A poke in January from James Silliman set me on the path to greatly improve my collection of information about the soldiers of the ill-fated 16th Connecticut Infantry on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. Among several fine photographs he sent me from his collection is this one of Robert Hale Kellogg.

He was an 18 year old Private at Antietam and was promoted to Sergeant of Company A, then Sergeant Major of the regiment in 1863.

After his experience as a prisoner of war in 1864 he wrote Life and Death in Rebel Prisons: Giving a Complete History of the Inhuman and Barbarous Treatment of Our Brave Soldiers by Rebel Authorities, Inflicting Terrible Suffering and Frightful Mortality, Principally at Andersonville, Ga., and Florence, S.C. (1867) – GoogleBooks offers a copy online.

This is John J Creech, late 3rd Lieutenant of Company H, 17th South Carolina Infantry, a veteran of the Maryland Campaign of 1862. He was one of 6 brothers with War service, and all of them survived it.

Starling Jeter Creech (1827-1912) – Corporal, Co. B, 2nd SC Reserve Infantry; Private, Battery G, 2nd South Carolina Light Artillery
John Jackson “Jack” Creech (1832-1883) – 3rd Lieutenant, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry
George William “Billy” Creech (1836-1909) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry
Richard C Creech (1837-1913) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry; Private, Battery G, 2nd South Carolina Light Artillery
James Stafford “Jimmy” Creech (1838-1926) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry
Lewis Barnwell Creech (1843-1919) – Private, Co. H, 17th South Carolina Infantry

Thanks to descendant Larry Hutto for the pointer to the Creech family and for John’s photograph.

26 year old Corporal John Yates was killed at Antietam on 17 September 1862. This (slightly damaged) photograph was probably taken in the Spring of 1861 soon after he enlisted in the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry in Racine.

I found this copy in a goldmine of a book called Racine County Militant: An Illustrated Narrative of War Times, and a Soldiers’ Roster (1915). It’s online from the Internet Archives (and others) and includes some 200 mostly war-era portrait photographs of Racine soldiers, most far nicer than this one of Corporal Yates. I’ll be going back to it again in the future.

Thanks to John Banks for starting me down the path to this photograph and to Shannon Cheney and Gina Radandt at the Kenosha Civil War Museum for sharing a version of this photo from their collection that led to Racine Militant.

Private Jasper Stanford Harris of the 16th Connecticut Infantry survived combat at Antietam in 1862 and imprisonment at Andersonville in 1864 and went on to have a long, ordinary, and one hopes peaceful life. He lived 87 years and was still working his small home farm and painting the neighbor’s houses at 77 in 1920.

Here he is in a photograph probably taken shortly after he enlisted in the 16th Connecticut Infantry in late July 1862. It was contributed to his Find-a-grave memorial by Micki Dischinger.

Private Jason Ebenezer Twiss, Company I, 16th Connecticut Infantry was 30 years old when he was killed at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He left a widow, Augusta, and 5 year old son Frederick. His second son Robert was born about two months after the battle.

This photograph was likely taken about the time of his enlistment in August 1862 and is from the FamilySearch database.