During the war, the 14th Connecticut was in the greatest number of battles, captured the most enemy flags, and suffered the highest combat-related casualties of any Connecticut regiment, with Company B suffering many casualties from both battle wounds and disease. By the time the company mustered out on May 31, 1865, only 19 of the original 101 members remained in the unit.
April 15, 1847: Daniel H. Otis is born to Erastus Selden Otis and Elizabeth Mary Young in Middletown (Maromas District), Connecticut.
April 3, 1856: Daniel's mother Elizabeth Mary Young (Otis) dies at age 39 on her birthday. Daniel is twelve days away from turning nine years old.
August 4, 1862: Daniel left his family farm in Maromas and enlisted as a volunteer at Elijah Gibbons’ recruiting office on Main Street in Middletown, CT. At this time, Daniel took an oath, swearing to support the United States of America.
August 7, 1862: Early in the morning, Daniel met at a mustering point on the South Green in Middletown to depart for Camp Foote in Hartford, Connecticut.
August 20, 1862: Daniel is mustered into Company B of the 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment.
August 23, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment are mustered into the service of the United States by Colonel Watson Webb of the regular army. By this time, Daniel had been provided a complete Federal uniform and accessories.
August 25, 1862: Daniel and the 14th broke camp and departed Hartford, Connecticut (with “bands playing and flags flying”) for Washington, D.C. upon the propeller “George C. Collins.”
August 26, 1862: Daniel and the 14th arrived at Manhattan Island, New York at 10:30 a.m. and docked at Pier No. 2. Around 12-noon Daniel changed ships and boarded the “Kill von Kull” for Elizabethport, New Jersey. Disembarking the ship, he then marched a short distance to board a train.
August 27, 1862: Arrived in Baltimore, Maryland at 4 p.m. and had supper at the “Soldier’s Aid Society.” Then around 9 p.m. he marched to Camden Station and boarded a freight car for the last 34 miles to Washington, D.C.
August 28, 1862: Arrived in Washington D.C. at 4 a.m. and is directed to nearby barracks. By 11 a.m. Daniel was on the move again and crossed over the Potomac River via the north end of Long Bridge, and into Rebel country. He then marched 2 miles to the encampment at Camp Chase, Arlington Heights, Virginia.
September 5, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment are still camped at the “Rifle Pits near Fort Ethan Allen, VA.” According to 14th CT (Co. A) Drummer Boy, Lucien Wells Hubbard, the Regiment has received their tents and they “have plenty to eat and drink.” He also mentions that “The rebels have advanced to within five miles from us so that we are in danger anytime.”
April 15, 1847: Daniel H. Otis is born to Erastus Selden Otis and Elizabeth Mary Young in Middletown (Maromas District), Connecticut.
April 3, 1856: Daniel's mother Elizabeth Mary Young (Otis) dies at age 39 on her birthday. Daniel is twelve days away from turning nine years old.
August 4, 1862: Daniel left his family farm in Maromas and enlisted as a volunteer at Elijah Gibbons’ recruiting office on Main Street in Middletown, CT. At this time, Daniel took an oath, swearing to support the United States of America.
August 7, 1862: Early in the morning, Daniel met at a mustering point on the South Green in Middletown to depart for Camp Foote in Hartford, Connecticut.
August 9, 1862: Daniel and 90 other men from the Company returned to Middletown, by train, to collect a $100 bounty from the town. This is the day that Daniel and other members of Company B most-likely sat for their free portraits, in full uniform, at Bundy & Williams Photographers on Main Street in Middletown. Afterward, Daniel and his Company went back to Camp Foote in Hartford. See Daniel's photo portrait HERE.
August 20, 1862: Daniel is mustered into Company B of the 14th Connecticut Infantry Regiment.
August 23, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment are mustered into the service of the United States by Colonel Watson Webb of the regular army. By this time, Daniel had been provided a complete Federal uniform and accessories.
