Finding the Civil War Where I least Expected It - Exeter, NH

NH Civil War Gal

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My husband, daughter and I went over to Exeter, NH today to be part of their Independence Day Celebrations because even though the Declaration of Independence was finished on 7/4/1776 (pretty much) it took over a week to reach the provinces with the news. Well, we made the Historical Society our first stop and darn if they didn't have a huge roll call of Civil War men written in granite (which I didn't take a picture of) but they had this as a major display! @lelliott19 do you also want this in the Medical Forum?

This, to me, with my ancient lab degree and past hospital work, is just the coolest thing!

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I need a nice moderator to rotate the pictures for me please! I accidentally hit post and couldn't edit and add the other pictures in.

This is Sylvester Peaver before he got the bullet in the eye!

Sylvester lived to be quite elderly and participated in a Gettysburg reunion.

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Whoa! So the projectile entered his left eye and he "coughed it up" at the hospital? That must have been a terrible wound, but I wonder where the bullet was hiding? Not being insensitive - just genuinely curious. Here's a modern day Xray image of a man who was shot in the left eye. The bullet travelled through a wooden door before hitting him so it's velocity was reduced and the projectile came to rest in his orbit.
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https://www.newsweek.com/eye-injury-ophthalmology-729268
On the xray, it's easy to see how close the back of the eye socket really is to the esophagus. If it was able to be coughed up, it could have easily been aspirated. Had that occurred, he would probably have died.

Here's a similar story posted a year ago about a Confederate vet who was similarly shot in the eye but he waited 58 years before he coughed his bullet up. https://civilwartalk.com/threads/confederate-veteran-coughs-up-a-bullet.146842/#post-1832202
 
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View attachment 316166https://www.newsweek.com/eye-injury-ophthalmology-729268
On the xray, it's easy to see how close the back of the eye socket really is to the esophagus.
Yeah I had a library patron who once pulled out his fake eye and showed me his empty eye socket. (Not sure what it says about me that this sort of thing has happened to me more than once. . . . Guess people just like to show me their wounds. :unsure:) In any event, even though I know how interconnected things are in the head, it was still surprising to see it in the flesh.

Definitely sounds like a really weird but potentially dangerous injury he had!
 
My husband, daughter and I went over to Exeter, NH today to be part of their Independence Day Celebrations because even though the Declaration of Independence was finished on 7/4/1776 (pretty much) it took over a week to reach the provinces with the news. Well, we made the Historical Society our first stop and darn if they didn't have a huge roll call of Civil War men written in granite (which I didn't take a picture of) but they had this as a major display! @lelliott19 do you also want this in the Medical Forum?

This, to me, with my ancient lab degree and past hospital work, is just the coolest thing!

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ELEVENTH REGIMENT
NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
(THREE YEARS)

By LEANDER W. COGSWELL, late Captain Eleventh Regiment New
Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and Historian of the regiment.

THE Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment of Volunteer Infantry
was recruited in August,1862, under the call of President
Abraham Lincoln of July, 1862, for 300,000 men for three years.
The Field and Staff, consisting of Col. Walter Harriman, Maj.
Moses N. Collins, Adjt. Charles R. Morrison, Q M. James F.
Briggs, Surg. Jonathan S. Ross' Asst. Surg. John A. Hayes'
Chaplain Frank A. Stratton' were mustered into the service of
the United States September 2, 1862, and on the 9th of the same
month Moses N. Collins was mustered as lieutenant-colonel and
Evarts W. Farr was mustered as major.

The several companies of the regiment were mustered into
the service from August 28 to September 3, 1862, and the
officers of the companies received their commissions September
4, 1862. The regiment consisted of 1,006 officers and men.

On Thursday, September 11, 1862, the regiment left Concord
with orders to report to Major-General Wool at Baltimore, where
it received orders to report to Brigadier-General Casey, at
Washington, D. C., where it arrived on Sunday morning,
September 14, remaining there two days; then ordered to Camp
Chase on Arlington Heights, where it was brigaded with the
Twenty-first Connecticut and the Thirty-seventh Massachusetts,
Brigadier-General Briggs commanding. It remained here until
September 28, following, when it marched back to Washington,
thence by rail, October 1, to Sandy Hook, Md., and reported to
General McClellan, and then marched up into Pleasant Valley and
was brigaded with the Twenty-first and Thirty-fifth
Massachusetts, Fifty-first New York, and Fifty-first
Pennsylvania, Brig. Gen. Edward Ferrero commanding.

This was the Second Brigade of the Second Division of the
Ninth Army Corps, in which brigade and division it remained
during the war. October 27, following, the army commenced its
march to Fredericksburg, Va., arriving at Falmouth November 19,
and participated in the battle of Fredericksburg on the 13th of
December, 1862.

