behind AotW

Charles Jackson, a Private in the 8th Connecticut Infantry was not quite 18 years old when he was shot through the right wrist at Antietam on 17 September 1862 and captured there at the farthest advance of the Union Ninth Corps that day, nearly to the town of Sharpsburg.

[Charles Jackson, c. 1865]

The next day his hand was amputated at the forearm, probably by a Confederate surgeon. Two days later, left behind near the battlefield when the Confederate Army retired to Virginia, he was “recaptured” and put in the care of his own Army. He was sent home in February 1863 but returned that fall and served two more years, in the Veteran Reserve Corps, to October 1865.

Which is probably when he saw an announcement like this one:

On Christmas Day 1865 he wrote the organizer of the event, the Rev. W. Oland Bourne, describing his war experience, his wounding at Antietam, and his life at that moment and enclosing a sample of his best handwriting as his entry in the contest. He was the 221st of some 270 men to enter.

He did not win any prizes, but certainly made a respectable showing.

Just 21 years old at the time of the contest, Charles went on to a long and fruitful life, and was a letter carrier in Hartford for almost 50 years.

See much more about the penmanship contest and it’s sponsor, William Oland Bourne, in an exhaustive exhibit at the Library of Congress, source of the photograph and documents here; transcriptions below.

At least 13 other amputee survivors of the Maryland Campaign of 1862 also entered the 1865-66 contest (Series 1) or the one that followed in 1867 (Series 2); viz:

Capt. Charles A. Edmonds, Co. H, 7th Michigan Infantry, South Mountain, MD (9/14/1862); Ser. 1, #51 …

The Antietam on the Web database is now up to 22,000 individuals.

The entry getting us to that number is for the man under this impressive stone in Colchester, CT: Henry A Ransom, late Corporal, 8th Connecticut Infantry. He was seriously wounded in the knee at Antietam in September 1862 and troubled by it for the remaining 20 years of his life.

[photo by the late Frank Grimes for Find-a-grave]

Onward!

The Reverend Jacob Eaton was a Congregational minister in Meriden, CT before the war and enlisted in the 8th Connecticut Infantry as a Private soldier in September 1861. He was appointed First Lieutenant in February 1862 – and probably sat for this photograph soon after.

He was wounded in the leg at Antietam in September 1862 and resigned his commission in October, but returned to the field as the Chaplain of the 7th Connecticut Infantry in 1864. He died of disease in Wilmington, NC in March 1865.

This fine photograph is in the collection of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in Hartford.