In August 1862, new 18th Connecticut recruit, James Sawyer, listed his new soldier's gear in his journal. It consisted of:
1 dark blue blouse
1 pair of pants, sky blue
1 overcoat, sky blue
1 forage cap
1 pair coarse wide shoes
2 pairs of socks
2 shirts
2 pairs drawers [underwear]
1 knapsack
1 canteen
1 haversack
cartridge box with shoulder belt
waist belt with bayonet; scabbard attached
Private Daniel H. Otis would have received the same paraphernalia.
August 25, 1862: Daniel and the 14th broke camp and departed Hartford, Connecticut (with “bands playing and flags flying”) for Washington, D.C. upon the propeller “George C. Collins.”
August 26, 1862: Daniel and the 14th arrived at Manhattan Island, New York at 10:30 a.m. and docked at Pier No. 2. Around 12-noon Daniel changed ships and boarded the “Kill von Kull” for Elizabethport, New Jersey. Disembarking the ship, he then marched a short distance to board a train.
August 27, 1862: Arrived in Baltimore, Maryland at 4 p.m. and had supper at the “Soldier’s Aid Society.” Then around 9 p.m. he marched to Camden Station and boarded a freight car for the last 34 miles to Washington, D.C.
August 28, 1862: Arrived in Washington D.C. at 4 a.m. and is directed to nearby barracks. By 11 a.m. Daniel was on the move again and crossed over the Potomac River via the north end of Long Bridge, and into Rebel country. He then marched 2 miles to the encampment at Camp Chase, Arlington Heights, Virginia.
Note: Camp Chase was about four miles from the Long Bridge, and was situated on Arlington Heights, VA.
August 29, 1862: Daniel is still at Camp Chase, when a long roll awakens him at 3 a.m. Sharps rifles and ammunition are handed out and a 12-mile, forced-march to Fort Ethan Allen near Chain Bridge ensues. (The Regiment went to meet some “impending danger” but it proved to be a “false alarm.”)
Note: a “long roll” is a prolonged roll of the drums, which is a signal of an attack by the enemy, and thus the troops need to arrange themselves in line. Fort Ethan Allen was in Arlington, VA and defended the southern approaches to Chain Bridge—one of the three Potomac River crossings that Confederate troops could have used to invade Washington.
August 29, 1862: Daniel is still at Camp Chase, when a long roll awakens him at 3 a.m. Sharps rifles and ammunition are handed out and a 12-mile, forced-march to Fort Ethan Allen near Chain Bridge ensues. (The Regiment went to meet some “impending danger” but it proved to be a “false alarm.”)
Note: a “long roll” is a prolonged roll of the drums, which is a signal of an attack by the enemy, and thus the troops need to arrange themselves in line. Fort Ethan Allen was in Arlington, VA and defended the southern approaches to Chain Bridge—one of the three Potomac River crossings that Confederate troops could have used to invade Washington.
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| From the: Hartford Courant, Thursday, September 11, 1862 |
September 5, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment are still camped at the “Rifle Pits near Fort Ethan Allen, VA.” According to 14th CT (Co. A) Drummer Boy, Lucien Wells Hubbard, the Regiment has received their tents and they “have plenty to eat and drink.” He also mentions that “The rebels have advanced to within five miles from us so that we are in danger anytime.”
September 7-8, 1862: At 12-noon, Daniel and his Regiment left Fort Ethan Allen and marched over 20 miles to Camp Defiance, which was two miles north of Rockville, Maryland. “We marched very nearly all night. We got to bed about 1 o’clock” (Drummer, Lucien Hubbard).
Near the camp was a “magnificent oak grove,” and it was here that Daniel’s Regiment was attached to the famous Second Brigade of the Third Division, Second Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac (along with two other new Regiments: 130th Pennsylvania and 108th New York). “The destinies and the fortunes of the 14th Regiment were now linked with those of the Army of the Potomac.”
September 9-12, 1862: An exhausting march of 4 days, covering 45-miles, ensues. During those 4 days, Daniel and his Regiment stopped at Clarksburg, Maryland, and then marched on to Hyattstown, where they encamped at White Oak Spring (upon ground occupied by the Confederates 2-days previous).
