Pvt Lemuel H. Smith
| Smith, Lemuel H. Born: c. 1835, Windsor, Connecticut Died: January 4, 1864, Jamestown, Rhode Island Burial: Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, New York Occupation: Brick Maker Enlisted: September 26, 1863, Providence, Rhode Island Unit: 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment (Colored) Company: E Rank: Private Note: Based on initial research, Hartford, CT was inscribed as resting place on the Windsor, CT monument. The burial site correction listed above is based on subsequent research. --------------------------- Lemuel H. Smith was born around 1835 in Windsor, Connecticut. His parents appear to have been Isaac C. Smith and Aurelia M. Percy. Based on her age, Aurelia Percy may have been the sister of Julie Ann Percy and the granddaughter of Ozias Pettibone. According to Granby, Connecticut archivist Carol Laun, Ozias Pettibone was a white enslaver in Granby who fathered children with an enslaved woman named Rose. Lemuel’s parents, Aurelia and Isaac, appear in the 1850 census living in the Poquonuck neighborhood of Windsor, Connecticut. Lemuel would have been around fifteen, but he does not appear in the household. The handwritten census entries list the following children: Mary, age fourteen; Leonard, thirteen; Harriet, eight; and Henry, age six. It is possible that the name “Leonard” reflects the census taker recording Lemuel’s name incorrectly. By 1860, Lemuel was living in his own household in Windsor. He was married to Louisa Matson, and they had four children: Isaac, six; Edward, four; Patience Medora, two; and Joseph, nine months old. His mother, Aurelia, was also living in the household, along with his siblings Harriet, eighteen, and George, nine. A man named Seth Strong is also present. Though not in the same household, Seth’s wife, Phoebe Percy, was likely the sister of Aurelia Percy, suggesting that Seth Strong was Lemuel’s uncle. On September 26, 1863, Lemuel enlisted in Providence, Rhode Island, joining the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment. He reported his age as thirty, his occupation as a brick maker, and his birthplace as Windsor, Connecticut. Enlisting alongside him that same day was his brother, Henry T. Smith. Two days earlier, their uncle, Seth Strong, had also enlisted. It is likely the three men traveled to Providence together. Henry, age nineteen, also listed his occupation as brick maker and his birthplace as Windsor, while Seth listed his occupation as laborer and his birthplace as New Haven, Connecticut. All three men were assigned to Company E, allowing them to serve in close proximity. In the months that followed, they trained together, preparing for military service while maintaining a sense of familiarity and support. In September 1863, the men of the 14th Regiment were instructed to construct fortifications and establish an eight-gun battery on Dutch Island in Narragansett Bay. The island became a strategic defensive post guarding the entrance to the bay, and the encampment was known as Camp Bailey. By November 1863, the men of the 14th had completed their work, and many companies were stationed on the island. During this period, sixteen soldiers died—most from disease—and were buried in a cemetery established on Dutch Island. One of those men was Lemuel H. Smith, who died on January 4, 1864, of pleuro-pneumonia, a severe lung infection. His records indicate that his personal effects were given to his brother, Henry. In 1898, the site was redeveloped and renamed Fort Greble. The cemetery remained in place, but over time it fell into neglect. By the mid-twentieth century, the burial ground had deteriorated significantly. In 1948, as part of a broader federal effort to consolidate scattered military burials, the remains of the sixteen soldiers were disinterred and reinterred at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York. All sixteen men were placed in a common grave, marked by a single headstone bearing their names, including Lemuel H. Smith. In 1865, Lemuel’s wife, Louisa, appears in the Rhode Island state census living in Providence. The census entry was recorded on June 1, 1865, five months after Lemuel’s death. It is not clear whether she had relocated there prior to his death to be closer to him or moved afterward. By the 1875 Rhode Island state census, three of Lemuel and Louisa’s children were living with her in Providence. Louisa had remarried to a man named William H. Johnston. In 1932, Charles R. Hale compiled a list of burials at Old North Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut. He used a range of sources including headstone inscriptions, Hartford death reports, newspaper records, cemetery interment lists, vital records, and family records. In his report, Hale lists Lemuel Smith as buried at Old North Cemetery. However, given that Lemuel was buried on Dutch Island in 1864 and reinterred at Long Island National Cemetery in 1948, this entry is likely in error. Lemuel H. Smith’s life was brief, but it was not without meaning. He left behind a young wife, four children, and a family that would carry forward in his absence. Like many soldiers of the United States Colored Troops, he did not fall in battle, but to disease in a place far from home, in service to a nation still struggling to define freedom. For decades, his resting place remained on a quiet island, largely forgotten. Yet his name endures—first in the records that preserve his service, and later etched into a shared stone among the men with whom he served. In that way, his story, like theirs, remains part of the unfinished narrative of sacrifice and remembrance in American history. |