behind AotW

David Brainard Murray enlisted in the 35th Massachusetts Infantry in August 1862 and was wounded at Antietam a month after he mustered into service. He was at hospitals until November 1862 then discharged … not for his wound, but for “incipient phthisis” – early-stage tuberculosis or similar progressive lung disease.

His Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability (thanks his Compiled Service Record file at the National Archives) contains a wealth of information about him, and is the source of the detail about his discharge – without it I would have assumed he was discharged due to wounds.

Murray enlisted again, briefly, in 1864 and survived to have a long life as a clergyman in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.