Joseph R. Doolittle.

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Joseph R Doolittle.

Birth: May 23, 1842.
Death: May 25, 1927.

Wife: Cornelia H. Paddock Doolittle.
Married January 20, 1865.

Children: Gerald B., Lewis J. Doolittle.

Burial: Hillside Cemetery, Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticut.

Connecticut Frist Light Artillery, Regimental History.

Joseph R. Doolittle, Residence Cheshire; Age 19; Single; Mechanic.

JOSEPH R. DOOLITTLE, of Southington, Served three months in Rifle Co. C, 3d C. V. Enlisted Light Battery Oct. 18, 1861 ; discharged Feb. 17, 1863. physical disability Re-enlisted Jan. 2, 1864; promoted Corporal Nov. 20, 1864. Mustered out June II, 1865. 

Corporal Joseph Doolittle was born May 23, 1842, the youngest of nine children, five boys and four girls. Four of the sons were in  the war, serving with credit to themselves and honor to the State. His ancestors were farmers in Cheshire, Corporal Doolittle's grandfather fighting in the War of the Revolution and rising to the rank  of Major. Corporal Doolittle was at the first battle of Bull Run with the 3d Connecticut. His brothers Amasa and Horace served  in the First Light Battery; his brother Henry was in the 20th  Connecticut Infantry.

page 141-2., Comrade Joseph Doolittle loves to tell a story of a kicking horse he had in that second skirmish  on James Island. He says: "I drove the leader  team in the centre section; Comrade A. E. Leon ard, middle, and Comrade Jack Monarch the  wheel team. I had the old sorrel kicker for the off-horse, a horse that would kick higher and  oftener than any living thing I ever saw.

She  would kick when she started on the run, kick  when she stopped, and when it did no good to  kick. I remember when we were coming off the  field and were back nearly to the caissons I looked over my shoulder and saw two grape shots coming. I dodged them. Next day I told the comrades of  this, and Comrade James Holly spoke up and  'Those were not grape shots, they were the sorrel mare's heels.' "I believe he was right, for I found out that we were out of range of  grape shot."

page 158., Comrade Doolittle says that at one period when ammunition was running short he had got "about half way to the caissons when we saw Capt.Rockwell with some other officers standing by the roadside. The Captain  saw us coming. He ran towards us, waving his sword as high as he could and shouting: 'Halt! Halt!' Then he asked, 'Where are you going?' We had halted, and I answered that we were going back after more ammunition. He smiled and said, 'All right, I thought you were running away.'"