behind AotW

Horace Ripley enlisted at age 19 in 1861 in the 7th Wisconsin Infantry and was detailed to Battery B of the 4th US Artillery less than a week before the battle of Antietam, on 12 September 1862. He learned his new job under fire on the 17th, from Sun Prairie, WI neighbor Elbridge E Packard of the 2nd Wisconsin, an “old hand” who’d been with the battery since November 1861.

The clip at the top is from a local history called Nevada and Vernon County’s Heritage (2005), shared online by Lois Ripley Chavez. His portrait photograph – probably also taken about 1938 – was contributed to the FamilySearch database by Betsy Jill Chesire.