Old Town Hall In connection with the reenactment of the funeral procession for Captains Watson and Rickards, Old Town Hall will be draped in black and include a display of historic funerary objects. Black-bordered mourning cards and letters, hair jewelry, mourning rings, bracelets, earrings, and other typical objects will be seen. George Read I's funerary box will be included in the exhibit along with a mourning ring for King George II. Old Town Hall will be open for visitors September 17, 18, 19, from 12 noon to 4 p.m. and the morning of September 20, before the funeral procession. Also, visitors can enjoy Delaware Goes Into Mourning each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. September 27 through November 8.
For two days Captains Rickards and Watson of the First Regiment of Delaware Volunteers had lain in state in Town Hall, the only Delaware soldiers so honored during the Civil War. Both men fell during the Battle of Antietam, the single deadliest day of battle in American history. The First Delaware marched into action on September 17 as the right of the first line of General William H. French's Third Division. They marched through a cornfield and over a fence directly into deadly enemy fire. The First Delaware suffered one of the worst casualty rates of the battle. Over 30 percent of the regiment was killed or wounded, including eight of the ten company commanders and the entire color guard. The shocking carnage led Delaware to honor its fallen men through the public funeral of Captains Watson and Rickards. Too little is known of the two young men, both 24, but each fell while leading men into battle. Shortly before the battle, Captain Watson had been on duty in Wilmington, but he rushed to Virginia to lead his company into action. That company, clad in colorful Zouave uniforms that attracted enemy attention, suffered especially heavy losses. Captain Watson was among the first to fall. The story surrounding Captain Rickard's death is particularly poignant. When he saw the regiment's flags fall, Captain Rickards joined a small group that surged to the front to recover them. As one of the men took aim at an approaching Confederate soldier, Rickards stopped him because the man was wounded. The enemy soldier repaid Rickards' kindness with a deadly shot.
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On the
afternoon of September 29, 1862, Wilmington's shopkeepers closed their doors, flags
dropped to half mast, and church bells throughout the city tolled as thousands of people
converged on black-draped Town Hall. At 3 p.m. an honor guard carried the flag-draped
caskets of Captain Evan S. Watson and Captain James Rickards down the marble steps of
Wilmington's city hall and into the two waiting hearses that would take the two war heroes
to their final resting places in Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery. The funeral
procession extended over a mile and included a full military band, two companies of
soldiers, the mayor and other civic dignitaries, members of patriotic organizations, and
the general public. 