behind AotW

Son of a prosperous planter, John N Henderson was 18 years old in July 1861 when he enlisted as a Private in Company E of the 5th Texas Infantry in Washington, TX. He was not yet 20 when he was shot in the left arm in combat at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He lost his arm above the elbow to amputation and was sent home, disabled for further field service.

In October 1864 Brigadier General J.B. Robertson, commanding state reserve troops in Texas, appointed John to his staff as a Captain and Aide-de-Camp; the uniform he’s wearing above.

After the war Henderson was a successful lawyer, district attorney, state senator, and judge in Texas. Here he is in about 1868 with his first wife, the former Hester Hubert:

Both of these excellent photographs [top, below] are online in the Tennessee Virtual Archives collection. There are at least two more photos of John in that collection: one taken at about the time he enlisted in 1861 and one dating from about 1894, when he was appointed a judge on the Texas Court of Appeals in Austin.

Three McClure brothers of White County, Georgia, who served together in Company K of the 24th Georgia Infantry during the war:

James Samuel (1828-1907), at left, may have been with his company in Maryland in September 1862, but departed, sick with typhoid, in October, and spent much of the rest of the war in hospitals.

Thomas Henry (1840-1900), at the right, was probably at Sharpsburg, and was captured at Gettysburg in July 1863 and a prisoner to the end of the war.

In the middle is the youngest, Samuel D McClure (1842-1862), who was 3rd Sergeant of the company when he was killed at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

This lovely photograph was contributed to Samuel’s Findagrave memorial by relatives in the Taylor family.

Some references suggest that the 4th McClure brother, Robert (1832-1923), also served in Company K, but he is not found in the Compiled Service Records for the unit or in Henderson’s Roster.

From the Indianapolis Daily State Sentinel of 27 September 1862, a copy of Colonel William Harrow’s Antietam after-action report and lists of casualties in the battle for his 14th and the 27th Indiana Infantry regiments.

touch for the full text and lists

See the Antietam on the Web pages for the 14th Indiana and 27th Indiana Infantry regiments for links to bio sketches for each of the men on those lists. Be warned, though, that the paper did a very poor job spelling most of their names.

The newspaper was kindly shared online by the Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana’s Digital Historic Newspaper Program from a copy in the library of Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis.