Peter Gassner Feltus

He enlisted as a Private in Company K, 16th Mississippi Infantry on 21 April 1861 in Woodville, MS. He was promoted to First Sergeant by 8 June and was elected 3rd Lieutenant on 20 June 1861. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 26 April 1862.

He was in command of his Company in Maryland, and was wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to First Lieutenant and detailed as acting Commissary of the regiment by January 1863. He commanded the Company for most of the rest of the war and was surrendered and paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.

In 1870 he was a cotton planter living on his brother Henry's successful plantation in Plaquemines Parish, LA with his widowed mother and other siblings. By 1880 he was a planter back in Wilkinson County, MS.

The Woodville Republican reports a horrible case of assassination which occurred in Jefferson County the latter part of February [1883]. The victim was Mr. P. Gasner [sic] Feltus, living on Old River. The foul deed was done with an ordinary woodchopper's axe, while Mr. Feltus was quietly asleep in his room. Death did not immediately insue, and there were signs that the victim had arisen after the blow and engaged in a desperate struggle with the assassin, who made his escape through an open window. Mr. Feltus retained consciousness almost up to the moment of his death, and from his indisposition to talk about the attempt upon his life, it was believed that he had recognized his murderer, and from some unaccountable reason, did not care to reveal his name. Afterward, his brother, Mr. Edward Feltus [1846-1913], was arrested upon suspicion, but after a preliminary trial was honorably acquitted.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. His wound at Sharpsburg from a casualty list in the New Orleans Times-Picayune of 29 October 1862. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1870 & 1880; the quote above from the Brookhaven (MS) Semi-Weekly Leader of 15 March 1883. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

His brother Abram was in command of the regiment as senior officer in Maryland in 1862. There were 4 Feltus brothers in Company K of the 16th Mississippi Infantry: Lovick (1831-1904), Abram, Peter, and James Alexander Ventress Feltus (1840-1908).

1838 in MS

02/1883; Jefferson County, MS; burial in Evergreen Cemetery, Woodville, MS