14th CT Drummer, Lucian Hubbard, elaborates for us: “…We marched to Clarksburg and took possession of that city. We marched into the city with the band playing Yankee Doodle and the flags flying. We staid there all night, raining like everything. The next morning we marched to Hyatt’s Town. The next morning we went to Poolesville. The rebels had possession of that town but they left mighty sudden when we advanced.”
September 13, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment arrive at Frederick, Maryland around 12-noon. Two miles beyond the town, he and his Regiment camp in a field near a reservoir. “We stayed there overnight where we could hear the cannon firing. McClellan & Burnside rode through the lines, and if you ever heard cheering, you heard it then.” (14th CT Drummer, Lucien Hubbard).
What a relief it must have been to camp near a reservoir. I imagine Daniel and his comrades must have made good use of that reservoir, collecting much-needed water, and perhaps washing themselves clean, after a grueling march.
September 14, 1862: At 8 a.m. Daniel is given marching orders and he the 14th Connecticut (along with the entire Second Corps, which totaled 18,813 men) make their way into the foothills of the Catoctin Mountains, on their way to the presently-raging Battle of South Mountain. Around 12-noon he descends the slope of the mountains, yet it would take almost 12-hours for Second Corp to travel the 9-miles to South Mountain.
Arrives at Middletown, Maryland and is given a rest at 2 p.m. Three hours later, the march continues. It was nearly midnight by the time Daniel and the Second Corp arrived at the now quiet battlefield, where they camped.
September 15, 1862: Daylight came and Daniel and his comrades woke up among the horrors of the battle’s aftermath. “Here the men saw for the first time the dire effects of war.” Of this, Chaplain of the 14th Connecticut, Henry S. Stevens said:
“When daylight came it revealed forms lying stark and lifeless around you—the first ‘killed in battle’ you had ever seen. How suggestive to you of your own possible fate. Were those cold, mangled forms prone upon the earth, so still, with their glassy eyes fixed upon the sky!”
And Sergeant Benjamin Hirst of Company D, 14th Connecticut said:
“I awoke about five o'clock on the battle-field of yesterday and went out to see what war was without romance. I cannot describe my feelings, but I hope to God never to see the like again."
About 10 a.m. the march was resumed, crossing the mountain at Turner’s Gap. About 3 p.m. Daniel and his Regiment reached Boonsboro, Maryland. Then turning south, the march was continued through Keedysville, which was passed about 9 p.m. About 1-mile beyond the small village, they set up camp in a field on the Boonsboro Pike.
September 17, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment receive their “baptism by fire” at the Battle of Antietam.
“Plunged within three weeks after leaving the peaceful scenes and avocations of their home state into one of the most fiercely fought and bloody battles of the war, with scant military drill and instruction in the use of arms; linked in a brigade with two other regiments equally deficient in discipline.” (From “History of The Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry,” by Charles D. Page)
From the 14th Connecticut’s monument at Antietam, which is located 260-feet north of “Bloody Lane:”
“Advanced to this point in a charge about 9:30 A.M., September 17th, 1862, then fell back eighty-eight yards to a cornfield fence and held position heavily engaged nearly two hours; then was sent to the support of the first brigade of its division at the Roulette Lane two hours; then was sent to the extreme left of the first division of this Corps to the support of Brooke’s Brigade and at 5 P.M. was placed in support between the Brigades of Caldwell and Meagher of that Division, overlooking “Bloody Lane”, holding position there until 10 A.M. of the 18th when relieved.
This monument stands on the line of Companies B and G near the left of the Regiment. In this battle the Regiment lost 38 killed and mortally wounded, 88 wounded and 21 reported missing.”
