In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

58 Latitude 29°20', Longitude 75°30' Powerful waves formed by the turbulent, storm-swept waters of the Atlantic Ocean tossed the little transport steamer Continental back and forth as it chugged south some four hundred miles off the coast of Florida in the middle of January 1863. Onboard, many of the men of the Fifty-third Massachusetts Infantry were seasick. When Marcus Hagar of Company I was seized with a sudden attack, some may have assumed him another victim of the rough voyage. But the twenty-one-year-old first sergeant suffered from heart disease, and this episode proved fatal. Hagar, an intelligent young man of promise from Westminster, Massachusetts, taught school and painted in his hometown when the war started. In the autumn of 1862, he enlisted as a private in Company I of the state’s Fifty-third Infantry and was soon promoted to first sergeant. Two weeks after he shipped out with his regiment for New Orleans he suffered his fatal attack. His fellow soldiers buried him at sea. It was “a solemn event, which left a deep impression upon all who witnessed it.”95 “It was at sunset, and while most of the men were too sick to come on deck, a few comrades of Company I came to attend the brief but solemn service. The steamer was slowed up, the colors hoisted at half-mast and the body of poor Hagar, which had been sewed up in a blanket with weights at his feet, was tenderly brought and placed on a plank, projecting over the vessel’s side. The chaplain read the Episcopal form of service for the dead, while the little company of officers and privates stood reverently by with bowed heads. At the words ‘we therefore commit his body to the deep,’ the plank was lifted, and the corpse plunged beneath the waves; a brief prayer and all was over.”96 59 He was buried at latitude 29°20', longitude 75°30'. Hagar’s personal effects, including $1.90 cash, a diary, a pocket Bible, and a silver watch, were sent home to his father.97 1st Sgt. Marcus Jones Hagar, Company I, Fifty-third Massachusetts Infantry Carte de visite by unidentified photographer, about 1862 ...

Share