behind AotW

2 days after his 20th birthday, on 17 September 1862, Natick shoemaker Daniel Eldridge Reed was mortally wounded at Antietam. He died there the next day.

Here he is in a photograph probably taken soon after he enlisted in 1861, shared to the Historical Data Systems database by Raymond C. Peavey.

Near the end of his long life, Sharpsburg survivor William Samuel Agnew, late Lieutenant of the 19th Mississippi Infantry, attended the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) reunion at Jacksonville, FL in May 1914. Here he is – mostly beard and hat – on that occasion.

This picture was shared to the FamilySearch database by Jimmy Freeman in 2021. See more about the Jacksonville reunion, including film footage, from the Florida Historical Society.

This is John Kirkpatrick, who enlisted in the 45th Pennsylvania Infantry in October 1861, probably 16 or 17 years old, and was mortally wounded at Antietam not quite one year later. Thanks to descendant Barry van Brunt for sending me this superb photograph.