|
|
|
| Monday May 20, 1861 |
The 1st Vermont would experience it's first death on this day. As
with many soldiers this death is from disease and not from battle.
Many would fall of simple illnesses such as Underwood below
does of the measles.
"Benjamin Underwood of the Bradford company [Co. D, 1st
Regiment], died of measles, or as Surgeon Sanborn reported it in
a medical periodical, of nostalgia or home-sickness following
measles from which he had begun to recover. This was the first
death among the Vermont troops and caused a feeling of
sadness throughout the regiment which was deepened by the
impressive funeral ceremonies. His remains still lie in the little
cemetery on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, where his comrades
discharged the last volleys over his grave. William Flint noted the
death his diary"