a companion to Antietam on the Web
Private Joseph W Amick, Company I, 15th South Carolina Infantry was born and raised in the area known as Dutch Fork between the Saluda and Broad Rivers in the Lexington District, SC. He was about 19 years old when he was killed in action on 14 September 1862 at Fox’s Gap on South Mountain. His photograph was posted online by the Sons of Confederate Veterans; provenance not given.
Columbia (SC) lawyer and US Senator’s son William Davie DeSaussure was a Captain of Volunteers in the Mexican War (1846-48), was wounded twice at Cherubusco, and came home a hero. He was in the South Carolina legislature, then took a commission as Captain in the First United States Cavalry in 1855. He served in the West but resigned in March 1861 as the war approached.
He was appointed Colonel of the 15th South Carolina Infantry and led it at Sharpsburg and to Gettysburg where he was killed on 2 July 1863.
His photograph is courtesy of Michael Williams, online in the Historical Data Systems database.
“Fate” Stevens was a Private in the 14th South Carolina Infantry who was wounded in combat near Harpers Ferry, VA on 13 September 1862. He survived that wound and the war to return home to his farm in the Edgefield District, but was killed, probably by accident, at age 49. The news clippings seen here have slightly different views of that incident; the Newberry Herald and News of 27 April 1892 on the right, the Winston-Salem Western Sentinel of 5 May on the left.
I recently tweeted about adding a new bio page for a Georgia soldier, Andrew W Poarch and, somewhat as an aside, noted that his modern headstone has some problems.
He was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, MD in October 1862 and at some point given a basic headstone, now heavily worn.
Much more recently, sometime after 1992, well-meaning persons got him and each of the other Confederate soldiers buried in Mt. Olivet a new headstone from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Probably because of transcription errors in his original burial records, they got his name terribly wrong. Apparently the applicant for the new headstone didn’t dig any deeper – into the soldier’s service records, muster rolls, or family genealogies, for example – to verify his information. Although, to be fair, it’s easier to do that today than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
But now the errors are literally carved in stone.
I’ve seen dozens of markers like these with errors large and small over the years of researching my soldiers, but had not thought to make a list or keep a log of them.
The day after Private Poarch’s, though, I found another such case – the stone for Louisianan Volney L. Farnham at Elmwood in Shepherdstown, WV. It has his first initial/name and his regiment wrong.
And this afternoon a third popped-up: Private William T. Curry of South Carolina. This is his modern VA marker in Dials Cemetery, Gray Court, SC. Minor things, to be sure, but his middle initial and his year of birth are probably wrong.
So taking these 3 stones as huge cosmic hints, I’m starting a visual list here, and I’ll add to it as I find more. I can’t fix them, but I can provide a virtual erratum.
Let me know if you find any more cases like these, won’t you? Or if you have any information that corrects errors I’ve made.
_____________
Gravestone pictures via Findagrave.
_____________
[54] additions after the break … (more…)
Captain William Covill, Jr of the First Minnesota Infantry was with his Company in action in the West Woods at Antietam on 17 September 1862, and later remembered
As I saw it the whole Division except our Regiment was broken into a mob, madly pressing to the rear followed closely by the enemies lines. Instantly on the breaking up of the 84th [82nd] N.Y. which was next on our left, Col Sully of our Regiment gave the order to about face and march to the rear, which we did double quickly, accompanied with a shower of cannister from a battery which had hurried up the pasture field …
By May 1863 he had been promoted to Colonel of the regiment and was seriously wounded leading them at Gettysburg in July. After mustering out he was elected to the state legislature, in November 1864, but left St. Paul to serve again in the field, as Colonel of the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery from April to July 1865. He was honored with the title of Brevet Brigadier General.
His photograph is in the collection of the US Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.