John C. H. von Sehlen

(1829 - 1894)
Home State: Wisconsin
Command Billet: Battery Commander
Branch of Service: Artillery
Unit: 15th Independent Battery, Indiana Light Artillery

Before the Antietam Campaign:
He arrived in New York from Germany in about 1847 at age 17, and served in the Mexican War, being wounded at Chapultepec. He then worked in the Post Office in Milwaukee. He was Adjutant of the Indiana Artillery Regiment (Col. Fritz Anneke) during it's organization in early 1862. When that unit dissolved in favor of Independent batteries of artillery in March 1862, von Sehlen was commissioned Captain of the 15th Battery. He mustered for Federal service at that rank, and his battery was ordered to Baltimore on 5 July 1862. On 24 August they departed Ft. McHenry by train and arrived at Harpers Ferry the next day.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He and his unit were captured on 15 September - along with the rest of the garrison - and paroled on the 16th, going through Annapolis, Maryland to Camp Douglas, Chicago.

The remainder of the War:
He and his battery returned to service in March 1863. He was honorably mustered out on 9 May 1864.

After the War:
He lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was a factory bookkeeper.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Details of the Battery's service and von Sehlen's background from Fout 1 and a c.1900 newspaper article of unknown provenance posted online. Life dates from his grave site on Findagrave.

Birth State: Germany
Burial Place: Forest Home Cemetery Milwaukee, WI

Notes

1 Fout, Frederick Wilhelm, The Dark Days of the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, St. Louis: F.A. Wagenfuehr, 1904 [AotW citation 1182]

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