behind AotW

The Reverend Jacob Eaton was a Congregational minister in Meriden, CT before the war and enlisted in the 8th Connecticut Infantry as a Private soldier in September 1861. He was appointed First Lieutenant in February 1862 – and probably sat for this photograph soon after.

He was wounded in the leg at Antietam in September 1862 and resigned his commission in October, but returned to the field as the Chaplain of the 7th Connecticut Infantry in 1864. He died of disease in Wilmington, NC in March 1865.

This fine photograph is in the collection of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in Hartford.