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More Newton Civil War Soldiers

Mark your calendars for May 18, 2014 at 1:00 pm for the re-dedication of the Newton Civil War Soldiers' Monument in Newton Cemetery.  What follows is a brief bio of the sixth of the 61 men whose names appear on the monument:

Elliot Littlefield

Elliot was a married, 38 year-old carpenter living in Newton with three children when he enlisted as a private in the Cavalry in the Mass. 1st Regiment, Company G on September 23, 1861.  Born in Holliston in 1828, Elliot was living in Watertown when he married a Newton resident, Martha S. Winslow in 1853.  Elliot served in this regiment with four other men from Newton whose names appear on the Newton Soldiers’ Monument with him.  Elliot was a prisoner of war at Culpeper, Virginia and died in prison on January 23, 1864 at Belle Isle. 

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For over three years, the Mass. 1st Cavalry participated in several battles before Littlefield was taken prisoner.  The Mass. 1st Cavalry organized at Camp Brigham, Reedville, VA, and stayed until December of 1861.  By August of 1862, they were stationed at Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA and fought in Manassas, Va., July 16-21; the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 12-15, 1862; Kelly’s Ford on March 17th; the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2-3; participated in multiple scouting missions in and around Rappahannock Station; and was engaged in the Mine Run Battle in late November, 1863.  Littlefield was reported missing in action from Rapidan Station, VA, but this military record did not show a date.  It is not immediately clear when Littlefield was taken prisoner or how long he remained at Belle Isle prison. 

By November 1863, nearly 16,500 Union prisoners were held at Libby Prison on Belle Isle, VA.  Reports from news outlets from that time conflicted depending on the source (north or south), but Union prisoners who survived reported that conditions there were deplorable.  Food was scarce, and disease was rampant. 

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The burial site for Elliot Littlefield is not known.  However, burial records from City Point National Cemetery in Hopewell, VA (18 miles outside of Richmond) show a Union soldier named “E. Littlefield,” with a death date of 1864, interred there.  City Point Cemetery, the final resting place for almost 6,800 Civil War soldiers, was created by the federal government after the war to accommodate the vast numbers of Union and Confederate dead found in shallow graves in the vicinity of this site. This burial ground is located near the site of Libby Prison and the seven wartime hospitals that operated near there.  Untold numbers of dead soldiers, some of whom were discovered as late as the 1950s as part of municipal project sites in the area, were exhumed and moved to City Point and formally recorded when possible. 

Littlefield was the son of Amory and Nancy Littlefield, and was survived by his widow, Martha S. Winslow Littlefield. By 1868, Martha, widow, lived on Elliot Street in Upper Falls, and by 1875 had moved to Richardson Street.  Though Littlefield was mustered out on January 23, 1864, his name was not included on the Monument when it was dedicated in July 1864.  The news of his death may simply have not been reported to Newton officials in time.


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