behind AotW

Simon Pincus was a Sergeant in Company C, 66th New York Infantry when he was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in March 1864 and mustered out of service in August 1865.

This portrait, probably based on or painted over a photograph, was kindly provided by its owner, his great-great-grandson Ross Schacher.

On the afternoon of 17 September 1862 the 4th Rhode Island Infantry were in action at Antietam in a large cornfield on the Otto farm above the lower (later Burnside’s) bridge:

… as the enemy showed the national flag (the corn concealing their uniform), and as our troops had been seen in advance on our right, moving diagonally across our front, the order to cease firing was given, and a volunteer officer to go forward to ascertain who was in our front was called for. Lieutenant George E. Curtis and George H. Watts immediately stepped forward, and placing themselves one on each side of the color bearer (Corporal Tanner, Company G), carried the flag up the hill within 20 feet of the rebels, when the enemy fired, killing the corporal. Lieutenant Curtis seized the colors and returned, followed by Lieutenant Watts.

This fine photograph was sent me by Robert Grandchamp from his personal collection. The quote above is from Lieutenant Colonel Curtis’ after-action Report.

A photograph in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress. A former VMI cadet and later US Congressman, Lieutenant Turner was noted for his actions on South Mountain on 14 September and at least slightly wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

In April 1861 Marcellus Newton Moorman was appointed Captain in command of the Lynchburg (VA) Artillery and he led them in action on the Piper Farm at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

Here he is about the time of graduation from the Virginia Military Institute in 1856, from the fine VMI Archives collection.

This excellent photograph of Nelson Amariah Bemis was passed down through his descendants and sent to me by his great-great-grandson Mike LaRoi.

Nelson was wounded at Antietam in September 1862 while serving as a Private in Company F of the 8th Connecticut Infantry, but survived his wounds and the war, and was a farmer in Illinois for many years afterward.

Lieutenant Mark Rambo Supplee, Company I, 51st Pennsylvania Infantry survived the successful assault across what later became known as Burnside’s Bridge at Antietam in September 1862.

In November 1863 he was posted to the Convalescent Camp at Camp Nelson, near Lexington, KY, disabled by a gunshot through his foot at Fredericksburg, VA in December 1862. As a family historian later put it:

[H]e found the place in great disarray. There was no semblance of orderliness; no roster of those assigned to the Camp; no record of who came and who went. Mark, being one of the few officers in the Camp, sought to improve upon matters. In order to make any progress in creating order out of confusion he needed some measure of authority. He determined that to gain this authority it would be necessary to approach the Adjutant [sic] General …

touch letter to see a full transcript

He was commissioned in the Invalid Corps, appointed Commandant of the Convalescent Camp, and got it under control. Family lore says that work helped lead to what much later became the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital system.

He mustered out with his regiment at the end of his 3 years’ service, in November 1864, and returned to farming in Montgomery County, PA.

Here he is a bit later in life:

The handwritten and typescript copies of his 1863 letter and the postwar photo above are all courtesy of great-grandson Willard Supplee Yeakel, Jr. A huge thank-you to him for those and for pointing me to his ancestor in the first place; I would otherwise have passed him over.

A Methodist Episcopal minister’s son, 18 year old Charles Frederick Weller mustered into the newly forming 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry at Carlisle on 22 August 1862, and was issued his horse and a carbine in the field on 16 September 1862 – the day before the battle of Antietam.

He wrote quite a bit about his experiences through the war, in a journal (1862-64) and in frequent letters to his sweetheart Katherine Ann McElwain back in Beaver, PA. Here’s his description of meeting a couple of Confederate soldiers while carrying messages for General McClellan on the Boonsboro Pike near Sharpsburg, MD on 18 September 1862:

On the way I had the honor of [confronting?] two rebels. I came upon them unawares while turning a bend in the road. I thought I would either take them or they me. So I presented my revolver and ordered them to throw down their arms. One of them immediately threw down a pistol and the other a musket – which was not loaded. These I found were all they had. I dismounted, took the musket and pistol, fastened them on my saddle, searched the men, and then marched them before me with a certain feeling quite proud of my conquest.

He married Katherine right after the war and had a long and successful career in the wholesale drug business in Illinois and Nebraska. Here he is in about 1904, then age 60.

His wartime photograph at the top is from a collection at the Onondaga County Public Library, which includes that war journal and 50 letters to his future wife Katherine. The whole collection is online from New York Heritage.

The later photograph is from “Nebraskans” 1854-1904, a book published by the Omaha Bee in 1904. It’s online from the Internet Archive. The photo is labeled 1887, but that’s the year Weller joined the new Omaha branch of the Richardson Drug Company as Vice President and Manager. The photograph was probably taken closer to the date of the publication, judging by his apparent age in it.

2 days after his 20th birthday, on 17 September 1862, Natick shoemaker Daniel Eldridge Reed was mortally wounded at Antietam. He died there the next day.

Here he is in a photograph probably taken soon after he enlisted in 1861, shared to the Historical Data Systems database by Raymond C. Peavey.

Near the end of his long life, Sharpsburg survivor William Samuel Agnew, late Lieutenant of the 19th Mississippi Infantry, attended the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) reunion at Jacksonville, FL in May 1914. Here he is – mostly beard and hat – on that occasion.

This picture was shared to the FamilySearch database by Jimmy Freeman in 2021. See more about the Jacksonville reunion, including film footage, from the Florida Historical Society.

This is John Kirkpatrick, who enlisted in the 45th Pennsylvania Infantry in October 1861, probably 16 or 17 years old, and was mortally wounded at Antietam not quite one year later. Thanks to descendant Barry van Brunt for sending me this superb photograph.