From the brigade marker on the Antietam battlefield:
“Morris’ Brigade relieved Weber’s and took position on the rise of ground just north of the Bloody Lane; the 108th New York east of Roulette’s Lane, the 14th Connecticut and 130th Pennsylvania west of it. Here supported and afterwards reinforced by Kimball’s Brigade, it maintained a severe contest, losing heavily in killed and wounded. In the latter part of the engagement, the 14th Connecticut was sent to reinforce Richardson’s Division on the left.”
From 14th CT Drummer Boy, Lucien Wells Hubbard:
“Our regiment was cut up terribly. We did not muster but 300 men this morning and before the action we numbered 1,000… If I could get home, I would not care about coming again—not because I am sick of it, but I do not like the looks of some of the wounds I have to see to. You can’t imagine anything about it. I see men wounded in the head, arms, hands, legs, and all over the body. One fellow had five balls in him & he did not stop fighting until a shell hit him and knocked his leg clean off.”
September 18-19, 1862: By mid-morning, Daniel and his Regiment had been lying on the now infamous “plowed field,” under Rebel fire for 42 hours. Around noon-time, Daniel was finally able to leave this position and marched to the Third Division’s headquarters at the William Roulette farm.
September 20-21, 1862: “The men of the regiment went over the ground and viewed the havoc of the battle,” and to look for missing comrades. The next day, was a day of rest.
September 22, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment broke camp near Antietam and marched 12 miles. At 2 p.m. arrived at the Potomac River. Because all the bridges had been burned, it was necessary to ford the Potomac to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia—which was a difficult and dangerous crossing.
Passed through Harper’s Ferry and marched west for about 2 miles to Bolivar Heights where Daniel and his Regiment (along with the entire Second Corp) camped for 38 days.
Sergeant Benjamin Hirst of Company D described Bolivar Heights as the most “bleak, cold, and dreary” place for an encampment. These disease-fostering conditions, along with lack of proper food and clean drinking water led to Company B losing more men on Bolivar Heights than at the Battle of Antietam.
Note: Bolivar Heights is a plateau which overlooks the towns of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and Bolivar, West Virginia, which during the Civil War, was part of Virginia.
September 24, 1862: 14th CT Drummer Boy, Lucien Hubbard gives some insight in a letter to his mother: “…We don’t have nothing to read and ‘we get so lonely we don’t know what to do.’ I tell you, Mother, it comes hard on me to have to come down to hard bread and coffee and nothing else…”
More insight into the 14th Regiment’s hardships via Lucien Hubbard: “I saw a piece in the Standard about the 17th having to lay without any tents. We lay 4 days without them at Ft. Allen and it rained two days…It is bitter cold out here on top of the heights where we are. I shall most freeze sometimes…We don’t have nothing but hard crackers and pork and once in a while some fresh beef…We don’t get paid—not till 1st December.
October 16-17, 1862: Daniel and his Regiment were marched down to the Ferry and divided into four parts. Each part was sent out to guard different areas, including commissary stores and pontoon bridges, with “Company B guarding King Street.” Sergeant Henry P. Goddard of Company G said of this mission, “The whole regiment being in what is called Quartermaster business.”
October 30, 1862: Daniel, his Regiment and the entire Second Corp broke camp and left Bolivar Heights. Marching only 6 miles, he camped near Hillsborough village.
October 31, 1862: Marched 5 miles.
November 1, 1862: Marched 3 miles and camped on the road.
November 2, 1862: Marched a short distance and in the evening camped near the town of Groveville.
November 3, 1862: Marched south into Loudoun County. At night fall, camped near the town of Upperville, and spent two days here. Then spent another two days marching toward Warrenton.
November 9, 1862: Marched through Warrenton, Virginia and camped along Alexandria Road. Daniel remained here with his Regiment for six days.
November 12, 1862: A snow storm for Daniel and his comrades! Drummer, Lucien Hubbard, relates: “We have had a terrible snow storm here. The snow was about 4 or 5 inches deep and it was most bitter cold. The next morning we had to march through the splosh."
