Benjamin Sturtevant Hawkins belonged to Company I, 12th Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers. The 39-year old was a resident of Center Harbor, having enlisted in the neighboring town of Meredith on Aug. 15th, 1862. He was mustered in for three years on Sept. 9th, a private.

The following is a letter he wrote to his wife Mary, while the regiment was encamped at Waterloo, Virginia. Punctuation (or rather, lack of) and spelling errors kept exactly as written by Private Hawkins. 
                                                         ---

                                                      ---
​Benjamin Hawkins survived for a year in the service of his country. Sick with chronic diarrhea, he was sent back home to Center Harbor, with the hope that he would recover. He did not, and died on Sept. 18th, 1863.

His death notice, from the New Hampshire Statesman, on the 23rd of Oct.:

He was buried in the Meredith Village Cemetery.

Page 1 notes:
Waterloo, Virginia - the 12th NH marched into town on the 11th of Nov., their stay only lasting four days. During this time, the mail arrived, it having been nearly a month since they had received anything from home.
Page 2 notes:
Mr. Pain - aka Payne, there were several adult males of this surname in Center Harbor at this time, all farmers.
Willie, Albert and Edwin - three of his four sons are mentioned by name in this letter (Rufus was the 4th son). His "darter" is daughter Mary.
Page 3 notes:
"Freeman" - unclear who this may be, but there were several men in Center Harbor with this name.
Also mentioned on page 3 was the pay due from the town. She and her five children were on the list of recipients for state aid. For the year her husband had been gone, until his return home and subsequent death, she was due to receive $201.62. 

   Captain Lewis Henry Buzzell fell in battle on the 3rd of May, 1863, a Rebel sharpshooter's musket ball striking him through the heart. With the 13th New Hampshire Infantry, he had led Company F north from Suffolk, Virginia, and had overtaken the enemy positions along the Providence Church Road. About two hours after the charge, the men of the 13th were lying in a ravine beside a brook, and were receiving shots from sharpshooters hidden within the trees. Buzzell climbed up the bank, to get a better view from where the fire was originating from, when he exclaimed "Oh - I'm killed!", and fell forward on his face, instantly killed.

   Capt. Buzzell was one of four men from the 13th NH who were killed during the Battle of Providence Church Road. When the regiment returned to their camp two miles outside of Suffolk, they brought with them their dead. The History of the 13th NH states that the captain was buried on the night of Tues., May 5th, in the woods near camp. His body would later be embalmed and, on Sunday, May 10th, a procession of men, with the regimental band playing, carried him to the railroad station, for his transport back home.
     A 1923 newspaper article in the Rochester Courier (on May 25th) wrote that Lewis Buzzell had been buried immediately following his death. When word that his brother (William Caldwell Buzzell) was travelling south to claim his body, he had been taken up and placed in a metallic coffin, reinterred into the ground until his sibling arrived.
​  Upon his body's arrival in Barrington, New Hampshire, a large funeral was held at the Congregational Church, and he was buried on Sunday, May 17th, in a plot on the family farm. Some time following the 1888 creation of Oak Hill (later renamed Pine Grove) Cemetery, he and his family would be reinterred there.

"Honored in the future shall be the name of him who first of all the officers of the Thirteenth has given a life to the country he loved so well and for which he has so nobly died." - Col. Stevens

   Lewis Henry was born on 31 March 1832, the son of Ebenezer and Hannah (Caldwell) Buzzell. He didn't marry.
​   Below is the location of the Barrington farm of this Buzzell family, marked on an 1856 map of Strafford County. It was located on what is now called Ramsdell Lane, as seen on current map found below.

Sources:
- Thirteenth Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 [archive.org]
- The Dover Enquirer, Thursday, 21 May 1863
- Rochester Courier, 25 May 1923
- 1856 Map of Strafford County, New Hampshire [loc.gov]
- Vital Records of Barrington, NH, 1720-1851 (family of Ebenezer Buzzell)
​

This photograph is from the Library of Congress website, and is titled:
​"Privates and twin brothers Bartlett and John Ellsworth with brother Samuel Ellsworth of Company A, 12th New Hampshire Infantry"

The brothers Ellsworth were all born and living in Wentworth, Grafton County, New Hampshire when the call for 300,000 troops went out in July 1862. The 12th NH Infantry was quickly raised, primarily in Belknap County, beginning in August, with neighboring towns of other counties adding their volunteers. The town of Wentworth contributed 27 men to the 12th NH, 8 of those having the surname Ellsworth. Four of them went into Co. A, while the others were assigned to Co. K.

About the brothers in the photograph:
Samuel Ellsworth, at age 42, enlisted on 7 Aug 1862, and was mustered in on 15 Sept as a private. Captured at Chancellorsville on 5/3/63, he was paroled twelve days later. He was transferred to the 5th Company, 1st Battalion, Invalid Corps (later the Veteran Reserve Corps) on 15 Jan '64, and to Co. D, 1st V.R.C. He deserted in Albany, NY on 15 Oct 1864, and returned to his wife and children in Wentworth. He died in Plymouth, NH on 22 Aug 1895, aged 75.

Bartlett Ellsworth, age 39, enlisted on 26 Aug 1862, and was mustered in on 24 Sept, a private. He would die of typhoid fever near Falmouth, Virginia on 22 Dec 1862. He is buried in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. His widow, Nancy M (Batchelder), filed for, and received a pension. They had four children.

John Calvin Ellsworth, age 39, enlisted on 30 Aug 1862, and was mustered in as a private on the 15th of Sept. Listed as missing following the Battle of Chancellorsville on 3 May '63, he would later return to his unit. He received a disability discharge on 7 Sept 1864, in Concord. He was married and would live the remainder of his life in Wentworth, dying there on 9 Oct 1881.

