CDV- Lieut. Gorham Pierce Dunn, co. A, 12th NH infantry. KIA at Cold Harbor, VA, 1864; L.V. Newell's Gallery, Point Lookout, MD. Signed on verso in period pen (initials, surname, rank, co. & regt.)

Ambrotype- ninth plate of Sgt. (later 2nd & 1st Lieut.) Gorham P. Dunn, 12th NH. KIA at Cold Harbor, VA 1864 by a bullet through the chest after an initial wounding in both legs. (photo courtesy: HIndman Auction, Cincinnati, OH)

Civil War veteran. Lieut. Gorham Pierce Dunn

Dunn, Gorham P. 12th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, Co. H; age 28; res. Laconia, cred. Laconia; enl. Aug. 15, '62; must. in Sept. 9, '62, as Sergt.; app. 2 Lt. Co. G, Feb. 4, '63; 1 Lt. Co. A, Feb. 1, '64; killed June 3, '64, Cold Harbor, Va. Burial: Walnut Grove Cemetery, Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts. May be a cenotaph.

This lamented comrade was the son of Pierce and Credina A. (Spaulding) Dunn, of Tyngsborough, Mass., and was born on the same month and day as his country that he died to save; and had he lived one day longer would have been twenty-nine years old. He was working at his trade as carpenter when he enlisted and had the esteem of all who knew him for his kind disposition and probity of character.

Married January 14. 1860, to Caroline E. Jewett, who a few years ago was still living. Their only child, Mary E., died just after the war.

He early attracted the attention of Colonel Potter by his promptness and efficiency as a sergeant, and was on this account one of the first, out of the line of a regular promotion, to receive a commission. In every battle until killed at Cold Harbor by minie ball through his breast. He was first cut down while making the charge by a bullet through both legs. The fatal wound was given him by a sharpshooter, some hours after the charge, as he was seen to be alive several times during the day. He also talked with a wounded comrade who lay near him when all at once he said: " Oh, dear!" and died immediately. It is supposed that he was then struck by the ball that caused his death.

Captain Fernal, who was shot at several times while getting his body from the field that night, says in a letter to Dunn's wife: "You have lost a kind, good, and brave husband, beloved by all who knew him. I thought a good deal of him. He was a man of good principles, and free from all those vices so common among army officers."

His sword and sash, with a picture of his wile, was taken from his body and sent to her by Captain Fernal. It was remarked of him, as strangely true, that his promotion seemed to have a depressing instead of an encouraging effect upon him. But it is all accounted for to the writer now. A dark, foreboding cloud came across his horoscope about this time which gave to everything a somber hue. Though small in stature he was great in his measure of true worth, and memory, even now, repictures his pleasant face and genial smile, and we sigh to think "That one so worthy long to live, So quickly passed away."

Lieut. Gorham P. Dunn, who was in the writer's mind when referring to the parting of officers and their wives at Point Lookout, was another one of the many in the Twelfth who long carried with them the impression that they would not live to the end of their term of enlistment. He constantly carried in his pocket a piece of paper by which his body might be identified, gave his wife to understand, at the time and place above mentioned, that they would never see each other again, and in a solemn talk with Lieutenant Hall, on the night before the battle of Cold Harbor, stated, in substance, that all his hopes and expectations for this life would end on the morrow. Lieutenant Hall, speaking of the above, says: "

And Captain Keyes talked to me in about the same strain at one time when we were on picket together a few days before the battle of Chancellorsville."