behind AotW

A bricklayer from Norristown, Private Levi Bolton, Company A, 51st Pennsylvania Infantry was wounded in combat at Antietam in September 1862 and again at Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864, but he survived both wounds and the war.

There is a story that he was on guard duty at Annapolis in 1862 and challenged General Burnside, who could not remember the password. Bolton was escorting the General to the guardhouse “under arrest” when Burnside remembered it.

In 1902 he was still living in the house in Norristown in which he was born. His photograph was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Charles McDonald.