Lt William F Barrett, Signal Corps, USV (c. 1863)
3 December 2022
This lovely photograph of Lieutenant William Francis Barrett, complete with Signal Corps kepi, was taken by T.M. Schleier, photographer, Nashville, Knoxville & Chattanooga, TN, and is in the massive Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress [online].
On 17 September 1862 …
… As our lines advanced on the west side of the Antietam, driving in the enemy’s left, stations were established as closely as possible behind the lines, and near to the generals commanding in that portion of the field. A station was thus established, subject to artillery fire, by Lieuts. E. C. Pierce and W. F. Barrett, at the Miller house, near the position of General E. V. Sumner. The signal package carried on the saddle by one of the flagmen of this party was cut in two by a cannon-shot.
He served through the war as a Signal Officer and mustered out in August 1865.
Sadly, William died not quite 3 weeks later of malaria or dysentery contracted on campaign, leaving a widow Ellen and small son Charles. He was 30 years old.
Saw surrender of Lee (1924)
3 December 2022
On the occasion of Jedediah Chase Paine‘s 85th birthday the Lititz (PA) Record of 10 April 1924 published this piece about his presence at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 when he was a Captain, Signal Corps, US Volunteers. He had been with the Army of the Potomac on South Mountain and at Antietam in September 1862 as a Lieutenant in the 57th New York Infantry and Acting Signal Officer.
Here’s a carte-de-visite of Captain Paine made at the Brady studios in about 1863. It was offered for sale by Dan Morphy Auctions in 2010.
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Some of the claims in the news clip above are a little confusing, possibly misleading. He was not really a staff officer – rather a Signal Officer. He was one of many officers – most of the Corps, in fact – who were commissioned into the Signal Corps when it was reorganized in March 1863. He was not actually in the Cavalry, but was assigned as Signal Officer to General Stoneman in 1863. He was awarded brevets (honorary rank) to Major and Lieutenant Colonel of Volunteers in 1865.
Officers of the Signal Corps … Warrenton, Virginia, October 1863
21 November 2022
This lovely photograph is online in the MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection (Vol. 40, pg. 1994) at the US Army Heritage & Education Center. It was listed in the catalog for Photographic Incidents of the War; from the gallery of Alexander Gardner, photographer to the Army of the Potomac (1863) as having been taken in November 1863, though the MOLLUS mat notes say October.
It was also published in F.T. Miller’s Photographic History of the Civil War (Vol. 8, pg. 327; 1911), which is where these men are identified:
Standing, left to right, Lt. Frederick E. Beardslee, Lt. William H.R. Neel, Lt. George J. Clarke, [unknown], Capt. Charles L Davis;
Seated, left to right: Lt. Charles J. Clarke, Lt. William S Stryker, and Lt. Adin B. Capron.
From their pictures in Brown’s The Signal Corps, U.S.A. in the War of the Rebellion (1896), I think the man seated at left is Thomas R Clarke, not Charles; Charles was wounded at Fredericksburg in December 1862 and discharged in March 1863. And the “unknown” officer may be Capt. Robert Patterson Hughes, much later Major General, USA.
Here are Clarke and Hughes from Brown:
Other sources have the man seated on the box as Lt Fountain Wilson rather than Stryker, and I agree. From Brown, again:
Of this group of 8 signal officers, two, Lieutenants George J Clarke and Fountain Wilson were on the Maryland Campaign of 1862; Lt Clarke was one of several signal officers and men on the battlefield of Antietam under fire on 17 September 1862.
Although probably not pictured with this group, Lieutenant William S. Stryker was also at Antietam.
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