behind AotW

Charles Urquhart Williams was a staff officer to Brigadier General David R Jones at Sharpsburg in 1862 and after Jones’ death in January 1863 was with Brigadier General Montgomery D Corse. He was captured near Petersburg in mid-1864 and was a prisoner to the end of the war.

He was afterward a prominent lawyer in Richmond, VA, where this photograph was probably taken, possibly on the occasion of his service in the Virginia Legislature (1875-77). Thanks to g-g-g-grandson Jerrold Johnson for sending me this copy.

Private James Burke of Company D, 27th Indiana Infantry was wounded at Antietam on 17 September 1862. Here he is perhaps 25 years later, about the time he began receiving a government pension for his war service.

Thanks to Polly Kaczmarek for this photograph. She got it from her grandmother, who was James’ granddaughter.

Polly notes the similarity with the photocopy, below, of a picture found in his pension file in Washington, DC. In it, as she says, he’s “shirtless and scrawny,” at least in part due to his wartime experiences.

Willard Dean Tripp had early war service as a Corporal in the 4th Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, a 3-month unit, then helped form a new company and was commissioned their Captain in December 1861. They became Company F of the 29th Massachusetts Infantry, part of the famous Irish Brigade at Antietam. He led them for 3 years and was briefly the regiment’s Lieutenant Colonel near the end of his term in December 1864.

The fine photograph above is among the holdings of the US Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) in Carlisle, PA.

The USAHEC has another picture of him, this one taken later in the war; he looks to have aged a bit. It’s from a page in Volume 117 of the MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection.