June is update-the-men-of-the-Texas-Brigade-month here at Antietam on the Web. Lots of interesting people so far.  If you don’t already follow me on Twitter, you might check the tweet-stream for some who stand out.

Among these is a celebrity of sorts: First Sergeant Russell C. Mitchell of Company I, First Texas Infantry. He was wounded in the head at Sharpsburg and, after recovering, spent the rest of the war as nurse and ward master at a military hospital in Atlanta.

He later became one of Atlanta’s wealthiest and most prominent men, too, but he’s better known today as grandfather of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind (novel 1936, movie 1939).

She was five when he died, but said she remembered feeling the groove in his skull from the Sharpsburg bullet. A scene from the movie, below.

Please Leave a Reply