Braman Grout and his older brother George Lewis Grout joined the 25th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer infantry Company H during the Civil War.  The Massachusetts infantry was organized at Camp Lincoln in Worcester, Massachusetts and mustered between September and October 1861.  It was composed primarily of men from Worcester County.  They served the Union Army and were heavily engaged in campaigns in North Carolina, as part of the Burnside Expedition, and later in Virginia.  Among the battles they were engaged in were Roanoke Island, New Bern, Swift Creek, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Wyse Fork.

The Battle of Roanoke Island took place on February 7-8^th 1862  It was a key American Civil War amphibious operation led by Union Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside, resulting in a Union victory and opening Eastern North Carolina to federal control.  Effectively it cut off supply ports to the Confederacy.  While not the first amphibious American assault in history it was a major successful joint operation that brought the Union an important victory at the beginning of the war.

Despite the unimaginable hardships of war in the 1860s, both brothers survived.  George died in 1918 at the age of 88 and our ancestor, Braman, died in 1920 at the age of 87 in Leicester, Worcester County, the town where he was born and lived all his life.

               Braman Grout                                                    George Lewis Grout

Robert Grout writes:

In Morse’s Genealogy (The Genealogy of the Descedents of Several Ancient Puritans, by Rev. Agner Morse 1857) there was a letter written by My great grandfather Braman from the deck of the Steamer New York, prior to an attack on Roanoke Island during the Civil War.  

Click on image to enlarge

(an effort to transcribe the above letter…JGR)

Hatteras Inlet – Sunday Feb 2^nd 1862

Friend Mrs Sibley

I will write you a few lines this day!  I received your letter of the 16^th Friday the 31^st and was very glad to hear from you!  These words do not begin express it!  This was the first news               since we left Fortress Monroe; I might have said since we left Camp Jan 6!  You may imagine the joy that was on board when the men saw a sack bag stuffed full of mail matter.  This was enough for one.  I tell you I read your letter with interest and also the papers .  You do not know how much good it did me!  We are all well and hope this will find you all the same.  I hope that Frannie has recovered of the Measles.  If I was there and she was not too sick I would tell her what Father use to tell me when I was sick with them (the cure I mean).  We are on board the Steamer New York.  9 Companies I think.  The rest will be followed on her soon to        the 25^th all together.  We shall start tomorrow morning early for Roanoke Island that being our place to make an attack!  I must close as the mail is soon to go.  Remember me to        and tell she can have one of three     on condition sharing it with    .  I was intending to have written you a long letter but     have to wait until the next time.  Give my love to Grannie and all of the folks.

  I will visit you a        the first opportunity if      (long stretch I cant read)     

Tomorrow I think will be the greatest day I ever saw.  It may be my last!  If so it will be well.  There is a higher power than man’s power.

I hope to do my whole duty and and leave all with Him.

Oh I wished you had sent         perhaps    late now.

                Yours in rush(?)

Braman Grout

Braman reports in his letter he is upon the Steamer New York set to attack the next day.  Here is a photo of the steamer.

During the Civil War one of the first publications to publish descriptions and hand drawn images of the war and many of its specific battles was the Harpers Weekly.  Below is a rather calm cover of an issue, however many covers carried stark images of various battles.

Here are period maps of Roanoke.  One or both of these may have been published by Harpers Weekly.

Here are a couple of prints of the battle.

Following is a description of what our ancestor Braman Grout may have experienced on the morning of February 8^th, 1862.  Published by The Mariners’ Museum and Park in an April 20, 2021 article by John V. Quarstein titled “Burnsides’s Roanoke Island Expedition: The Battle for the North Carolina Sounds”.  The article is a lengthy recitation of the planning and execution of the Battle of Roanoke Island.

The Land Attack

Intermittent cold rains throughout the night had made for a miserable night for Burnside’s soldiers. Nevertheless, early on the morning of February 8, Burnside ordered the advance. The Confederate works were about a mile away from Ashby Harbor. This single track was muddy, filled with bog holes, and very narrow, which only allowed for a double-file advance. General Foster’s First Brigade led the advance. At the forefront of Foster’s column was the 25th Massachusetts, and by about 9:30 a.m., they engaged the enemy. The Massachusetts troops were aided by three boat howitzers commanded by Midshipman Benjamin H. Porter which leapfrogged in support of the 25th’s advance. The advance became bogged down in the 70-yard clearing the Confederates had cut to give them a clear field of fire.

After almost two hours of volleys being traded in the thick black smoke. Foster ordered forward the 10th Connecticut to replace the 25th Massachusetts; however, he also realized that he could not effectively advance on such a constricted front. Accordingly, he sent the 23rd and 27th Massachusetts regiments into the swamps toward the Confederate left.