Biographies - Generation 6 - Nathaniel Caverly (1845 - 1863)

Nathaniel Caverly (1845 - 1863)
Nathaniel⁶ Caverly (Nathaniel⁵, Nicholas⁴, Nathaniel³, Thomas², Moses¹)

Nathaniel Caverly was born in Barrington, Strafford County, New Hampshire on 28 July 1845, son of Nathaniel and Nancy Jane (Ricker) Caverly. He died on 5 May 1863 in Suffolk, Virginia during the Siege of Suffolk in the Civil War and was buried in the Hampton National Cemetery, Section D Site 3183, in Hampton, Virginia.¹

Nathaniel's father, Nathaniel Sr., died 26 August 1845 of a brain fever epidemic that swept through the Caverly family in August and September 1845. Nathaniel's Sr.'s wife Nancy Jane (Ricker) Caverly became sick with the fever but survived. In 1847 she married Nathaniel Sr.'s brother John Stickney Caverly, who raised his nephew as his own son.²

Nathaniel enlisted in the 13th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry on August 14, 1862 in Barrington, New Hampshire, to serve three years. He enlisted in Company F, 13th New Hampshire Infantry, on September 19, 1862 at Concord, New Hampshire and was present for all muster rolls. He was promoted to Full Corporal on March 1, 1863. He was wounded at Providence Church Road, near Suffolk, Virginia, on May 3, 1863, and died from his wounds in Suffolk on May 5, 1863.³

The following is a transcription of a letter written to Nathaniel's stepfather John Stickney Caverly upon his wounding at Suffolk:

In the field near Suffolk, Va,
Sabbath day, May 1863

Mr. John S. Caverly:

Dear Sir: It becomes my painful duty to write you that your son is dangerously wounded.
It is not likely that he will live long as his spine is injured by a musket shot.
I asked him if he had any friends to send word to, and he said write to my father and tell him that “I die trusting in the Lord.”
We then asked the chaplain to pray for him and was sent immediately to the Methodist Church Hospital in Suffolk.
You receive my deepest sympathy and yet I can but congratulate you that you have been the father of so noble a son who could die for his country blessing God.

I am, Sir,
Very truly,
S. A. Richardson
Surgeon, 13th N.H. Inf.

P.S. We have had about 60 wounded in our division today. Capt. Buzzell, Co. F, was shot dead.⁴

The Journal of Reverend Enoch Hayes Place, a Free-Will Baptist minister and spiritual advisor to the Caverly family, speaks of Nathaniel's tragic death and its effect on his family:

Wednesday, June 3, 1863: Visited by request at the house of Brother Nicholas Caverly, in Barrington, whose grandson Nathaniel Caverly, a beautiful youth of some over 17 years, fell at the battle of Chancellorsville, with the Captain Lewis H. Buzzell before named. No historian can ever delineate the horrors of this bloody war.⁵

References:
¹ Nathaniel Caverly Family Bible, in the possession of Lynne Rhodes, a copy of whose records are in the R. Stanton Avery, Special Collections Department, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
²Ibid; William E. Wentworth, ed. Journals of Enoch Hayes Place, 2 vols. (Boston, Mass.: NEHGS and NHSOG, 1998), 1:744-5.
³ NATF 86: Military Service File, National Archives, Washington, DC.
⁴ Copy of letter from Surgeon S. A. Richardson, 13th N.H. Volunteer Infantry, in the possession of Lynne Rhodes.
⁵ Journals of Enoch Hayes Place, 2:1617. Reverend Hayes was in error when he referred to Nathaniel's death at Chancellorsville; Nathaniel died in the Battle of Providence Church Road on the last day of the Siege of Suffolk, the other campaign that occurred in Virginia in early May 1863. Captain Lewis H. Buzzell was the captain of Company F and was killed in the same engagement that took Nathaniel's life.