Francis Xavier Burger

After Completing my studies at the Polytechnical School, at Munich, I was engaged as Civil Engineer and Architect, in laying out the Rail Road between the Fortress Ulm and Frederich's Haven. In the year 1848, when the War broke out between the German States and Denmark, I voluntarily offered my Services and filled the position of Sergeant in the first Battery of Flying Artillery. After a cessation of the troubles the Army was reduced and prospective promotion being but slight, I left the service and sailed for the United States, and arrived at New York in August 1854. I received my final papers and became a Citizen of the United States in 1859.

He was wounded again, in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

my right arm was shattered by a shell from the enemy and was amputated the same day at [Hospital #3 in] Boonsboro.

He was treated in a US Army General Hospital in Frederick, MD and at the Officer's Hospital in Georgetown, DC and returned to his regiment on 4 December 1862. He was assigned to recruiting duty in Harrisburg, PA from 8 January through November 1863 then applied for transfer to the Invalid Corps (Veteran Reserve Corps). On 12 January 1864, in company with a party of recruits and en-route to a medical examining board, he was injured in a train collision near Baltimore, MD. On recovering, his transfer rejected, he returned to the recruiting station. He mustered out with his regiment on 17 June 1864.

In July 1866 he began work as a clerk in the Depot of Army Clothing and Equipage in New York.

Basic casualty information from Nelson.1 His service from Bates.2 Personal details and the quotes above from a letter of 28 August 1865 he wrote entering a left-hand penmanship contest, now at the Library of Congress.

08/15/1824; Buchau, Wurttemberg, GERMANY