behind AotW

Private William E. Cree of Company C, 5th Alabama Infantry was about 18 years old when he fought at Turner’s Gap on 14 September 1862 and was captured there.

He was taken again at Gettysburg in July 1863 and died of the effects of scurvy in a Richmond hospital in October 1864, just two weeks after being released for exchange from the Federal prison at Point Lookout, MD.

The assistant surgeon-in-charge, Dr Bartlett Anderson Curtis (1825-1866; Jefferson Medical College ’53), signed this form listing the only item of military clothing Private Cree possessed at his death: a blanket, valued at $6.00.

This Inventory and Appraisement of the Military Clothing of Private Cree is from his Compiled Service Records file at the National Archives; my copy from fold3 online.

Captain Antoine Leopold Gusman commanded Company A of the 8th Louisiana Infantry in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

Captain Gusman was captured in November 1863 and was held at Johnson’s Island for the rest of the war. He remained a prisoner much longer than most Confederate POWs, though – to November 1865 – because he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Here’s the card from his Compiled Service Records describing that situation:

His photograph was shared to Ancestry.com by user Lancieux1962 in 2017. His CSR card is in the National Archives; I got my copy online from fold3.

Maryland Campaign veteran Christian Benjamin Deishler is probably among men of his company – “K” of the 5th Alabama Infantry – in this photograph taken sometime after 1900 at a unit reunion. Touch for a larger version.

Then-Corporal Deishler was wounded in action near Turner’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862 but survived the war and farmed for many years afterward in Texas.

Here he is in a 1901 picture with his wife Sarah Ann Doyle (1851-1943).

Both photos were posted to Ancestry.com by Christopher Eugene Holley in April 2022.