behind AotW

19 year old Ashbel F Hill was a Sergeant in Company D, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry at Antietam in September 1862. He was shot in his left thigh in the combat in Miler’s famous cornfield there and lost his leg to amputation. He published a memoir of his war experiences in 1864, including of Antietam …

Lieutenant Moth having been wounded, and assisted from the field by Sergeant Anawalt, and Lieutenant Cue having remained at Keedysville sick, I suddenly, for the first time, found myself in command of Company “D” and in battle, too. I saw, however, that our boys did not stand in need of much commanding just then …

I had fired a dozen rounds at the rebel flag, when I suddenly became conscious of a most singular and unpleasant feeling in my left leg. I was in the act of ramming down a ball at the time, and I would have finished, but my left foot, of its own accord, raised from the ground, a benumbing sensation ran through my leg, and I felt the hot blood streaming down my thigh. The truth flashed upon me – I was wounded. I could not yet tell where the ball had struck me, but on looking down I perceived, by a small round hole in my pantaloons, that I was shot in the thigh about three inches below the hip-joint …

He was discharged in December 1862 and afterward made his living as an author and newspaper editor, but he died young, at age 34, of sudden illness in 1876. He’s seen here with his wife Mary Jane Harris, probably in San Fransisco in 1873. Overlaying that photograph is one from before the war. Both photographs were contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Scot Novak.