More hardships for Daniel and his Regiment. Their knapsacks, with personal contents, were stolen! Lucien Hubbard gives us some insight in a November 12th letter to his mother:
“I suppose you do not know that we lost our knapsacks with all the things that was in them. I lost all my papers and envelopes and I had about 2 dollars’ worth of stamps besides all my handkerchiefs and shirt. Everything I had—that needle book, my mittens. If we had stayed at Bolivar Heights one day more we could have had them. They were at Harper’s Ferry but we were ordered to march and had not time to get them. So the wagons brought them up as far as Snicker’s Gap and we were to Upperville and the wagons were ordered to go back and they put the knapsacks in a barn beside the road and they were all stole by the New York troops.”
If Daniel was like Lucien and other soldiers, I’m sure he lost similar personal items—warm socks, mittens, an extra shirt, letters from family, reading material, maybe even a photograph. How awful that your own “team” would steal from you!
November 15, 1862: Daniel, his Regiment, and the Second Corp broke camp at daybreak and marched more than 30 miles to Falmouth, Virginia.
November 16, 1862: by the afternoon, Daniel and his Regiment were one of the first to reach Falmouth (since his Division was leading the column). According to Sergeant Benjamin Hirst, they arrived “at a place about two miles in rear of Falmouth.”
November 18, 1862: Daniel and his Brigade marched 8 miles west of Belle Plain to an army supply depot. Here, they were detailed to unload army provisions and equipment from a constant barrage of incoming ships. Each day, Daniel and his comrades reported to the wharves at 5 a.m. and began the back-breaking labor of unloading the ships.
Company B Corporal, Elnathan Tyler, says of this work: “The sickly, disagreeable non-soldier like experience at Belle Plain, where our men, wholly unused to such work, were detailed to do duty as stevedores and longshoremen, some weak ones staggering from the barges to the dock under loads they could scarcely stand under.”
Daniel and his comrades would toil under this disgraceful situation for 17 days.
December 6, 1862: Leaving the misery of stevedore work behind, Daniel and his Brigade rejoined the Division at Falmouth, Virginia. A storm that had begun on the 5th, dumped snow and rain on the men most of the day, leaving Daniel to march 8 miles back to Falmouth in the cold slush.
December 7, 1862: Daniel and his Company began cutting trees, preparing for winter camp.
December 10, 1862: At 11:30 p.m. Daniel and his Regiment received an order to be ready to move the next morning. “Then we knew the long expected battle was at hand.” ("Souvenir Excursion to Battlefields,” by the Society for the 14th Connecticut Regiment)
December 11, 1862: at 2 a.m. Daniel and his comrades are each given an extra sixty cartridges and commanded to prepare for a “march and a fight.”
As early as 5 a.m. Daniel would have heard “the firing of heavy guns in the direction of Fredericksburg…and by 5:30 a.m. the discharge of artillery and the roll of musketry volleys were almost continuous.”
At 6 a.m. Daniel was on the move, and by 10 a.m. he and his Regiment were about a half-mile behind the Right Grand Division headquarters at the Lacy house. Here, he would wait for his turn to cross the Rappahannock River with his Regiment, and into Fredericksburg.
Early evening, Daniel and his Regiment marched toward the Rappahannock River. "But just before reaching the bridge, the order was countermanded and we bivouacked for the night on the Falmouth side of the river.” Here Daniel and his Regiment spent a cold and miserable night encamped in an overgrown field near the Lacy House (Diary of 108th NY Colonel, Oliver Palmer, p.91)
December 12, 1862: at 8 a.m. Daniel and his fellow soldiers once again marched toward the Rappahannock and approached the pontoon bridges.
As Daniel crossed the bridge, the Rebels began shelling him and his Regiment. None struck the bridge, but instead slammed into the water, splashing him and his comrades with ice-cold water. The river was crossed, and the south bank reached. Marching a short distance, Daniel and his Regiment remained on Sophia Street until noon when they moved one block over to Caroline Street—all the while the Rebel shelling continued.
When nightfall came, Company B took over a large home as headquarters and the men slept there.
December 13, 1862: The Battle of Fredericksburg.
