Rubbing Of Now Unreadable Memorial To Young Soldier Conserved

ST. ALBANS, Vt. — The only rubbing of the now-unreadable memorial inscriptions to a young Vermont soldier who died at Andersonville prison has been conserved.

The 18th Vermont Regiment, a group committed to the preservation of Vermont’s Civil War heritage, provided the funds to the St. Albans Historical Museum for the conservation and preservation of the Brainerd Monument rubbing.

On Sept. 12, 1864, Pvt. Joseph Partridge Brainerd of the 1st Vermont Cavalry Regiment died of scurvy at the Georgia prison and was buried in grave #8591 Section H, among 15,000 other Union soldiers.

Soon after receiving notification of his son’s death, his father, Judge Joseph Hungerford Brainerd, erected a large monument to his son in the family plot in Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans.

Judge Brainerd’s inscription on the monument gave a brief history of the young soldier, graduated just two years before from the University of Vermont, and a diatribe against President Lincoln for allowing his son to die at Andersonville. This monument has always held a local fascination.

A Dec. 23, 1909, St. Albans Messenger article about the Brainerds and the Judge’s feelings about slavery said, “In the terrible battles of the Wilderness, with other Vermonters, he had the misfortune to be wounded and fell into the hands of the Confederates, who took him to Andersonville. As soon as his father learned of the capture of his son he brought pressure upon the President to procure his exchange or release.

“... The soldier boy was left to his fate and he died miserably in the prison pen. ... The failure of Lincoln to procure his son’s release was a staggering blow to Mr. Brainerd. He never ceased to mourn and he never ceased to blame the President.”

The article reported that “Old residents recall that feeling ran high at the time the monument was erected. Threats were freely made to tear down the stone, and the father was urged by friends to allow the erasure of the Biblical reference and the allusion to Lincoln, but he declined to do so.”

According to the article, “a close examination of the front of the monument shows that is has not escaped defacing, for it is chipped in several places and some of the words at the bottom show unmistakable signs of having been stoned.”

The inscription reads:

“Joseph Partridge Brainerd, son of Joseph H. and his wife Fanny Partridge, a conscientious, faithful, brave Union soldier, was born on the 27th day of June, 1840, graduated from the University of Vermont in August, 1862; enlisted in Co. I, of the Vermont cavalry was wounded and taken prisoner by the Rebels in the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, was sent to Andersonville Prison Pen in Georgia where he died on the 11th day of Sep 1864 entirely and wholly neglected by President Lincoln and murdered with impunity by the Rebels, with thousands of our loyal Soldiers by Starvation, Privation, Exposure and Abuse.”

The two other shorter inscriptions are not so well known. Judge Brainerd had “Honor the Faithful and Brave Soldiers” inscribed around the monument. On the south side is the cryptic statement “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, Saith the Lord.”

Some local people were unhappy, not with the memorial to a good son and soldier, but with this controversial Bible verse from Romans 12. The full quotation is “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord ... overcome evil with good.”

Some people felt Judge Brainerd had gone too far in his condemnation of President Lincoln. The newspaper article said that when Lincoln was assassinated, emotions ran so high in St. Albans that “one night a party of Union soldiers went to the cemetery and tying a rope around the monument threw it to the ground. It was too heavy to carry away and so after the inscription had been stoned, the monument was left prostrate.”

The grieving father reset the monument and the history it records has been part of the heritage of St. Albans for almost 141 years.

Acid rain has taken its toll and the original inscription is barely readable. Twenty or more years ago, two women using rice paper and a soft black crayon made a “rubbing” of the inscription. This rubbing, the only one ever made, provides the only tangible evidence of the now-faded inscription.

The three pieces of rice paper used were Scotch taped together, glued to a piece of cardboard and attached to a barn board frame. Over time the tape discolored and dried out, the rice paper became brittle and brown with age, while drops of paint splattered the edges.

The Brainerd Monument rubbing was sent to the Conservation Laboratory of Joseph J. Marotti Co. Inc. of Milton, Vt. Arleigh Young removed the rubbing from its frame, removed the old tape and glue, treated the rubbing in distilled water to relax the paper, cleaned and deacidified the paper and reassembled the three pieces of paper with archival adhesive.

Daniel J. Pattullo of the Champlain Collection mounted the rubbing on acid-free museum board and reframed it using the original barn board frame but added a mat and protective glass.

The newly conserved monument rubbing is on display in the military room of the St. Albans Historical Museum.