behind AotW

While looking into Private David Brinson (previous blog post) of the 13th Georgia Infantry, or more specifically, his wife Martha, I bumped back into her older brother James Dunbar Van Valkenburgh.

Captain Van Valkenburgh was briefly in command of his regiment, the 61st Georgia Infantry at Sharpsburg before being wounded in combat there. He was promoted to Major on the field at Gettysburg in July 1863 and was Lieutenant Colonel when he was killed on the Monocacy in July 1864.

Here are James, wearing very large Major’s stars, and his wife Mary E. K. Morgan. She was about 16 year old when they married in 1852 – this picture of her may have been taken about that time.

Both photographs are in the collection of The Cannonball House in Macon, GA, and were published in the Howling Dawg (August 2018) – the newsletter of the reenactors of the 16th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company G.