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Federal (USV)

Private

William E. Chaffee

(c. 1844 - 1862)

Home State: Michigan

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 17th Michigan Infantry

Before Antietam

From Kalamazoo, he enlisted in Company I, 17th Michigan Infantry on 6 August 1862, at age 18.

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded by gunshot to the head in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was treated in a hospital in Frederick, MD, but died of wounds there on 31 October (or 20 November) 1862. He was reinterred at the new National Cemetery during or before 1867.

References & notes

Burial information from the Antietam Cemetery History1, which has him as Wilber E. Chaffer. His service from Michigan.2 Casualty details from Nelson.3

Birth

c. 1844

Death

10/31/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD

Notes

1   Antietam National Cemetery, Board of Trustees, History of Antietam National Cemetery, Baltimore: John W. Woods, Steam Printer, 1869  [AotW citation 3317]

2   State of Michigan, Office of the Adjutant General, and George H. Brown, Adjutant General; George H. Turner, Asst. AG, compiler, Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865, 46 volumes, Kalamazoo: Ihling Bros. & Everard, 1904-1915, Vol. 17, pg. 18  [AotW citation 17276]

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. 158  [AotW citation 17277]