“A LONG AND PAINFUL ILLNESS”: Stories from Dorchester North Burying Ground

Tucked among the weathered stones of Dorchester North Burying Ground is a marble marker that quietly tells a powerful story. Unlike most 19th-century gravestones, which offer only sparse details, the monument of Charles F. Snell speaks volumes and tells a story of war, suffering, family, and resilience. This post from our Director of Historic Burying Grounds, Kelly Thomas, takes a closer look at his remarkable life and legacy, preserved in stone.

Most old New England headstones provide only very basic information about the deceased: almost always the date of death, sometimes age, sometimes date of birth, and sometimes family members such as the spouse of a married person or the parents of a child. Gravestones in the 19^th century started incorporating inspirational verses at the bottom of the stone. It is with interest that I read the unusual gravestone that incorporates more biographical details. One stone that has always caught my eye is in Dorchester North Burying Grounds and marks the final resting place of Charles F. Snell who died in 1881 in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.

His gravestone is a marble marker, typical of the 19^th century and reads:

MY HUSBAND OUR FATHER

CHARLES F. SNELL

died July 21, 1881,

after a long and painful

illness contracted in the

Andersonville Prison

was a member of the

3d. Maine, Vols. Co. D.

aged 38 yrs.

Our Baby

MARY ETTA

aged 11 ms, 15 ds.

 

Charles F. Snell was born in 1843 in Dedham, Massachusetts, and later moved to Maine to live with his brother. At the age of 18 he enlisted in the Third Maine Regiment in April 1861 and mustered in on June 4, 1861, for three years of service. The regiment left the state the very next day towards their first battle at Bull Run in Virginia. This company participated in many of the most well-known battles of the Civil War including Gettysburg. One month before he was due to muster out of service he was taken prisoner on May 4, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, VA. He traveled 640 miles over 18 days to the infamous Andersonville prison in Georgia, which had opened in February of that year.

 

Andersonville Prison was notorious for the exceptionally bad conditions of confinement. Crowding, exposure to the elements, and lack of food all contributed to a high rate of death of soldiers in the prison. The primary causes of death were dysentery and malnutrition. Mr. Snell kept a diary while he was imprisoned in Andersonville which was later partially published by the Times-Record newspaper out of Brunswick, Maine. In his diary he says there were about 15,000 prisoners in the camp when he arrived, increasing to 35,000 in August several months later. He estimates the death rate was about 20-30 men per day in May, increasing to about 100 deaths per day at the end of summer. On August 18 he noted that he was having symptoms of scurvy, a disease caused by extreme vitamin C deficiency, in his mouth.

 

Figure 2 Andersonville Prison, Ga., August 17, 1864. Bird's-eye view. Charles Snell was a prisoner at the time this photo was taken. Credit: Library of Congress.

In September of 1864 he was transferred to another prison in Florence, SC, about 330 miles away, until November that same year. Initially they had improved rations, but conditions soon deteriorated. Prisoners were offered better rations if they swore an oath of allegiance to the Confederate government. Mr. Snell wrote: “They will starve me a little more before I will take it.” He notes that on November 15^th, for the first time in over six months, he slept inside a tent with a blanket. He was “paroled” from prison in a prisoner exchange on November 29 and sent to Charleston, SC, 126 miles away to await release to the Union forces. He was sent back to Florence, SC, on December 2 because Union forces had cut the railroad between Charleston and Savannah, preventing his transfer. On December 5 he was sent back to Charleston again, and the following day he was put aboard a Union hospital ship. The ship spent several days in Charleston Harbor and then sailed for Annapolis, MD. He was mustered out of military duty on December 17, but since he was in such poor health, he was immediately sent to a hospital camp for a lengthy recuperation. At the close of the war he returned north.

 

Figure 3 " Maine, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Card Index, 1861-1865, Maine State Archive Collections, 1718-1957", FamilySearch.

After the war Mr. Snell lived in Dedham, Massachusetts and then in Boston. He worked as a clerk for an optician for several years and then became an optician himself. He married Elizabeth Soesman in 1871. They had four children, with the first child being born in 1872. Their youngest daughter, Mary Etta, was born in 1878. She died of whooping cough in 1879. Her name is at the bottom of the epitaph on the gravestone for Charles Snell. It was a common practice to include the name(s) of any children that have died on a parent’s gravestone, even if it was several years after the child’s death. Mr. Snell died of “phthisis pulmonalis,” an old term for pulmonary tuberculosis. This was a common disease in the 19^th century. Both whooping cough and tuberculosis are treated with antibiotics, which had not yet been discovered at that time. His gravestone and his obituary both state that he never regained his health after his discharge from military service. This is a fate that was shared by many Civil War veterans.