behind AotW

Sergeant Johann Friederich “John” Spaeth of the First Louisiana Infantry was wounded and captured at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 and his lower leg was amputated at a field hospital the next day. He survived to return to Ohio and died relatively young, age 43, in Cincinnati in 1879.

Pictured here is a page from Dr George J Fisher’s Report of Fifty-seven Cases of Amputations … after the Battle of Antietam from the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, January 1863. It’s an excellent, if gory reference for students of the battle. “John F Spath” is #13 in Table II.