behind AotW

19 year old Private William A Cavitt was with his Company – “A”, of the 4th Texas Infantry – in combat at Fox’s Gap on South Mountain and at Sharpsburg, Maryland in September 1862.

Here he is in a photograph taken with his wife Elizabeth “Lizzie” Powell (b. 1849), probably on the occasion of their marriage in June 1868 in Bexar County, Texas. He’s 25 and she’s 19.

Here he is again, with, I think, his father William Canada Cavitt (1819-1873), probably shortly after the war.

If you look closely (click picture to enlarge) you’ll see he doesn’t have a right foot, and there’s a kind of a peg strapped to his leg. He lost part of his right leg to amputation after he was wounded at Chickamauga, Georgia in September 1863. Looking back at the portrait with his wife, also, it looks like his right leg ends at his knee …

Both photographs were shared to Ancestry.com by William Lemke.