Private Alfred N Sova

Burning of the Wooden Covered Bridge by Keith Rocco

Alfred Nelson Sova was born in Victor, Ontario County, New York, on January 11, 1847, one of eleven children, to Elijah and Mary Sova. His parents, who were of French-Canadian descent, had immigrated to upstate New York. The family lived in several rural communities near Rochester, New York, finally settling in the town of Walworth in Wayne County. Three of their sons, Joseph, James and Alfred, served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Alfred was just shy of his seventeenth birthday when he enlisted in Company B, 9^th New York Heavy Artillery in Walworth on December 19, 1863. He was paid an enlistment bounty of $180. After mustering in at Auburn, New York, on December 29, 1863, Alfred was transported by steamboat down Cayuga Lake to Ithica and then traveled by rail to join his regiment in the defenses of Washington, DC. He was issued a Springfield musket, which he likely carried throughout his year and a half of military service. Private Sova spent the first few months of 1864 on guard duty and drilling at Fort Mahan and Fort Foote.

During this time, the regiment recieved frequent visits from the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, whose son and namesake was the lieutenant colonel of the regiment. Secretary Seward was often accompanied by other dignitaries such as Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, and even President Abraham Lincoln. Due to their close association with the Secretary of State, the 9^th New York Heavy Artillery was called "Seward's Pets", perhaps derisively, by other garrison regiments.

In early May 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began the Overland Campaign against General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. After sustaining heavy losses during the opening battles of the campaign, Grant ordered many of the regiments defending Washington, DC, including the 9^th New York Heavy Artillery, to the front lines near Richmond, Virginia. Reaching the North Anna River on May 26, the regiment was assigned to Brigadier General James Rickett's Third Division of the Sixth Corps. On June 1, the 9^th New York Heavy Artillery, fighting as infantry, experienced combat for the first time at Cold Harbor.

Soon the two armies settled in for what became a nine-month siege around Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. During these operations, the Third Division of the Sixth Corps was abruptly ordered out of their entrenchments in the early morning hours of July 6, and marched to City Point, Virginia on the James River. The division boarded steamships, the 9^th New York Heavy Artillery was divided between the vessels Winona and Salvor, and were transported north to Baltimore. They were then placed on railcars and traveled to Monocacy Junction, south of Frederick, Maryland.

On July 9, under the command of Major General Lew Wallace, the Union men faced a much larger Confederate force under Lieutentant General Jubal A. Early. The 9^th New York Heavy Artillery, commanded by Colonel William H. Seward, Jr., was positioned on the west bank of the Monocacy River near a wooden, covered bridge. At some point during the fighting that morning, Alfred, along with Private Samuel Mack and Sergeant Albert Smith, was ordered to gather sheaves of wheat from a nearby field to place in the roof structure of the wooden bridge in anticipation of firing it to render it useless to the advancing Confederates. Sometime, between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., General Wallace ordered the bridge burned. Alfred eagerly sprang out of the line of battle, scrambled up a beam of the bridge, and lit the wheat sheaves on fire. The bridge was engulfed in flames; soon a huge column of smoke billowed across the battlefield. The burning bridge timbers crashed, into the river below and the Confederates were without easy passage towards Washington, DC.

 

Private Alfred N. Sova

F.L. Rohrer

Alfred’s participation in the Battle of Monocacy and his personal role in the burning of the wooden covered bridge was an event that he recounted most vividly to family and friends for the remainder of his life. An account of Alfred’s actions were recorded in Lewis H. Clark’s book “Military History of Wayne County, New York".

With the bridge burning, Alfred and his comrades in Company B rejoined the rest of their regiment on the Thomas Farm, south of the Monocacy River. There the combat was heaviest and eventually the overwhelming Confederate force drove Wallace's men from the field. Although the Battle of Monocacy was a Confederate victory, the gallant stand made by Union soldiers along the banks of the Monocacy River delayed General Early’s advance on the National Capital and became known as “The Battle that Saved Washington”.

Following the retreat to Baltimore, Maryland, the 9^th New York Heavies rejoined the Sixth Corps and joined in the pursuit of Jubal Early's forces back to the Shenandoah Valley. On August 7 the Sixth Corps was attached to Major General Philip H. Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah. At the end of the month however, after three months of frequent fighting and nearly constant marching, Alfred contracted a respiratory illness in camp. Transported to Cuyler Army Hospital in Germantown, Pennsylvania, he remained there for about six weeks. He rejoined his regiment near Winchester, Virginia by mid-October and saw action at the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864. Following this decisive Union vicotry, the Sixth Corps eventually rejoined Grant’s army in the siege lines around Petersburg, Virginia in December of 1864 and participated in the closing battles of the Civil War. Alfred Sova was present with the 9th New York Heavy Artillery at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 when Lee surrendered to Grant.

Alfred was mustered out of the army in Washington, DC on June 16, 1865, and returned to Wayne County, New York. A few years later, he started a family and eventually moved to Jackson County, Michigan, where he lived in Leoni and Grass Lake for the remainder of his life. In 1888, he married a second time to Minnie A. Stearns and together they had three children. During this period he was a prosperous dairy farmer and an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. By the early 1930s, Alfred was recognized as the last surviving Civil War veteran in his community. Alfred N. Sova died on August 25, 1935 and was interred with full military honors in Maple Grove Cemetery located in Grass Lake, Michigan.

Submitted on 24 February 2017 (updated July 6, 2026) by F. L. Rohrer, great-grandson of Alfred N. Sova.