A Community at War

May 27, 2027

Sturbridge, Massachusetts During the Great Rebellion, 1861–1865—A Community at War.

A colorful illustrated presentation exploring how the Civil War transformed one small New England town. Through original research, period photographs, military records, and personal accounts, discover the lives of Sturbridge’s soldiers whose sacrifices shaped the community. The program also reveals the stories of twelve Sturbridge men, only recently identified through research as having died as a result of their Civil War service, restoring their place in the town’s history more than 160 years later.

Thursday, 5/27/2026 at 7:00 PM at the Publick House Historic Inn

277Main Street

Sturbridge, Massachusetts 01566

New Research Clarifies the Fate of Revolutionary War Soldier Benjamin Walker

July 2026

Sturbridge—For more than 250 years, the fate of Sturbridge Revolutionary War soldier Benjamin Walker remained uncertain. Company records simply noted that Walker had “deserted” during the Siege of Boston in August 1775, but surviving military records reveal a breakdown in communication at the company level during a period when disease was sweeping through the American camps. Muster rolls, pay records, a contemporary return listing Walker as “accounted for,” and family evidence—including his father’s obituary stating he had “lost a son during the Revolution”—strongly indicate that Walker died while serving his country rather than abandoning his post.

The findings restore Benjamin Walker to Sturbridge’s roll of honored Revolutionary War dead, increasing the town’s known Revolutionary War fatalities to twenty-four and demonstrating that even after two and a half centuries, careful research can still reshape our understanding of the past.

Eight More Civil War Soldiers Identified

October 26, 2026

This spring brought the identification of six additional Civil War soldiers who died while serving Sturbridge but were never included on the town’s monument to the fallen on the Town Common beside the Joshua Hyde Library. The list below includes the twelve men identified during the past four years. The six names shown in green represent the most recent discoveries.

In addition to the spring identifications, an additional soldier was recovered by Amy Gorham of the Sturbridge Gravestone Keepers this summer. Captain Henry Clay Hooker, a native of Sturbridge serving with a New York regiment during the Civil War. He was killed on August 16, 1864, during the Second Battle of Deep Bottom. He fell in one of General Ulysses S. Grant’s offensives north of the James River, where Union forces launched repeated attacks against strongly fortified Confederate positions in an effort to threaten Richmond and draw Robert E. Lee’s army away from Petersburg.

Recently, a fourteenth soldier from Sturbridge was discovered to have served, and died—James Warren Plimpton.

2nd NY HA, Captain, Enlisted 12/17/1861, Co. I, promoted to Captain , and transferred to Co. L. 7/26/1864, Killed at Deep Bottom, VA on August 16, 1864. Pension records are very thorough. Born in Sturbridge, MA on 5/30/1830 to Simeon and Nancy Hooker.

Tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2027, the Heritage Oak Press publication of Loss — Unknown Losses of a New England Town During the Civil War-and Their Discovery
Sturbridge, Massachusetts, will tell the story of the soldiers found, and how they were discovered.

Scheduled for publication — Spring 2027

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The Missing Fourteen

Simeon Newton

Ferdinand Rogers

Crockett Edwards

Aaron D. Weld

Henry W. Nichols

Samuel Plimpton

William H. Williston

William Davis Oakley

John Carpenter

Lucien G. Lamb

Luther Spooner

John Kay

Henry Clay Hooker

James Warren Plimpton