Newtown Woman’s Ancestors –

Remembering The Civil War’s Only Triplets

By Jan Howard

A Newtown woman is a descendant of a Connecticut man who with his two brothers fought in the Civil War. This may not seem very unusual, in that many brothers fought in the Civil War and not always on the same side. But these brothers, George Washington Brown, John Madison Brown, and William Jefferson Brown, are believed to be the only triplets to fight for the Union cause and perhaps in the entire war.

Joan (Reilly) Oberg is the great-granddaughter of George Brown. She and her husband, Dick, have lived in Newtown since 1954. They have two sons, Randall Oberg of Woodbury and Carl Oberg of New Milford. Three generations of Obergs, Mr Oberg, his father, and his sons, operated a garage on Church Hill Road for 40 years, and Mrs Oberg prepared the books. Mr and Mrs Oberg are now retired. Childhood sweethearts, they have known each other since grammar school days in Bridgeport.

Mr Oberg has had a longtime interest in the Civil War and in his wife’s descent from one of the triplets who fought in that war.

A frame with a collage of photographs of the Brown brothers, George Brown’s discharge paper, and other paperwork relating to the brothers hangs on the Oberg’s living room wall. A quilt belonging to Mrs Oberg’s family that dates from the Civil War, bearing the signatures of family members of that era, covers another.

Author Bell I. Wiley, in a letter dated January 19, 1973, to Mrs Oberg’s mother, Ethel Reilly, wrote that in his research of the Civil War he “encountered instances of several brothers serving in the Civil War, but I do not recall an instance of triplets.” Mr Wiley wrote The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union, published in 1952 as a companion volume to his earlier The Life of Johnny Reb.

In 1973 Mr Wiley was preparing text and photographs for a special issue of the magazine Civil War Times Illustrated which was to be devoted entirely to the common soldier of the Civil War. He asked Mrs Reilly if it would be possible for him to obtain copies of photographs of the Brown brothers in uniform. The result was the accompanying photographs of George, John, and William Brown, which appeared in the July 1973 issue of the magazine with the article “The Common Soldier of the Civil War” by Mr Wiley.

Mrs Oberg said she has done no official genealogical research on the Brown brothers or their families. According to records, George, John, and William Brown were born on January 4, 1839, in Stonington, the sons of Elijah and Mary (Saunders) Brown. This fact is documented in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and in the book History of Stonington, Connecticut 1649-1900 by Wheeler in the genealogy room of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library. In the Brown Genealogy, written by Cyrus Henry Brown and published in 1907, their birthplace is listed as Westerly, R.I.

The Brown triplets were highlighted in a story in The Sunday Republican Magazine, published in Waterbury on August 31, 1930. Joseph L. Brown, a barber in the North End of Waterbury, was interviewed as the son of George Brown. A tintype of the three brothers in an old fashioned black frame was described as hanging on the wall of the barbershop.

In the article, the Brown triplets are described as being handsome, brown-eyed youths with black hair worn in the long fashion of the day. In their photograph, taken at about the age of 18, they are dressed exactly alike in white shirts, white vests with broad lapels, short coats, black silk bow ties, and trousers that would have been tightly fitting according to the fashion. According to the story, their ties were fastened with an Odd Fellows’ pin, “the triplets all being members of the Odd Fellows lodge of Stonington.”

Mr Brown said the brothers enlisted together, went through the war together, and came out without a scratch. After the war, he said, “They all married, raised families, and lived to a good old age.” According to the Brown Genealogy, this may not be true.

The brothers apparently became interested in volunteering for the war after watching soldiers drill on the Stonington green.

Mrs Oberg believes the brothers enlisted in Torrington and were members of the 5th and 20th Connecticut infantry regiments. According to George Brown’s discharge papers, he enlisted on August 12, 1862, and was mustered into the 20th Connecticut infantry regiment on September 8, 1862. He was mustered out June 13, 1865, and discharged on June 26, 1865.

Both regiments “ended up at the Siege of Atlanta,” Mrs Oberg said.

The Sunday Republican Magazine story quoted Mr Brown as saying that the three brothers returned to Connecticut after being mustered out of the service in 1865. However, the Brown Genealogy states that William Brown, who married Elizabeth Buckingham of Ansonia, was killed July 20, 1864, during the battle of Peachtree-Creek in Georgia while serving with the 20th Connecticut infantry regiment, which is what Mrs Oberg has learned. Since the Brown family had two other sons and sons-in-law who also served in the Civil War, Mr Brown may have confused who came home after the conflict was over.

William Brown is buried in Marietta National Military Cemetery. A nephew photographed the gravestone and the cemetery where it is located and sent the photographs to Mrs Oberg.

 According to the story, the brothers had settled in Ansonia. This version of events coincides with family recollections that have George residing in Ansonia. According to military records at the Connecticut State Library, a George W. Brown is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Ansonia. In the story, Mr Brown said George lived the longest, surviving his brothers. According to the Brown Genealogy, John Brown died in the South, unmarried, after the war.

George Brown married in Birmingham, April 11, 1860, Eliza Bearse of Chatham, Mass., who was born January 12, 1840, in Cumberland, Me., the daughter of Lothrop L. and Sally (Hallett) Bearse. George Brown was a Republican and he and his wife attended the Baptist Church. They had three children, Lutie, Joseph, and George, Mrs Oberg’s grandfather. He died on March 4, 1897.

It appears from the magazine story and the genealogy that no twins or triplets were born to any of the triplets and in 1930 they remained the sole set of triplets in the Brown family.

“George worked as a carpenter,” Mrs Oberg said. The story states that William and John were factory workers.

Joseph Brown said his father liked to tell the story of how he was in Ford’s Theater the night that President Abraham Lincoln was shot. He said his father often described the scene that was enacted after the shot was fired and he saw the president crumple in his box.

Though Mr Brown stated in the 1930 story that the triplets lived long lives and remained famous as the Brown triplets who passed unscathed through the Civil War, this does not appear to be the case. However, family genealogies can be incorrect, and the name William Brown is a very common one. A perusal of military records shows that more than one William Brown served in the military from Connecticut. Did William return to Connecticut or did he die on the battlefield in Georgia? Only further research and study of actual military records may answer that question.

 The 5th and 20th Regiments served together in several military engagements during the Civil War, some well known, others not as familiar, where the brothers, though in different companies, may have fought side by side.

They included Chancellorsville, Va., on May 3, 1863; Gettysburg, Penn., on July 3, 1863; Resaca, Ga., on May 15, 1864; Cassville, Ga., on May 19, 1864; Peach-Tree Creek, Ga., on July 20, 1864; the Siege of Atlanta, July 21 to August 7, 1864; Silver Run, N.C., on Mach 15, 1865; and Bentonville, N.C., on March 19, 1865.