Linsley, Benjamin

Private Benjamin M. Linsley, from Connecticut, served (1862-1863) in Company A, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, Army of the Potomac. On 4 Dec. 1862, Benjamin Linsley's company left Fort Trumbull, Conn., boarding a boat at New London, Conn., along with a group of deserters under arrest. By the time Linsley reached New York, he suffered from severe pains in his head and neck. Linsley went by troop train to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., finally reaching Aquia Creek, Va., where he met up with his brother who served with the U.S. Army's 10th Connecticut Volunteers under Brigadier General John Gray Foster, and was wounded slightly in the Battle of Kinston on 14 Dec. 1862. Benjamin Linsley reached Falmouth camp by 20 Dec. 1862, too sick to have fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg. This Union defeat Linsley somewhat attributed to General Henry W. Halleck's failure to support General Ambrose Burnside's strategy. Linsley fought in the Battle of Chancellorsville (1-3 May 1863) with the Union forces under General Joseph Hooker. In early June 1863, Linsley fell out of a march to Warrenton, Va., and was sent by train to recover in McKinnis Hospital in Baltimore, Md.