Last updated: February 12, 2024
Place
Information Panel: Death of Fletcher Webster
Photo: NPS / Claire Hassler
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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
Colonel Fletcher Webster fell mortally wounded near here, leading his regiment in support of the canon of Chinn Ridge. The colonel, son of the famous orator and statesman Daniel Webster, commanded the 12th Massachusetts Infantry- a regiment he organized at the outbreak of war in 1861. The unit was forever called the "Webster Regiment" after his death.
Shot through the right arm and chest, Webster lay helpless as the Union position collapsed and Confederates overran the guns. A member of the 8th Virginia Infantry stopped to offer water to the fallen colonel. Webster asked the enemy soldier to return his wallet to his family. The Southern soldier survived the war and honored the request.
"If a fight comes off, it will be today or tomorrow & will be a most dreadful & decisive one. This may be my last letter, dear love, for I shall not spare myself..." - Col. Fletcher Webster in a letter to his wife, written on the morning of his death.
Shot through the right arm and chest, Webster lay helpless as the Union position collapsed and Confederates overran the guns. A member of the 8th Virginia Infantry stopped to offer water to the fallen colonel. Webster asked the enemy soldier to return his wallet to his family. The Southern soldier survived the war and honored the request.
"If a fight comes off, it will be today or tomorrow & will be a most dreadful & decisive one. This may be my last letter, dear love, for I shall not spare myself..." - Col. Fletcher Webster in a letter to his wife, written on the morning of his death.