Corporal William L. “Willie” Norton, Company B, 10th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, missed his sweetheart. Jennie E. Annis was home in Buckland (Manchester), Connecticut. Willie was fighting in the South with the Union Army. The Connecticut Historical Society recently acquired two letters written by Willie to Jennie. The first was written in March 1863 from Island St. Helena, South Carolina, and the second was written from Seabrook Island, South Carolina in July 1863.
In March Willie wrote about the snakes and lizards living on the island, as well as an alligator that was recently shot. He missed Jennie, and having lost her photograph, requested a new one. “…if I do get home alive, “ he wrote, “I shall expect to see you in Hartford to see us when we land & when I come out to Manchester on the cars I shall expect to see you standing on the platform at Buckland with a little note for me with some little love message in it…”
When Willie wrote on July 6, 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg had ended three days earlier and news of the Union victory had not yet reached South Carolina. “We have heard,” he wrote, “that the Confederate troops are within 15 miles of Philadelphia & that when the rebs advanced on Harrisburg the militia run without firing a gun! Shame on them.” He still missed Jennie, and continued to lament the loss of her photograph.
We do not know if Jennie was waiting at the Buckland platform, but Willie did return home to her. William L. Norton and Jennie E. Annis Norton are both buried in the Buckland Cemetery in Manchester, Connecticut. Jennie died in 1885 at age 44. Willie lived until 1921, dying at age 79.
