behind AotW

Corporal Addison A. Townsend of Company I, 3rd Wisconsin Infantry was wounded at Antietam in September 1862 and discharged as disabled for further military service in April 1863.

Here he is in about 1883 in a lovely photograph cared for by his great-great-granddaughter Nancy Faulkner Brooke and sent to us by Tony Townsend.

You’ll notice the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) pin on his tie – in 1883 he was a founding member of the Union G.A.R. Post 96 in Shullsburg, WI (later renamed for their first commander Thomas H. Oates). He was the last surviving member of the post at his death at age 87 in 1926.