Captain Frederick M. Barber, 16th Connecticut - Mortally Wounded @ Antietam for Sale

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Captain Frederick M. Barber, 16th Connecticut - Mortally Wounded @ Antietam For Sale

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Captain Frederick M. Barber, 16th Connecticut - Mortally Wounded @ Antietam:
$495.00

Here’s one for the Connecticut collectors: Captain Frederick M. Barber, 16thConnecticut Infantry who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam!The Barber image is identified on the album page it was taken from (NOT INCLUDED) and by an identical image at the Connecticut State Library. The album page included photos of his wife and 1st Sgt. Benjamin F. Turner of the 25th Connecticut who I believe was his brother-in-law.Frederick Martiner Barber, born on March 28, 1830 to Joshua K. and Jane (Kennedy) Barber, was the fifth of eight children. He was baptized at the East Hartford Congregational Church in the town of his birth and later moved to Manchester, Connecticut. On June 8, 1854, he married Mercy (Wrisley) Turner in her hometown of Glastonbury. The 1860 census shows the couple with two-year-old Charlotte owning $1,500.00 worth of real estate, and $400.00 in personal items. Barber’s occupation is unlisted.We’ll never know if it was a sense of patriotism, adventure or financial reward that led Barber to enlist in Manchester as captain of Company H of the newly created 16th Connecticut Infantry. He was commissioned on August 24, 1862, and in less than a month his wife would be widowed and his only child an orphan.In their disastrous fight in Otto’s 40-acre cornfield the poorly trained Nutmeggers in their first battle suffered 43 killed and 161 wounded out of 779 engaged. The following details of the fight are taken from the regimental history:“[T]he Division of A. P. Hill, which had arrived from Harper\'s Ferry, and joined Lee\'s army, were coming into this cornfield from the opposite side, unobserved; at the same time Company H, (Captain Barber,) had been thrown out in advance as a vidette to prevent being surprised. At four o\'clock McClellan sent orders to Burnside to advance, and carry the batteries in his front at all hazards and at any cost. Burnside\'s corps was charging. General Rodman observed that the rebels were about to flank us and get in our rear, and ordered the Fourth Rhode Island, and Sixteenth Connecticut to swing to the left that we might face them, but at that particular moment the rustling of cornstalks warned us that the rebels were on us. Colonel Beach gave the order ‘Attention!’ While this order was being executed a terrible volley was fired into us. Volley after volley in quick succession was hurled into our midst. The Sixteenth sprang up and returned the fire with good effect; some fixed bayonets, advanced, and were captured. The most helpless confusion ensued. Our men fell by scores on every side. Still our position was obstinately maintained, until ordered to fall back. The rebels discovered the disorder, and came on us in heavy column. While we were falling back to cover near the bridge we were swept by a destructive cross-fire, and the rebels becoming entangled in this cross-fire extricated themselves and fell back to the stone wall. The Eighth, Eleventh, and Sixteenth Connecticut, and the Fourth Rhode Island, re-formed and were placed in position for defence.” Captain Barber did not survive the onslaught and was felled by a mortal wound in his right hip.“Parties scoured the fields hunting for the wounded. Many had crept out of the storm of battle and hidden under fences, or among rocks, or in thickets, and their strength failing, they could neither come forth, or make known their situation. Some of the badly wounded did not have any attention for several days. All houses and barns were converted into hospitals, and yards and fields were strewn with straw and the wounded laid there without shelter. Surgeons worked hard day and night, taking rest only when unable to stand up from weariness. At one of these hospitals about 25 of the Sixteenth were placed. Nothing was to be heard but cries , groans , and entreaties. Here Captain Barber lay in about the center of a barn, quiet, happy, and contented with his lot. The wounded lay around him on every side. He said that he could not live long, and spoke encouraging words to all.” The narrative continues, “In a room about 12x20 a bloody table stood and around it were five surgeons. A wounded man was laid on the table and it took but a few seconds for them to decide what to do, and but a few minutes to do it. The amputated limbs were thrown out of a window. In forty-eight hours there were as many as two cart loads of amputated legs, feet, arms, and hands in the pile.” Barber’s limb would be thrown on that heap.He was “wounded … by a musket ball, which entered behind the right trochanter major and shattered the trochanters and neck of femur.” In layman’s terms the top of his thigh bone was shattered and his prognosis was grave. But he wasn’t ready to give up the fight. “His general health was good, and there was but little shock. There was no swelling of the soft parts.” Several surgeons at the 3rd Division, 9th Corps hospital conferred and agreed to remove the shattered pieces of bone. With the patient anaesthetized with chloroform, Surgeon Melancthon Storrs of the 8th Connecticut performed the futile operation with a chain saw. “Little blood was lost, and the patient rallied promptly from the operation, and appeared quite comfortable during the day.” But his victory was short-lived. “Surgical fever soon set in, however; the patient sank rapidly under the constitutional irritation, and died on September 20, 1862.” Dr. Storrs’s efforts truly were in vain. “Of thirty-three well authenticated primary excisions at the hip practiced during the War … the only successful result was in the case of … a young soldier of a Georgia regiment.” The procedure Barber endured had a shocking mortality rate of nearly 97%.Captain Frederick M. Barber was laid to rest at Green Cemetery in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Not far from his grave are those of his wife and daughter who died in her eighteenth year.“Capt. Barber was especially noticeable for his religious character, earnest convictions, and high regard for duty” Surgeon Nathan Mayer noted. “His patriotism was of sterling mould, and he was a brave and intelligent officer.”On Memorial Day five decades after the Battle of Antietam, Civil War veterans and civilians met on the Glastonbury town green for the unveiling of the Standard-Bearer, an 18’ Civil War monument. The statue is noted for its “sophisticated execution. The figure and flag ... are articulated with more vigor and realism than are found in most standard-bearers.” Paid for by his widow, in raised caps it modestly reads, “Erected in Memory of Capt. Frederick M. Barber and the Soldiers of Glastonbury Who Gave Their Lives for Their Country, by Mercy Turner Barber, 1913.”I unquestionably guarantee the identification and authenticity of this CDV. It may be returned for any reason within seven (7) days provided it is in the same condition. Connecticut images are popular with collectors and this historic image would be a centerpiece of any collection.