Galveston Research Summary #9 - Meet Benjamin Bartlett - Part I

Links to the previous "Galveston Research Summaries" can be found at the most recent update here.

This installment will be in several parts...first some background:

When I'm in the midst of a writing project I like to have something on my desk related to the subject at hand - a photograph, an artifact, etc. - to give me some inspiration.

As I work on my Galveston/Civil War research and writing project for my forthcoming book for The History Press, I have on my desk a copy of a photograph of 2nd Lt. Benjamin F. Bartlett of the 42nd Massachusetts Infantry.

The original photograph is in the excellent Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photograph Collection, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.

I've gained an affinity for Bartlett: he was born and raised more than 1800 miles from my house ...he was captured at the Battle of Galveston on January 1, 1863...seven months later he was buried less than an hour from my house.

This week we'll "meet" Benjamin F. Bartlett, as much as we can anyway, through archival documents, including his Compiled Military Service Record, his widow's pension records, a book about a local Confederate POW camp, and a trip to his resting place.