The Press., 1883-07-12
[From the Hartford Post SINGULAR FATALITY.

SINGULAR FATALITY.
 5 "REMINISCENCES OF HARTFORD OFFICER HOW GROUP OF soMERs BOYS PER1sHE1 IN THE WAR.
 ssAn ill fate seemed to follow them from the outset, remarked Colonel Clapp the other evening, as he recalled group o1 !, ed in Pasco's old command, Company A. of the Sixteenth regiment. ''Six of the , number were killed or died from wounds or sickness at the front, and the remain. ing two were discharged or transferred to the invalid corps in broken down health. l The oldest of the lot was Corporal R. Ce- Gil Barrett, who, at the time of his enlist. ment was a teacher in the Somers schools. ) He was better adapted to teaching than to the hardships of the field, and only en. listed out of patriotic impulse" "He never went into an engagement" " observed one of the colonel's companions, without having to fight two battles, one against the enemy and the other against his constitutional timidity." "But he was none the less he roic for that, added another who had seen him conquer himself and do valiant ser vice right in the teeth of the enemys guns on the Edenton road at Suffolk, Va.
 But the group as 8 whole, continued Colonel Clapp, was of young men, boys al- most There was Henry w. Barber a young fellow of 20, perhaps, who was kill ed one Sunday afternoon on the Nause- mond. He was fine specimen of New England boy, and went into the engage ment full of spirit and alacrity, but with 8 singular presentiment that it was to be his last fight. And sure enough it was At Antietam 8 couple of the group had fallen victims to the chances of war.
 POOR w1LDMAN's FATE.
 Oh Wildman. We all remember him, exclaimed half dozen voices, as the col onel mentioned one of the youngest of the Somers delegation. He was a strange mixture of humanity, and had grown up without the care and solicitude which a good home provides. But his death was as gallant as 8 hero's and atoned for 8 thou sand faults and defects of training. The Sixteenth had just been ordered into the fatal cornfeld at Antietam. Down to- wards the extreme left of Company A could be seen the figure of young soldier, whose face was firm and resolute as veterans. It was moment when mems souls were tried. But the young soldier did not finch. All that was best in him was brought out in that supreme moment of | trial The regiment pressed forward into the very jaws of death. The day or two after that when the dead were carefully gathered together by the survivors, Corne- Illus Wildman was found with his face to the sky and his feet to the foe. He had been shot dead on the advance, and fell with his musket clasped so firmly in his hand that 1t required great deal of effort to release it. On his little finger was tiny band of gold, which was removed by afectionate hands and sent back to the north. Edward Hagar, another member of the group, was fatally wounded in the same engagements and died a few days later in one of the field hospitals. He was one of the finest looking fellows in the company, and as strong and active in mus cular development as an acrobat. It was hard to see such fine specimens of physi- ical manhood shot down in the very bloom and splendor of youth.
 SHOT AT THE DEAD LINE. ~s
 James Drake WAS the last of the group to fall by rebel shot, He had gone through the active campaigns of the reg iment, and had escaped unharmed. At Plymouth he was captured by the rebels sonville. From that most damnable of southern crimes he was taken to Florence, s. C., and inearcerated in the stoekade there. He was alone so far as townsmen were concerned, all of his old friends from Somers having died or been discharged from the service. His mind was affected with the constant hrooding oyer the fate of his companions, the boys whom he had played with at home and enlisted with when the darkest of the war days set in. The presentlment gained possession of him that his fate would be like that of the oth- CTS. One night at Florence, while half dellrlous with sickness, he crawled out from his quarters and unconsciously ap- preached the dead line. The rebel guard on duty saw him through the darkness, and without g word of warning fired shot through his body, from which he died few hours later in intense agony, It was In keeping with the rebel practice. Many man was shot down in that way in the prisons at Andersonville and Florence.
 "But there are couple more of the group to be accounted for, suggested one Of Colonel olapps companions.
 "Yes, three,'' added another. '"That is so, said the colonel. ''One of them, Fran cls Aborns, died after the regiment had been out seven or eight months. The see- ond, Lester R. Smith, was transferred to the invalid corps in July 1868. The third was generous hearted boy, named Whit ney B. Lathrop, who died in October, 1863, from the exhaustion of the service. He was one of the youngest members of the company and possessed many admirable traits of eharaeter, making him genera! favorlte with his comrades. It was pity to see his young life go out, and the pa tlence with which he met the end was touching in the extreme One of the reg 1ment went up from Newport News to the hospital at Hampton to see him, and the meeting will long be remembered, so gen. tie and kindly was young Lathrop in the last greeting which he had for his old friend and associate. Most of us are past the middle of life now, but these old days cannot he reealled without aimmed eyes, though they are twenty years back of us. "