behind AotW

The stone of 28 year old farmer William F. Harris, a Private in the 7th South Carolina Infantry.

He was a recent recruit who enlisted in August 1862 and saw his first combat in Maryland. He was mortally wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 September and died at home a little over two weeks later.

There’s quite a story behind “wounded seven times” noted on his stone, no doubt.

Let me know if you have any details, won’t you please?

Pictured are Lieutenant William E Clark and 3 of his 6 Strother brothers-in-law (George, John, and Richard), probably taken shortly after he and at least 2 of them enrolled in Company G of the 7th South Carolina Infantry in April 1861. In September 1862, by then Captain of the Company, Clark was mortally wounded at Sharpsburg. He died in Clarksburg, VA (now WV) on the 22nd. The photograph was shared to the Family Search database by Casey Clark [free membership required].

Of the Citadel Class of 1855 and an 1861 medical school graduate, Richard C Carlisle was the Assistant Surgeon of the 7th South Carolina Infantry in Maryland in 1862; he was detailed to Brownsville, MD to treat the wounded from the action on Maryland Heights near Harpers Ferry, on 14 September, and was captured there. He was promoted to Surgeon by the end of the war and later practiced medicine and became the largest land holder in Newberry County, SC.

This colorized photo is of him in his Citadel cadet uniform, and is online thanks to his descendants.

John Smith Brown was wounded at least 4 times during the war, including at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He was promoted to Sergeant in Company C, 7th South Carolina Infantry in 1864 and was surrendered at Goldsboro, NC in April 1865.

Here are Brown and his wife Harriet Tabitha long after the war. They married about 1875 and had 6 children by 1891. Their photographs were contributed to their respective Findagrave memorials by Carol Hoch from the collection of Pete Julian.

I’ve spent the afternoon down something of a rabbit hole – learning a little about the Catawba Tribe of north-central South Carolina and how they are remembered.

I dove in chasing a Private in the 12th South Carolina Infantry listed as John Harris (Indian) in the State Roll.

So now I know of 4 Catawbas who were in Maryland in 1862, all wounded there. John and his brother Jim of the 12th South Carolina, and Jeff Ayers and Bill Canty of the 17th. They were among 19 men of the tribe – probably the entire military age male population – who enlisted in the Confederate Army.

Another story about Antietam soldiers I’d not heard before now.

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The picture at the top is of the Catawba Memorial (1900) in a park in Fort Mill, SC.