the Brigades named, they were all defensive except Stannard's.  Stannard's men are shown with arrows going back toward Pickett's incoming arrow, which indicates that they counterattacked in two directions. Again, I got all of these maps from Wikipedia.)

Windsor County Court May 28

Deven Hill, DOB 1/29/90 pled not guilty to charges of his second DUI, operating a motor vehicle with reckless or gross negligence, and attempting to elude a police officer in Bethel on May 22

Anne Speight, DOB 9/13/69, pled not guilty to a charge of her first DUI, in Springfield on May 10

Randolph Benson, DOB 1/7/80, pled guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license, in Ludlow on April 17

Sandra Mollica, DOB 8/18/43, pled not guilty to charges of reckless or negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and her first DUI, in Ascutney on May 22.

Melody Kelley, DOB 7/15/78, pled not guilty to charges of unlawful tresspass into an occupied residence, and interference with access to emergency services in Cavendish on May 7

Heather Hale, DOB 6/8/86 was charged with resisting arrest, giving a police officer false information to implicate another, possession of marijuana, and disorderly conduct/fight in Chester on April 215/

Barbara Sheldon, DOB 3/24/70, pled not guilty to charges of simple assault and unlawful mischief in Cavendish on April 26

Marie Townes, DOB 3/17/84 pled not guilty to a charge of simple assault, in Springfield on May 7

David Laclair, DOB 2/10/57, pled not guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct/obstruct and unlawful mischief, in Weathersfield on April 13

Daniel Gittings, DOB 8/10/67 pled not guilty to two charges of possession of marijuana, in Hartford on April 5.

Claes Mattson, DOB 6/13/54 was charged with violating conditions of release, and driving with a suspended license, in Woodstock on April 26

Gerald Haag, DOB 12/15/61 was charged with driving with a suspended license in Springfield on April 3

Steven Vielguth, DOB 7/11/86, pled not guilty to a charge of attempting to elude a police officer in Hartford on April 17

 

In other news, there was a sweep of drug dealers in Springfield today, with 33 arrests made. Apparently law enforcement spent six months planning and investigating for "Operation Precision Valley".  WCAX has a fairly long article, *and* a list of the accused drug dealers and the charges for each one. http://www.wcax.com/story/22632421/sweep-targets-drug-dealers-in-springfield

March to Gettysburg

In the Spring of 1863, the 2^nd Vermont Brigade was stationed in Northern Virginia. The soldiers who served in the 2^nd Vermont had signed up for a 9 month tour of duty. They spent the winter camped at Fairfax Courthouse, where, in March, their Brigade commander, Edwin Stoughton, was captured by John Mosby, the Confederate “Gray Ghost”. Stoughton was replaced by George Stannard, who arrived and took command on April 20^th.

Spring brought good weather, and a resumption of engagement in battle. The Battle of Fredericksburg was very close to Fairfax Courthouse. From their camp, the Vermont boys could hear the cannons and feel the ground shake. In his book “Nine Months to Gettysburg”, Howard Coffin quotes Colonel Veazey, commander of the 16^th Vermont division, writing home to his wife Julia, “Hooker began to fight. We can hear continuous cannonading. What I would give to be with him. I sometimes think fortune is against me in this military business.” Lieutenant Colonel Cummings writes in the same vein, when he reports the outcome of the Battle. “Hooker's attempt, like those of his predecessors, is a failure. It does seem as if the Army of the Potomac is fated to ill success.”

At this point, the Vermont Brigade had been away from home since October, and had yet to see any real action, although a couple of regiments had been involved in some skirmishes along the railroad lines. Railroad lines were often scenes of action because whichever side controlled the railroad controlled transportation of their men, equipment and supplies. During late April and into May, the Vermont regiments went out along the front to guard railroad crossings and bridges. One regiment would go out for two weeks. At the end of two weeks, that regiment would return to camp and a different regiment would replace it. Coffin's book is full of soldiers writing home telling of what they saw on the way to the railroad, on the way back from the railroad, and how the land was so flat they could see from one railroad crossing to the next.

As interesting as this might sound, our boys were getting discouraged. They hadn't seen any real action, and had not participated in any battles, yet at the same time, kept hearing dismal reports about Union defeats. The warmer weather brought diseases, especially typhoid. It had to be depressing to leave Vermont to serve your country, go all the way to Virginia, be in enemy territory, and have your worst enemy be typhoid fever, and see your friends die all around you, without getting to do what you went there for. To stave off boredom and to make sure the men would be ready for battle if indeed the time came, General Stannard had the troops drill constantly. The marches to and from the railroads also helped keep the men in shape.

As May turned into June, it became apparent that Robert E Lee was moving his troops north. The men in the 2^nd Vermont were nearing the end of their 9 months' enlistment. Mid summer is the time for war. As the Army of Northern Virginia moved north, there was great concern for Washington, DC. Another rumor afloat was that Lee was headed for Maryland or Pennslyvania. Howard Coffin quotes Colonel Veazey when he wrote to his wife, “It is a splendid time for fighting now. We stand a poor chance of seeing any as our time is near out. I shall not have many honors to bring back to you this time.

