The following was published within an article titled Civil War Graffiti in the Catoctin Region by Edie Wallace and published in Catoctin History , the Magazine of the Catoctin Center for Regional Studies, Frederick, MD. This is posted with their kind permission.

N.N. Glazier graffiti found in the Moulder Bldg., Shepherdstown, WV.
Photo by Edie Wallace.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

   Just one month prior to the Antietam battle, Amherst College sophomore Nelson Newton Glazier enlisted in the 11th Regiment, Vermont Volunteers, Company G. ²¹  Private Glazier traveled with his company in September 1862 to Fort Lincoln, and later Fort Slocum, for "Duty in the Defences [sic] of Washington, D.C." The skills in artillery demonstrated by the men earned the regiment a change in designation to 1st Heavy Artillery in December 1862. However; Newton Glazier's education no-doubt influenced his position as clerk in the Adjutant's office. In September 1862, while his compatriots labored at the construction of the Washington forts, Glazier attended to his clerk's duties, noting in a letter: "It is much pleasanter for me to remain in camp than it would be to go out and aid in throwing up these works; you know I am not so immoderately fond of work as many are." ²²

   The 11th Regiment remained at the Washington defensive forts through May of 1864 and did not participate in the Antietam battle of September 1862. Yet Newton Glazier's signature, dated 1862, appears on the garret wall of the Moulder Building in the nearby Virginia town of Shepherdstown (now West Virginia). Although his letters do not mention a trip to Shepherdstown, Glazier's duties in the Adjutant's office included stints as courier to the other Washington forts, and perhaps as far as Shepherdstown during the long Union occupation following the September battle.

   Throughout his time around Washington, Newton Glazier rose through the ranks. In November 1863 he became 2nd Lieutenant of Company A and in January 1864 was elevated to 1st Lieutenant. Although spared the heavy labor of construction, and apparently relatively comfortable in his camp, Glazier complained of stomach illnesses often and grew increasingly homesick. While describing his camp in Maryland as "some four miles north of Washington, in a very pleasant country, healthy in locality," still his heart longed for home: "No other place has half the attraction, no other place has so many holy associations, no other place is half so dear as my own Vermont." ²³

   On the morning of May 12,1864, Newton Glazier wrote from Fort Slemmer near Washington, D.C.: "My Very Dear Father; We are expecting to leave tomorrow for the 'Front' -- They are having an awful battle in Virginia -- we expect to join Grant soon... I think Grant is determined to win or sacrifice the Army in the attempt." ²⁴ Nine days later, Glazier wrote from Hospital B, 2nd Division, 6th Corps, Fredericksburg, Virginia:

   My Dear Father -- Early Thursday morning May 19 My left arm was struck by a piece of shell near the shoulder -- amputation was necessary. I am thankful I am as well off as I am.

   O pray for the wounded & the Dying -- I hope our cause will be victorious. I trust that the old Flag borne upward by Northern Prayers & borne onward by Northern blood will triumph yet -- good bye -- I am very weak.
      N. N. Glazier ²⁵

   Having lost his arm from the wound at Spotsylvania, Lieutenant Glazier was honorably discharged from the Union army on September 3, 1864. In 1865, while he continued his college studies, Newton Glazier represented his hometown of Stratton in the Vermont legislature, and in 1869, he was ordained a Baptist minister. Rev. Glazier served a number of Vermont and Massachusetts congregations, recalled his great-niece, Maud C. Eaton, who noted:

   The last fifteen years of his life as a retired pastor were spent with his blind sister, Czarina Abigail Glazier Williams, then 92 years of age, at Beatrice, Nebraska; Muscotah, Kansas; and Ashland, Nebraska. He died at Asland, Nebraska in the fall of 1922 and was buried at Willow Creek Cemetery north of Prague, Nebraska. ²⁶

   21. www.vermontcivilwar.org/bios/glazier.html or Back on this site.

   22. September 17,1862 letter from Newton Glazier to the "Folks at Home;" letters transcribed by N. N. Glazier's great-great grandniece Connie Snyder, http://vermontcivilwar.org/1bgd/11/nng2.shtml or on this site.

   23. Ibid, Sept. 17,1862 letter and Oct. 17,1862 letter.

   24. Ibid.

   25. Ibid, May 21,1864 letter.

   26. Maud C. Eaton, "Biography/ Nelson Newton Glazier," www.vermontcivilwar.org/1bgd/11/nng1.shtml or Back on this site.