At 10 a.m. the order to march was given to Daniel and the 14th Connecticut, where they ended up on Princess Anne Street between the court house and St. George’s Episcopal Church. With Rebel shells still bursting, for two hours Daniel and the 14th waited here for the order to advance.
Sergeant Benjamin Hirst says, “As we ran over the cross streets leading from the river, a glance to the right showed us the black muzzles of numerous guns waiting for their prey.”
Around noon the command for Daniel and the 14th Connecticut came to move forward. The book "Souvenir Excursion to Battlefields,” by the Society for the 14th Connecticut Regiment elaborates:
(Bold is mine).
“Then came the order for the Second Brigade, our own, to advance. Like a bugle note sounded out, Col. Perkin's call: “Forward, Fourteenth!” Down Princess Anne the regiment hurried, amid the sound of arms upon the field and the crash of shells falling in the streets or bursting in the houses, receiving at each intersecting street a galling fire from the batteries on the Marye and Willis hills. Prussia Street reached, facing the old brick depot, the command filed to right and moved out that street one block, covered on the right by the houses, until the dreaded canal was reached and the bridge touched—then the storm burst upon them.
The rebel gunners had the exact range. With abundant time to calculate distances they knew just where to drop their shells and how to time their fuses. The batteries in front had opened all along the line, and as the regiment could go but slowly over the bridge the missiles did murderous work. Sergt. Hincks, close at the head of the line, thus graphically described, "Canister shot went hopping round the depot yard and on the causeway like enormous marbles, and shells burst, with a hideous crash, on every side."
On the bridge fell good David Lincoln of Company B, both legs knocked off above the knees, and Daniel Otis with a fatal wound [one of his legs was blown off]. Into a “slaughter pen," indeed, were the men going, but with brave hearts they pushed forward, the officers cheering them on.”
The 14th Connecticut lost 122 out of 270 men, suffering a 45% reduction. Because of this, Regiment commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Sanford H. Perkins was described as “…most crazy about it and has given notice to the authorities that the Regiment is not fit for duty.”
"A Noble and Glorious Cause: The Life, Times, and Civil War Service of Captain Elijah W. Gibbons," mentions, "...the near complete destruction of Captain Gibbons' Company B."
The 14th Connecticut lost 122 out of 270 men, suffering a 45% reduction. Because of this, Regiment commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Sanford H. Perkins was described as “…most crazy about it and has given notice to the authorities that the Regiment is not fit for duty.”
"A Noble and Glorious Cause: The Life, Times, and Civil War Service of Captain Elijah W. Gibbons," mentions, "...the near complete destruction of Captain Gibbons' Company B."
December 14, 1862: Fighting did not resume. Daniel is brought across the river with all the other wounded.
December 15, 1862: Union Army withdrawn from Fredericksburg.
December 16-17, 1862: Daniel H. Otis dies at the Regimental Hospital across the river in Falmouth, Virginia from wounds received at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He was 15 years old. His body was brought back to Middletown, Connecticut and buried in Maromas Cemetery on Sunday, February 8, 1863.
"Honor to the Brave."
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The above timeline was compiled by myself from the following sources:
My personal research
“History of The Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry,” by Charles D. Page
“Souvenir of Excursion to Battlefields,” by the Society of the 14th Connecticut Regiment
“The Good Fight That Didn't End: Henry P. Goddard's Accounts of Civil War and Peace,” by Henry P. Goddard
“The Boys from Rockville: Civil War Narratives of Sgt. Benjamin Hirst, Company D, 14th Connecticut Volunteers,” by Sgt. Benjamin Hirst; edited by Robert L. Bee
“A Noble and Glorious Cause: The Life, Times, and Civil War Service of Captain Elijah W. Gibbons,” by Thomas La Lancette
“The Fredericksburg Campaign,” by Francis Augustin O’Reilly
Correspondence letters of Lucian Wells Hubbard, Drummer Boy of Co. A, 14th Conn. Infantry Regiment. Letters transcribed by William Griffing of “Spared and Shared.”
