Norwich
It was Fran Hanchett, president of the Lebanon Historical Society and treasurer of the auxiliary group, who discovered that two of Lebanon’s Civil War veterans were resting in graves that failed to recognize their contributions on the battlefield.
Those men were Pvt. Frank Hutchinson, who served in Company B of the 10th New Hampshire Infantry, and Sgt. Albert Nye, Company H, 15th New Hampshire Infantry.
Both were residents of Lebanon, though Nye was Norwich-born, and both enlisted in the Union Army in 1862.
Hanchett said not much is known about the veterans, including why their graves went unmarked for so long and whether they have any living descendents. But she said she thinks these unanswered questions make it all the more important to preserve what is known about the soldiers.
“I’m a big believer that no veteran should be forgotten,” she said, adding that Civil War soldiers are perhaps especially deserving of recognition given the sheer brutality that took place on those battlefields.
“They’re still our boys from Lebanon.”
Despite the weighty history underscoring the ceremony, the occasion was not without its lighthearted moments. The unwieldiness of the Civil War-era props that the participants carried, and the uncomfortable period uniforms they wore, served as the butt of a number of jokes. “Wool — cold in the winter, hot in the summer,” said Don Wheeler, of Warner, N.H.
“One size fits none,” added Michael Shklar, of Lempster, who was also carrying a large canteen out of which he took the occasional swig.
“Period coffee,” he said to dispel an implication that the canteen contained alcohol. He poured out a bit of the dark liquid to demonstrate, adding that Union soldiers were “incredibly caffeinated,” with each soldier receiving one pound of coffee in a ration that was meant to last around three days.
“I have a three-pot-a-day habit, and that’s more coffee than even I can drink,” he said.
The 20-minute dedication ceremony started with a memorial service for the two soldiers, led by Shklar, who played the role of commander. He and the other participants — including Hanchett, Warren Hurd, of Lempster, N.H., Laura and Gary Ward, of Plainfield, and Wheeler — followed a prepared script that the Civil War group had adapted from a 1917 service used by the Grand Army of the Republic.
“May we, as we stand here by this grave, remember that it is our duty, as Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, to honor the memory of the men who stood shoulder to shoulder on the bloody fields of battle,” read Shklar. “May we not forget as the years roll on that we too shall have battles to fight, that in time we too shall be carried to the silent city of the dead and that our lives here should but fit us for the great bivouac of Eternity.”
Hanchett and Laura Ward placed symbolic markers, including a flag and a wreath of evergreen, on the graves of the two soldiers.
The other members of the group then loaded and prepared to fire their muskets, chuckling at themselves as they fumbled through the multi-step process. They shot out a three-volley salute, scaring a flock of birds out of the surrounding foliage.
The sound of Taps then rose up from behind a nearby fir tree, finishing the ceremony on a melodic note.
“Camp dismissed,” said Shklar. Referring the gunfire, he added, “That’ll get everyone woken up pretty good.”
After the ceremony, participants stood in the shade of a flowering tree, discussing the long shadow of the Civil War and the importance of honoring history in appropriate ways.
“Oh no, I’m not getting into Charlottesville today,” said Shklar, referring to the recent white supremacist rally over the proposed removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in a city park, which he had been advised not to discuss with the media.
He did, however, lament what he sees as the destruction of another historical monument — the Hall of Flags in the Statehouse in Concord, where flags bearing bloodstains and bullet holes are deteriorating due to improper upkeep.
“It’s clear cheapskate-ism,” Shklar said. “At this rate they’ll all turn to dust in 30 years. And once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
Though physical artifacts from the Civil War may fall through the cracks of history, what remains is the legacy of what Hurd called “the greatest tragedy in American history.”
Shklar concurred — not only because of the hundreds of thousands of American lives lost in the war, but also because “slavery was the founding sin of the United States,” he said.
“It was our original sin, and it’s one we’re still living with today.”
EmmaJean Holley can be reached at eholley@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.