Roll Call

Tuesday, December 16, 1862

The Twenty-Seventh Connecticut had their first roll call after the battle of Fredericksburg, and the men experienced the painful loss of those who fell during the futile siege of Marye's Heights.

Sam Waldron, the historian of Company A, recorded the sad event:

Is there one who witnessed that Roll Call on the 16th Dec. that can readily forget it? The familiar form of Sergt. Fowler did not advance to the front and with military precision bring his gun to an order let it fall to a rest into the right arm pass his hand into his breast pockett[sic] and pull out the well known Roll Book. Sergt. Blair and Wilmot did not answer to their names. We missed the merry “Aye” of Corporal Goodwin the answer of Corporal Cornwall the hearty “here” of Frank Johnson and the quiet response of Hilliard and Fairchild.¹

References:
¹Record Book of Company A, Civil War Collection, Mss. 77, Box 5, Folder A, New Haven Historical Society, 40.