Benjamin Stone, 1817-1862
no. 23187
Stone was the commander of the 11th Massachusetts Regiment’s Company K, which he had personally assembled as a unit made up mostly of Dorchester residents and other men from nearby towns, who quickly elected him their captain as state law allowed. Stone led Company K from May 27, 1861, when it set off from Meetinghouse Hill, until he was mortally wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run on Aug. 29, 1862. He died a week later at the age of 44. Stone was a music engraver.
Gravestone:
PRO PATRIA
To the memory of
BENJAMIN STONE, Ju.
captain of Dorchester Co. K,
11th. Reg’t, Mass. vols.
who after sixteen months
of arduous service,
was wounded at the second
Bull Run battle,
and died at Washington
Sept. 10, 1862.
in the 45th year of his age,
this tablet is erected
by his sorrowing townsmen.
As a citizen,
respected and beloved through life,
Lamented in his early death
as a self-devoted patriot-soldier.
http://www.dotnews.com/2011/benjamin-stone-dorchester-man
Benjamin Stone: a Dorchester man
By
Nicholas Jacques and Nicholas Berghane
Apr. 7, 2011
Behind a wrought-iron fence and a stone gateway in Uphams Corner sits Dorchester North Burial Ground, dotted with headstones dating back centuries, most of them unreadable after decades upon decades of wear from the elements.
The life stories behind the names on most of the memorials are mostly forgotten, touches of history in a neighborhood burying ground.
But not so that of Dorchester townsman Benjamin Stone Jr., who led a life that lingers in memory still, especially now when the commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War are in the news.
Stone was the commander of the 11th Massachusetts Regiment’s Company K, which he had personally assembled as a unit made up solely of Dorchester residents, who quickly elected him their captain as state law allowed.
Stone led Company K from May 27, 1861, when it set off from Meetinghouse Hill, until he was mortally wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run on Aug. 29, 1862. He died a week later at the age of 44.
Stone was a Dorchester man his entire life. He and his wife Ursula had one daughter, Sarah. In civilian life, Stone was a music engraver and a painter. The Dorchester Atheneum also credits him as a musician.
In his book “Good Old Dorchester,” the historian William Orcutt referred to Company K’s soldiers as “respectable young men who left their daily business practices from patriotic motives.”
Stone and his men fought in the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, the first major battle of the Civil War, then returned to Manassas a year later and battled the Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Stone and 112 others in the 11th Massachusetts regiment did not survive the battle. Company K returned home in June 1864 with only 12 men left from the complement that had set off in 1861.
Stone’s legacy lives on. After the war, the local Grand Army of the Republic post, a fraternal organization of Civil War veterans, was named after him. And a statue of him graces the Civil War plot in Cedar Grove Cemetery on Adams Street.
And his great-great-nephew, Clayton Stone, who lives in Abington, a dozen miles south of Dorchester. followed in the steps of his hero uncle ancestor by serving in the Air Force during the Korean War.
The following comes from: Historical Souvenir of Benjamin Stone Jr., Post No. 68, Department of Mass., G.A.R. Twenty-sixth National Encampment, held in Washington, D.C. September, 1892. Dorchester: Post No. 68, 1892.
Capt. Benjamin Stone, Jr.
Capt. Benjamin Stone, Jr., for whom Post 68 was named, was born in the town of Dorchester December 18, 1817, and was educated in its public schools. He became a prominent and active citizen, was an acknowledged leader at music festivals, and for a period taught music. He resided in the town until he took the field at the head of the First Dorchester Company.
He was for many years connected with the militia and commanded the Dorchester Artillery. He always took a deep interest in military matters and was well versed in tactics. Upon the first call for troops he offered his services to the Governor and at once entered into the work of raising a company for the war, notice of which appeared in the Boston Herald, April 19, 1861, five days after the fall of Fort Sumter. By his personal popularity he soon gathered around him men enough to form a company and early in May had under his command a fine body of well disciplined soldiers. The company bore so good a reputation for military excellence that the commander of the eleventh Massachusetts Infantry selected it to complete his regiment, out of twenty or more companies that were offered.
On the 27th day of May, 1861, Capt. Stone with his command left his native town, and reported at Fort Warren for three years’ duty in the field. He was in all the prominent battles on the Peninsula; and in that bloody encounter called the second Bull Run battle, while gallantly leading his men in a desperate charge, he fell, severely wounded. He was left on the field between the lines, where he lay four days without food or help. He was then removed to a field-hospital, where his leg was amputated. From there he was taken to Washington, where he died September 10, 1862. His diary, in which he wrote daily, even while lying wounded on the battlefield, expresses his gratitude for tender care and closes with a half-written sentence when it is apparent that his pencil dropped from his dying grasp. The citizens’ committee of Dorchester decided that his remains should be brought to his early home for burial.
On Sunday, September 15, the funeral services were held at the First Parish Church. So deep was the esteem in which he was held that all the other churches in the town were closed and the citizens united in paying deserved tribute to his memory.
In that old North Burial Ground, sacred and hallowed as the last resting place of Dorchester’s loved, honored and distinguished dead, rests the remains of Capt. Benjamin Stone, Jr. A simple marble tablet at the head of his grave bears this inscription, “As a citizen beloved and respected through life, Lamented in his early death as a self-devoted patriot soldier.”
1850 census – his occupation is painter aged 32
Dorchester Births, Marriages, Deaths Benjamin born Dec. 28, 1817, to Benjamin and Sarah Stone
Good Old Dorchester p. 419 list of Company K gives Capt. Benjamin Stone, Jr. 43 yrs, music-engraver
Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, Massachusetts – after 16 months service, wounded at the second battle of Bull Run, died in Washington Sept. 10, 1862, in the 45th year of his age