James Downey

From Manayunk - now a Philadelphia neighborhood - on the Schuylkill River, in 1850 he was a Boatman, age 22, and had been married within the year. He enlisted as Private in Company C, 88th Pennsylvania Infantry on 14 August 1861.

He was killed in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

In a letter of 25 October 1862, another Pennsylvania soldier, Cornelius Richmond of the 119th Infantry observed:

There was in our Camp Yesterday John Sanders and a nother gentleman who had been at the battle ground of Antetam, for the body of James Downey. they got the body and are Now in Manayunk with it.

He left his wife (Amanda Curry) and at least one child (Caroline, b. 1853) behind. He may have had a son, also James, in 1861.

Basic data from Bates1, who has his name as Downy; details from his grave registry. Richmond's letters hosted online by Alice J. Gayley. 1850 data from the Federal Census, also used to estimate his birth year. He may have been born as early as 1825.

c. 1828 in PA

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Westminster Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, PA