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W.J. Roberts
(1836 - 1870)
Home State: Connecticut
Education: Yale University, Class of 1859
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 8th Connecticut Infantry
Before Antietam
A law student in the offices of Judge David C. Sanford in New Milford, he mustered as First Lieutenant, Company I, 8th Connecticut Infantry on 21 September 1861. He was promoted to Captain 5 May 1862 on the resignation of Frederick W. Jackson.
On the Campaign
He commanded his Company in Maryland, in action at Antietam.
The rest of the War
He was discharged on disability on 31 January 1865 - from wounds received at Fort Harrison/Chaffin's Farm, VA 29 September 1864.
After the War
He was admitted to the bar in Litchfield County in 1866, but did not practice due to "bronchial difficulty", and died at age 34 in 1870.
References & notes
Basic information from Ingersoll1. His presence at Antietam from a letter he wrote after the battle, beautifully presented online by John Banks on his blog. Some personal details from Kilbourn's The Bench and Bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut 1709 - 1909 (1909) and the 1869-1870 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University (1870) [pdf]. His photo here from one of unknown provenance posted to his gravesite on Findagrave by Dale Ryan. Further details from family genealogists. He had married Ann Eliza Horton (Hartford, CT, 16 March 1865). They had three children - only one child, daughter Caroline Eliza (b. 1869), survived him.
Birth
05/01/1836; Milford, CT
Death
06/30/1870; New Milford, CT; burial in Center Cemetery, New Milford, CT
1 Ingersoll, Colin Macrae, Adjutant-General, Catalogue of Connecticut Volunteer Organizations in the Service of the United States, 1861-1865, Hartford: Brown & Gross, 1869, pg. 388 [AotW citation 13488]