Home State: Virginia
Command Billet: Battery Commander
Branch of Service: Artillery
Unit: Alleghany (VA) Artillery
Before Sharpsburg
Younger brother to Joseph, he enlisted in the "Allegheny Roughs", a militia company which soon became Company A of the 27th Virginia Infantry, under Capt. Thompson McAllister. After McAllister resigned in August 1861, the Company was commanded by Captain Joseph Carpenter with John Carpenter, 1st Lieutenant.1 Sometime after the 31 October 1861 muster, the company was reorganized as independent artillery, and was known thereafter as "Carpenter's" or Allegheny Artillery. 2
In May 1862, at the 1st Battle of Winchester, General Winder reported: "Captain Cutshaw and Lieutenant Barton being wounded, I placed First Lieut. John C. Carpenter in command of Cutshaw's battery." 3
In August, he relieved his brother Joseph , mortally wounded at Cedar Mountain, in command of the Battery.1
On the Campaign
He was wounded seriously in the knee at Sharpsburg in command of the Battery on 17 September, and was expected to lose his leg, but recovered and returned to active service. 1
The rest of the War
He was later in command of the Battery through Gettysburg (1863) and Monocacy (1864).4
More on the Web
See his 1902 letter on the "Roughs" at 1st Manassas, now at the Manassas Park library.
Birth
Date not known in VA
1 Fonerden, C. A., History of Carpenter's Battery of the Stonewall Brigade, 1861-1865, New Market (Va): Henkel and Company, 1911 [AotW citation 315]
2 Hewett, Janet B., editor, The Roster of Confederate Soldiers 1861-1865, 16 Volumes, Wilmington (NC): Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1995- [AotW citation 316]
3 Brigade commander Gen. Winder's Valley Campaign Report - June 1862.
US War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), 128 vols., Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1880-1901, Vol. 15/Part 1 (Ser #15) [AotW citation 317]
4 US War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), 128 vols., Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1880-1901, various citations [AotW citation 318]