behind AotW

Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Eugene Duryée led his regiment, the 2nd Maryland Infantry, in their attack on the Lower Bridge (Rohrbach’s, later Burnside’s) at Antietam on 17 September 1862. That was the highlight of his military career – he resigned his commission a few days later, probably to avoid the new Colonel, soon to arrive.

Here he is about 36 years later, in 1898, soon after his grandson Harvey Hoag Duryée, Jr. was born. That’s Junior in the middle, Jacob standing behind, Jacob’s mother Caroline E Allen Duryée (1820-1905), and his son Harvey Hoag Duryée (1871-1924). Sadly, little Harvey died at age 9 in 1907.

This lovely photograph was contributed to Findagrave by Kent Duryee. Thanks to Kent, also, for catching my error with Junior’s first name and for helping date the photograph:

Harvey Jr. was born on December 3, 1897, and he looks much older than one month, so the picture had to have been taken in 1898. Also, Jacob and his son Harvey and their families moved from New York to Los Angeles in late 1898. Caroline, Jacob’s mother who is in the picture on the left, remained in New York.

Hiram Durkee, a 21 year old farmer from Lorain County, OH was killed in the battle at Fox’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. He was a Private in Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes’ 23rd Ohio Infantry.

This image of him is from a copy of an ambrotype he had taken at Judd C. Potter’s gallery in Elyria, OH just before he enlisted in May 1861. This copy, made by the family in 1863, was passed down through the generations and was kindly supplied by R.C. Durkee.

As I’ve done on my last several trips to the battlefield, I stopped to visit a few stones in Antietam National Cemetery this past week. Starting at the “back” – the south wall of the cemetery – I noticed particularly the rows of markers for the many unknown soldier buried there …