On June 23^rd, the 2^nd Vermont was ordered to rendezvous at Union Mills, and once all the regiments had arrived, the brigade would begin a march to join the I Corps, commanded by Major General To get ready for a long march, and because they were short-timers anyway, the troops jettisoned everything they didn't really need, that would make the march more difficult. All of the equipment and items that had made their life more comfortable during the winter they spent in Virginia were left behind.

They w.ere right – it was a long, hard march. Not long after they started on the road, it began to rain and turn the roads muddy. The intermittent rain didn't cool off the temperature, though, and the men were slogging through muddy roads, in rain and hot, steamy humidity, with their wool uniforms making them even hotter.

The other regiments in the I Corps were used to hard marches. The I Corps had seen plenty of action. They were war seasoned veterans compared to the 2^nd Vermont, which had seen no real action and no hard marches. Yet the Vermonters gave it their best shot and managed to gain on the I Corps. Still, General Stannard wanted them to move even faster, so he ordered the officers to get rid of all their luggage, which the enlisted men had already done, and he also gave an order that no man would leave ranks to get a drink of water. The men quickened their pace, but the heat and dust caused some to pass out and even have convulsions.

As they left the south and entered into Frederick, Maryland, they were cheered by the townspeople, with pretty girls waving handkerchiefs. This was the first time they'd seen friendly faces since Springfield, Massachusetts, and it was an encouraging sight. When they stopped to camp for the night, townspeople came into camp bringing home cooked food for sale, the first good food the men had seen since Christmas.

While the Army of the Potomac moved north, a Confederate brigade went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, looking for shoes. This brigade met some union cavalry, and the engagement between the two brought forces from both sides streaming along the nine roads that led into the town.

By June 30^th, the 2^nd Vermont was exhausted, having marched for 6 days, in rain and mud, and in dust and heat. Howard Coffin writes that on that morning General Stannard got a message from General Reynolds saying to move even faster, that in a few hours his corps would be engaged and he would need all the troops he could get. The Battle of Gettysburg was about to begin.

Windsor County Court, May 21

Shari Cabral, DOB 10/30/76, pled not guilty to a charge of larceny from a person in Hartford on April 22.

Anne Thompson, DOB 1/31/80 pled not guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact, in Hartford on April 22

Jennifer Bell, DOB 11/29/88 was charged with simple assault, in Hartford on April 22.

These three charges stemmed from a fight on a bus that was traveling to the methadone clinic in New Hampshire

Charles Rogers, DOB 1/ 4/77 pled guilty to a charge of his second DUI, and operating without a license in Royalton on May 10

Gerald Peck, DOB 12/29/79, pled guilty to a charge of possession of depressant, narcotic or stimulant in Ludlow on April 16

Joshua Martin, DOB 11/1/85, pled guilty to a charge of possession of a depressant, narcotic or stimulant in Ludlow on April 16

Thelma Dezaine, DOB 5/24/71, pled not guilty to a charge of aggressive domestic assault in Springfield on April 15.

Tammy Smith, DOB 4/3/70, pled not guilty to a charge of possession of cocaine in Springfield on March 28

Danny Davis, DOB 11/3/71, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Hartford on May 14

Nicole Martowicz, DOB 7/28/91, pled guilty to a charge of careless or negligent operation

Darryl Strong, DOB 1/7/80, pled not guilty to 2 counts of possession of depressant, stimulant or narcotic in Hartford on April 7

Christopher Kingsbury, DOB 10/29/77, pled not guilty to charges of driving with a suspended license, and being in violation of conditions of release, in Ludlow on April 13. In January, he was also charged with his fourth DUI, and operating with reckless or gross negligence, in Chester on January 20.

Mitchell Fifield, DOB 1/27/87, pled guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license, in Hartford on April 7

Tina Boudreau, DOB 8/14/76, pled not guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both, in Hatford on April 7

Robert Smart, DOB 2/17/62, pled not guilty to a charge of possession of narcotics, in Springfield on March 29

Jose Santiago, DOB 10/21/76 pled guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana, in Springfield on April 12

Francesco Escribano, DOB 8/21/82, pled guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana in Springfield on March 31

Aaron Chapman, DOB 5/10/65, pled guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana in Hartford on May 11

Jane Brezosky, DOB 2/7/63, pled not guilty to a charge of petit larceny in Hartford on May 1. In a separate case, she pled not guilty to a charge of her first time driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or both, in Windsor on April 30.

Sean Groehle, DOB 5/27/93, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Hartford on May 12

Marie Townes, DOB 3/17/84, pled guilty to a charge of giving false information to a police officer in Springfield on March 31.

