behind AotW

21 year old Richard K Fox from Philadelphia enlisted as 2nd Sergeant of Company K of the 2nd Delaware Infantry in September 1861 and was First Sergeant a year later when he was probably killed at Antietam.

I say ‘probably’ because he was reported missing there and never heard from again. This document from his Compiled Service Records actually has nothing to do with his being a prisoner of war, he wasn’t, but seems to have been a convenient form for a War Department clerk to use.

It shows the result of an audit of his records done by the Army Adjutant General’s Office in May 1889, possibly in an effort to finally determine his fate. All they could say was No record subsequent to Sept 17 1862.

This in contrast to the case of the other Richard Fox in my database. He was a Private in Company H of the 4th Texas Infantry, and several prominent authorities thought him killed at Sharpsburg. He wasn’t. He was sent to the rear, sick, on 16 September 1862 and was in Richmond hospitals and on furlough in Texas to at least November 1863. Here’s a government form from his CSRs:

He may not have survived the war, but he didn’t die in September 1862.