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Federal (USV)

Private

Franklin Sylvester Ritter

"Frank"

(1841 - 1862)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 128th Pennsylvania Infantry

Before Antietam

He mustered into service for 3 months in Company G, 128th Pennsylvania Infantry on 12 August 1862.

On the Campaign

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

Frank Ritter fell, dead in the commencement of the fight ... he was hit in the head right under right eye ... Wilgh. and some others carried him out of the woods. We buried him last evening under a locust tree in the field. If his father wishes to fetch his body I think he better come with Lieut. Miller. We marked his grave with a head board with his name and reg. and residence.

References & notes

Basic service from Bates1. The quote above from a 19 September 1862 letter home by Frank's messmate Private William J. Reichard, now at the Lehigh County Historical Society and partially extracted by Adam Clark in the Allentown Morning Call of 16 May 2013. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

06/20/1841

Death

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Union-West End Cemetery, Allentown, PA

Notes

1   Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871, Vol. 4, pg. 179  [AotW citation 11192]