The 2nd Vermont Gets a New Commander

In March of 1863, the Sixteenth Vermont regiment was encamped at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia. They functioned mostly as protective troops for an outer perimeter around Washington, DC. The Sixteenth Vermont was commanded by Colonel Wheelock Veazey, who was liked and respected by his men, unlike Edwin Stoughton. The 16^th Vermont had a Company from Barnard, Company G, which had soldiers from Hartford, Pomfret, Bridgewater, and Sharon as well. . Although I have chosen to focus on the 16^th Regiment, the 12^th Regiment had companies from West Windsor, Tunbridge, Bradford and Woodstock, and the 15^th Regiment had a company from West Fairlee.

The 16^th Vermont was part of the 2^nd Vermont Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton. Stoughton had assumed command of the brigade just before Christmas, 1862. He was not a popular commander with the troops. He was an arrogant, mean ladies man who chose to lodge in a private boarding house owned by a southern family several miles away from Camp Vermont. On the night of March 8, this proved to be a serious mistake when he was captured and taken prisoner by John Mosby, also called the “Gray Ghost”, a Confederate hero.

There was lots of talk about Stoughton consorting with the enemy. He lived in a Confederate boarding house and was dating a beautiful Confederate young woman named Antonia Ford, who, immediately following Stoughton's capture, was arrested as a spy and thrown in a Union prison. It's hard to believe that Stoughton was actively disloyal to the Union, especially in light of the fact that he was the one captured that night. It seems more likely that his comfort and his love life were higher priorities than his duties to his men and the War.

Colonel Blunt again stepped in as interim commander of the Brigade, and soon had the men refocused on their duties as soldiers. Howard Coffin quotes Henry White of Bridgewater, in a letter he wrote to his sister: “Our Colonel has been drilling us in charge bayonet this week, designating some hill in the distance, he wants us to take. He would order: charge, bayonet forward, double quick. Then with a yell we would go forward double quick over fences, across brooks, through underbrush, and often not stop until after the bugle sounded. This type of drilling is terribly hard, but yet it is interesting and I like it." The makes one think, not surprisingly, that this is a new activity since Stoughton was captured.

On April 20^th, Edwin's Stoughton's replacement arrived to assume command of the 2^nd Vermont. Brigadier General George Stannard,born in Georgia, Vermont, was a farmer, teacher and foundry operator in St Albans, when he left his wife and four daughters to volunteer in the Union Army. There is a legend that he was the very first Vermonter to volunteer for the Civil War. He was elected to the position of  lieutenant colonel in 1861, and saw heavy action right up until the time he arrived to lead the 2^nd Vermont. George Stannard was the opposite of Stoughton. He commanded respect and admiration from the men on every level. In letters home to Vermont, there was no shortage of praise for Stannard, and of course, plenty of comparisons between Stannard and Stoughton, with Stannard found to be much preferred.

a lieutenant colonel in 1861, and saw heavy action right up until the time he arrived to lead the 2

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings was the next in command of the 16^th Vermont. He was a newspaper publisher from Brattleboro. The letters he wrote home from Virginia survived the War and you can read them online here: http://vermonthistory.org/documents/transcriptions/CummingsTranscriptions.pdf. Cummings, second in command, seems to have mixed feelings about all of the talk disparaging Stoughton. In a letter to his wife dated March 15^th, he says that he is “much pained” to read newspaper articles accusing Stoughton of having a “dalliance” with Antonia Ford. He tells his wife that the Colonel “could have seen but little of her, as his apartment and meals were taken care of by an old Negro wench.” He goes on to say that “General S is a handsome man, is young and fond of female society, but he never had the reputation, nor does any officer in this brigade believe, that he could be capable of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” If Howard Coffin's quotes are any indication, that is just what many of the other officers did believe. In fact, Coffin himself calls Cummings “the defender of General Stoughton”.

One has to wonder what led Cummings to defend Stoughton. Was he an idealist, trying to convince himself that a commander from Vermont could not have been having an affair with a Confederate spy? I have to confess that I would lean that way. My first thought was “Not a Vermonter!” Did he steadfastly adhere to a military code that wouldn't allow any public (even to his wife) criticism of his commanding officer? Did he think that because he was second in command, he had to adhere to a higher standard than the rest, above rumor and scandalmongering? But really, no officer in the brigade believed that Stoughton was screwing around with Antonia Ford? Okay, it was 1863, maybe they weren't “screwing around”. But they were “keeping company” to use a euphemism my mother loves, and it does appear that everyone knew it.

On the other hand, Cummings changes his tune a little in a letter dated March 21^st. He says “I expect General Stannard will be assigned to this brigade. He is a plain, practical man with an abundance of good sense, and with that a good soldier. If he comes he will live in a tent like the others of his command, and if he is is taken prisoner it will be after a fight, with the rest of his brigade.” This is obviously a reference to Stoughton. Possibly Cummings was starting to see the light, in view of an accumulation of negative evidence concerning Antonia Ford.

