behind AotW

Appended to Colonel Cake’s official report as printed on page 2 of the Pottsville (PA) Miner’s Journal of Saturday, 4 October 1862, is his list of the men of his 96th Pennsylvania Infantry who were killed or wounded in the fight at Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. It’s not found in the Official Records in company with the Colonel’s report.

(touch to enlarge)

My transcription of the text and links to the individual soldiers’ pages on AotW, after the jump …

A 34 year old clerk from Philadelphia, Morrison Woodward was Sergeant Major of the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves when they fought in the Maryland Campaign of September 1862.

He wrote of his experiences there in his 1865 regimental history, describing the scene at Turner’s Gap on the 14th and the terrible fighting on the evening of the 16th and morning of the 17th at Antietam. He also included this almost comic incident:

When we broke and were driven across the field, a chicken was scared up, which displayed equal alacrity with the men in its flight to the rear, and a most animated race for life or death took place between them, but the Sergeant-major seizing a favorable opportunity threw himself upon the ground and captured the prize, which furnished a most sumptuous repast.

He was appointed First Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant after the battle and (much) later was award the Medal of Honor for his work in capturing enemy troops and their flag at Fredericksburg that December.

Morrison’s father James Searles Woodward (November 1790-October 1862) was a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia. Just for fun, here’s his c.1820 portrait as a young man, now in the Naomi Wood Collection, hanging in the dining room of the Woodford Mansion, Philadelphia.

Evan Morrison Woodward’s photograph, which looks to have been hand-retouched, was sold by the Union Drummer Boy in Gettysburg.

Woodward’s history of the 2nd Reserves – Our Campaigns or, The Marches, Bivouacs, Battles, Incidents of Camp Life and History of our Regiment during its Three Years Term of Service – is online from the Internet Archive.

Colonel H.L. Cake of the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry, in reporting his regiment’s part in the combat at Crampton’s Gap on 14 September 1862, included this detail:

It was a most exhausting charge. By the time we had ascended half way the cannon had ceased firing on our left, and the enemy seldom replied to our fire with their muskets. We made captures at every step. After passing the crest of the mountain a lieutenant [which?] of the Fifteenth North Carolina delivered himself up, I sent during the charge, 42 prisoners to the rear, including the captain of Company G, Sixteenth Georgia, wounded, and other officers and men most of them unhurt.

That Georgia Captain was Augustus C Thompson, of Jackson County, who had been shot in the left thigh before he was captured. He survived, but was disabled for further service and went home.

This superb photograph of him was donated to the Library of Congress by Tom Liljenquist in 2012. I’d guess it was taken as he first entered service in July 1861.

While looking further into Captain Thompson today I found that picture of his wife, Mary Arline Randolph, shared to the Mormon genealogical database by Julie Kinkaid in 2022. I do not know when it was taken, but she looks very young – in her twenties, perhaps? She was 17 when she married 22 year old Augustus in 1850.

They had a daughter, Nancy, and both lived into their 70s, for the last 20 years in Lakeland, FL, where Augustus ran the county poor house. Mary Arline only outlived him by about 8 months.