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F.J. Coates
(1843 - 1880)
Home State: Wisconsin
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 7th Wisconsin Infantry
Before Antietam
From Boscobel, he enlisted in Company H, 7th Wisconsin Infantry on 29 August 1861. He was promoted Corporal and Sergeant.
On the Campaign
He was wounded in action on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was again wounded in action at Gettysburg, PA with the loss of both eyes. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action at Gettysburg.
After the War
He returned to Boscobel, learned broom-making, and married (1867). He moved to Dorchester, NE between 1870 and 1873 and died of pneumonia at age 36.
References & notes
Basic information from State of Wisconsin1. Further details from the Wisconsin Historical Society, which has in their collection a c.1870 photograph of him wearing his Medal. His picture above from a photograph of him after he was blinded, now in the collection of the US Amy Heritage & Education Center.
Birth
08/24/1843; Boscobel, WI
Death
01/27/1880; Dorchester, NE; burial in Dorchester Cemetery, Dorchester, NE
1 State of Wisconsin, Adjutant General's Office, and Chandler P. Chapman, Adj. Gen., Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, 2 volumes, Madison: Democrat Printing Co., State Printers, 1886, Vol. 1, pp. 565 - 566 [AotW citation 10638]