This uniquely posed photograph is of Corporal Ignatz Gresser of the 128th Pennsylvania Infantry. From the Lehigh County Historical Society, it was published in Mahlon H. Hellerich’s Allentown, 1762-1987: a 225-year History (1987).
Gresser came to America from his native Germany at age 16, and was a cobbler in Allentown, PA before the war. He was (much later) awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism at Antietam in September 1862:
While exposed to the fire of the enemy, carried from the field a wounded comrade.
He mustered out with his regiment in May 1863 and returned to his trade in Allentown.
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