Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-08-15

The Burial of a Gallant New Hampshire
Colonel Under the Battery Nalis Dy
Confederate Officer.

Confederate OHSet-
The final resting place of the'remains |
Col. Haldimand Sumner Putnam, gal
LIANT Federal officer in the late war, and |
grandson of General Israel Putnam, OF
revolutionary fame. is exciting inquiry In
the New England States.
Colonel Putnam was in command of the /
Seventh New Hampshire Regiment OF
volunteers at the stOrming Of Fort Wag-
ner, Charleston Harbor, July IS, 1888, !
and fell at the head Of his command under /
the sweeping fire Of the Confederate bat |
teries with the masses Of dead who died |
in that memorable conflict.
His body was recovered from the ditch |
where he fell, and the next day was /
buried on the beach by his old cOmrade
and classmate at the United States Mill /
tary Academy at West Point, General /
r. H. Anderson, of this city, who was
then Inspector General of the Confederate |
troops in South Carolina and Georgia.
General Anderson, in recalling the
death of his old classmate. related the |
incident to a representative Of the MORN
ING NEWS.
Il was in Charleston said the General, |
1.-The day of the battle, and the next day /
| went over TO the island to look over the |
battle ground. On entering the fort | met /
Captain Guerard, Quartermaster OF the sd |
Georgia regiment, commanded by Colonel |
G.. p. Harrison, who asked me if / knew !
Colonel Putnam. a Federal officer of New |
Hampshire. / replied that did, and that /
we were classmates together at West /
Point, but | had not seen him since we
left the Academy in 1857. Cap /
tain Guerard then showed me
pair of ColOners shoulder straps,
which he said had been taken from the
uniform of the Federal officer. | asked
to be shown the body. The dead were
lying together in the fort stripped of their
uniforms and bearing no marks to distin-
guish officer from private. L was taken
to the body SAID to be that of Colonel Put
nam. 1t had been six years since
we had met. / remembered him as a
cadet. but | recognized at once the
peculiar olive complexion he bore, and
his form and build. When we left the
Academy his face was smooth, but as 1
found him there among the dead 1t was
covered with a heavy military beard.
His features were disfigured by the fatal
grapeshOt which had struck him in the
centre of the forehead, but l was certain
of his identity from the features which
had been fixed in my memory during our
schOOlSdays together.
Il appied to General HagOOd. who was
then in command of the fort, for detail
Of soldiers and permission to give the re-
mains Of the dead officer an honorable
burial, stating that he was an old friend
and classmate. This was stubbOrnly re-
fused, but. through the assistance OF Col.
+. G. Anderson. detail was afterwards
obtained. | took the body from among the
dead and dug a grave in the sand, just
outside the fort. on the beach, and only
few feet from the parapet walls, where
the body was placed. After the BURIAL
| took from my pocket card and
wrote upon it: Col. II. :. Putnam, U. ;.
A., buried by Col. r.. H. Anderson, {. ;.
A. and fastened it upon board which
placed at the head Of the grave. That
is the last | ever saw of the remains OF
my old classmate."
IAN armistice was afterwards pro-
claimed" continued General Anderson,
for the burial Of the dead of both forces.
| learned that a flag Of truce was sent
from the Federal lines asking for the
body of Col. Putnam, and that some body
was returned, but whether the grave was
opened and the remains OF Col. Putnam
were disinterred do not know"
about two years ago. he added. Il
received a letter from the family OF the
dead officer asking if there was any proba-
bility that the grave of Col. Putnam could
be found and his remains discovered. The
State of New Hampshire had erected a
handsome monument to his memory, and
sought to place beneath it the remains of
the soldier it would commemorate. |
gave all the information | possessed, but
replied that it would hardly be possible
now to find the grave on the beach.
where it had been washed by
the waves for eighteen years, and that
il the body had been removed it doubt
less had been buried in a common grave
in the Federal cemeteries at Beaufort or
Hilton Head, where it would be difficult
to discover
Recently a controversy has been going
on in Massachusetts as to the identity OF
Colonel Putnam with Colonel Robert q. /
Shaw. who commanded the Fifty-fOurth /
Massachusetts Regiment (colOred) in the (
same fight. 1t has been surmised that (
General Anderson might have mistaken /
the body OF Colonel Shaw for that of Col. /
Putnam. but the circumstances of the |
discovery hardly justify this belief. The /
brigade commanded by Col. Putnam was
composed of white troops and attacked /
the battery next to the beach. While the /
cOlOred regiment commanded by Col. Shaw /
made its attack some distance beyond, !
with a considerable space intervening. /
The body of Col. Shaw was found in the /
ditch where he fell at the head Ofhis forces, I
and was buried with his men. In letter /
written sometime afterward by Assistant /
Surgeon Luck, of the United states Navy, /
be made this statement which confirms /
the belief that the body of Col. Shaw could /
not have been taken for that of /
Col. Putnam: Il was taken prisoner the |
morning after the assault on Fort Wag- 4
ner South Carolina, July 10, 1863, While /
being conducted into the fort / saw Col. |
Shaw of the Fifty-fOurth Massachusetts /
(cOlOred) regiment lying dead upon the .
ground just outside the parapet \ stall I
wart negro man had fallen near him. (
The COnfederates said the negro man was /
a cOlOr-sergeant. The Colonel had been 4
killed by rifle shot through the chest, /
though he had received other wounds. /
Brigadier General HagOOd, commanding
the Confederate forces, said TO me, Il knew
Col. Shaw before the war and then esteemed /
him. Had he been in command Of white
troops | should have given him an honor
able burial AS it is / shall bury him i'm
the common trench with the negroes that
fell with him. The burial party were
then at work and no doubt Colonel Shaw
was buried just beyond the ditch of the
fort i'm the trench where | saw the dead
unfortunately thrown. Two days at
forwards a Confederate surgeon DR..
Dawson, of Charleston. South Carolina, /
think told me that HagOod had carried
out his threat
In continuing, General Anderson re-
lated some interesting incidents in the
history of Colonel Putnam. He was a ma
tive of Cornish, n. H., and was born on
the 18th of October, 1885. He graduated
from the Military Academy at West
Point in 1857, and served until early in
1861 in various localities on the Western
frontier. When the capture of Fort Pick
ems was threatened. he was sent from
Washington as a special bearer of dis
patches to the commander Of that fort,
and upon his return was seized by the
military authorities at Montgomery, and
suffered short Imprisonment.
Later he served with credit and dis
tinction on General McDOwelPs staff, par
ticipating i'm the battle of Bull Run. Re-
qnested to accept the command of the
Seventh New Hampshire Regiment, he at
first declined upon the ground that he
was too young for such responsibility,
but finally accepting, he led this regiment
to the field. He served in all the opera
tions of the department of the South, in
which his regiment was engaged, and for
several months previous to his death
commanded brigade. In the assault on
Fort Wagner he commanded the second
brigade, and after the most gallant efforts
to capture the work, fell dead upon the
parapet.