behind AotW

Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Eugene Duryée led his regiment, the 2nd Maryland Infantry, in their attack on the Lower Bridge (Rohrbach’s, later Burnside’s) at Antietam on 17 September 1862. That was the highlight of his military career – he resigned his commission a few days later, probably to avoid the new Colonel, soon to arrive.

Here he is about 36 years later, in 1898, soon after his grandson Harvey Hoag Duryée, Jr. was born. That’s Junior in the middle, Jacob standing behind, Jacob’s mother Caroline E Allen Duryée (1820-1905), and his son Harvey Hoag Duryée (1871-1924). Sadly, little Harvey died at age 9 in 1907.

This lovely photograph was contributed to Findagrave by Kent Duryee. Thanks to Kent, also, for catching my error with Junior’s first name and for helping date the photograph:

Harvey Jr. was born on December 3, 1897, and he looks much older than one month, so the picture had to have been taken in 1898. Also, Jacob and his son Harvey and their families moved from New York to Los Angeles in late 1898. Caroline, Jacob’s mother who is in the picture on the left, remained in New York.

Hiram Durkee, a 21 year old farmer from Lorain County, OH was killed in the battle at Fox’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. He was a Private in Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes’ 23rd Ohio Infantry.

This image of him is from a copy of an ambrotype he had taken at Judd C. Potter’s gallery in Elyria, OH just before he enlisted in May 1861. This copy, made by the family in 1863, was passed down through the generations and was kindly supplied by R.C. Durkee.

As I’ve done on my last several trips to the battlefield, I stopped to visit a few stones in Antietam National Cemetery this past week. Starting at the “back” – the south wall of the cemetery – I noticed particularly the rows of markers for the many unknown soldier buried there …

Dr. James Alfred Long returned to the practice of medicine in La Grange, GA after the war. He’d been at least briefly in command of his regiment, the 13th Georgia Infantry, at Sharpsburg in September 1862 while Captain of Company K.

This clip is from the front page of the La Grange Reporter of 22 December 1865, which is online thanks to the Digital Library of Georgia.

Soon after returning to his company following his capture at Sharpsburg, Festus Franklin Wooten, Company H, 4th North Carolina Infantry was hit in the right hand by a minie ball in action at Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville on 3 May 1863 and was captured by Union troops. He was admitted to the US Army’s Lincoln General Hospital in Washington, DC 10 days after he was wounded. Here’s his record of treatment there:

Generally excellent record-keepers, those Federal Surgeons.

Festus returned to duty in August 1863, was captured again, at Winchester in September 1864, and spent the most of the rest of the war a prisoner. He was afterward a farmer for more than 60 years in the South River area of Iredell County, North Carolina.

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Notes

Private Wooten’s doctor in Washington was Henry Munson Dean (1836-1930) of Connecticut. He was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, NY with an MD in 1861. He was acting Assistant Surgeon, USA 1862-65, including service with US Colored Troops, then was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the First Regiment, US Veteran Volunteers. After discharge in January 1866 he married in Philadelphia, and went to Muscatine, Iowa where he practiced medicine.

Wooten’s Medical Descriptive List is from his Compiled Service Records at the US National Archives, online from fold3. Vul. Sclop. or V.S. – vulnus sclopetarium (archaic): pseudo-latin for gunshot wound.

The clipping above is from the Statesville (NC) Landmark of 26 March 1928, from newspapers.com.

Among these faces of his regiment, the 4th North Carolina Infantry, is that of Private Henry Clontz Severs, Company K. He was noticed by his Captain for his bravery, and he assisted wounded General G B Anderson from the field at Sharpsburg before being captured there.

He survived the war and was a successful merchant and real estate investor in the part of Charlotte, NC still known today as Seversville. He was killed in a train accident at Salisbury, NC in November 1915 on the way to the University of Virginia-North Carolina football game set for the next day in Richmond, VA. He was 73.

The page above is from Walter Clark’s Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War, 1861-1865 (Vol. 1, 1901).

Private Redding Louis Leggett of the 4th North Carolina Infantry survived being captured at Sharpsburg in September 1862 but was killed at Spotsylvania, VA in May 1864.

65 years later, thanks to this application by Mrs. C.R. Andrews, the US War Department provided a fine new headstone for him in the Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery.

Roberta K “Bertie” Harris Andrews (1868-1951, obit) had chaired the committee of the Ladies Memorial Association of Spotsylvania [see a historic marker about them] which helped fund a monument to Confederate soldiers in the cemetery, erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 1913.

In 1951 she was buried with her ‘boys’ in Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery.

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October 2022: I’ve just come upon another of Mrs Andrews’ boys. This application is for James J Paul of the 13th Georgia, another Sharpsburg veteran killed at Spotsylvania. You’ll note she wrote it the same day as the one for Sergeant Leggett.

Here’s the back of that application form, FYI:

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Notes

These applications are from United States Headstone Applications for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1949; NARA microfilm publication M1916; Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. They are online and searchable in the FamilySearch database.

The photograph of Leggett’s stone is by Big French, who shared it on Find-a-grave.

Here are the Ellers in about 1890 in a photograph probably taken near their home in Hurricane Township, Fayette County, Illinois. Nelson Alexander Eller was a Private in Company K, 4th North Carolina Infantry when he was captured in the battle at Sharpsburg, MD on 17 September 1862.

He survived a gunshot and two additional stints as a prisoner of war and sometime later went to Montgomery County, IL where he married Nancy Caroline McLain in December 1875. Their 5 children are all here.

Thanks to great-grandson Scott Leas for sharing this picture to the FamilySearch database.

Private William Jasper Dillon, Company H, 4th North Carolina Infantry had just turned 17 when he was captured at Sharpsburg in September 1862. He was badly wounded at Cold Harbor in May 1864 but survived the war, and he’s seen here at about age 35 in a photograph shared by Jan Dillon to the Family Search database.

William Crawford Smith was a Private in Company B of the 12 Virginia Infantry and was wounded at Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862, and captured nearby. He was Color Sergeant of the regiment by late 1863 and was wounded again, in the Wilderness, VA in 1864, but survived to be surrendered at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.

After the War he was a builder and architect in Nashville, TN. His most visible legacy is the re-created Parthenon in Nashville. It’s quite a sight.

[2011 photo by the author]