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Federal (USV)

Private

William Duffey

(c. 1835 - ?)

Home State: New York

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 69th New York Infantry

Before Antietam

Age 26, he enlisted in New York City to serve three years, and mustered in as Private, Company I, 69th New York Infantry on 31 October 1861.

On the Campaign

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He was hit ...

by a conoidal ball, which entered the left parietal (roof of the skull) about its junction with the squamous portion of the temporal bone, passed downward and backward, and lodged in the substance of the brain. He was insensible about an hour, at the expiration of which time the missile was removed. The right arm and hand were paralysed.

The rest of the War

After treatment on the field at Sharpsburg ...

The patient was admitted to the Sixteenth and Filbert Streets Hospital, Philadelphia, on September 26th, 1862, where he gradually recovered, under the expectant treatment. He was sent to the Ladies Home Hospital, New York City, on May 26th, 1863, and was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, on July 29th, 1863. He had nearly recovered the use of his hand and arm. This man was discharged the service on November 4th, 1864, and pensioned.

After the War

"On April 7th, 1869, Pension Examiner J. Neill reports him suffering from paralysis of the right arm, with defective articulation, and rated his disability total and permanent."

References & notes

Service information from the Roster,1 which also lists him as William Duffy. The wound and treatment quotes above are from McLernon,2 citing the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (1870).

Birth

c. 1835

Notes

1   State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1901, Ser. No. 28, pg. 97  [AotW citation 18090]

2   McLernon, Robert, Casualty List, 69th New York Volunteer Infantry, Meagher's Irish Brigade, Bloody Lane, Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862, Springfield (Va): R. McLernon, 2014, pg. 16  [AotW citation 18091]