Adna P. Hall
Great-granduncle of Jane Hall
Great-granduncle of Susan Norder
2nd great-granduncle of Beth Beach
2nd great-granduncle of Barbara Dumler
Private Co. H 13th MA Infantry
Dates of Service: 29 Jun 1861 - 17 Sep 1862
One of my Civil War ancestors is Horatio Nelson Hall, Jr. who served in the 15th New Hampshire Infantry. He survived the war, but his older brother did not.
This is the story of my great granduncle, Adna P. Hall, who was born in New Hampshire, 1837.
Twenty-four year-old Adna was a shoemaker, husband and father when he mustered into the 13th Massachusetts. Four months later, in November 1861, he received word that his wife, Martha, had died of consumption. He returned home to attend the funeral, and his two small children, Sarah and Eugene, moved in with Martha’s parents.
Adna returned to the regiment. But 10 months later, he was killed in action on September 17, 1862 at the Battle Antietam. Buried on the battlefield, he was reinterred to his final resting place at the Antietam National Cemetery sometime before 1867.
So what happened to the children? Martha’s parents raised Sarah, their 4 1/2 year old granddaughter.
At the same time there was a prominent citizen in Natick, MA who had vowed to adopt the first orphaned male child of the war. True to his word, Israel and Sarah Gurney adopted 2 1/2 year old Eugene Hall and changed his name to William Gurney. William later married and named his first-born son, Eugene Hall Gurney.
A descendant of Adna P. Hall, Al Gurney, stated recently in a blog, “The battle at Antietam changed our family forever because from that moment on, we became the Gurney family instead of being Halls.
Over the years, I have been in contact with Al, who is Adna’s 2nd great grandson. Al wrote recently that he had acquired the breastplate that Adna was wearing at the time of his death. It was dug up on the Antietam battlefield near the Smoketown Road and he was able to purchase the breastplate from the owner. Al said, “It was worth every penny to have it for our family”. He was amazed that with 21,000 casualties (dead and wounded), Adna’s breastplate would be found.
Stamped on the back in large bold letters is "A. Hall 13 MASS." The stamping is unique as Massachusetts was the only state to stamp her soldiers’ names and unit on a breastplate.
NOTE: A breastplate is a circular plate that would have adorned the shoulder strap to a Civil War cartridge box.
Acquisition:
Email from Al Gurney - Jan 20, 2015
“Scott Hann is a very respected civil war collector and re-enactor. He bought Adna's breast plate because it was rare in that it had Adna's name and unit engraved on it. My attempts to contact him and purchase the breastplate were frustrating at first. He would not communicate with me at all. Brad Forbush (13th MA webmaster) served as a go-between and after a year of more or less begging, he agreed to sell it to me. The breastplate was actually on loan at the Antietam Museum at the time of the sale and Scott asked them to return it to him.”
GRAVESITE: Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD
Written by Susan Norder, January 2015