A descendant of Harry Stewart sent me his portrait today. Stewart was First Sergeant, Company A, 2nd Maryland Infantry when he was killed in action near the Lower Bridge over the Antietam on 17 September 1862.

Back in October 1861, after his first 3 months in the Army, he had written home from Camp Carroll in Baltimore.

I can’t imagine that the Union is threatened and I am a soldier. It appears more like every day life with a long holiday when I want it. Haven’t come to the reality yet. If I could get home for a little while I should like it very much and if I should live for three more years and in the meantime make and save some money I am going to get married to my friend here in Baltimore for she is one of the reasoning kind and will not have me until I am discharged. She has a sewing machine and makes money for herself every week. In fact, a sweet industrious patient young lady who loves me very much. Please keep this to yourself now …

His friend was Amanda Easley of 183 Ann Street. In a later letter he reiterated that he would not be getting married soon, and besides, he wrote, “Amanda is too sensible to agree to it.”

In January 1862 the regiment was posted to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and he wrote “Amanda was well when I left, her brother has enlisted with me.” Four months later that brother George Easley died of typhoid fever at New Bern, NC.

In April, from New Bern, Harry had written:

As a soldier I am satisfied. I love the cause, I love the flag which flies over me and am willing to die if needs be for the cause in which I am engaged. You will all pray for me for I cannot say my life is safe for a moment for we are amongst rebels. Yet, I know I cannot be forgotten.

No, he is not forgotten.
________
Thanks to Dr Kenneth Stewart Thompson for posting his ancestor’s letters online.

William W Brewer was an oil producer and gas operator living in Norwich, PA when this family photograph was taken about 1905. That’s William, wife Orpha, daughter Nellie Brewer Means, and twin grandsons Wallace and Perry Means. It was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Brenda Gordon.

The inset wartime photograph of William was published in Thomson & Rauch’s History of the “Bucktails”, Kane Rifle Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps (13th Pennsylvania Reserves, 42nd of the Line (1906). Private William Wallace Brewer enlisted in the “Bucktails” – the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves – in May 1861 at age 17, was wounded at Antietam in September 1862, and mustered out in June 1864.

Thomas Horace Dearborn began the Campaign as 2nd Sergeant of Company C, 6th New Hampshire Infantry but was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in Maryland on 13 September 1862. He was Captain by the end of 1863 and mustered out with his Company on 28 November 1864. His photograph here is from Lyman Jackman’s History of the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment in the War for the Union (1891).

Captain Edward Anderson Irwin, Company K, 13th Pennsylvania Reserves was a prisoner of war at Libby Prison in Richmond for about 3 months until exchanged in August 1862. He rejoined his Company just in time to receive a serious head wound – thought initially to be fatal – at Turner’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September.

Not only did he survive, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment to date from 10 September 1862 while home recovering. He returned to duty in December and was almost immediately wounded again – while leading the “Bucktails” at Fredericksburg, VA. That wound to his arm disabled him for further field service and resigned and was discharged in May 1863.

This photograph of him wearing Captain’s bars is from Virtue, Liberty, Independence [pdf], online from the Pennsylvania Senate.

Apparently suffering from depression and otherwise ill as well, Major Francis John Bell killed himself in Washington, DC in 1894, not quite 58 years old. Here’s an announcement in the Bolivar Breeze (Allegany County, NY).

He enrolled as First Lieutenant of Company I of the “Bucktails” – the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves – in May 1861, was wounded at Antietam in 1862 and Gettysburg in 1863, losing his leg, and transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps. He was honored by a brevet to Major and mustered out in June 1866. After the war he studied the law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Washington DC. He left a widow and 5 children.