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Federal (USV)

Lieutenant

James Henry Atherton

(1839 - 1883)

Home State: Massachusetts

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 29th Massachusetts Infantry

Before Antietam

In 1860 he was a 21 year old printer living with his parents and siblings in Sandwich, MA, and was a part-owner of a weekly newspaper there when he enlisted on 18 May 1861. He mustered as a Sergeant in what became Company D of the 29th Massachusetts Infantry on 22 May.

On the Campaign

He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 13 September 1862 and was slightly wounded in the head at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

In March 1863 was granted leave to return to Sandwich and attend to business at his newspaper and in April again furloughed to recover from a "functional disturbance of the heart." He was under arrest (charges and outcome not given) in June and July 1863 but was was transferred to Company B on 17 October and promoted to First Lieutenant (to date from 12 November 1862 or 22 March 1863). He mustered out on 26 May 1864 in Washington, DC.

He enrolled again, for one-year's service as First Lieutenant of Company I, 4th Massachusetts Heavy Artillery on 16 August 1864 in Boston, but was sick in the Seminary Hospital in Alexandria, VA from 15 November into February 1865. He was detailed as Assistant Ordnance Officer to the brigade on 11 April. He mustered out on 17 June 1865.

After the War

In 1865 he was again living with his parents in Sandwich, and gave his occupation as soldier. Unmarried and working as a compositor, he killed himself, apparently by cutting his throat, at about age 43 in 1883.

References & notes

Basic casualty information from Nelson.1 His service from Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, 2 his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3, and the History,4 which says he was severely wounded in the arm at Antietam. Personal information from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, the Massachusetts Census of 1865, and his death notice in the New York Tribune of 1 June 1883. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

1839; Sandwich, MA

Death

05/31/1883; Port Chester, NY; burial in Old Town Cemetery, Sandwich, MA

Notes

1   Nelson, John H., As Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, Hagerstown: John H. Nelson, 2004, pg. 117  [AotW citation 16181]

2   Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Adjutant General, Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, 8 Vols, Norwood (MA): Norwood Press, 1931-35, Vol. 3, p. 295; Vol. 6, p. 45  [AotW citation 29932]

3   US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who served in US Volunteer organizations enlisted for service during the Civil War, Record Group No. 94 (Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927  [AotW citation 29933]

4   Osborne, WIlliam H., The History of the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Late War of the Rebellion, Boston: Albert J. Wright, printer, 1877, p. 194, 218, note 38  [AotW citation 29934]