19 year old Ashbel F Hill was a Sergeant in Company D, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry at Antietam in September 1862. He was shot in his left thigh in the combat in Miler’s famous cornfield there and lost his leg to amputation. He published a memoir of his war experiences in 1864, including of Antietam …

Lieutenant Moth having been wounded, and assisted from the field by Sergeant Anawalt, and Lieutenant Cue having remained at Keedysville sick, I suddenly, for the first time, found myself in command of Company “D” and in battle, too. I saw, however, that our boys did not stand in need of much commanding just then …

I had fired a dozen rounds at the rebel flag, when I suddenly became conscious of a most singular and unpleasant feeling in my left leg. I was in the act of ramming down a ball at the time, and I would have finished, but my left foot, of its own accord, raised from the ground, a benumbing sensation ran through my leg, and I felt the hot blood streaming down my thigh. The truth flashed upon me – I was wounded. I could not yet tell where the ball had struck me, but on looking down I perceived, by a small round hole in my pantaloons, that I was shot in the thigh about three inches below the hip-joint …

He was discharged in December 1862 and afterward made his living as an author and newspaper editor, but he died young, at age 34, of sudden illness in 1876. He’s seen here with his wife Mary Jane Harris, probably in San Fransisco in 1873. Overlaying that photograph is one from before the war. Both photographs were contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Scot Novak.

Born in Lancashire, England, William Heap Oldham came to America between 1858 and 1860, and he was a laborer in Temperanceville, PA when he enlisted as a Private in Company E of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves in June 1861. He was killed at Turner’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. His photograph was contributed to the Family Search database by Connie Larson Anderson [free membership required].

Seen here is part of the medical history (and part of the left femur) of Private Henry Linn, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves, from the Army Surgeon General’s Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1870), online from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Linn was shot in his left lower leg, the bone broken, in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. His leg was amputated below the knee in December and again at the thigh in January 1863, but the surgeons couldn’t save him; he died of resulting infections in March.

A Rensselaer graduate and civil engineer, William M. Pratt enlisted as a Private in Company K, 8th Connecticut Infantry in May 1862 and was twice wounded and captured at Antietam. He was rescued by Federal cavalrymen and returned to duty and was Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment at the end of the war.

Pratt was one of at least 4 RPI civil engineers at Antietam. L to R, Pratt, A. Pardee, J. Knap, W. Roebling.

The list of his graduating class of engineers at the top is from the Proceedings of the Semi-centennial Celebration of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1874). His photograph is from the Connecticut State Library, online from John Banks.

This photograph of Joseph Washington Fisher and staff is in the National Archives. Colonel Fisher commanded the 5th Pennsylvania Reserves in action at Antietam in September 1862. He led the Brigade at Gettysburg in 1863, the new 195th Pennsylvania Infantry in 1864, and was brevetted Brigadier General of Volunteers in November 1865. He was a Pennsylvania State Senator 1866-68 and a Justice of the Wyoming territorial Supreme Court from 1871-79.