Link to original digital scan:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.37120/

​Over forty New Hampshire men, whether a native son, a resident, or a volunteer accredited to the state, earned a Medal of Honor for their actions during the Civil War. Here is one story:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FALLS
Color Sergeant, Company A, 19th Massachusetts Infantry.
Place/date of action: at Gettysburg, PA, 3 July 1863
Date of issue. December 1864.
Citation: Capture of flag.

​Portsmouth, New Hampshire born Benjamin F. Falls was a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts when he enlisted on 10 Aug 1861 at age 36, and was mustered in as a private with Co. A, 19th Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers, on the 28th. Promoted to corporal on 1 May '63, he would soon reach the rank of sergeant, following the unit's actions (and losses) at Gettysburg.

​Attached to Hancock's II Corps, Second Division, Third Brigade, the 19th MA found themselves, on July 3rd, at the center of the line, near the copse of oak trees that had been the chosen target for Pickett's Charge that afternoon. Of the 160 officers and men of the 19th able to be mustered for the engagement, 9 were killed, 60 wounded, and 8 were missing.

Four rebel flags were taken at the wall that day by the 19th Regiment. In the case of Mr. Falls, the History of the 19th Mass says that Benjamin, upon reaching the wall, saw a rebel flag flying above it, and so went to retrieve the colors. Looking down, an enemy soldier was still holding tight to it. "Falls raised his musket on which was the bayonet, and, holding it like a spear over the Johnnie, said 'Hut, Tut! Let alone of that or I'll run ye through'". Both the flag and the rebel were his for the capture.   

Sgt. Falls did not survive the war, having been mortally wounded at The Wilderness on 12 May 1864, carrying his colors into battle at Spotsylvania. His service record says he died in a Fredericksburg hospital on the 14th. The History of the 19th, pg 322, says he was buried there. His body may have been later returned to Lynn, MA, and buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, where a veteran stone was ordered for him (contract dated Jan 1883). 

Back home in in Lynn, he left behind his wife Sarah, and two daughters, Mary, aged 9, and Lucy, aged 4.

Links/Sources:
Adams, John G. B. Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment. Boston, MA: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1899.
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: Benjamin Frank Falls
Medal of Honor, 1863-1968: pg 87
Pension Papers: WC46472 (full file on Fold3.com - sub required) 
Waitt, Ernest Linden. History of the Nineteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865. Salem, Massachusetts: Salem Press, 1906.

​Over forty New Hampshire men, whether a native son, a resident, or a volunteer accredited to the state, earned a Medal of Honor for their actions during the Civil War. Here is one story:

ROBERT ANDERSON
Quartermaster, U.S. Navy
Place/Date of Action:during Battle of Charleston Harbor, 8 Apr 1863
Issued: G.O. No. 17, 10 July 1863
Citation: ​Served on board the U.S.S. Crusader and the Keokuk during various actions of those vessels. Carrying out his duties skillfully while on board the U.S.S. Crusader, Q.M. Anderson, on all occasions, set forth the greatest intrepidity and devotion. During the attack on Charleston, while serving on board the U.S.S. Keokuk, Q.M. Anderson was stationed at the wheel when shot penetrated the house and, with the scattering of the iron, used his own body as a shield for his commanding officer. 

While the citation seems to indicate that QM Anderson received a Medal of Honor due to his service on board both the Crusader and the Keokuk over various campaigns, the latter engagement during the First Battle of Charleston Harbor was the key instance where his actions earned him the medal two months later.

The USS Keokuk, on which was Quartermaster Anderson, was part of a nine ship flotilla, including the USS New Ironsides and seven monitors (Catskill, Montauk, Nahant, Nantucket, Passaic, Patapsco, and Weehawken), set to attack Charleston, South Carolina on April 7th, 1863. The battle began at noon, but obstructions in the harbor and a strong tide made the ships unmanageable, and accurate fire from the coastal forts quickly turned the attack into a failure. The ironclads received a heavy pounding, one the Keokuk did not recover from. Struck by some ninety shells, she was kept afloat through the night, but sank the following morning, with all of her crew saved.       

Robert Nero Anderson was born in Ireland on 15 Dec 1843 [from death rec], and immigrated from Liverpool, England to the United States in June 1852 [Nat papers]. He enlisted with the US Navy in 1856 (or 1858), the exact location not yet known [likely outside of N.H., as he wasn't listed in Aylings Revised Register]. According to the Pension Index, he had served on numerous naval vessels, including the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Fulton, Constellation, North Carolina, Crusader, Seneca, Keokuk, and the Paul Jones. His full pension file is not fully available on Fold3, so all of the facts concerning his many years in the Navy are not known at this time.

He filed his naturalization papers in 1866, and became a US citizen on 23 Nov 1866. He was a resident of Portsmouth by this time, having married Mary Walsh there in 1864. Seven children are recorded in city records with this couple, though most of them died young. He remarried to Nellie Walsh in 1886, and they had a son, and he thirdly married in 1897 to Margaret Gannon. For many years he worked as a watchman at the Navy Yard ferry landing, and had a home at 69 Daniel Street.   

Robert Anderson died in Portsmouth, NH on 20 June 1900. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery on the 23rd. His obituary, printed in the Portsmouth Herald on 21 June 1900 (pg 6) read as follows (a son also survived, but is missing from obit):

Links:
General Orders and Circulars Issued by the Navy Department, 1863 to 1887, pg 9
Medal of Honor, 1863-1968: pg 20
Naval History and Heritage Command: photo of the Keokuk​ used above
Wikipedia article about the U.S.S. Keokuk