To the Publisher:
Four of the six Civil War fatalities from Belleville and Nutley occurred 150 years ago.
From Belleville (Second River), two soldiers died in the Seven Days’ Battle (Peninsula Campaign) as Thomas Stevens (or Stephens) was killed in action June 27, 1862, and Captain Henry Benson was wounded July 1, and died August 11, 1862.
From Nutley (Franklin), then part of Belleville, Sgt. John Donaldson died May 17, 1862, in the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, known as the Battle of Williamsburg, Va., and the battle of Fort Magruder.
Nutley’s Byron Lawton was killed in action September 14, 1862, in the Battle of South Mountain, or the Battle of Burkittsville in Central Maryland during the Maryland Campaign.
James H. Cunningham of Nutley was killed in action on May 3, 1863, in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, also known as the Second Battle of Marye’s Heights.
John Rogers (or Rodgers) of Belleville was killed in action on April 8, 1865, at Fort Davis while defending Washington, D.C., shortly before the war ended.
Anthony Buccino
Author of Belleville and Nutley In The Civil War, A Brief History
