behind AotW

This fabulous photograph is from Jeff Radcliffe who took it about a week ago at Arlington National Cemetery. Pictured is the original 1864 grave marker for Antietam veteran Michael Byrns, a Private in Company A, 63rd New York Infantry. It’s slowly being swallowed by that massive tree.

Jeff tells me he made the photo with a Hasselblad SWC using Ilford HP5 black & white film, scanned at 1200 dpi. I’ve reduced it somewhat for the web. Touch the image to see it larger.

Elliott Jones was a Private in Company H, 31st Virginia Infantry when he was wounded, probably in action in the West Woods [map] near Sharpsburg, MD on 17 September 1862. His photograph (ambrotype?) was contributed to his Find-a-grave memorial by Jordan Carnes.

Andrew Streigel was a Sergeant with the 27th Indiana Infantry when was shot through the chest while bearing the national colors during the battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862. He survived that and two other wounds during the war to return to a farm near Jasper, IN. The clipping above is from the Jasper Weekly Courier of 7 April 1893, online from newspapers.com.

Here’s a photograph of the flag he carried at Antietam, restored in 2008 and on display at the Dubois County Museum in Jasper. Thanks to Michelle Striegel-Rice Snelling for that picture and the poke to look more closely at her great great grandfather.

This is Marcus Morton Parmenter, who enlisted as a Private in the First Company, Massachusetts Sharpshooters in March 1862. He was killed – possibly by “friendly fire” – at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

Thanks to Ralph Parmenter Bennett for the photograph, from one in the Shirley Massachusetts Historical Society.

Suzanne Farrar very kindly sent me these images of Mary Meggison (1830-1881) and John P. Chappell. They were married in Chambers County, AL in 1850 and were farming there by 1860. They had 6 children by 1861.

John was reported missing and presumed killed in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 while serving as a Private in the 14th Alabama Infantry.

Author and blogger Mike Brasher kindly provided this excellent photo of Private George Washington Bynum, who was with the 2nd Mississippi Infantry at Boonsboro and Sharpsburg, MD in 1862. We was later an officer of Mississippi Cavalry and survived the war to farm in Alcorn, MS and serve as Mayor of Corinth from 1896-98. The original of this photograph is owned by Mark W. Blackburn.

5 days after his 31st birthday – on 17 September 1862 – First Lieutenant William Horton of Company I, 16th Connecticut Infantry, from Stafford, CT, was killed at Antietam. This fine photograph of him is courtesy of descendant Laurie Mack, and was forwarded to me by John Banks.

Here are John Nimrod Ferguson, his wife Martha Rebecca Weldon, and the first 5 of their 15 (!) children, in about 1870.

Ferguson had enlisted in July 1861 and was elected 2nd Lieutenant of Company C of the 13th Georgia Infantry in September 1862. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on the field and wounded at Sharpsburg on the 17th and survived another wound, at Monocacy in 1864, to return home to Griffin, GA.

In 1870 he took his family to Union Parish, LA and farmed there. In the 1880s he was elected Constable and was murdered while on Parish business in December 1887.

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The photograph above was contributed to Martha Rebecca Weldon Ferguson’s memorial on Find-a-grave by Kenneth Pace.

Private James W Lent was about 20 years old when he was wounded at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He continued in service with the 7th Maine and later the First Maine Veteran Infantry to muster-out in June 1865.

I’ve found very little more about him, but this news clip from the Portland Daily Press of 30 March 1886 [online from the Digital Maine Repository] hints at his post-war story:

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My transcription

Emma J Lent of Manchester [ME], has commenced an action against a rumseller of that town to recover $2000 for selling liquor to her husband.

This photograph of Thomas Pearson, mortally wounded at Antietam, comes from the amazing collection of Civil War Biographies compiled by volunteers on behalf of the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.