A Stoneham teenager goes to war

Stephen Hosmer Green of Stoneham had not yet turned 15 when Rebel troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, igniting the Civil War. His birthday came two weeks later. But the lanky teenager looked older than he was, and on September 5, concealing his age, he enlisted in the 22nd Infantry.

A descendant of Capt. Jonathan Green, a prominent figure in town history, Stephen had learned shoemaking, as had many of his peers. He was also a crack shot with a rifle, which allowed him to join the elite Second Company of Massachusetts Sharpshooters, on its way south to join the war effort.

In Virginia, Green’s company was assigned to the Army of the Potomac and joined the advance on Richmond, the Confederate capital. Armed with telescopic rifles, Green’s company saw fierce fighting. According to a Stoneham Independent writer, “after a bloody engagement in which his regiment was badly cut to pieces, only 17 men reported for duty and Private Green was one of the 17.”

What happened next would dramatically change his role in the war. Falling seriously ill—disease claimed more casualties than did combat--the young soldier was evacuated to Mt. Pleasant Hospital in Washington, D.C. According to Civil War historian Ron Coddington, Stephen Green stayed on at the hospital as a caregiver. In 1863 he was reassigned as a nurse in the Third Veteran Reserve Corps, where he served until the end of the war. Now, instead of bullets, he handled bandages.

I can’t help thinking about the suffering the young sharpshooter must have seen, first in combat, and then in the wards, as he cared for the wounded, sick, and dying. What inner wounds he must have brought home with him after mustering out of the Army.

He was still a teenager, 19, when he returned to Stoneham. Six months later he married Selina Elemanda Woodard, an attractive woman of Mohawk descent. They had two children, Selina Isabella and Stephen Walter.

Thanks to resources on Ancestry.com, I found photographs of Stephen and Selina. Both are formal poses, carte de visite portraits. Wearing a stylish Victorian dress with a lace collar, Selina is seated, her hands resting on her lap. She wears a bracelet on one wrist and rings on her fingers.

There are two photos of Stephen, the first likely taken after his first enlistment. Looking tall even as he is seated, he holds his kepi, a soldier’s cap, in his right hand. His hair parted above a handsome face, strong jaw, he is dead serious. In the second photo, perhaps taken at his second enlistment, he stands straight beside a column in vest and Army jacket.

After the war, Stephen Green became active in the Grand Army of the Republic Post 75, serving as quartermaster sergeant. The post was named after Col. J. Parker Gould, who died from a bullet wound suffered in the Battle of the Crater near Petersburg.

I could find little more information about Stephen Hosmer Green, but I did come across an article in the Stoneham Independent from the summer of 1884. In July of that year, Stephen attended the seventh reunion of the 2nd Company of Massachusetts Sharp Shooters, held on grounds near the Lynnfield Hotel. It had been 23 years since the teenager had camped there for training before departing for combat.

After a business meeting and festivities, the veterans assembled for the annual shooting contest. At age 38, Green, the former sharpshooter and Army nurse, had not lost his skill with a rifle. In fact, he won the gold medal.

Selina Green survived her husband, who died in 1901, and lived another 13 years. They were buried in Lindenwood Cemetery, marked by one stone bearing both names.

Stephen Hosmer Green was not the only Green to serve in the Civil War. In my next column I’ll tell the story of two others, distant cousins, Henry and Joshua Green, sons of the abolitionists, Henry and Abigail Green of Bow Street.

Ben Jacques is the author of If the Shoe Fits: Stories of Stonehan Then & Now, available at the Book Oasis at 311 Main St. in Stoneham.