behind AotW

Captain William Renwick Smedberg was in command of Company F, First Battalion, 14th United States Infantry in combat at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was seriously wounded in the Wilderness in 1864 and lost his right foot to amputation, but survived the war and served another 5 years in the US Army afterward.

Here are William (standing) and his younger brother Charles Gustavus Smedberg, Jr. (1841-1863), probably photographed in 1861. Charles in the uniform of the 7th New York State Militia, William as a Private in the National Rifles of Washington, DC, before either was commissioned in the Regular Army.

William Renwick and Charles Gustavus Smedberg were the youngest of the 11 children of wealthy New York import-export merchant Charles Gustavus Smedberg (Sweden 1781-1845) and his wife Isabella Renwick (1797-1867). Charles and Isabella are seen here in a pair of 1815 miniature watercolors, probably commissioned on the occasion of their wedding, now at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

This fine photograph, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, was made from an original Brady glass plate negative in the Frederick Hill Meserve Collection. It’s especially interesting to me because it pictures General Sedwick still recovering from his Antietam wounds – note the bandage visible on his hand and wrist.

For a particularly nice discussion about this picture, see a 2012 post by Ron Coddington on his Faces of War.

Like so many soldiers of the American Civil War, County Tyrone native Robert J. Robinson died, not from combat, but from disease. He succumbed to “congestive fever” at an Army field hospital at Sharpsburg, MD on 7 October 1862 and was originally buried on the field there.

His remains were moved to the new Antietam National Cemetery in about 1867, though misidentified as Robbins rather than Robinson, as seen on this page from the cemetery History (touch to enlarge).

Perhaps doubly sad, at his death Robinson was a veteran of about 7 years Army service but had not yet reached his 20th birthday. He first enlisted as a Musician in the 6th United States Infantry in New York City in November 1855 at age 12 and reenlisted at Fort Yuma, CA in October 1860.

Update 26 April 2023: I visited Robinson’s gravesite last Friday, and got a picture of his stone. It’s somewhat worn now, but looks to have him as R.I. Robinson.

The page image above is from the Antietam National Cemetery, Board of Trustees, History of Antietam National Cemetery (Baltimore: John W. Woods, Steam Printer, 1869) from an excellent online exhibit from Western Maryland’s Historical Library (WHILBR).