Notes on Two Hundred Years (and More)
by Douglas H. Parkhurst

This month marks the 160th anniversary, on April 9, of the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to combined Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant. Lee’s surrender effectively ended the American Civil War. Less than a week later, on April 14, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.

Danbury Universalist Society deacon Luman Hubbell, in his 1922 historical account (see Notes… article of March 2025), identified six congregants who were Civil War veterans. Four of these men, Grandison D. Foote, William O. Hoyt, Timothy Rose, and Benjamin F. Skinner, responded to President Lincoln’s initial call for volunteers in April 1861. This followed the shelling by secessionists of the Federal installation at Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Foote, Hoyt, Rose, and Skinner were “three months’ men,” members of what was locally called the Wooster Guards [see note below], and officially Company E, 1st Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment. All four mustered in as privates on April 22, 1861. The 1st Connecticut arrived in Washington, D.C., in mid-May and moved to northern Virginia shortly after. Here the regiment performed picket and reconnaissance duty and skirmished with Confederate forces in the area. Most significantly, on July 21, the 1st Connecticut saw action guarding the Warrentown Road at the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia. The Wooster Guards ended their service and returned home on August 1, 1861.

Grandison Foote (sometimes spelled Foot) was born about 1820 in Brookfield, Connecticut. In 1843 he married Mercy Ann Porter, “both of Danbury.” Danbury Universalist Society pastor J. K. Ingalls officiated. The 1860 U.S. Census shows Foote, a hatter, living in the borough of Danbury with his wife and four young children, Anna, Edgar, Frank, and Clement. Grandison’s father Philo Foote, a shoemaker, and a servant named Bridget Smith also resided with the family. Grandison is listed as one of two musicians (he was possibly a drummer) on the rolls of 1st Connecticut. Local Universalist society and church records show Grandison Foote was elected to membership in 1852 and Mercy Ann in 1863. She later was a member of the church visitation and hospitality committees.

The fires of patriotism must have burned bright in Grandison Foote’s heart. In November 1861, after only three months at home, he re-enlisted as a private (he was later promoted to sergeant), this time joining Company A, 11th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, known in town as the Averill Rifles [see note below]. This was a three year enlistment (in 1864 he again re-enlisted). A passage in Bailey’s History of Danbury, 1684-1896 describes Foote’s second going away:

“Mr. Foote was in the first company of three months’ men, and after returning he went back to his trade of hatter in the Pahquioque Factory. The departure of the Averill Rifles was too much for him, and throwing down the implements of his trade he enlisted in the same company. They had already gone to Hartford, and there Mr. Foote joined them….On the afternoon of his departure his fellow-workmen…presented Mr. Foote with a Bible with $20 in bills between the leaves….Mr. Foote responded, and then left for the cars. As the train passed the shop the whole force turned out, and he went by amid the cheers of the crowd.”

Between 1862 and 1865 the 11th Connecticut was involved in perhaps a dozen actions including South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. The regiment mustered out in December 1865. After the war Grandison Foote returned to Danbury and resumed his trade as a hatter. He became active in veterans’ affairs and joined the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, which he served as post commander [see note below]. Grandison Foote died in Danbury in 1878 and is buried in the Old North Main Street Cemetery [see note below]. Mercy Foote collected a Civil War widow’s pension and died in Danbury in 1889.

William O. Hoyt was born about 1840 and grew up on a Danbury farm. By 1860 he was working as a hatter’s apprentice and in 1861 joined the Wooster Guards. In late 1861 he, too, re-enlisted, this time as a sergeant, in Company E, 12th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry.

From 1862 to 1864 the 12th Connecticut did duty mostly in Lousiana, including operations in and around New Orleans and the Union occupation of that city. In 1863, in conjunction with the Vickburg campaign, the 12th participated in the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, which ended with Union forces gaining full control of the Mississippi River. In 1864, the 12th moved to Virginia and saw action in the Shenandoah Valley campign. On October 19, 1864, at the Battle of Cedar Creek, William Hoyt was captured by Confederate forces and held as a prisoner of war until being paroled in February 1865.

William Hoyt married Frances M. Shepherd (or Sheppard) from Danbury, a hat trimmer. Unfortunately, local Universalist church and society records are not complete and this writer was unable to find mention of either William or Frances. In 1870 the family, including two children, Julia and Charles, was residing in Danbury. William was employed as a hatter. By 1880 the Hoyts had relocated to Flora, Kansas, where William farmed with son Charles. He received a Civil War pension and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Frances died in 1896 and is buried at Graceland Cemetery, Creston, Iowa. William Hoyt died in 1916 at the National Soldiers Home in Leavenworth, Kansas, and is buried at Leavenworth National Cemetery.

Timothy Rose was born in 1835, perhaps in Troy, New York. The 1860 U.S. Census shows him living in the borough of Danbury with wife Emma and infant daughter, Ida. He is described as a hatter, though later records show his occupations as blacksmith and stationary engineer, possibly his functions in hat manufacturing. He joined the Wooster Guards in 1861 and served for three months, as described above.

Timothy and Emma were both elected to membership (and Emma was baptized) in the Danbury Universalist Church in 1869. They soon moved away, however, and in 1870 were living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with young sons William and Goodsell. William was born on August 4, 1861, three days after his father’s return from the war. Daughter Ida died in 1862, at age 2. The Rose family stayed on in Grand Rapids. Emma passed away in 1878 and was interred in Greenwood Cemetery, Grand Rapids. Timothy Rose eventually collected a pension for his Civil War service. He died at the Soldiers Home Hospital in Grand Rapids in 1913 and is buried in Garfield Park Cemetery in that city.

[Note – The name Wooster was and is ubiquitous in Danbury, after General David Wooster, who led American troops responding to the 1777 British raid on the town during the Revolutionary War.]
[Note – The Averill Rifles were named in honor of Roger Averill, a prominent attorney and public official in Danbury. He served as lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1862 to 1866.]
[Note – The Grand Army of the Republic was an organization of Union veterans of the Civil War. The Danbury unit was James E. Moore Post No. 18.]
[Note – Old North Main Street Cemetery is located on a rise near Main, Downs, Smith, and Water Streets, just south of Interstate 84.]

To be continued in May 2025… We will learn about Civil War veterans Benjamin F. Skinner, Lewis A. Ward, and Joseph T. Bates.