This full page black and white sketch meas. approx. 7.75 x 4.50 inches.

This well drawn sketch has the Baltimore Pike and its rail fence in the foreground. Immediately along the road is a two story, wood clapboard house. The house has a back ell with porch and out building behind it. This is a companion view to our item #955-57 and shows the opposite side of the house. Unfortunately we have not been able to match this house to any still standing along the Baltimore Pike between Gettysburg and Two Taverns.

Bottom of the sketch bears the title “ON BALTIMORE PIKE, HOUSE WHERE NORWOOD LAID WOUNDED & WHERE FENTON DIED. LOOKING WEST”

John Kendall Norwood of the 9th Massachusetts Battery was shot in the chest during the fighting on July 2, 1863. He was able to crawl behind a large rock for cover. This event and its location was the subject of several drawings by this artist. (See item #955-54 and item #955-53.)  Norwood was later discharged for disability on February 1, 1864.

John L. Fenton was a 27 year old laborer from Cambridgeport. He enlisted in the battery on August 10, 1862 and rose to the rank of Sergeant. During the fighting of July 2nd he was wounded in the leg. He and Private Norwood were carried to the house depicted here. Though the caption says Sergeant Fenton died at this house the records say that he died at Jarvis Hospital in Baltimore either on July 28, 1863 or in early August 1863.

This sketch was done by Richard Holland when he returned to Gettysburg as a part of the 9th Massachusetts Battery Monument Committee in 1884.

Included with sketch is a facsimile copy of the front inside cover of the sketchbook to which is glued three newspaper articles regarding the 9^th Massachusetts Battery monument at Gettysburg.

Richard Holland was born to Michael and Joanna Holland in Ireland on March 15, 1842. He came to the United States with his family at age 12 and settled in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Eventually Holland became an apprentice to Captain Lucius Richmond and learned the trade of a painter in which profession he was engaged when the Civil War began.

The now 21 year old Holland enlisted in the office of the selectman of North Bridgewater on July 29, 1862 and was assigned to the 9th Massachusetts Light Battery. At the time of his enlistment Holland was described as being 5’ 6 ½” tall with blue eyes, black hair and a dark complexion.

The 9th Massachusetts Battery served with the 5th and 9th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Private Holland served as the #4 crewman on a gun in the left section of the battery and was responsible for priming and firing the gun on command. He was present with the battery throughout its service being engaged at Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Bethesda Church, Totopotomoy, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Hatcher’s Run and the pursuit of Lee. The batteries heaviest loss occurred at Gettysburg where they were very heavily engaged on July 2nd on the Trostle farm. During that action they lost 8 men killed, 19 wounded and 1 missing. Holland was mustered out at the close of the war on June 6, 1865 and brought home with him a sketchbook in which he had kept drawings of people and places related to his service.

He was married twice. The first time to Miss Cecilia Pray in May of 1866. Sadly she died at age 36 of heart disease in April of 1880. The couple had two children, Charles born August 9, 1870 and Mary Cecilia born October 3, 1872.    Mr. Holland married for the second time on July 1, 1882 to Marietta M. Monk. The couple had no children.

After the war Holland resumed his trade as a painter. He became known for his skill graining and later in frescos. His paintings were found in churches throughout the area of his hometown as well as in the Brockton City Hall in Brockton, Massachusetts. His work in the town hall was considered “handsome and spirited.” The frescos depict the battle between the USS KEARSARGE and the CSS ALABAMA, Fort Sumter, the Monitor and the Merrimack, the 12th Massachusetts Battery going into action at Antietam, a Union drummer boy and a mounted cavalry scouting party led by his former employer Lucius Richmond.

Aside from the Brockton Town Hall, Holland also became known for smaller canvas paintings of still life, landscapes etc... However he avoided portraiture in which he felt he did not excel.

In 1884 he returned to Gettysburg as part of a commission to look into the placement of a memorial to the 9th Massachusetts Battery. While there he added to his wartime sketchbook numerous views of the Gettysburg battlefield.

Holland was a member of the Fletcher Webster Post #13 of the GAR and Appomattox Regiment of the Union Veteran’s Union. He was known for lending his artistic talents to any organization he was a member of and without payment.

When he died of pneumonia on January 12, 1906 he was remembered as a helpful, modest, unassuming and kind person. He is buried in Union Cemetery in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Holland’s military records accompany this item.  [ad]

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