Henry B Chase was born in Conway, New Hampshire in 1840. He came to Minnesota before 1860. He was 21, when he enlisted. He served in Company D of the First Minnesota Infantry. Henry was shot through the foot at the battle of Antietam. At one point during the battle the men were positioned behind a rail fence. Capt DeWitt Smith was slightly behind his men of Company D. During the fighting and before Smith was wounded, he ordered his men to shoot at the color bearer. Ed Walker, also of Company D, later told this story about how several men, including Henry Chase, were wounded. "As we formed our lines up against our lines up against the fence, we noticed on the hill on our right one of the batteries, that had been shelling us during our march thru East Woods & field, moveone or two guns farther to their right and facing towards our regiment about right oblique with their 2 right guns....At the same time we noticed the line of Rebs in front of us on the slope to the right of the (Hauser) house, and droping on to our knees behind the fence we commences firing, resting our muskets on the rails to steady our aim. My impression has been that while in that position, the corn field hid the enemy from our right to some extent, and I don't know whether they fired as often as we did on the left and in the open, or not. At any rate Co. D had a good view and we at first (that is a few men near me) fired a few rounds at the battery on the hill but had turned our attention to the line in front where Capt. (Smith) a few paces in the rear where his place was and where he was taking whatever shelter could be got from one of the very snmall trees and practically no shells at all, came closer and shouted, "fire on their colors" and for the bal. of time we were behind the fence we did so. Up to this time some of the men may have fired 8 or 10 rounds and we, that is several of us close by in the ranks had been hit and we did not know about the rest of the line. The guns rattled fearfully the smoke was rather disagreeable and our gun barrels warming up. We saw a few Rebs limb to their rear and on the whole we felt rather jubilent under the excitement and what seemed to be favorable to our side, firing all along the line as we could see as far as the 15th Mass. On our left, Hank Chase, who was next to me on the left felt fine, he laughed as he said, "I hit that fellow that time" meaning the Reb Color bearer almost directly in our front. Just about then the Rebs seem to have gotten range on us. The splinters began to fly from the rails. The man next to me on my right, Ervin Lawrence, gave a quick sharp,"Oh!" and dropped his hands onto the part of his body that had hit abd severly wounded, but dropping his gun he was able to limp to the rear. About now Capt. Smith was hit and severly wounded. Some of the boys started to help him to the rear but remembering the order about helping the wounded, he would not allow it. The man on my left, Chase, repeated the "Oh!" that Lawrence had given a moment before and he too dropped [his] gun and wolked his way to the rear. Things were geting interesting about where I was and a splinter from the rail in my face said, you next, but the line in our front seemed about to give way and some of the boys commenced to cheer, but too soon for us, for we saw a commotion on our left - and way up in the woods the 15th was falling back. We did now know that the line in our rear had been attacked on the left - and was gone. It was at this time that Capt. Smith divined the run of things and realizing that he would remain on the field a wounded prisoner, allowed his nephew, George Smith, to help him to the rear and he went none too soon."
A miinie ball had hit Hank in the foot. After the battle, both he and Capt Smith were sent to a hospital in Hagerstown, ten miles away. Henry was discharged for disability on Feb 2, 1863. After the war, Henry married Huldah A Blake. His mother, Abigail, lived with them in their home in Hennepin County until Henry's death on Feb 27, 1886. Huldah died on Nov 5, 1918. She was buried in Lakewood Cemetery. His body was re-interred at Lakewood on Oct 23, 1920, in G Chapel Space #64. Abigail lies in space #98. Sources: First Minnesota Association Papers. Minnesota State News, St Anthony Falls, Oct 4, 1862. Letter from Ed Walker to George Knight, Feb 7, 1904. Patriots of Brooklyn, Part I, The Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Center, MN, 2008, p101-102. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
