Point of Interest
St. Stephen Graves of American Civil War Veterans
Street Address: 110 West St, Saint Stephen, NB E3L 5E4
There are buried in the St. Stephen Rural Cemetery five veterans of the American Civil War. They are as follows:
1. Brigadier General John Curtis Caldwell served with the Union Forces in the Army of the Potomac. Originally from Vermont, he was principal of Washington Academy in East Machias, Maine, when the Civil War commenced. He promptly enlisted and was selected the colonel of the 11 th Maine Regiment. He saw action during the Peninsula Campaign, at Antietem, was wounded while commanding the First Brigade of the First Division of the Second Corps at Fredericksburg, and fought at Chancellorsville. He was promoted to command the First Division of the Second Corps shortly prior to the Battle of Gettysburg, where his command was heavily engaged in the struggle around the Wheatfield. Caldwell was one of eight generals honoured by being selected to accompany President Abraham Lincoln's body on its journey to Springfield, Illinois following his assassination. After the war Curtis became a lawyer, state senator, and diplomat. His daughter Harriet married into the Munchie family and lived in St. Stephen. The general's wife died in St. Stephen while visiting her daughter and was buried in the Murchie family plot in the St Stephen Rural Cemetery. The general died a year later in Machias and was buried next to his wife. An American veteran's marker stands beside his family grave stone.
2. With his Christian names reminiscent of a proud British naval heritage, Horatio Nelson Young served in the United States Navy during American Civil War. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military honour awarded by the United States. Young was born in St. Stephen in 1843. He was serving on board USS Lehigh in Charleston Harbour on November 16, 1863, when his ship ran aground and came under heavy rebel fire from Fort Moultrie. Although several previous attempts had failed, Young successfully carried a line in a small open boat under heavy fire from the Lehigh to USS Nahant. The Nahant then pulled the Lehigh free and to safety.
3. Private Robert Linton enlisted in Belfast, Maine, at the age of 21 with”G” Company of the 16 th Maine Regiment. He transferred to the 20 th Maine Regiment on June 5, 1865 and was honourably discharged later in the year.
4. Private James H. Smith was born in St. Stephen and was a 20 year old painter when he enlisted on November 16, 1861 in Calais with “K” Company of the 12 th Maine Regiment. He served for three years and was honourably discharged in Portland, Maine, on December 7, 1864. He died in 1910.
5. Private Lorenzo Stanhope was born in 1845 in Robbinston, Maine and enlisted there on October 10, 1862. He served with “E” Company of the 28th Maine Regiment. After the war he returned to work as a stone cutter in Calais. He died in Oak Bay, Charlotte County, in 1914. An iron Grand Army of the Republic marker stands by his grave.