Coventry in the Civil War: Casualties

Peleg W. Card was born December 18, 1841 in Coventry, married Mary, worked as a house carpenter, and was a member of the Kentish Guards before the war. He was the son of Gideon B. Card () and Sophia A. Tarbox.

Peleg was enrolled and mustered in as a Private on June 5, 1861, in Company H the 2nd Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers*. According to his death certificate he was 20 years, eight months and three days when he died July 21, 1861, from wounds received at the 1st Battle of Bull Run, Virginia. This was the first engagement that he was involved in. His death was reported in a letter home by his cousin, Ezra Greene, who served with him. According to the letter Peleg lived about an hour after he had been wounded. He has a marble gravestone carved by Oren Spencer in the family lot in Coventry Historical Cemetery #30 Section H Pine Grove Cemetery. The marker is broken in half and the bottom half is all that has been found. 

Samuel Potter Sweet, Jr. was born in April 1841 in Warwick and was the son of Samuel and Betsy (Lockwood) Sweet. Before the war he lived in Quidneck, worked as a mechanic, and was also a member of the Kentish Guards. Samuel was enrolled and mustered in June 1861 as a Private in Company H 2nd Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers*. He had served four months when he died. According to his death certificate he was 20 years, five months and four days old when he died September 4, 1861, of Typhoid Fever at Camp Sprague Hospital, Washington, DC. His funeral was mentioned in the letters of Ezra Greene. He has a marble gravestone in Coventry Historical Cemetery# 109 Section F Manchester Cemetery.                                                                            

Henry G. Kittle (Kettle) was born January 20, 1842, in Coventry and was the son of Isaiah and Susan Kittle. Henry enlisted as a Marine on April 20, 1861. He served on the USS Ohio until April 30, 1861, when he transferred to the USS Minnesota, the flagship of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron.  According to his death certificate he was 19 years, 11 months and nine days old when he died on December 29, 1861, from a fall on the USS Minnesota near Old Point, Virginia. He has a marble gravestone in Coventry Historical Cemetery#81 Irwin-Hines Cemetery.

*The 2nd Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers was a three year regiment formed in June 1861 and discharged in July 1865. They mustered in Providence and sailed to Elizabeth City, New Jersey, on the steamer, State of Maine, and then boarded a train to Baltimore, Maryland and then marched to Washington City (this was the name for the District of Columbia). When the regiment reached Washington City, they were encamped at Camp Sprague.

In the next part of the series we will be discussing the men who died in the year 1862.