The History of Battery H First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery in the War to Preserve the Union 1861-1865

by Earl Fenner

CLEMENT WEBSTER.

First Lieut. Clement Webster, son of Stephen and Lydia (Kimball) Webster, was born in Kennebunk, Me., Oct. 16, 1817. He attended the public schools of Kennebunk in his youth, and later, a seminary at Leamington, Me. He learned the trade of printer in Saco, Me., where he and his brother Stephen started the York County Herald, a weekly paper. About the year 1841 or 1842, he removed to Providence, R. I., where he worked at his trade as a printer, and was also for a time employed in the Providence post-office. He started the Providence Daily Post as editor, and was with the exception of brief intervals, its editor until his death.

In the early period of the war he received a commission in the Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, but Governor Sprague insisted that he should remain in Rhode Island, where he considered that he could be of greater service with his voice and pen, than in the field. Nevertheless later on he was desirous of taking a more active part in the Union cause, and accordingly was commissioned a first lieutenant in Battery H, First Rhode Island Light Artillery. He was mustered into the service Oct. 14, 1862, but did not enter the field, and resigned his commission Feb. 7, 1863, in consequence of ill health. He died at Providence, R. I., Oct. 16, 1864.

He married Catherine P. Littlefield, of New Shoreham, R. I., May 15, 1839, by whom he had two sons. The elder son, Benjamin F., died at Providence in 1861. The other son, George E., after the death of his father became private secretary to Governor (then Senator) William Sprague, and was clerk of the Senate Committee of which the Senator was chairman during the session of 1864–65. He afterwards entered the Pension Bureau, where (interrupted by secret service work) he remained until the winter of 1871–72. He is at the present time (1894) clerk of the Common Pleas Division of the Supreme Court of this State.

Lieutenant Webster remarried Oct. 21, 1858, and of this marriage one child, Arthur M., was born. He died while a member of the Junior Class in Brown University.