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Captain Samuel Brown - "One of the heroes who
made the supreme sacrifice in the Civil War was Captain Samuel Brown. He
was born in Peabody in 1836, the son of Samuel and Fanny (Marsh) Brown. His
father was the builder of the Lexington monument in Peabody. Following his
graduation from Bowdoin College, he went to Connecticut where he taught in Edward
Hall's private school for boys. The following year he taught in Beverly,
and when the Civil War excitement spread over the country, he entered the army.
Captain Brown, in the spring of 1862,
went to Enfield, Connecticut and became a recruiting officer. He succeeded
in raising a company and was chosen its captain. He was commissioned as
captain of Company D, 16th Connecticut Volunteers, in August 1862. His
regiment was in Virginia on September 4 and hurried into the battle of Antietam.
- from The Peabody Story by John Wells.
The Dead and Wounded of South Danvers - " ....We next hear of the death of Capt.
Samuel Brown, 3d, who commanded a company in the 16th Conn. Regiment and fell in
the sanguinary fight for the possession of the stone bridge. Capt. Brown
was well known and highly esteemed here in the place of his birth, and we also
learn that he was held in high regard in Connecticut and by his company. He was
a young man of good mind, agreeable manners, and was a graduate and model
scholar of the Peabody High School. After leaving the school, he went to
Bowdoin College, where he graduated. He was a member of the Lyceum and
Library committee of the Peabody Institute until he removed to Connecticut where
he was employed successfully as a teacher. Like others of this profession,
he felt it his duty to offer his services, and his life if it need be, to the
good of his country. Of that life, endeared to many a relative and friend
he has made a noble sacrifice...."
from South Danvers Wizard, 10/1/1862, p. 2/1-2
Capt. Samuel Brown - Obituary notice printed
in the Hartford Courant..."Just before entering the fatal cornfield,
where so many brave men to keep down, thus showing his anxiety for their safety.
The last words he was heard to speak were, 'Now, Boys, load and fire'."
from South Danvers Wizard, 10/8/1862, p. 2/4
Funeral Obsequies - "Mr. Lewis Brown, the brother of the late Capt. Brown,
who went on his solemn pilgrimage to find the body and return it to his friends,
succeeded in his mission, and brought the remains to the paternal homestead on
Friday last. It was the intention of the family to have a private funeral,
but they gave way to the general wish on the part of our citizens, to have the
burial from the church where the deceased was accustomed to attend public
worship....We have had a short interview with Mr. Lewis Brown, since his return
from Antietam battle-field, who informs us that his brother was shot in at least
two parts of his body, and that there were also marks of a third wound. A
bullet pierced his neck and another struck his hip. A third mark was also
found on his head. His surviving brother officers speak of remarkable
coolness...."
from South Danvers Wizard, 10/15/1862, p.2/1
Funeral Discourse - by Rev. Mr. Barber delivered on the occasion of the
burial of Capt. Samuel Brown
South Danvers Wizard, 10/22/1862, p. 1/2-3
Battle of Antietam 135 Years Ago This Week
From the Peabody-Lynnfield Weekly News, October, 1997
by S.M. Smoller
PEABODY - Anxious residents gathered downtown 135 years ago
this week to hear the dispatches reporting the sad news of the bloodiest and
most costly battle of the Civil War. During the twelve hour standoff at Antietam
Creek, Maryland, 25,000 men in the two armies were shot down.
Several men from the town of South Danvers (now Peabody)
fought in the battle and flags were again drooping at half mast in honor of the
gallant dead: Sergeant J.S. Ingalls, a member of the Andrews Sharpshooters, and
Captain Samuel Brown, for whom the Brown School was named in 1911.
Brown’s father, a famed stone cutter who quarried the granite
slab for the Lexington Monument on Washington Street, settled in the area where
the school is located on Lynn Street near Bartholomew.
Twenty-six-year-old Samuel Brown, 3d, was commissioned as a
Captain of Co. D, 15th Connecticut Regiment in August 1862 and died a month
later at Antietam, the first battle in which he served.
He fell in the cornfield that was littered with 10,000 dead
during the fight for the possession of the stone bridge . Shot in the neck and
hip, a third mark was found on his head.
"Your brother was killed on the right of the enemy about
forty feet from me, and was on the extreme left when he went over Antietam
Creek. We went into a corn field where the rebels had a crossfire on us - that
was where Captain Brown fell; he was right in front. The last words he spoke
were "Charge bayonets" and "Come on boys". He had his sword in his hand waving
it to get the men to hurry up; there is where he fell. He was loved by all the
men and I was sorry to lose him," reads a letter sent to the family.
"Your brother was wounded by a mine ball and he fell
immediately after it struck him. He did not live any time after it. The last I
saw of him was in the corn field just before he was killed."
The South Danvers Wizard newspaper reported, "Thus
honorably, proudly, in the hour of victory, and doing an important service to
procure that victory, has our brave, young and educated townsman gone to a
patriot soldier’s grave."
Brown, the son of Samuel and Fanny Marsh Brown, was described
as a "young man, of good mind, and agreeable manners." He was a "graduate and
model scholar" of the Peabody High School.
He graduated from Bowdoin College and served as a member of
the Lyceum and Library Committee of the Peabody Institute until moving to
Connecticut to become a teacher. Shortly before the start of the war, he took a
teaching job in Beverly.
Lewis Brown went to the Antietam battle-field to find his
brother’s body and brought his remains home on October 10, 1862. It was the
family’s intention to have a private funeral, but they gave way to the general
wish of the citizens to have a funeral at the Old South Church on the square.
The church was filled as the coffin, draped with the United
States flag, was placed in front of the pulpit, accompanied by a dirge performed
by the choir. Brown is buried in Monumental Cemetery.
When 37-year-old Sergeant J.S. Ingalls came home on furlough
seven months before Antietam, his friends raised funds to purchase a revolver
for him.
Ingalls was one of the local men whose letters were published
in the Wizard newspaper. In May 1862, a letter from Ingalls was published that
described everyday life for the soldiers on the road to Richmond, as well
gruesome scenes from Yorktown, and news on other "South Danvers boys". Another
letter from Ingalls appeared dated June 1862 from Fair Oaks, Virginia.
Ingalls’ body arrived in South Danvers on Christmas Eve, 1862
- the same week that townspeople learned of the losses at the battle of
Fredericksburg and battles in North Carolina. He was buried following funeral
services at the Unitarian Church on New Year’s Eve, 1862.
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