JASPER and MARTIN RODGERS -- 16th INFANTRYTWO UNRELATED ROGERS - On April 27, 1861, two men named Rogers(Rodgers), Jasper and Martin, enlisted in the 16th Infantry, expectingto serve for two years in the 16th Infantry. They were both musteredinto Captain William Wallace Wood's Company K after he had personallyrecruited each man. At the end of June, the regiment left Albany forWashington.The regiment was assigned to the Army of Northeastern Virginia, and itmoved to Alexandria on July 11. They went from there to Manassas andwere engaged for a very short time on the 21st and returned immediatelyafter to Alexandria. On September 15th they encamped at Fort Lyon onthe south side of the Potomac and were attached to the Army of thePotomac. Jasper died of disease in nearby Alexandria on February 26,1862.The regiment ventured onto the field again in May on the VirginiaPeninsula and stayed until the end of July. During those three months,they suffered over 250 casualties -- their worst battle being at Gaines'Mill at the end of June. In September they marched north to Maryland ahad 66 more casualties at Crampton's Gap and Antietam. In December theyperformed picket duty and the next May lost heavily aroundChancellorsville -- over 154 more men became casualties.Martin went back to Vermont in May 1865 to see his parents, RobertRogers and Abigail Allen. He married Harriet Hawkins a year of so later.After the birth of their second stillborn daughter in 1877, they tooktheir son to California in 1878, where they remained until they died --Martin in 1900, Harriet after 1920 and their son, George, in 1933.Jasper, who was born in England in 1827, has no known grave.
