Robert Warner immigrated to the United States from Ireland as a young boy and mustered into Co. B of the 5th Connecticut Volunteers at the tender age of 17 on July 22 1861. He fought with the 5th Connecticut in some of the most memorable and grueling of the Civil War battles including Gettysburg, Chancellorsville and Cedar Mountain (and was wounded in the latter two). Private Warner returned to Hartford when he mustered out of the regiment in 1864 and lived and worked in Frog Hollow until his death at Fitch’s Soldier Home in Darien on July 20, 1903. Members of the Nathaniel Lyon Grand Army of the Republic Post – Commander Charles Jackson, Quartermaster Robert Pyne, Dewitt Graves and George Jones – bore their comrade to his final resting place.
Gunnery Sergeant Robert Warner, Ret. (USMC) after placing the Colors at his great great grandfathers gravesite June 2016
Over a century after his death, recently retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant Robert Warner contacted me – could I help him locate his great great grandfather’s gravesite? It was an honor to locate this gravesite at Zion Hill Cemetery and to receive a photo of Sgt. Warner with the Colors he placed to honor his ancestor.
I am thrilled when descendants of Hartford’s Civil War veterans reach out to me for information on their descendants. Feel free to contact me (mfalvey1978@gmail.com) if you are looking for information about a Civil War veteran who enlisted from and/or lived and died in Hartford – I am especially interested in any photos of veterans you can share with me.
Sources:
Record of service of Connecticut men in the army and navy of the United States during the War of the Rebellion. Hartford, Conn: Press of Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1889. Pg. 232, 708.
Robert Warner obituary. Hartford Courant. July 22, 1902.
Easel ornament of the personal record of Robert Warner, dedicated to him Christmas Dec 25 ’92 by his wife Elizabeth. Photo provided to author by Gunnery Sergeant Robert Warner.
United States Census, 1870-1900
Geer’s Hartford City Directories