William Duncan Ballantine

(1837 - ?)
Home State: Florida
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 2nd Florida Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
Summary of service:
Mustered into 2nd Florida Infantry 13 July 1861 as 1st Lt, Company A
Promoted Captain 10 May 1862;
Wounded at Seven Pines, May 31, '62;
Major May 1863;
Captured at Gettysburg (Jul 1863);
To Lt Col AUG 1864;
Mustered out July 1865.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He was reported wounded at Sharpsburg.

The remainder of the War:
He was wounded and captured at Gettysburg and subsequently imprisoned at Fort Delaware until fall 1864, when he became one of the "Immortal 600" held under Confederate fire at Morris Island, SC. He was later sent back to Fort Delaware and released on oath in June 1865.

After the War:
He returned to Florida after the War and became prominent in post-Reconstruction politics. On July 6, 1895 he returned to Gettysburg with Florida Colonels David Lang and Walter Raleigh Moore and staked out the positions where the Florida Brigade fought in 1863. The trio was photographed at Devil's Den while enjoying cigars.

References, Sources, and other notes:
7/2005 update from member Jim Studnicki.
Note: Capt Ballantine is listed as Colonel in the Official Records Order of Battle for Sharpsburg. This is not supported by the data above.

Service data above from Soldiers of Florida1 and bio details from Studnicki 2

More on the Web:
See more detail and a post-war photo for Captain William Duncan Ballantine, Company A, 2nd Florida Infantry from Civil War Florida.

Birth Date: 02/21/1837 Place of Birth: Whitesboro, NY

Notes

1 State of Florida, Board of State Institutions, Soldiers of Florida in the Seminole Indian, Civil and Spanish-American Wars, Live Oak (FL): Democrat Print, 1903, pg. 80 [AotW citation 182]

2 Studnicki, Jim, Civil War Florida, Published c. 2001, first accessed 15 June 2005, <http://www.civilwarflorida.com/>, Source page: /site/soldiers/soldier_detail.php?soldierREF=3 [AotW citation 183]

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