Charles Aiken was an enlisted man from Barnard, a 29 year old blacksmith who left his wife of four years to enlist in the Union army for 9 months. We don't know much about him. I assume he could write, and I'm pretty sure he sent letters home, but none of them survive.

Charles' father was in the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812, so there is a military tradition in his family. From what I can tell from Ancestry.com, and I researched this from every

angle I could find, Charles' father was Solomon Aikens, Jr. He was in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, Shay's rebellion, and he was involved in a riot at the courthouse in Windsor. Charles' mother, Elmira Wheeler, was his second wife. I can't find a marriage date, but she had her first child in 1825, when she was 28 and her husband was 62. Solomon was 70 when his son, Charles was born, and Charles was 10 when his father died at age 80.

I would love to know what Charles Aikens thought about the capture of Stoughton. Charles' father Solomon had been in two wars, was involved in two anti-government civil disturbances, and became a father at age 70. With that family background, as a blacksmith in a hill town, it is hard to imagine that he had much sympathy for a commander who got captured because he was consorting with a female spy.

Windsor County Court May 14th

Reginald Tatro, DOB 10/03/49 pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Hartford on May 9. In January, Tatro also pled not guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana, in Hartford on December 17.

Daniel Davis, DOB 4/22/94, pled guilty to charges of simple assault and unlawful mischief, on March 29 in Weathersfield.

Allen Lawrence, DOB 11/08/48, pled not guilty to operating a motor vehicle with gross negligence resulting in serious injury in Woodstock on March 30. This charge resulted from an automobile accident involving two horses and their riders. You can read about it here: http://www.thevermontstandard.com/2013/03/two-horses-riders-struck-by-vehicle-in-south-woodstock

Walter Farnsworth, DOB 7/1/73, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Harford on May 10

Stacy Robinson, DOB 9/28/90, pled not guilty to a charge of furnishing alcohol to minors in Hartford on March 14

Cassandra Clark, DOB 7/5/88, pled guilty to a charge of her first DUI, on May 5 in Windsor.

Alexandria Pugliese, DOB 6/6/89, pled not guilty to a charge of driving with a suspended license in Plymouth on April 6.

Roddy White, DOB 12/14/83, pled not guilty to a charge of possession of a depressant, stimulant or narcotic, and a charge of giving false information to implicate another in Hartford on April 24. he was also charged with disorderly conduct/fight, which occurred at the Shady Lawn motel in Hartford on March 21. White was also charged with using bad checks, in Hartford in August of 2012.

Timothy Fleming, DOB 4/28/58 pled guilty to a charge of retail theft in Springfield on March 9

Russel Koty, DOB 2/11/82 pled guilty to a charge of having less than 2 ounces of marijuana in Plymouth on March 28

James Tierney, DOB 11/20/74, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Hartford on April 27

Kristina Morgan, DOB 6/5/89. pled not guilty to a charge of heroin possession in Springfield on March 1, and also pled guilty to a charge of identity theft, that took place in Springfield on November 8, 2012

A Midnight Raid

On Sunday, the Old Redneck and I took our grandkids to the French and Indian battle reenactment at Fort Number Four. We had a blast. Our grandson is 7, just the right age to be thrilled with the soldiers, guns, and Indians. Fort Number Four is the perfect place to take kids that age. There is just enough new information to keep them interested and learning, and not enough to be overwhelming. All of the interpreters inside the fort do a great job. The whole experience was so enjoyable. There will be a reenactment of a Revolutionary War battle at the end of August. My grandson wants to go back to see it. It certainly is worth the trip and the money to go at least once.

Last time I posted, I left the 16^th Vermont Regiment in Fairfax, Virginia, on George Mason's farm, digging in for the winter and trying to make their camp as comfortable as possible before the temperature turned cold. They spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in Fairfax. Howard Coffin, in his book "Nine Months to Gettysburg" does a fantastic job describing how the 2^nd Vermont Brigade celebrated the holidays so far from home.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there was an unwelcome change in command for the 2^nd Vermont Brigade. Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton arrived to take charge. Stoughton was not a popular commander. Coffin quotes a member of the 16^th Vermont regiment, Joseph Spafford, who wrote, "Stoughton arrived here yesterday to take command of this brigade. I don't think anybody would have felt bad if he'd gone somewhere else." Coffin also quotes the Woodstock newspaper, "The Vermont Standard", "We lear that General stoughton has arrived to take command of the brigade. This news is received with regret by all, not out of disrespect for General Stoughton, for he is undoubtedly an able officer, but Colonel Blunt, who has been acting brigadier, has won the respect and esteem of every man in the brigade, and we had hoped he would remain in that position.

Stoughton was not the type of leader who commanded a lot of respect and admiration among his soldiers. He was arrogant and mean. He tended to mete out severe punishments for small infractions. He was a ladies' man.

Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton

 

Soon after Stoughton's arrival, many of the regiments, including the 16^th, left Camp Vermont and moved from George Mason's farm further south, to Fairfax Courthouse. Living conditions for the Confederate families still in the area were even worse in Fairfax Courthouse than they were on George Mason's former plantation. Charles Cummings says, in a letter home, "No fire, even if it should burn every house in our village of Brattleboro, could be half as desolating to the place as war has been to this part of Virginia. Houses, cattle, fences and inhabitants almost all gone – lands desolate and running to weeds and briars." In another letter he says, "Fairfax Courthouse is the dirtiest, nastiest, most destitute place I was ever in. It has been tore to pieces and nearly destroyed. There is not a house standing that is even half furnished, and I don't believe there are chairs enough in turn to seat all the inhabitants at one time." You always hear about Vermont soldiers who went away in the Civil War and saw places that were so much nicer than Vermont that they never came home. That doesn't seem to be the case for the soldiers of the 2^nd Vermont who were staying at Fairfax Courthouse. Charles Aiken was at Fairfax Courthouse , too, and chose to come back to Barnard after the war, and stayed there for the rest of his life.

Soon the troops were again working hard to make this new camp warm and dry for all. At Fairfax Courthouse, they built dwellings that had log foundations about halfway up, and then placed their tents on top of the logs. The men found these much more comfortable than the plain tents. While the men worked doggedly at making camp habitable, for the third time since they left Vermont, Colonel Stoughton lived in comfort in one of the few unscathed homes in the village. He had his mother and sister brought south from Vermont, and even bought a piano for the house. Worse yet, he was "keeping company" with a young confederate woman, Antonia Ford. Coffin tells us in "Nine Months to Gettysburg" that Antonia was the daughter of a local merchant, and a good friend of both John Mosby and J.E.B. Stuart, well-known Confederate officers. There has been a great deal of speculation about Antonia Ford. Was Colonel Stoughton collaborating with the enemy? Of course, that's where your mind goes when you read about a Vermont Colonel dating a Confederate woman. Also, Stoughton was not well-liked, and his sketchy behavior would have given his enemies plenty of opportunity to bad-mouth him. In any case, Stoughton's comfortable quarters were a good three miles from where the troops were camped, and the whole situation did not do a lot to make his troops like him any better.

As 1862 turned to 1863, it seemed that the Vermont soldiers had brought snow and cold to Virginia. Significant snow storms, one bringing 18 inches of snow, and bitterly cold weather brought sickness into the camp. More men began dying of both pneumonia and typhus. Since leaving Brattleboro, the brigade had lost about 1,000 men, mostly from sickness.

It was a difficult winter for our Vermont boys. Although the weather in Virginia was unusually like Vermont's, one blessing was that the winter didn't last as long. By March, the snow had melted and the weather was turning warmer. Things began warming up in other ways, as well. John Singleton Mosby, also known as the "Gray Ghost" was a 29 year old Confederate hero who had become infamous for his guerilla tactics in Northern Virginia, executing quick strikes on unsuspecting Union targets, then disappearing into the surrounding landscape.

                                                                                                                       John Singleton Mosby

Mosby became an elusive foe, the "one to get". Colonel Percy Wyndham, and English adventurer who had enlisted with the Union, embarked on a mission to capture Mosby and failed. Mosby held a grudge and was determined to make Wyndham pay the price for antagonizing the "Gray Ghost".Wydham also had his headquarters at Fairfax Courthouse, which became the focus of Mosby's attention as he planned a revenge mission against the English colonel.

March 8, 1863 was a rainy night, and General Stoughton had gone to bed early. He was sound asleep when Mosby rode into town. As luck would have it, Colonel Wyndham wasn't there, so Mosby decided General Stoughton would have to do, as a replacement. Mosby overpowered the guard at Stoughton's house (but neither killed him nor took him prisoner), went right into Stoughton's bedroom, woke him up, and told him to get dressed, he was a prisoner. General Stoughton got dressed, and Mosby took him out into the night. Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton, commander of the 2^nd Vermont Brigade, ended up in the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, although he was soon released in a prisoner exchange.

As Mosby rode away from Fairfax Courthouse that night, with a high ranking Union officer as his prisoner, he thought he had accomplished a great feat for the Confederacy. Indeed, his exploits that night would have huge ramifications later on in 1863, but not in the way he had in mind on the night of March 8.

And the rest of the story....

Edwin Stoughton didn't go back to war, and he didn't go back to Vermont either. He joined his uncle's law practice in New York City, and died three years after the war ended, at age 30. He was quoted as saying he wished he had died in Libby Prison, rather than having to live with the disgrace of being captured by Mosby.

John Singleton Mosby survived the Civil War. At the end of the war, he went into hiding because of the huge price on his head. General Grant personally took steps to have him paroled. Mosby and Grant became friends, with Mosby even becoming a Republican and Grant's campaign manager. President Rutherford B. Hayes made Mosby Ambassador to Hong Kong. Later, he worked for the Department of the Interior and was an Assistant Attorney General. Mosby's wife, Pauline, died in 1876. They had 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls, and most lived to adulthood. Mosby was very proud of the fact that he helped two of his grandsons go to college.

