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SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- He died by accident, but the 12-year old boy was remembered with reverence by his fellow soldiers, family, friends, classmates, his dog and history.
Clarence McKenzie, the drummer boy of Company D, 13th New York State Militia regiment, died after suffering a gunshot wound, June 11, 1861. He was the first Brooklyn casualty of the Civil War.
"He was the smallest in the corps and liked by everyone who knew him, being well-behaved, always in good spirits, and ready and willing to do whatever was asked of him," an officer in the regiment recalled. "His comrade drummers and drum major were very much affected; they could not have felt worse had he been their own brother." Rev. Luther Goodyear Bingham compiled this recollection and others into his book about McKenzie, entitled The Little Drummer Boy.
McKenzie joined the regiment, July 9, 1860, and played at the Prince of Wales' reception in October. The Civil War began with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and McKenzie's regiment was shipped to a Union military facility in Annapolis, Maryland, April 30.
McKenzie's teachers gathered and bid him a tearful farewell, and his fellow soldiers aboard the ship were struck dumb by the sight of McKenzie kneeling to pray before bed.
"I was deeply affected, and the thought came rushing into my mind, 'that is probably the way in which my praying wife is praying for me, at this very moment,'" a soldier recalled. "Many a heart was compelled to feel, and many an eye glistened with tears."
McKenzie's brother William was also a drummer boy in the regiment, and their letters home were full of good cheer, admonitions not to worry and requests.
"Please, dear mother, send me on another cake," McKenzie said in one post script. "The boys took it all from me -- that is a dear good mother. Your Clarry." In another post-script, McKenzie promised to send his mother a cracker from his rations, "for a sample of what we get."
Though homesick, McKenzie wrote that he was enjoying the weather, his surroundings and the company of his fellow soldiers.
"Dear mother, do not cry for me, for I am well off, and I hope to return to you in three months or sooner," McKenzie wrote in his last letter, dated May 28.
McKenzie was sitting near a wall in the drummer's quarters when the other soldier mistakenly shot him with a musket he'd borrowed. The soldier didn't know the weapon was loaded, according to the regiment's investigation, and he wasn't charged with any wrongdoing.
"A few moments previous to drill he was practicing the manual in the drummer's quarters, and in coming to a charge bayonet his hand struck the hammer of his piece, forcing it down - although he says it was half-cocked - and discharging it, the ball striking Clarence McKenzie in the back, passing through and out at the stomach, and finally striking against a brick wall with such force as to break out part of the brick," an officer in the 13th Regiment reported.
Soldiers gathered around B Company quarters where McKenzie lay inside, dying. He expressed forgiveness for the soldier who shot him, and when he calmly passed away about two hours later, the soldiers "wended their way to their rooms with saddened hearts," the officer reported.
"The drum major was almost heartbroken," another soldier recalled. "The gloom cast over the camp was plainly visible in every face."
McKenzie's body was packed in ice, given a military escort back to Brooklyn and buried there with full military honors. Mourners packed the church and the streets outside, and McKenzie's terrier laid down on the earth after it was mounded over his grave.
"For many nights afterwards he was in the habit of going and spending part of the night upon the grave," Bingham said of the dog, "and toward morning he would return to the house where he belonged."
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2011 12:14 |
| Story ID: | 71763 |
| Location: | SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 562 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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