behind AotW

This somewhat fuzzy photograph is of 2nd Lieutenant Walter Forward Jackson who was in command of his Company, “G” of the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves when he was killed in action at Turner’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. He was about 20 years old. The photograph looks to have been printed in a book, but I haven’t yet found the volume. This copy was posted to his Findagrave memorial.

Captain Daniel S Porter, Company B, 11th Pennsylvania Reserves led his tiny Company in action on South Mountain on the 14 September and at Antietam on the 17th, and may have been slightly wounded in the head there. Afterward he wrote:

When I looked around at that gallant little band of eight that had followed me into that murderous fight [at Antietam] but three were left …

He was later Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment but was wounded at Gettysburg and resigned his commission soon after. He was honored by brevet to Colonel in March 1865.

This is a post-war photograph of Porter when he was a lawyer in Indiana County, PA and founding trustee of the Indiana Normal School (now Indiana U of PA). It’s from the University Archives, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Captain Everard Bierer, Company F, 11th Pennsylvania Reserves was wounded at Turner’s Gap on South Mountain in September 1862. While recovering he was assigned to command Camp Curtin in Harrisburg. After organizing 5 new regiments there he was commissioned Colonel of one – the 171st Pennsylvania Infantry. He mustered out with them in September 1863 then served 3 months with the Veteran Reserve Corps in early 1864.

He was a farmer, lawyer, and politician in Kansas after the war. His picture here is from a panel of photographs of members of the Kansas House of Representatives for 1868, online from the Kansas Historical Society.

19 year old Ashbel F Hill was a Sergeant in Company D, 8th Pennsylvania Infantry at Antietam in September 1862. He was shot in his left thigh in the combat in Miler’s famous cornfield there and lost his leg to amputation. He published a memoir of his war experiences in 1864, including of Antietam …

Lieutenant Moth having been wounded, and assisted from the field by Sergeant Anawalt, and Lieutenant Cue having remained at Keedysville sick, I suddenly, for the first time, found myself in command of Company “D” and in battle, too. I saw, however, that our boys did not stand in need of much commanding just then …

I had fired a dozen rounds at the rebel flag, when I suddenly became conscious of a most singular and unpleasant feeling in my left leg. I was in the act of ramming down a ball at the time, and I would have finished, but my left foot, of its own accord, raised from the ground, a benumbing sensation ran through my leg, and I felt the hot blood streaming down my thigh. The truth flashed upon me – I was wounded. I could not yet tell where the ball had struck me, but on looking down I perceived, by a small round hole in my pantaloons, that I was shot in the thigh about three inches below the hip-joint …

He was discharged in December 1862 and afterward made his living as an author and newspaper editor, but he died young, at age 34, of sudden illness in 1876. He’s seen here with his wife Mary Jane Harris, probably in San Fransisco in 1873. Overlaying that photograph is one from before the war. Both photographs were contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Scot Novak.

Born in Lancashire, England, William Heap Oldham came to America between 1858 and 1860, and he was a laborer in Temperanceville, PA when he enlisted as a Private in Company E of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves in June 1861. He was killed at Turner’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. His photograph was contributed to the Family Search database by Connie Larson Anderson [free membership required].