First Lieutenant HENRY W. WADHAMS

First Lieutenant HENRY W. WADHAMS, was one of the three stalwart, manly sons of Edwin Wadhams, of Litchfield, Conn., all of whom enlisted in the struggle for our nation’s life when it was assailed by the demon of secession, and to all of whom applied the grand old epitaph of La Tour D’Auvergne, “Died on the field of honor,” as all three of them were shot in battle. Sergeant Edward Wadhams, of the 8th Connecticut, was killed in the assault on Fort Darling, May 16, 1864. Capt. Luman Wadhams, of the 2d Connecticut artillery, was mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, February 2d, 1864, and died two days later.

Our comrade, Henry W. Wadhams, was born August 14, 1831. The war found him a machinist, at Waterbury, where he enlisted July 4th, 1862, in company C of the 14th. He was made Sergeant Aug. 4th, commissioned 2d Lieutenant Dec. 25th, and Nov. 5th, 1863, promoted to be 1st Lieutenant. He passed through all our engagements unharmed, until May 26th, 1864, he was called upon to lead his last charge, when four small companies of the regiment assailed an angle of the enemy’s works on the south side of the North Anna river. While gallantly cheering on his men he fell mortally wounded inside the rebel works. After dark he was borne inside our lines, where, after a few hours of great suffering, during which he complained not for himself but mourned for his wife and child; he died and was buried near the river.