behind AotW

32 year old Private Frederick Julius Watts of Company G, First Texas Infantry was seriously wounded in his right arm at Sharpsburg in September 1862 and captured. His arm was amputated and he was sent home to his farm in Anderson County, but he died there of tuberculosis not quite ten years after he lost his arm, at age 41, in April 1872.

The photograph of his gravesite was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Deb Vondrasek.

Private Canada Sevier Bolton of the First Texas Infantry was wounded by a gunshot through both thighs and capture in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He was treated in Frederick, MD into November, then exchanged and sent home. He was listed as absent on wounded furlough on all subsequent muster rolls.

He made it home and was a farmer in Jacksonville, Cherokee County, Texas. Canada Street in Jacksonville, TX is named for him. The veteran’s reunion photograph above is from County Historical Commission’s Cherokee County History (1986).

Anderson County, Texas farmer and lawyer Elbert Sevier “Hugh” Jemison married Louisa Anne McElderry in their hometown of Talladega, Alabama in October 1858. He was 23, she was 16. Here’s a stunning photograph of the newlyweds, online from user Brian on Flickr.

Jemison was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company G, First Texas Infantry in June 1861. He was wounded at Gaines’ Mill, VA in June 1862 and at Sharpsburg in September, and promoted to Captain in August 1863. He was detailed on recruiting duty in the Trans-Mississippi Department in the Spring of 1864 and resigned his commission on 9 August 1864, but may have had later service in the Texas Reserves.

He was a cotton broker in the 1870s and 80s and President of the Houston, East & West Texas Railway (HE&WTR) Company, later part of the Southern Pacific, in the 1890s.

June is update-the-men-of-the-Texas-Brigade-month here at Antietam on the Web. Lots of interesting people so far. If you don’t already follow me on Twitter, you might check the tweet-stream for some who stand out.

Among these is a celebrity of sorts: First Sergeant Russell C. Mitchell of Company I, First Texas Infantry. He was wounded in the head at Sharpsburg and, after recovering, spent the rest of the war as nurse and ward master at a military hospital in Atlanta.

He later became one of Atlanta’s wealthiest and most prominent men, too, but he’s better known today as grandfather of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind (novel 1936, movie 1939).

She was five when he died, but said she remembered feeling the groove in his skull from the Sharpsburg bullet. A scene from the movie, below.

Captain Samuel Andrew Willson commanding Company F of the First Texas Infantry was seriously wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 and again at Gettysburg, and captured, in July 1863. He escaped from the Federal prison at Fort Delaware in December 1863, was appointed Major and Assistant Adjutant General, CSA, and reported to a staff job in the Trans-Mississippi Department in January 1864.

He had quite a history, admitted to the bar at age 17 and pre-war law partner with Philip A. Work, the First Texas’ Lieutenant Colonel and commander at Sharpsburg. His mother Mary Richardson “Polly” Davis Willson was a relative of CS President Jefferson Davis. Samuel returned to the law after the war and was a District Attorney and Judge in Cherokee County.

The tintype photograph with his wife Susan Elizabeth Priest and the first of their 7 or 8 children, Mary Alice (1855-1941), is online from family genealogist Shannon Smyrl, preserved by descendant Sarah Bailey Priest David.

There were 2 pairs of Perry brothers in Company E, First Texas Infantry at Sharpsburg and all 4 men were casualties there. The youngest was Howard Earle Perry, seen above, who was an 18 year old Corporal when he was killed in action on 17 September 1862.

His photograph is in the Harold Simpson collection at the Hill College History Complex, Hillsboro, TX; published in Widows by the Thousand: The Civil War Correspondence of Theophilus and Harriet Perry, 1862-1864 (2000), edited by M. Jane Johansson.

His brother Eugene Osceola Perry was a Private when he was wounded at Sharpsburg and had been detailed as Division wagonmaster when he was killed in the Wilderness, VA in May 1864. His photograph below shows him in his uniform as Cadet Captain at the Kentucky Military Institute just before the war.

Private James Nagle is the man at the far right in this photograph who appears to be washing clothing. He enlisted as a Private in Company L of the First Texas Infantry in August 1861 and was wounded at Sharpsburg in September 1862 and at Chickamauga, GA almost exactly one year later.

This group photograph was taken in camp at Dumphries, VA in the winter of 1861-62, probably by Company L Private “Tom” Blessing. Colonel Simpson identified the men in the picture as (l-r) Pvt. Charles McCarty, Pvt. Joseph Nagle, Sgt. James Joseph W. Southwick (kia Gettysburg), and Pvt. James Nagle; all Company L, 1st Texas. A copy is in the Lawrence T. Jones III collection at SMU.

Photographer Blessing is seen below, in a self portrait in his studio in Houston, TX in about 1870. It’s online from The Photography of Solomon Thomas Blessing.

Captain Isaac Newton Moreland “Ike” Turner of Company K, 5th Texas Infantry relieved Colonel Robertson in command of the regiment as next-senior officer on 14 September 1862 in Maryland. He was mortally wounded on the works at the entrance to the Nansemond River near Norfolk, VA on 14 April 1863 and died the next day.

These men are an unidentified Lieutenant and five of the seven Olivers who served in Company D of the First Texas Infantry. None, unfortunately, are William Alexander Thompson Oliver.

William was Sergeant in Company D when he was wounded and captured at Sharpsburg in September 1862. He was captured again, at Gettysburg in July 1863 when he was left behind to tend the wounded. He was a prisoner until December 1863 with no further military record, but survived the war to become a prosperous farmer in Etowah County, AL.

A physician and politician before the war, Colonel Jerome Bonaparte “Polly” Robertson led the 5th Texas Infantry into Maryland in September 1862 but collapsed from previous wounds or exhaustion at South Mountain on the 14th and was taken to the rear. He commanded Hood’s Brigade after 22 October and was appointed Brigadier General on 1 November 1862, and he was wounded again, at Gettysburg, PA in July 1863. He was court-martialed in February 1864 for “defeatism” by General Longstreet and sent West to command the Reserve Forces of Texas to the end of the war.

His photograph is from MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection at the US Army Heritage & Education Center.