behind AotW

I came upon this photograph while looking into men of Colonel Evander McIver Law‘s brigade staff at Sharpsburg in September 1862: it’s in the collection of the Valentine Museum in Richmond, VA and originally titled Common Soldiers from Charles City, possibly a reference to where the photograph was taken in Charles City County, VA southeast of Richmond.

Perhaps obviously, that’s by-then Brigadier General Law in the front, center.

Thanks to Ron Coddington and others, I think we have the identities of the other men in the picture. Four of the five were at Sharpsburg.

First, standing at our left, is John Kolb Law, Evander’s younger brother. He was a Cadet in the Citadel when he joined his brother as a volunteer aide in the Summer of 1862. He was wounded in the ankle at Sharpsburg and, after graduation in 1863, was an Enrolling Officer to the end of the war.

Standing at the right is Mims Walker who was a Private in Company D, 4th Alabama – Colonel Law’s old unit – and was detailed as courier to Law at Gaines Mill in June 1862. He was on furlough in August and September 1862, so not at Sharpsburg, but returned afterward as a courier into 1864, when he was appointed Lieutenant and Aide-de-camp on the General’s staff.

Seated at the left is Leigh Richmond Terrell, 2nd Lieutenant of Company D, 4th Alabama Infantry, who was detailed to Colonel Law as Assistant Adjutant General in about August 1862 and was with him at Sharpsburg and afterward until 1864, when he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 47th Alabama Infantry. He was mortally wounded at Petersburg in October 1864.

Sitting to our right is Surgeon Charles Thomas Taliaferro, of the 4th Alabama Infantry. He had enlisted as a Private and was 2nd Lieutenant of Company E of the 4th Alabama at Sharpsburg. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the regiment in February 1863 and Surgeon in February 1864. Although probably never on General Law’s staff, he certainly would have been well known to him.

Ron Coddington featured the photograph in his article The Little Gamecock: The Rise of Brig. Gen. Evander McIver Law, C.S.A. in the Summer 2024 issue of Military Images magazine, and shared that piece online.

The original glass-plate negative is at the Valentine Museum and they posted the print used here online.