Dr. Brunnell The Embalmer

Several months ago, Doug Tagsold and I had a discussion about his great grandfather, Harvey Parker. Harvey Parker was a member of the 4th Michigan Infantry Regiment in the US Army of the Potomac. The Army of the Potomac is the Army that was supported by the USMRR Aquia Line, the line that I model in O Scale. Doug told me that Harvey would later be captured, survive Andersonville prison, and return home to father a family with 5 generations, three of which were embalmers and funeral directors.  Doug’s family donated Harvey’s letters to an archive at the University of Michigan. Alas, they are not available on line and Doug did not pay much attention to them when he was younger. So we didn’t have much to go on.

I was aware that there was an embalmer named Dr Brunnell in Fredericksburg in 1862. I assume that he moved his establishment to Aquia Landing when the US Army left Fredericksburg in late 1862. Doug and I speculated that his great grandfather may have been inspired to become an embalmer by seeing him and  other embalmers while serving in the Army. Wikipedia says, 

"Embalming became more common in the United States during the American Civil War, when servicemen often died far from home. The wish of families for their remains to be returned home for local burial and lengthy transport from the battlefield meant it became common in the United States.

The period from about 1861 is sometimes known as the funeral period of embalming and is marked by a separation of the fields of embalming by undertakers and embalming (anatomical wetting) for medical and scientific purposes.  Dr Thomas Holmes received a commission from the Army Medical Corps to embalm the corpses of dead Union officers to return to their families. Military authorities also permitted private embalmers to work in military-controlled areas. The passage of Abraham Lincoln's body home for burial was made possible by embalming, and it brought wider public attention to the possibilities and potential of embalming.”

I used the prototype photo of Dr Brunnell's facility in Fredericksburg, VA as inspiration for the model. I didn't have room for the whole width of the structure, so I just built the gable section using laser-cut wood. I used parchment paper to simulate the canvas sides. I made the signs on my computer using the prototype photos as a guide.

The doctor and the man with the shovel are figures by Knuckleduster that I painted. The Harvey Parker figure is from Sash and Saber to which I added a kepi-wearing Zouave head, also by Sash and Saber.  There was a Lieutenant Parker in the 4th Michigan, but Doug does not think Harvey Parker was an officer. That is why I depicted him wearing an enlisted uniform. 

The 4th Michigan was a zouave infantry regiment. They wore dark blue uniforms with either blue fez with red tassel or blue kepi. The prototype photo of the soldiers in the 4th Michigan is a colorized image from the National Archives showing the Zouave uniforms.

A little more research revealed that the Lieutenant Parker mentioned in the captions of some of  the photos of the 4th Michigan was actually Sewell Parker, thereby confirming that Harvey Parker was not an officer. 

Here is a photo of Doug pointing at the figure of his great grandfather on my layout. 

To complete the scene I  started building a Berkshire Valley model of an O Scale wagon used by a photographer. This is a very fine kit. I have not finished the kit as you can see the unpainted model in the photos. My plan is to show a scene where the photographer is taking a photo of the embalmer’s facility.

I also added a small vignette to the Primmer Farm. This shows Mrs. Primmer milking their family cow while a soldier looks on. The cow and woman were 40mm figures from Triguard Miniatures.