Act of Kindness - Asst Surgeon Charles G Allen 34th Massachusetts

lelliott19

Brigadier General
Moderator
* OFFICIAL *
CWT PRESENTER
Forum Host
Silver Patron
Regtl. Staff Chickamauga 2018
Joined
Mar 15, 2013
MADE HIS FOE’S TOMBSTONE.
The Story of a Wounded Union Soldier's Sympathetic Act.

Mrs. Orra Linghorne, of Lynchburg, Va., writes to The Boston Transcript:.....

“A number of Massachusetts soldiers, wounded in the battle of New Market, were left in my native village in the Shenandoah valley. A few days before, the Confederate authorities, moving their stores to prevent capture by the approaching Federal's, had requested the citizens to take into private houses a few Confederate soldiers too ill for removal from the town. Lieut. Woodly, a West Virginian, was carried to my father’s house, and, though every effort was made to save him, he died in a few days. At my father’s request Dr. Allen*, the surgeon of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts regiment, left in charge of the wounded Federal's, visited Mr. Woodly at our house and paid him every possible attention.

In my daily visits to the Federal hospital, which was near us, many kindly inquiries were always made for the wounded ‘stranger within our gates.’ One morning I told the Federal soldiers that our guest was dead, and many regrets and much sympathy for his family were expressed.

A soldier, named Adams I believe, who sat on the floor nursing his wounded foot, said to me gently: 'I am a marble cutter by trade, and if you will give me a slab of hard wood I will carve Lieut. Woodly’s name on it so that his family can find his grave after the war is over.’ One of the walnut boards used to mark the soldiers’ graves was sent to the hospital and the wounded Federal forgot his own pain in carving in clear typo the dead Confederate’s name and regiment, with the words, ‘He giveth His beloved sleep.'

In the spring of '65, after Gen. Grant had received Gen. Lee’s surrender and ordered that the ‘boys should keep the horses they would need to make a crop,’ a young widow, with her two lovely boys, the eldest about 6 years old, visited the soldiers' cemetery in our village and, parting the tangled grass, found the name of her husband carved by the foe who had been actuated by love, not hate, though he, too, had suffered. There was no pension for the widow or her babes; a cruel struggle with poverty lay before them, but as she knelt and kissed the sod above her lover-husband, she blessed the man whose care had enabled her to find the grave.
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SRPD18890309.2.65

Charles G Allen 34th MA.JPG

*Dr. Charles G. Allen was born in 1833 and raised in Barre, MA. At the age of 26 he taught English and foreign languages at the academy in Bernardston, MA. He left the teaching profession to attend Harvard Medical School and pursued the practice of medicine in Barre. At the onset of the Civil War, Dr Allen enlisted in Company F, 53rd Massachusetts. After serving out his term, he re-enlisted in the 34th Massachusetts as Assistant Surgeon. After the war, he returned to Barre and bought a small farm. He would never practice medicine again. http://www.chasgallen.com/company/history/
 
The soldier who carved the headboard for Lt Woodly may have been John W. Adams of Co I 34th Massachusetts, wounded at New Market May 15, 1864. Anyone have access to enlistment records for Massachusetts and can look up his occupation at enlistment? Or maybe a regimental history that mentions if he was wounded in the foot?

Lt Woodly may have been Lt Alfred Day Woodly of Co. H, 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry, Imboden's Brigade. GSW to rt shoulder and leg; died June 9, 1864; buried at Harrisonburg. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=36034707

"In Harrisonburg, on the 9th of June, Lt. Alfred D. WOODLEY, Co. H, 62nd Virginia Infantry. He was wounded at the battle of New Market. Although his wife, two small children, and mother, who were living far away in Western Virginia, could not come to him, yet his devoted father was with him. For many years, he was a consistent member of the Southern Methodist Church." From the Rockingham Register, 24 June 1864.
Lt Woodly tombstone.JPG
 
Last edited:
The soldier who carved the headboard for Lt Woodly may have been John W. Adams of Co I 34th Massachusetts, wounded at New Market May 15, 1864. Anyone have access to enlistment records for Massachusetts and can look up his occupation at enlistment? Or maybe a regimental history that mentions if he was wounded in the foot?View attachment 115499
24 year-old John W. Adams' July 19, 1862, enlistment papers give his occupation as "Mechanic," meaning, essentially, a tradesman, craftsman, or technician. The term could well include a stone cutter. His New Market wound is described as "gunshot wound in the right thigh." He was PoW 15 May to 1 Sept. 1864, and then paroled. Hospitalized in Mass. until April, 1865, then discharged for disability.

I checked all other Adams' in the 34th: one silversmith and six farmers. None was wounded at New Market (though one KIA there).
 
What a great thread this is. I feel kinda guilty enjoying the read knowing that it's mostly a sad story.
 
Putting faces to these stories gives them even more of a terrible beauty. A lot of that came out of the war, moments both awful and triumphant of all the good we know is around here somewhere, given a little air and water.

So interesting, the doctor never practiced medicine again. You wonder about the doctors of the war, what men like this endured themselves. Losing patient after patient, unable to fix much of anything, watching one shell create hours spent amputating- adding limbs to a pile? Would have to do something to you. This one bought a farm. Makes you hope he had many peaceful years there.

Super thread, thanks very much lelliot.
 
Back
Top