Hosea Orcutt Barnes

His Story

Hosea Barnes was 19 years old and working as a grocery clerk in Boston when the War Between the States broke out in 1861. Massachusetts was filled with anti-slavery fervor, incited to a fevered pitch by its well-known abolitionist governor, John A. Andrew.

We will never know why Hosea decided to join the Union Army a year later. Perhaps he was caught up in the momentum of the times; perhaps, like so many young people before and after him, he thought that joining the army would be an opportunity for adventure - a chance to see other parts of the country. Maybe it was a little of both.

Hosea Orcutt Barnes was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, a scenic seaside town about 30 miles southeast of Boston on June 13, 1842. The middle son of Elisha and Harriet [Peakes] Barnes, there is no record of his birth in the town’s vital records. Hosea’s brother Edmund Quincy was older by two years; a younger brother “Little Willie,” who died in infancy, now shares Hosea’s headstone in the family’s cemetery plot in Hingham.

On August 13, 1862, the Boston Journal ran an announcement that authorization had been given to raise a battery of light artillery. By August 23rd , notice was given that the battery had met its full complement of 156 men and would leave for camp by the Boston and Maine RR that very day.

On one of those hot August days, Hosea Barnes, having just turned 20 years old that summer, signed up to join the newly formed Massachusetts 10th Light Artillery. A few weeks later, on September 9th, Hosea was mustered into the Union Army as a private.

He had begun the short journey which would lead him to his destiny.

Over the next 21 months, the Massachusetts 10th Artillery saw action at Kelly’s Ford, Mine Run, Po River, Spotsylvania and North Anna. On May 30th, 1864, the battery went into position on the south side of Pumunkey River, Virginia, at a place called Jones’ Farm.

A variation of that day’s events which led to Hosea’s death is recorded in History of Hingham in the Civil War: “…the battery…was about to engage the enemy, when a detachment of four men was sent to cut down a tree which stood in a position that prevented accurate firing. The men returned and reported that it could not be accomplished by reason of exposure to the enemy’s sharpshooters. Private Barnes then volunteered to perform the duty, and had removed the obstruction when he received his death-wound.”

Another version, as reported in the battery’s history written in 1909*: “It was Hosea O. Barnes, Number Three man on the Third piece. One of his companions lifted him up and bore him into the breastworks, but he was rapidly entering the valley of shadows. ‘I am about gone,’ were the last words that passed his lips. Shrouded in his shelter tent he was laid in a grave dug near by, and the spot marked by a hastily carved board placed at his head. His death cast a deep gloom over the Company, for his many good qualities as a soldier, notably his genial temperament and good humor, had made him a general favorite.”

While the Town of Hingham’s account may be forgiven for bias toward one of its adopted sons, it’s also true that it is unusual for the circumstances of the death of an individual low-ranking soldier to be recorded in a regimental history. A photo of Private Barnes, probably from a carte-de-visite, was also printed on the page recounting his story. I believe that Hosea indeed must have been a favorite with his fellow soldiers to warrant this honor in the regimental history.

Elisha Barnes purchased a family plot in the Old Ship Churchyard in Hingham, Massachusetts. He and his wife, his three sons, Edmund Quincy, Hosea Orcutt and Little Willie, are all buried there. Edmund’s young daughter Annie is buried there as well.

Coincidentally, Massachusetts’ abolitionist governor, John C. Andrew is also buried in the Old Ship Churchyard in Hingham, along with dozens of men from local towns who answered his call to serve their state and country during the Civil War.

Hosea Barnes’s headstone reads:

OUR LOVED ONE SLEEPS FOR HIS COUNTRY’S FLAG

*By John D. Billings, a member of the 10th and also author of the well-known Hard Tack and Coffee

TOP