behind AotW

Retired miller James Basset, late Private, Company F, 5th Alabama Infantry responded to the 1921 Alabama Census of Confederate Veterans in the following questionnaire, full of excellent personal details (touch images to enlarge).

He had been twice captured during the War, at Turner’s Gap in September 1862 and Gettysburg in July 1863, but survived unwounded to surrender in 1865.

I found these documents online thanks to the FamilySearch page for the Collection [free account may be required].

Here’s Captain John Kies‘ face, courtesy of this carte-de-visite’s owners Ken Tokarz and Audrey Kies-Tokarz. Captain Kies led Company F of the 11th Connecticut Infantry at the battle of Antietam.

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.