behind AotW

This excellent CDV of Theodore Burr Gates is from the collection of descendant Piera Weiss who kindly provided us a scanned copy.

Then their Lieutenant Colonel, Gates commanded his regiment in battle on South Mountain on 14 September and at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was promoted to Colonel soon afterward, and was brevetted Brigadier General of Volunteers in March 1865.

He returned to his law practice after his term expired in late 1864, but also continued in state service and was commissioned Major General in the New York Militia in 1867.

Corporal Addison A. Townsend of Company I, 3rd Wisconsin Infantry was wounded at Antietam in September 1862 and discharged as disabled for further military service in April 1863.

Here he is in about 1883 in a lovely photograph cared for by his great-great-granddaughter Nancy Faulkner Brooke and sent to us by Tony Townsend.

You’ll notice the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) pin on his tie – in 1883 he was a founding member of the Union G.A.R. Post 96 in Shullsburg, WI (later renamed for their first commander Thomas H. Oates). He was the last surviving member of the post at his death at age 87 in 1926.

Private Michael Ball of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry may have been as young as 16 years old on the Maryland Campaign of 1862 and was probably wounded twice there, on South Mountain on 14 September and at Antietam three days later. By the end of 1862 he was back home with his parents, and afterward had a long career farming in St. Croix County, WI.

This excellent post-war likeness was sent by great-great grandson Ryan R Ball.