Most internet sources agree that Antonia Ford was a spy.  Maggie Maclean's Civil War Women Blog - http://www.civilwarwomenblog.com/search/label/Civil%20War%20Spies explains that Ford's family ran a boarding house, and many Union commanders stayed there. She was personal friends with both J.E.B. Stuart and John Mosby. Antonia would eavesdrop on the

converstations among the Union commanders, and then relay whatever information she learned to Stuart and Mosby. She was arrested for spying and sent to Old Capital Prison, near Washington DC, just 8 days after Stoughton's capture. Major Joseph Willard, of Westminster, Vermont, was in charge of arresting Antonia and bringing her to prison. In the process, he, too, fell in love with her. Eventually, he successfully advocated for her release, and then married her. Her health was ruined during the 7 months she spent in prison. She died in 1871 after having had three children.


                                                                                                                                     Antonia Ford

Windsor County Court, May 14

Reginald Tatro, DOB 10/03/49, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, on May 9 in Hartford

Reginald Tatro also pled not guilty to a charge of possession of marijuana on December 17 in Hartford

Tatro was also charged with Federal Drug Charges in January, 2013. You can read the account of the charges here. http://www.justice.gov/usao/vt/press/releases/20130115_tatro.html

Daniel Davis, DOB 4/22/94 pled guilty to charges of simple assault and unlawful mischief on March 29, 2013 in Weathersfield

Lawrence Allen, DOB 11/08/48, pled not guilty to a charge of operating a vehicle with gross negligence resulting in serious injury, in Woodstock on March 30. This is in regards to an accident involving a horse. Read about it at https://www.equinechronicle.com/breaking-news/two-riders-injured-one-horse-dead-in-traffic-crash-in-vermont.html

Walter Farnsworth, DOB 7/1/73, pled not guilty to a charge of his first DUI, in Hartford on May 10.

Stacy Robinson, DOB 9/28/90 pled not guilty to a charge of furnishing alcohol to minors in Hartford on March 14

Cassandra Clark, DOB 7/5/88, pled guilty to her first DUI charge, in Windsor on May 5

Alexandria Pugliese, DOB 6/6/89 pled not guilty to driving with a suspended license in Plymouth on April 6

Roddy White, DOB 12/14/83, pled not guilty to charges of possession of depressant, stimulant or narcotic, and giving false information to a police officer to implicate another, in Hartford on April 24

Roddy White is also involved in active court cases involving charges of using bad checks in August of 2012, and a charge of disorderly conduct/fight on March 21, 2013, at the Shady Lawn Motel in Hartford

Timothy Fleming, DOB 4/28/58, pled guilty to a charge of retail theft in Springfield on march 9

Russell Koty, DOB 2/11/82, pled not guilty to a charge of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana in Plymouth on March 28

James Tierney, DOB 11/20/74, pled not guilty to his first DUI charge, in Hartford on April 27

Kristina Morgan, DOB 6/5/89 pled not guilty to a charge of heroin possession in Springfield on March 1. Morgan is also involved in an active court case involving identity theft in Springfield in November of 2012.

Meeting the Enemy - 16th Vermont in Fairfax, Virginia

The 2^nd Vermont brigade, composed of the 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, and 16^th Vermont regiments, was made up of soldiers who had signed up for a nine month enlistment in the Civil War, answering Lincoln's call for troops of August, 1862. There were men from the Upper Valley in the 12^th regiment, with companies from West Windsor, Woodstock, Tunbridge and Bradford, with Roswell Farnham from Bradford as their Lieutenant Colonel. The 15^th regiment had a company from West Fairlee, and the 16^th Vermont had a company from Barnard and a company from Bethel. Charles Aikens, from Bradford, was a member of the 16^th regiment, and Charles Cummings was the lieutenant colonel. The 2^nd Vermont headed south toward the battlefields in stages, with the 16^th being the last regiment to reach Washington, DC.

On Monday, November 3, 1862, the 16^th brigade was given an hour and a half to pack their gear in readiness for a march south. After a 10 mile march, they arrived at the site of what would be their winter camp in Alexandria, Virginia. They marched through some beautiful country. Charles Cummings wrote home to his wife, “We marched a somewhat circuitous route about ten miles, passing Fairfax Seminary, naturally one of the lovelies places I ever saw, now despoiled of much of its beauty by a year and a half occupation by our troops..........The buildings are in good order and consist of a large central edifice, finer than any building in Vermont except the capital.”

Charles Cummings was the editor of a Brattleboro newspaper, and would have had the opportunity to see Vermont's capitol. We can be pretty sure that Charles Aikens had not been to Montpelier, and at Fairfax Seminary he probably saw the most impressive architecture that he had ever seen. Charles Aikens was probably familiar with the courthouse in Woodstock, which was the pride and joy of Windsor County, having been built in 1854-55.

