Author: Brian

  • Case 789.- Private H. Linn

    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.

  • William M Pratt

    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.

  • Gen. Joseph W. Fisher and staff of six

    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.

  • The ‘never-sufficiently-to-be-admired’ Magilton

    While updating the AotW page for Colonel Albert Lewis Magilton, I came upon a quote about him. It’s from West Point classmate and fellow Lieutenant George B McClellan,  in a December 1846 letter McClellan wrote another Army officer, from Mexico.

    McClellan called him “the never-sufficiently-to-be-admired Magilton”.

    I don’t know exactly what it says about Magilton, but it seems pretty rich coming from a man of GBM’s apparent ego.

    _________________

    The quote is from a letter McClellan wrote another West Point classmate, Charles Seaforth Stewart, on 1 December 1846 from the steamer Corvette on the Rio Grande River. I found it in The Mexican War Diary and Correspondence of George B. McClellan (2009) edited by Thomas W. Cutrer. The original letter is in the Charles Stewart Collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  • Henry N Minnigh

    This poor photograph is the best wartime image I’ve yet found for 2nd Lieutenant Henry N Minnigh of Company K of the First Pennsylvania Reserves, wounded at Turner’s Gap on South Mountainn on 14 September 1862. It was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by by Pat Callahan.

    He was in action with his Company on Little Round Top at his home town of Gettysburg on 2 July 1863 and mustered out as their Captain in June 1864. He was brevetted Major in March 1865 for his service.

    The pages in the background are from his own History of Company K. 1st (Inft) Penn’a Reserves: the Boys who Fought at Home , online from the Hathi Trust.