Charles W Canney Camp #5, SUVCW
  • Home
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Past Events
    • 2004 Abraham Lincoln Award
    • 2005 New Hampshire Preservation Alliance Preservation Award
  • Membership Information
  • Co A, 12th NH Infantry
  • NH's Civil War Monuments
    • NH's Civil War Monuments
    • Monument Preservation >
      • Candia, NH Soldier's Monument Restoration Project
      • Raymond, NH Civil War Soldier's Monument Restoration Project
      • Rochester, NH Civil War Soldier's Monument Restoration Project
    • Barrington, NH's Civil War Soldiers Memorial
    • Candia, NH Civil War Soldier's Monument
    • Dover, NH's GAR Monument
    • Hollis NH's Soldiers' Monument
    • New Durham, NH Civil War Soldier's Memorial
    • Raymond, NH Civil War Soldier's Monument
    • Rollinsford Civil War Monument
    • Seabrook Civil War Monument
  • NH GAR Posts
  • NH SUVCW Camps
  • New Hampshire's Medal of Honor Recipients
  • New Hampshire's Last Civil War Veterans
  • Related Links
    • Related Links
    • Journals - NH Encampments
    • NH Regiments in the Civil War
  • Contact Page
  • Blog

Medal of Honor: Nathaniel C. Barker

5/12/2020

0 Comments

 
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:
Picture
NATHANIEL C. BARKER
Sergeant, Co. E, 11th New Hampshire Infantry
Place/Date of action: Spotsylvania, VA, 12 May 1864
Date of issue: 23 Sept 1897
Citation: Six color bearers of the regiment having been killed*, he voluntarily took both flags of the regiment and carried them through the remainder of the battle.
Nathaniel Churchill Barker, a Piermont, New Hampshire native, left home at age sixteen, moving to Manchester, NH, where he worked at a cotton mill. He enlisted on 21 Aug 1862, and was mustered into Co. E, 11th NH Infantry as a corporal on the 29th. He was promoted to sergeant on 30 Aug '63.

With the 11th NH, Barker participated in numerous engagements, including White Sulphur Springs, Fredericksburg, Siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Miss., Siege of Knoxville, Fort Sanders, and the Wilderness. The Battle of Spotsylvania, on 12 May 1864, fell next in his record of battles. 

The regiment,in the Second Brigade of Gen. Potter's 2nd Division in Burnside's IX Corps, held the Union's left flank when the battle commenced in the early morning of the 12th. His obituary, printed in the Boston Evening Transcript on March 8th, 1904, described the event, in part: "...six color bears were shot down. As the last bearer of the Stars and Stripes staggered from a rifle ball, Sergeant Barker sprang from his cover and seized the falling colors...the State's flag also fell, and this, too, was taken by the brave sergeant, who bore both flags through the remainder of the battle".
The following month, at Cold Harbor, Sgt. Barker was wounded in the hip, and spent the remainder of his service in several hospitals, until being discharged on 25 May 1865.
After the war, Nathaniel took a job at the County Jail in Manchester, and later at the Amoskeag Locomotive Works. In 1870, he removed to Somerville, Mass, where he was employed as a carpenter. He joined Ladder No. 1 of the city's fire department, was soon promoted to foreman, until reaching the assistant chief position in 1877.

Nathaniel Barker died in Somerville, MA on 7 March 1904, aged 67 yrs, from cancer of the liver and kidney. His body was sent to Merrimack, NH, where he was buried on the 11th in Last Rest Cemetery.
Picture
Barker Plot - Last Rest Cem, Merrimack (photo taken 5/19/2019)
Links:
A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Volunteers: The Color Guard
Boston Evening Transcript, 8 March 1904 (pg 2)
Medal of Honor, 1863 - 1968: pg 25
​Note:
* While the citation claims that six color bearers were killed, only James K. Lane of Co. G was mortally wounded on that day, while the others in the guard fell wounded. A total of 19 men of the 11th NH were killed that day, with over a hundred twenty-five wounded.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Steve, Secretary/Treasurer of the Canney Camp

    Archives

    May 2022
    June 2021
    January 2021
    May 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    July 2016
    May 2016
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    10th NH Infantry
    11th NH Infantry
    12th NH Infantry
    16th NH Infantry
    19th MA Infantry
    1st MA Heavy Artillery
    6th NH Infantry
    7th NH Infantry
    9th NH Infantry
    Atkinson NH
    Battle Of Chaffin's Farm
    Battle Of Fort Harrison
    Battle Of Gettysburg
    Battle Of Spotsylvania
    Battle Of The Crater
    Candia NH
    Carlton Post
    Civil War
    Concord MA
    Exeter NH
    GAR
    Korean War
    Last Veteran
    Living History
    Lynn MA
    Massachusetts
    Medal Of Honor
    Melvin Memorial
    Memorial
    Memorial Day
    Merrimack NH
    Monument
    New Durham NH
    New Hampshire
    Newington NH
    Portsmouth NH
    Raymond NH
    "Roll Of Honor"
    Salisbury NH
    Sullivan County NH
    Sunapee NH
    Sweden Maine
    US Navy
    Vietnam War
    Wentworth NH
    World War 1
    World War II

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.