behind AotW

Joseph S Hayden of Company E, 13th Georgia Infantry survived a slight wound at Sharpsburg in 1862 but was mortally wounded and captured at Gettysburg in 1863.

Here are the two pages of notes US Surgeon Newcombe kept about Hayden’s treatment in the hospital at Camp Letterman up to his death on 30 August 1863. I found these among his Compiled Service Records, National Archives, online from fold3. Touch to enlarge.

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Dr. James Newcombe was Acting Assistant Surgeon, US Army and in charge of a ward in the General Hospital at Camp Letterman near Gettysburg, PA by August 1863 and to at least October 1863. He was probably a contract physician with the Army and may have been the James Newcombe who graduated from medical school at Victoria College, Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in 1860.

Here’s an artifact concerning Sharpsburg veteran Lieutenant John Nimrod Ferguson, 13th Georgia Infantry, while he was a prisoner at Point Lookout, MD. He’d been wounded at Monocacy Junction and captured in July 1864 on Early’s raid.

Ferguson survived the war and was Constable of Shiloh in Union Parish, LA when he was murdered in 1887 at age 49.

This telegram form is among the papers which make up his Compiled Service Records at the National Archives, and is online thanks to fold3. It is a fascinating look into a corner of the late-war prisoner exchange system. My transcription below.

United States Military Telegraph.
By Telegraph from Washington DC
Dated Sept 29 3.48 P 1864
To Brig Genl Barnes

By authority of the Secy of War you will please send by this evenings Boat to Fort Monroe First Lieut J. N. Ferguson 13th Georgia to be delivered to the senior Naval Officer at Hampton Roads for exchange.

Send him under a guard. Reply [Respectfully?]

W. Hoffman
C.G.P.

Lt. Benj F Southwick
Co. C. 5th Mass

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Notes on the document

The commanding officer at Point Lookout was Brigadier General James Barnes. He was previously Colonel of the 18th Massachusetts and commanded a Brigade in the Fifth Army Corps at Antietam.

C.G.P = Office of Commissary General of Prisoners, Washington, DC

William Hoffman (1807-1884, USMA 1828), Colonel of the 3rd US Infantry, was Commissary General of Prisoners with charge of all US prisons, prison camps, and prison hospitals. His headquarters were in Washington, DC.

Here’s a lovely c. 1865 photograph of him (standing on steps at right) at that headquarters office from the Library of Congress.

Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Southwick (1835-1906), former Sergeant in the 9-month 5th Massachusetts of 1862-63, was 2nd Lieutenant of Company C for their 100-day stint from July to November 1864. The 5th Massachusetts were on garrison duty in and around Baltimore in that period. I do not know why Lieutenant Southwick’s name appears on this document.

After the war he was a successful wholesale fruit and produce dealer in Peabody and a state legislator (1888-92).

Henry Clay Reeves of Company I, 13th Georgia Infantry survived a wound at Sharpsburg in 1862 but lost his left arm above the elbow at Spotsylvania Court House in 1864.

He married Permelia Catherine Jones in 1866 and died at age 82, two months after she did, in their 60th anniversary year.

I’d guess this photograph was taken on their 50th in 1916 or similar occasion. It was shared online to the FamilySearch database by Henry Sikes.

New-to-me is this hand-made newspaper published in April 1865 by Confederate prisoners at Fort Delaware. Apparently it was the only edition and perhaps 3 or 4 copies survive. This one is online from New York Heritage, a project of the New York Historical Society.

I came upon this while looking into Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin “Frank” Curtright, 13th Georgia. He survived wounds at Kernstown, Sharpsburg, and the Wilderness, and was a prisoner at Ft Delaware after being captured at Winchester, VA in September 1864.

You can see his contribution to the newspaper in an advertisement in the right column of page one:

This beautiful photograph is of William Wesley Covin, a Sharpsburg survivor, late of the 13th Georgia Infantry, who was born, lived, and died in Hogansville, Troup County, GA over a period of 89 years. Rob Leverett, Jr posted this picture online on the WikiTree database.

This is a copy of a retouched photograph of David McDearmond of Houston County, GA. He enlisted in the 13th Georgia Infantry at age 44 in July 1861 and was killed at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He left a widow and 5 children – his oldest, James (1843-1897), was with him and was wounded at Sharpsburg.

This copy of his photo kindly shared online by the General Lafayette McLaws Camp #79, Sons of Confederate Veterans in Fayetteville, GA.

He’s seen as Andrew David McDearmond on his modern memorial in Fayette County, GA and in some recent genealogies, but I believe that’s wrong. His name was probably just David. Andrew does not appear in any contemporary documents I’ve found; he’s referred to as David in every case. His wife called him David in her pension application, and her stone has his name as David also.

I think “Andrew” came from his listing (clipped below) in Lilian Henderson’s Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865 (Vol. II, c. 1960), a great general reference, but somewhat notorious for errors large and small.

This application is typical of the work of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in the early decades of the 20th Century. It’s for Sharpsburg survivor Henry Marcus Miller.

The original document is in the US National Archives in Washington, DC (United States Headstone Applications for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1949; NARA microfilm publication M1916); I found it online thanks to Ancestry.com.

The applicant Mrs. A.L. Bowen was Alma Jessie Miller Bowen (1886-1962), Henry’s daughter from his second marriage to Mary Agatha Jane Lee McCall in 1885. Improbably, Alma’s husband’s first name was also Alma.

James Erwin (or Ervin) Lee was Junior 2nd Lieutenant of Company H, 13th Georgia Infantry when he was wounded at Sharpsburg in September 1862. He was wounded again at Spotsylvania Court House, VA in May 1864 and retired from field service in March 1865. A skilled mechanic and carpenter, he returned to his wife Sarah and their children in Terrell County after the war.

This photograph shared to the FamilySearch database by Jessica Reedstrom.

Sharpsburg survivor James A Seaman, late of the 33rd Virginia Infantry, was described as

a student all his life, and in addition to being remarkably well read is schooled in a knowledge of men–the highest type of education.

He advanced himself from a humble 17 year old laborer before the war to prominent attorney, prosecutor, and legislator in the years after. Here he is in the Manual of the State of West Virginia for the Years 1907-1908:

Sergeant Alexander Hamilton Keyser, Company F, 33rd Virginia Infantry was wounded at Sharpsburg, probably carried his regiment’s colors at Gettysburg, and was appointed Ensign in April 1864, but was captured at Spotsylvania Court House, VA the next month and spent the rest of the war a prisoner at Fort Delaware.

Here he is, probably as a new enlistee in June 1861, in a photograph contributed to his Find-a-grave memorial by user csareb.