behind AotW

a companion to Antietam on the Web

Author: Brian

  • Dr. Rushton, late of the ‘Bloody 7th’ SC

    I have had a great time pulling a research “thread” this evening and thought both of my readers might like to share in the journey.

    Looking into Sergeant John Martin Rushton (1837-1889) of the 7th South Carolina Infantry.

    I started with Glen Swain’s excellent roster in The Bloody 7th (Broadfoot, 2014), based mostly on the Consolidated Service Records (CSRs) from the National Archives.

    Those records say Rushton was wounded at Sharpsburg in 1862. In November – December 1864 he was in a hospital in Richmond, VA with a gunshot wound in the shoulder, then served as an attendant in another hospital there. He retired in March 1865, presumably for disability, and was paroled at Augusta, GA in May.

    Nothing unusual here; it seemed like a typical soldier story until I looked at his gravesite on Findagrave, which refers to him as Dr. Rushton. Not so many enlisted men were later physicians, so I thought I’d find out when and where he trained.

    A little digging online with various forms of his name, and up popped an announcement in the Richmond Dispatch that J.M. Rushton of Edgehill [sic], SC graduated from the Medical College in Richmond (now part of Virginia Commonwealth University).

    In March 1865.

    Oh-ho! Now we’re having fun: did our man attend medical school while still a soldier and patient/hospital aide in 1864-5?

    That would be unusual.

    Then I got really lucky. Thanks to the digital archives at VCU, I found an October 1864 letter John Rushton wrote to Levin Smith Joines, the Dean of the medical school. In it, he requested admission to the Winter 1864-65 course, noted he’d had previous training in Georgia 1860-61, and best of all, described what he’d been doing since Sharpsburg.

    So, in contrast to the tale of the CSRs, it turns out he was furloughed home after he was wounded in the shoulder at Sharpsburg and I don’t think he ever returned to his unit. By January 1864 he had been judged disabled and was teaching school in Edgefield, SC.

    He was admitted to the Medical College for the 1864-65 winter session and graduated in 1865. The day after he’d been “retired” in the Army records, coincidentally.

    Long story short – I got to see part of the man’s story in his own hand, in real time. Rare, but very gratifying. And a lot more exciting than the basic and sometimes confused service records.

    …. on to the next story.

  • Lt Joseph L Talbert

    Lieutenant Joseph Lee Talbert was mortally wounded on Maryland Heights near Harpers Ferry on 13 September 1862, and died at Charles Town, VA (now West Virginia) on the 19th. His photograph is from the collection of Joe Matheson as published in Glen Allan Swain, Jr.’s The Bloody 7th (2014).

  • After Many Years; Wilmington Weekly Star (1896)

    This is a clipping from the Wilmington, NC Weekly Star of 27 March 1896 describing the death of Captain John L. Litchfield, Company L, 7th South Carolina Infantry in September 1862 and the return of his effects to the family all those years later.

  • Mount Pleasant Hospital, Washington, DC (1862)

    Here’s a beautiful illustration of the Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington, DC from the Library of Congress. Its a hand-colored lithograph produced by Julian Carl “Charles” Magnus (1826-1900) in about 1862. Magnus was a prolific print publisher, map dealer, bookseller and stationer in New York City.

    Scots-born 44 year old Baltimore bricklayer William H Burns enlisted in the 5th Maryland Infantry in October 1861 and was mortally wounded at Antietam in September 1862. He died at the Mount Pleasant Hospital on 24 October. The poetic clip is from his death notice in the Baltimore Sun of 27 October 1862.

  • Lt John H Huiet; French Broad Hustler (1917)

    John Henry Huiet enlisted in Company M of the 7th South Carolina Infantry in April 1861 and was First Sergeant when he was wounded at Sharpsburg in September 1862. He was later commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and survived the war to become a successful businessman in South Carolina.

    His photograph was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Debbie Allmon, and overlays his obituary in the Henderson, NC French Broad Hustler of 12 April 1917, page 8, online from the Library of Congress.