Lieutenant Henry Melzar Dutton Papers

628 THL

Inventory created by Archives Staff 10/1986. Last revised 01/2020

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers.

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright. The materials in this collection are photocopies. The Archives does not have legal ownership of the originals. Researchers may use the photocopies for private study, scholarship, or research, but duplication or publication requests will require permission from the current owner of the original materials. Please contact Archives staff with questions: archives@handleyregional.org

EXTENT:  0.21 linear feet

CREATOR: Dutton, Henry Melzar, 1838-1862

DATE: 1862.

SCOPE AND CONTENT: This collection contains photocopies of the Civil War letters of Lieutenant Henry Melzar Dutton, Company C, 5^th Connecticut Infantry from March 17, 1862 to July 28, 1862. These letters cover the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, and the events leading up to the Battle of Cedar Mountain, near Culpeper, Virginia on August 9, 1862.  The collection also contains a letter from Major William Keeler describing the battle between the Monitor and Merrimac, and a letter dated August 22, 1862 from Samuel W.S Dutton following Lt. Dutton’s death at the Battle of Cedar Mountain.

Transcriptions of the letters are included with the collections. Researchers should be aware that transcription may be subject to human error and should be compared with originals where possible..

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: Lieutenant Henry Melzar Dutton was born on September 9, 1838, the son of Henry Dutton, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. Henry Dutton was a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, and was practicing law in Middletown, CN when the Civil War broke out. He was one of the first to enlist after President Abraham Lincoln call for troops after the firing on Fort Sumter. Dutton rose from an Orderly-Sergeant to First Lieutenant of Company C, 5th Connecticut Infantry and was with the regiment at all of the battles it fought in the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862. He was killed in during the charge of General Samuel W. Crawford brigade at the Battle of Cedar Creek, and is buried at the Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.                                      

CITE AS: Lieutenant Henry Melzar Dutton Papers, 628, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA.

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Acquired as a gift. 

ORGANIZATION:

BOX 1

Dutton, Lt. Henry Melzar – Correspondence, transcriptions, completed by Charles Wallace McLandress, 2014, 45 pages, printed

Dutton, Lt. Henry Melzar – Correspondence, March 1862, manuscript (photocopies); folder contains the following:

Dutton, Lt. Henry Melzar – Correspondence, April 1862, manuscript (photocopies); folder contains the following:

Dutton, Lt. Henry Melzar – Correspondence, May 1862, manuscript (photocopies); folder contains the following:

Dutton, Lt. Henry Melzar – Correspondence, June, 1862, manuscript (photocopies); folder contains the following:

Dutton, Lt. Henry Melzar – Correspondence, July, 1862, manuscript (photocopies); folder contains the following:

Portion of Major William Keeler’s Letter to his parents after the Monitor and Merrimac, undated, typed transcript (photocopy), 2 pages (photocopy)

Letter, Samuel W. S. Dutton to Henry Dutton, August 22, 1862, 3 pages, manuscript (photocopy)

McLandress, Charles, “Henry Melzar Dutton (1838-1862),” March 22, 2014, 7 pages, printed

McLandress, Charles, “Henry Dutton, 1796-1869,” March 22, 2014, 4 pages, printed