Category: biography
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Captain W.R. Smedberg and family
Captain William Renwick Smedberg was in command of Company F, First Battalion, 14th United States Infantry in combat at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was seriously wounded in the Wilderness in 1864 and lost his right foot to amputation, but survived the war and served another 5 years in the US Army afterward. Here…
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Drs. Katherine Francis Beatty and George T. Cook
George Tottingham Cook was seriously wounded at Antietam in September 1862 while First Sergeant of Company C, 21st New York Infantry, and was 2nd Lieutenant of his Company at muster-out in May 1863. His wound troubled him for the rest of his life. Disabled for the field but still eager to serve, he was a…
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Battery B, 4th US Artillery in July 1860
In 1860, the companies [of the 4th United States Artillery] in Utah were kept busy protecting the parties of emigrants going West, and keeping open the mail routes. Light Battery B, operating as cavalry, marched during that summer 2000 miles over a barren and desert country, and though the Indians were continually hostile, the roads…
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Old Man Guest
Benjamin Franklin Guest was at least 55 years old when he was killed in the battle at Sharpsburg in September 1862; a Private in Company F, 53rd Georgia Infantry. His is indeed a hard-luck story. Family history, supported by the US Census, says he lost his Madison County, GA farm and his family due to…
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Fighting them twice at Sharpsburg
Private William F. Ford of the Tom Green Rifles, Company B, 4th Texas Infantry had an extraordinary war. At Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 he and his regiment were part of Hood’s Division’s devastating charge into Miller’s cornfield early that morning. But that wasn’t enough for Ford. … after the Brigade was relieved about 10…
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Killed by guerillas
I found a couple of excellent accounts which nicely bracket the military career of Captain Samuel A. McKee, 2nd United States Infantry. They are too good not to share and I hope both of my readers will appreciate them …
