The perils of W.W. Woodward

8 February 2019

This regiment was flanked by the enemy at Sharpsburg, but our young friend had not arrived at the discretion necessary for a timely use of his heels in such an emergency and stood his ground and kept up fire on the advancing enemy, until a conical ball struck him in the left breast just to the left of and above the nipple, and emerged from his back to the right of the spinal column.

This about Private William Washington Woodward. He’d enlisted in Co. B, 27th Georgia Infantry in September 1861 at age 15.

He was wounded twice more while lying on the field at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 and was captured by Federal troops.

He received from the enemy the kindest attention and most scientific surgical treatment for nearly eight months, and his recovery pronounced due alone to his youth. His left arm unfortunately is useless, and the dreadful wound in his breast still but partially healed, but he talks of going back into the service again, and says he would rather be as he is now than to have been a lounger at home in the hour of his country’s need.

He was released in May 1863 and was probably furloughed home to his father’s 1000 acre plantation in southern Bibb County, Georgia.

There’s no further military record. And though he survived his Sharpsburg wounds, it wasn’t for very long. He died in 1871, just 25 years old.

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The quotes above are from the Macon Daily Telegraph of 17 June 1863, posted online by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp 1399, Warner Robins, GA.

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