Colonel Henry M Bossert commanded the 137th Pennsylvania Infantry in Maryland, and his rookies saw their first enemy fire at Crampton’s Gap on 14 September 1862 and were in reserve at Antietam. This photograph of him is from Sue Bossert Hannegan, published in Roger D. Hunt’s Colonels in Blue (2007).

William Harrison Humphrey enlisted as a Private in the 2nd United States Sharpshooters in October 1861 and was with the regiment at Antietam. He later remembered:

[Very early on 17 September] while crossing the [Miller’s] field shot and shell drop about us in a careless manner, we think. Some of the boys speak how careless they are while others thought they meant to be … I have often thought if it had not been for now and then a good joke cracked just in the nick of time it would have been hard to have kept the boys in line had someone put on a long face and moaned about the horrors …

He was promoted through the ranks to First Lieutenant of his Company by November 1864 and transferred to the 4th Vermont Infantry in February 1865. He was seriously wounded by a shell at Petersburg, VA two months later and lost his right leg.

The picture on the right is held by the Vermont Historical Society. The other photograph shows him after his leg was amputated, with William F. Tilson (left), who was wounded by the same round as Humphrey. It’s from the Tilson Photograph Album, hosted online by Tom Ledoux.

Private Christopher Columbus Blake, 2nd United States Sharpshooters was seriously wounded on the top of his head at Antietam. He was discharged afterward for disability but lived a full life as a lawyer and newspaperman in Iowa, Illinois, Colorado, and finally Kansas.

Descendants and historians located his previously unmarked grave in 2011 and the US Department of Veterans Affairs provided a new headstone. That’s local historian Iona Spencer placing flowers during the dedication of the new stone; photograph from Chris Hong’s Lawrence (KS) Journal-World story about the event.

Lansing, Michigan City Auditor John J Whitman enrolled as First Lieutenant of Company B, 2nd United States Sharpshooters in Detroit in August 1861. He was mortally wounded – his leg “shot off” – at Antietam on 17 September 1862 and died at Keedysville the next day. His photograph contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Brian White, from his collection.

Corporal Horatio Bruce, a Vermont sharpshooter in the 2nd United States Sharpshooters was wounded at Antietam in September 1862 and again, mortally, at Totopotomoy Creek, VA in May 1864. He died in Washington, DC in June. His photograph was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Brian White, from his collection.