Ezra A. Carman

Antietam Manuscript and Maps

   Ezra Ayres Carman was Lt. Colonel of the 7th Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers during the Civil War. He volunteered at Newark, NJ on 3 Sept 1861, and was honorably discharged at Newark on 8 Jul 1862 (This discharge was to accommodate his taking command of another Regiment). Wounded in the line of duty at Williamsburg, Virginia on 5 May 1862 by a gunshot wound to his right arm in action. He also served as Colonel of the 13th Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers from 5 August 1862 to 5 June 1865. He was later promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.

   Ezra Ayes Carman was Chief Clerk of the United States Department of Agriculture from 1877 to 1885. He served on the Antietam Battlefield Board from 1894 to 1898 and he is acknowledged as probably the leading authority on that battle . In 1905 he was appointed chairman of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park Commission.

   General Ezra Ayes Carman was born Feb. 27, 1834 and died Dec. 25, 1909. General Carman was living with his son, L.D. Carman, at 1351 Q Street NW, Washington DC, at the time of his death. His son was a medical examiner in the U.S. Pension Bureau and signed his death certificate. Ezra Ayres Carman died of Pneumonia. His wife, Ada, was living in Los Angeles at the time taking care of her blind brother. General Ezra Ayres Carman is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

   As Bachelder was to Gettysburg, so Ezra Ayers Carman was to Antietam and William T. Rigby to Vicksburg. Veterans themselves, Carman and Rigby pursued extended correspondence with other participants, accumulating abundant data on troop movements and personal experiences at their sites for the government. Some of this trove is now at the National Archives. A small but significant collection of Carman's documentation, labeled "Antietam Studies," is in an uninventoried series in RG 94.