Hometown Heroes
Capt. Addison Warner, U.S. Army
By Michael Rocchetti
Captain Addison G Warner was a Union Army Officer and Cavalry Commander from Putnam who fought and died in the Civil War. His gallantry and heroism was so notable that Putnam’s Civil War Veterans Organization was named in his honor – the Addison G. Warner Post #54 of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Warner was the son of Benjamin and Sally Warner. He was born Nov. 19, 1835, in New York. By 1860, he was living in Pomfret with his younger sister Harriet and her family, and he was working in Putnam as the high school principal. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted for a three-month stint as a Private with Rifle Company A of the 2nd CT Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In May of 1861 his unit was sent to Northern Virginia to help defend Washington D.C. Here they saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run. Afterwards, the unit returned to Connecticut, and by Aug. 7, 1861 he was mustered out. Upon his return to Putnam he married Angeline Elizabeth Gleason. They had one daughter – Pamela Sarah Warner, born in Pomfret.
Warner re-enlisted as a Captain in the Union Army on Dec. 30, 1863, as the Commander of Company I, of the 1st Regiment CT Volunteer Cavalry, part of the Cavalry Corps under the command of General Philip Sheridan. Warner saw action in the Overland Campaign of 1864 in numerous engagements in Virginia including the battles of Grove Church, Todd’s Tavern, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Mechanicsville and Ashland.
The Battle of Ashland, on June 1, 1864, found the 1st CT Cavalry, along with other Union regiments, nearly surrounded by Confederate forces in the town of Ashland, Vir., north of Richmond. The following account of the battle, from The Military and Civil History of Connecticut During the War of 1861-1865, by W. A. Croffut and John M. Morris, describes Captain Addison G. Warner’s bravery and how he died:
"Confederate rebels charged down two of the roads on Warner’s position, but his squadron resisted the onset, and turned it back. The rebels mounted another charge. Captain Warner was shot through the body. Though mortally wounded, he kept his saddle, and continued to rally and cheer on his men with determined and extraordinary courage. He soon received three other gunshot wounds, when, faint from loss of blood, he fell from his horse, and died gloriously. Sergeant Alexander McDonald of Norfolk CT, who assisted him on the field after he was wounded, wrote the following account:
“I was only a few feet from him when the rebels came charging upon us, and could hear his calm, bold tone of command, ‘Stand fast, boys! Give it to them!’ When numbers forced us to retire, and brave Major Blakeslee rallied us again, I saw Capt. Warner standing about a dozen yards in front of the regiment. I rode up, and asked him what he was doing there. He said, ‘Mac, I’m wounded in the shoulder.’ I urged him to go to the rear. He refused. The regiment swept forward, and we with them. The captain, regardless of his wound, was again foremost in the fight, and held his ground when it became a hand-to-hand contest. We were for a moment separated; when Sergeant Wheeler called out, ‘Mac, Captain’s wounded.’ In a moment, I was at his side. His first wound was through his body, close under his shoulder: that he did not seem to mind. The next broke his leg below the knee, and he was unsteady in the saddle. Wheeler caught him as we turned him around, —almost by force; for he insisted on facing the enemy. We had gone but a few steps, when another ball struck him in his thigh, severing an artery. He was in possession of all his faculties; but he did not betray pain. A moment more, and a ball passed through his head; but even this did not cause instant death. He was now very weak; and I had my arm around him, trying to guide the horses with the other. We struck a tree, which separated us; and he fell. His foot caught in the stirrup, and he was dragged some distance, until the horse, by kicking, disengaged him. We rallied, drove the rebels back, and brought the captain off. I took his head on my lap, and asked him if he knew me. ‘Yes, —Mac,’ said he. ‘Oh, my poor wife and child!’ And then his face would change, and he would cry, ‘Rally, boys! — rally for the old flag!’ . . . When we dug a grave to bury our heroic commander, the bullets flew like hail.”
Capt. Warner was reburied, at the Grove Street Cemetery in Putnam. In Putnam, Post #54 of the Grand Army of the Republic was established 13 April 1882, and named in memory of him. Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.
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