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(c. 1834 - 1862)
Home State: Massachusetts
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A 22 year old laborer, he enlisted in Boston as a Private in Company K, 2nd United States Infantry on 12 May 1858 and was a Sergeant by September 1862.
On the Campaign
He was mortally wounded by a gunshot to his left foot, probably in action near the Middle Bridge at Antietam on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was treated at the Locust Spring hospital on the Geeting Farm near Keedysville, then admitted to a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD on 27 September. His leg was amputated on 3 October, but he died of wounds on 15 (or 14) October 1862. He was probably reinterred in the new National Cemetery in about 1867.
References & notes
His service from the Registers.1 His wound and hospital information from the Patient List 2, Nelson,3 and the MSHWR.4
He's identified as Sgt. Henry Smith, Company K, 2nd Wisconsin Infantry in the History, and "Wisc" is on his stone [via Findagrave] in the National Cemetery [see pictures in a post on the blog]. These appear to be in error. There is no Sergeant Henry Smith in the State roster for Company K of the 2nd Wisconsin. There was a Private Henry Smith, but he transferred to the 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery in December 1861. There was a Henry A. Smith in Company H, but he survived the war.
Birth
c. 1834; County Tipperary, IRELAND
Death
10/15/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD
1 US Army, Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914, Washington, DC: National Archives, 1956, Vol. 053, pg. 231 [AotW citation 26450]
2 National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and Terry Reimer, Frederick Patient List, Published 2018, first accessed 17 September 2018, <http://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/primary-sources/databases/frederickpatient/>, Source page: patient #524 [AotW citation 26451]
3 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. 391 [AotW citation 26452]
4 Barnes, Joseph K., and US Army, Office of the Surgeon General, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 6 books, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1870, Volume 2, Part 3, page 535 [AotW citation 26453]