Fairfax Seminary was an Episcopal seminary. It was taken over by the Union Army, and was General McClellan's headquarters at the beginning of the war. When the Vermonters passed by the school, McClellan was no longer the Commander of the Union forces. Six days after the Vermonters passed Fairfax Seminary, Lincoln removed McClellan from his command of the Army of the Potomac, and replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside. After McClellan's exit, Fairfax Seminary became the site of a Union hospital, which served 1700 soldiers during the course of the war. Five hundred Union soldiers are buried on the grounds of the school. Fairfax Seminary exists today, as the Virginia Theological Seminary.

The 2^nd Vermont made its winter camp in Alexandria, Virginia, on the property of George Mason. George Mason was an avowed secessionist who nonetheless found his home invaded by a thousand soldiers from Vermont. Mr. Mason kept a white sheet hung out of an upstairs window to indicate surrender, but Colonel Blunt, Brigade Commander, made it clear that the landowner would not be treated well until he traded the white sheet for a Union flag, and took an oath of allegiance to the United States Government. Howard Coffin discusses George Mason at length in “Nine Months to Gettysburg”, and Charles Cummings mentions him in one of his letters home. Cummings says, “His barn is used for stabling horses, his farm is despoiled, and he is prevented from communicating to any considerable extent with the outer world, and yet some of our officers think and say that even his family, women and children should receive no protection because the head of their family is at heart a rebel. The colonel and I fight such inhuman notion. We cannot see why his larder should be robbed and defenseless women, children and niggers be left to starve and beg on account of the notions the head of the family may entertain.”

As the brigade went about constructing huts to spend the winter in, there was a great deal of political upheaval in the camp. Colonel Asa Blunt was the commander in charge in November, but Charles Cummings mentions to his wife that there was talk of Colonel (Wheelock) Veasey, commander of the 16^th regiment, taking command of the whole brigade. This would result in a promotion for Cummings, as he would become regiment commander. All of Cummings' speculation went for naught, however, because on December 7, Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton arrived to assume command of the 2^nd Vermont .

George Mason was about 65 in 1862, which was pretty elderly in the mid 19^th century, certainly really old to have your home invaded by a thousand enemy soldiers. He had been married three times. His first wife was Ann Louise Harrison, who died in 1822. She must have died in childbirth, as they had a daughter, Ann Louise, who was born in 1822 and lived less than a year. His next wife was his cousin, Virginia Mason. They were married in 1827, and Virginia died in 1838, never having had any children. George married his third wife, another cousin, Sally Eilbeck Mason, who was 24 years younger than he was. She had two children, Kora and George. Kora would have been 15 and George 14 in 1862. Kora married and lived until she was in her 40's but didn't have any children. George lived with his mother until he died in 1888, his mother dying that same year. Kora died the next year.

This picture is a picture of George Mason's home, called Spring Bank, just before it was demolished in 1972. The property changed hands many times over the years. The house was originally a 25 room mansion, but over the years it was gradually whittled away, with all of its window and door pediments taken off, and the portico removed. In its very last years, the house was an apartment house and the rest of the property was a trailer park, before the property was sold one last time and the house torn down to make way for a K-Mart.

Windsor County Court, May 7

Max Shepherd DOB 5/9/88, pled not guilty to charges of burglary and assault in Hartford on March 21.

Paul Whipple, DOB 10/25/66 pled guilty to a charge of his first DUI in Barnard on May 1.

Donald Johnson, DOB 4/15/51 pled not guilty to two charges of unlawful tresspass in Royalton on March 17.

Bette Boyd, DOB 4/11/38, pled guilty to her second DUI charge, in Chester.

Thomas Grant, DOB 12/01/89 pled not guilty to his first DUI charge, in Windsor on April 28.

Brandon Thomas, DOB 2/7/84, pled not guilty to a charge of simple assault in Springfield on March 13.

Joshua Martin, DOB 11/1/85, pled not guilty to a charge of possession of cocaine in Ludlow on December 19, 2012.

Tixi Apuhango, DOB 5/17/77 was charged with having a suspended license while operating a vehicle.

Brittany Daniels, DOB 4/25/85, pled guilty to disturbing the peace and threatening harm by phone, on March 11 in Springfield.

Amy Perreault, DOB 11/10/89, pled guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in Chester on April 7

Jason Amsden, DOB 8/2/74, pled not guilty to his third DUI charge, in Cavendish on April 26

Billy Joe Putnam, DOB 7/28/74, pled not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct/obstructing justice and reckless or negligent operation of a vehicle in Chester on March 31.

The 16th Vermont Leaves Home

Charles Aikens enlisted in Company G, from Barnard, on September 4, 1862. Charles and his compatriots spent most of September learning how to march and practicing military maneuvers. On October 9, they left Barnard for Brattleboro, Vermont.