February 11, 1863, the regiment was moved to Newport News,
Va., where it remained until March 26, following, when it
proceeded by water to Baltimore, Md., thence by rail to
Kentucky, reaching Covington March 31. The next day the
regiment proceeded by rail to Paris, where it remained until
April 17, and then marched to Winchester, where it went into
camp and remained until May 4, when it moved to Paint Lick
Creek, remaining a couple of days, then marched to Lancaster.
May 23 it marched to Crab Orchard, and on the 25th to
Stanford, where it remained until June 3, when it was ordered
to Nicholasville, thence by rail to Cincinnati, and June 5
moving by rail to Cairo, Ill.; there taking transportation by
water for Vicksburg, Miss., reaching Sherman's Landing just
above Vicksburg, June 14. The afternoon of the 16th the
regiment sailed up the Mississippi and into the Yazoo river,
camping at Milldale on the 17th, which place it fortified,
remaining at this point three weeks; then marched to Oak Ridge,
where it was employed in protecting the rear of Grant's army
then besieging Vicksburg. On the afternoon of July 4, 1864,
Vicksburg having surrendered that morning, the regiment took up
its line of march for Jackson, Miss., forming a line of battle
two miles from the city on July 11. The regiment assisted in
forcing the enemy from Jackson, entering the city July 17,
being one of the first regiments in the city; then returned to
Milldale July 23, remaining there until August 6, following,
when it embarked for Cairo, thence by rail, reaching Cincinnati
August 14; marched over to Covington the same day, camping
there until August 26; thence by rail again to Nicholasville
and to `` Camp Parke," four miles beyond, remaining there
until September 9, when it broke camp and marched to Crab
Orchard, arriving at London, Ky. September 16.

On Friday, October I5, 1863, the regiment commenced its
march for Knoxville, Tenn., reaching there October 29, after a
very hard march, during which it experienced some of the severe
mountain storms of that region. It participated in the siege
of Knoxville, which began November I7 and ended December 5.
After the siege, the regiment assisted in the pursuit of
Longstreet, in the mountains of East Tennessee, doing heavy and
severe work in marching picketing, skirmishing, and fighting ;
living upon the shortest rations, having many days but one ear
of corn per day; with no new clothing for severe months, being
the only New Hampshire regiment that participated in that
arduous campaign.

March 22, 1864, having sent the sick men and the baggage
north, via Chattanooga and Nashville the regiment commenced its
return march over the mountains, reaching " Camp Parke '' April
1, 1864' having marched 175 miles in eleven days, over the
worst of roads, in the severest weather, carrying all their
rations and equipment. The regiment passed through Cincinnati
April 3, arriving at Annapolis, Md. April 7, there rejoining
the Ninth Corps.

April 23, the regiment broke camp at Annapolis and
commenced its march for the front, passing through Washington
on the 25th, at which time the Ninth Corps was reviewed by
President Lincoln an Major-General Burnside, and on the 6th of
May' 1864, at 2 o'clock in the morning, the regiment formed a
line of battle in the Wilderness.

From this time until the war ended, the regiment
participated in all the marches, skirmishes, battles and sieges
of the campaign, and on April 3, 1865, it marched into
Petersburg with colors flying. It participated in the pursuit
of General Lee and his army, and after the surrender it was moved
to City Point, April 4, remaining there until April 25,
when it embarked for Alexandria, Va., which place reached on
the 27th; participated in the grand review in Washington, D.
C., on May 23 and 24, and o Sunday, June 4, 1865, it was
mustered out of the United States service and reached Concord
June 7, 1865. At Concord the regiment was paid in full on
Saturday, June 10, 1865, and was formally discharged from the
service that day, having been in the service two years and nine
months.

The Eleventh New Hampshire Volunteers was attached to First
Brigade, Casey's Division, Defense of Washington, September 16
to 29, 1862; Second Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Army Corps,
October 6,1862, to June 4, 1865.

E N G A G E M E N T S .

White Sulphur Springs, Va. Nov. 15, 1862
Fredericksburg, Va. Dec. 13, 1862
Siege of Vicksburg, Miss. June 15 to July 4, 1863
Jackson, Miss. July 1O-17,1863
Siege of Knoxville, Tenn. Nov. 17 to Dec. 4,1863
Strawberry Plains, Tenn. Jan. 21, 1864
Wilderness, Va. May 6, 1864
Spottsylvania, Va. May 9-18 1864
North Anna River, Va. May 23-27, 1864
Totopotomoy, Va. May 28,31, 1864
Bethesda Church, Va. June 2, 3, 1864
Cold Harbor, Va. June 5-12, 1864
Siege of Petersburg, Va. June 16, 1864, to Apr. 3, 1865
Petersburg (assault at the Shand House), Va. June 17, 1864
Mine Explosion, Petersburg, Va.( assault) July 30, 1864
Weldon Railroad, Va. Aug. 18,19,21, 1864
Poplar Springs Church, Va. Sept. 30, 1864
Hatcher's Run, Va. Oct. 27, 1864
Petersburg, Va. Apr. 1-3, 1865


Source: New Hampshire Soldiers & Sailors War of the Rebellion, Ayling
 
It was designed with a zinc ring that when fired the would flatten out the zinc cup and it would clean the rifling grooves as it went down the barrel.
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My husband, daughter and I went over to Exeter, NH today to be part of their Independence Day Celebrations because even though the Declaration of Independence was finished on 7/4/1776 (pretty much) it took over a week to reach the provinces with the news. Well, we made the Historical Society our first stop and darn if they didn't have a huge roll call of Civil War men written in granite (which I didn't take a picture of) but they had this as a major display! @lelliott19 do you also want this in the Medical Forum?

This, to me, with my ancient lab degree and past hospital work, is just the coolest thing!

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I came across a similar exhibit here yesterday by my folks in Tamworth at their history center. They had a nice display of photos and some artifacts from men from Tamworth who served in the war. They also had a roll of each one. 44 men from Tamworth served and 17 of them survived the war. It was quite interesting but didn't take any pictures.
 
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