behind AotW

This is John J Creech, late 3rd Lieutenant of Company H, 17th South Carolina Infantry, a veteran of the Maryland Campaign of 1862. He was one of 6 brothers with War service, and all of them survived it.

Starling Jeter Creech (1827-1912) – Corporal, Co. B, 2nd SC Reserve Infantry; Private, Battery G, 2nd South Carolina Light Artillery
John Jackson “Jack” Creech (1832-1883) – 3rd Lieutenant, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry
George William “Billy” Creech (1836-1909) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry
Richard C Creech (1837-1913) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry; Private, Battery G, 2nd South Carolina Light Artillery
James Stafford “Jimmy” Creech (1838-1926) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry
Lewis Barnwell Creech (1843-1919) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry

Thanks to descendant Larry Hutto for the pointer to the Creech family and for John’s photograph.

26 year old Corporal John Yates was killed at Antietam on 17 September 1862. This (slightly damaged) photograph was probably taken in the Spring of 1861 soon after he enlisted in the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry in Racine.

I found this copy in a goldmine of a book called Racine County Militant: An Illustrated Narrative of War Times, and a Soldiers’ Roster (1915). It’s online from the Internet Archives (and others) and includes some 200 mostly war-era portrait photographs of Racine soldiers, most far nicer than this one of Corporal Yates. I’ll be going back to it again in the future.

Thanks to John Banks for starting me down the path to this photograph and to Shannon Cheney and Gina Radandt at the Kenosha Civil War Museum for sharing a version of this photo from their collection that led to Racine Militant.

Private Jasper Stanford Harris of the 16th Connecticut Infantry survived combat at Antietam in 1862 and imprisonment at Andersonville in 1864 and went on to have a long, ordinary, and one hopes peaceful life. He lived 87 years and was still working his small home farm and painting the neighbor’s houses at 77 in 1920.

Here he is in a photograph probably taken shortly after he enlisted in the 16th Connecticut Infantry in late July 1862. It was contributed to his Find-a-grave memorial by Micki Dischinger.