There were five nine-month Vermont regiments, the 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th and 16^th. Company G was in the 16th regiment, commanded by Wheelock Veasey.   All five trained together at Camp Lincoln in Brattleboro.  Once they got to Camp Lincoln, the troops received their weapons and uniforms.  Howard Coffin, in his book “Nine Months to Gettysburg” quotes Private George Benedict, of the 14^th regiment. “The overcoats, knapsacks, belts, cartridge boxes and haversacks were distributed yesterday morning, completing our equipment. The whole form an amount of harness which strikes the unsophisticated recruit with a slight feeling of dismay.”

Another soldier wrote home that it was difficult to find uniforms to fit. “The Government did not have in mind the stalwart Yankee boys of the Green Mountain State when giving out the contract for manufacture of army clothing, for a number could not find dress coats large enough, or trousers long enough.” The young men of Vermont were well fed compared to young men from other states. The topic of food comes up time and time again in Coffin's book. The further south our boys went, the more they complained about the food.

The 16^th Vermont was officially mustered into the United States Army on October 23^rd. There was quite a bit of controversy among the recruits regarding their nine months. Some felt that their nine months should have started the day they signed up, especially in light of the fact that they had spent most of September drilling and learning maneuvers rather than their regular jobs. All agreed that at the very least, their term of service should have started when they left Barnard and arrived in Brattleboro. But no, their nine months started when they were officially mustered in.

The 16^th left Vermont in the very early morning of October 24^th, on steam trains headed south. I grew up in Northfield, Massachusetts, on west side of the Connecticut River. The railroad tracks pass directly in back of my house, which was built in 1843. As I researched this story, I realized that Charles and the rest of the 16^th Vermont traveled right by my house, which was only 19 years old at that time. Howard Coffin describes townspeople coming out of their houses and waving handkerchiefs at the passing soldiers, who waved back. I wondered if the people who lived in my house did the same thing. The house is very near the track.

As the soldiers traveled south, they stopped in Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut, where they were treated to lunches including good coffee, cake and fruit. Apparently the treats there included more than food. Coffin quotes Roswell Farnham, a commander of the 12^th regiment, saying, “We had some trouble with the boys, there were so many girls about. Some of them were rather loose in their manners but their free and easy style suited many.” 

 

                                                                                                                              Roswell Farnum, from Bradford

 

 Also in Coffin's book, a drummer boy relates his conversation with the girls from Hartford. “You have done nobly, but not quite as well as the girls from Springfield.” When the Hartford girls asked where they had  fallen short the boy replied, “They kissed us.” The Hartford girls replied, “We will not be beaten by Springfield,” and the rest is left to the reader's imagination. One would hope that Charles Aiken wasn't kissing the girls along the way, seeing as how he had left a wife at home. With the average age of the Vermont recruit being 22, Aiken was somewhat older at 29.

By the time they got to Springfield, Massachusetts, the vast majority of the Vermont recruits were farther away from home than they had ever been before. We have no way of knowing how far away from home Charles Aikens had traveled before he joined the Union Army, but almost certainly not as far away as Springfield, Massachusetts.

South of Springfield, the soldiers' experience was not as warm and welcoming as it had been in New England. They spent the night in New York City, and were served soup that the Vermont boys thought was better suited to be fed to the hogs. This type of soup was probably standard fare for young men living in New York City at that time. Our boys were used to much better food at the dinner tables of their farmhouse homes in Vermont.

The 16^th Vermont arrived in Washington, DC at the end of October. All of the Vermont regiments were brigaded together. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings, of the 16^th Vermont, tells his wife in a letter home that he can see the dome of the Capitol building, a mile from his tent. At first, the soldiers' tents were so small they didn't even keep the rain off, but the men quickly got busy enlarging the tents with anything they could buy or find, and furnishing them the same way. In several days, they had done wonders, most of them even managing to rig up stoves for their tents.

Immediately after they had managed to improvise decent quarters, the 16^th Vermont received orders to move further south. In an hour and a half, according to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings, they packed up their gear and began marching. After a march of 10 miles, they reached Alexandria, Virginia, where they would spend most of the winter. With their arrival in Alexandria, they were officially in enemy territory.

 

A word about my sources: I highly recommend Howard Coffin's "Nine Months to Gettysburg". It is the best Civil War book I've read.  It's highly readable, with plenty of human interest stories.  Coffin includes stories of the loved ones the soldiers left behind, and quotes letters and diaries.  You really get attached to the characters in the book. Absolutley riveting reading.

 

If you are willing to spend some time looking, you can find lots of letters and diaries from Civil War soldiers online.  Vermont has done a great job of preserving and posting primary sources,  much more so than other states. Charles Aikens and Charles Cummings were in the 16th Vermont.  Roswell Farnum, from Bradford, was Lieutenant Colonel in the 12th regiment.  The 12th and 16th were together during the beginning part of the 9 months.  The 12th Vermont had companies from West Windsor, Tunbridge, Bradford, and Woodstock. I would like to stick to just quotes from the 16th Vermont, but I don't have access to enough of them to use.