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 16th 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 16th
Regiment, the 12th Regiment had companies from West
Windsor, Tunbridge, Bradford and Woodstock, and the 15th
Regiment had a company from West Fairlee.
The 16th Vermont was part
of the 2nd 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 20th, Edwin's
Stoughton's replacement arrived to assume command of the 2nd
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 2nd
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.
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cummings
was the next in command of the 16th 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 15th, 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 21st. 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.
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