Along with Griffin Stedman, Major Henry Camp was one of the golden boys of Hartford who would be venerated as a martyr to the Union cause after the Civil War. Extremely well liked, handsome and devout, Camp’s life and death on the field was memorialized by his best friend in the 10th Connecticut Infantry, Chaplain H. Clay Trumbull in the biography The Knightly Soldier.

Killed in the battle of Darbytown Road, VA on October 13, 1864, Camp was originally laid to rest in Spring Grove Cemetery. His remains were re-interred on October 12, 1868 in Cedar Hill Cemetery beneath the polished Scotch granite monument fashioned in James Batterson’s monument workshop on North Main Street. While not as elaborate as Griffin Stedman’s sarcophagus, the Camp monument stands out amidst the field of white marble and grey granite gravestones.

The striking bronze details describe Camp’s military service. The eagle on the east side of the stone is surrounded with a wreath of victor’s laurels. In its talons it grasps a major’s shoulder strap. Beneath this is the cap ornament of an infantry officer, the bugle enclosing the number 10 representing the 10th CT Infantry. The ribbons hanging below display the badges of the 18th (on the left) and the 10th Army Corps.

On both the north and south sides of the monument, Batterson placed bronzed swords, created in realistic detail even down to the worn tip of the scabbard caused from being dragged on the ground in active service. The swords are entwined with the drapery of an officer’s sash.

The Hartford Courant, in an article describing the monument and announcing to its readers that the monument was available for viewing at Batterson’s establishment, aptly said that “The monument . . . will be another of the educators for the community, to teach that patriotism and devotion to duty are remembered and honored by survivors are the fallen heroes.”

Sources:
“Monument to Major Camp.” Hartford Courant, August 6, 1868, pg. 2
Cedar Hill Cemetery burial records