behind AotW

This excellent photograph of the “gallant” John Pelham is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. A Captain at Sharpsburg, he commanded a battalion of horse artillery there. He died very young, killed at Kelly’s Ford, VA in March 1863, age 24.

This is an etching (from a photograph) of Colonel William Nelson from Jennings Cropper Wise’s The Long Arm of Lee; or, The History of the Artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia … (1915). As a Major, Nelson commanded a battalion of 5 artillery batteries in Maryland in 1862.

David Watson was Captain of the 2nd Company, Richmond Howitzers from April 1862, and led them on the Maryland Campaign. This portrait, from a photograph, shows him in a Major’s uniform and is with his Compiled Service Records at the National Archives. He was promoted to Major about January 1863 but was mortally wounded at Spotsylvania Court House, VA and died in May 1864.

Private Robert C Cannon of Company G, 48th Alabama Infantry was killed in action at Sharpsburg, MD on 17 September 1862. He left a wife and 3 small children on the farm at Walnut Grove, AL. This photograph was contributed to his memorial on Findagrave by Stanley A. Hutson.

This post-war portrait based on a photograph of John Rayburn is in the Alabama Archives in Montgomery. He’s wearing First (or Orderly) Sergeant’s stripes here, but was Captain of Company K of the 9th Alabama Infantry at Sharpsburg, where he was killed in action on 17 September 1862.