behind AotW

a companion to Antietam on the Web

Category: biography

  • Whisky affects him as usual

    P. Hughes by E. Stauch, 1863
    Private Patrick Hughes, 4th New York Volunteers (by E. Stauch, 1863, collection NMHM)

    I hope Patrick felt as good as his expression suggests … his wound looks awful in this vivid image. He was painted propped up in a bed at Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington DC in January 1863 shortly before his discharge from Army service. It had been about 4 months since he’d been shot through the head at the Battle of Antietam. There, a Confederate minie ball had bored through the top of his skull and exited from the back, leaving gruesome-looking wounds, but surprisingly little long-term damage.

    Private Hughes‘ story offers some small insight into Civil War medicine and gives me a chance to give the soldier and his unit a little air time.

    (more…)

  • 12th Virginia Infantry in Maryland

    The sad story of the officers and men of the 12th Virginia Infantry Regiment of late 1862 is typical for a number of the tattered units of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) who were at Sharpsburg that September.

    The Crater (c. 1866, J. Elder)
    The Crater (c. 1866, J. Elder)

    The Fourth Battalion as it left Petersburg on the 20th of April, 1861, was made up of the flower of the manhood of the Cockade City. After four years of service it had been so decimated by disease, by death, by promotion, and by transfer that it showed scarcely more than a skeleton of the original body. It was the nucleus upon which was formed the famous Twelfth Virginia Regiment, whose banner bore the device of almost every field on which the Army of Northern Virginia grappled with the enemy, from Seven Pines to Appomattox, and whose flag, stained with the smoke of battle and shredded by ball and shell, was never surrendered, but torn into slips and buried in the bosoms, right over the hearts, of the veteran survivors.

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  • Notable Rhode Island artillerymen

    Just a quick post this week – I’ve too many irons in the fire. Blog neglect aside, though, January has been a good month for incoming treasures and catching up with biographies on AotW.

    J.A. Barber c.1865
    Corporal James A Barber (M. Frazel)

    One in particular came out of a post I found on Granite in my Blood just before Christmas in which Midge Frazel transcribed a relative’s narrative about the Barber Family. Included was her great-grandfather James Albert Barber, who was in Battery G, First Rhode Island Light Artillery… (more…)

  • Snapshots

    Distracted Gettysburg Dedication spectator, November 1863

    While chasing one of my boys, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel W. Owen, 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, I came on a photograph of him in an unusual setting. It made me think about how few casual or frivolous pictures–snapshots–I’ve can remember seeing among (probably) thousands of American Civil War-era images.

    On reflection, this isn’t surprising. Due to the technical demands of wet-plate photography during the War, I’d expect most photographs to have a serious purpose. The long exposures and difficulty in preparing and developing photographs in the field probably made it less likely that photographers would risk wasting film on a moving subject or mundane scene.

    Perhaps as a result, most surviving photographs are stiffly posed, and live subjects seem terribly aware of the camera. For fun, today, I’ve found a few with quite a different feel … (more…)

  • The very image of a soldier: A. V. Colburn

    A.V. Colburn, mounted, Nov 1862click to see larger image
    Lieut.-Col. A.V. Colburn, Warrenton, Va, November 1862 (studio of M. Brady, Library of Congress)

    A brand new Lieutenant at First Bull Run in July 1861, George A Custer later recalled with envy a gallant charge by a squadron of the 1st US Cavalry under Capt Colburn early in the battle. The charge may not have actually happened, which is sad for the romantics like Custer, particularly as the first major battle of the War was Colburn’s last in hands-on field command.

    Albert V. Colburn is best known now as Assistant Adjutant General (AAG) to George McClellan during the General’s terms in command of the Army of the Potomac. Students of that army will come upon Colburn’s name frequently–on orders, reports and letters–as he so often served as the voice of the General Commanding.

    Let me offer just a little more about the man behind the signature … (more…)