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.

In the background above is the sleeve of Captain Hugh R. Garden‘s uniform coat, offered at auction by Poulin Antiques and Auctions. That’s some stunning braid against the red artillery cuffs. His photograph, of unknown provenance, is from his Findagrave memorial.

Garden served as a Private soldier beginning in April 1861 and was a Corporal by February 1862. He then organized the Palmetto Artillery – “the guns being cast under his supervision from church bells at Columbia” – and he commanded the battery as their Captain through the war, including in Maryland in September 1862.

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Update May 2024

Here’s a very fine hand-colored photograph of Captain Garden, a piece LiveAuctions sold for $7,500 in September 2017. I’ve only just now found it.

And to update his details, he was Color Bearer and Sergeant of Company D of the 2nd Infantry 1861-62, not Private or Corporal, at least according to his Compiled Service Records. I previously trusted someone else’s research, in error.

Lieutenant Samuel McBride Pringle of the Palmetto Artillery was mortally wounded at Sharpsburg – “a cannon ball taking off his leg midway between the knee and the foot” – and he died in Winchester, VA a week later.

The letter pictured here is part of one one he wrote from the Richmond “Poor House” to his mother in May 1861. It’s online, along with others he wrote during the war, thanks to Furman University. His photograph was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Ervin Shaw.