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(1817 - 1862)
Home State: Maryland
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 5th Maryland Infantry
Before Antietam
A 44 year old bricklayer in Baltimore, he enlisted in Company E, 5th Maryland Infantry on 1 October 1861.
On the Campaign
He was mortally wounded in the leg in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He died of his wounds at the Mount Pleasant Hospital in Washington, DC on 24 October 1862.
References & notes
Basic service from Wilmer1, as William M. Burns. Wound detail from Nelson2, as William H. Burns. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Jim Buchanan for the pointer to Burns and for a copy of his death notice from the Baltimore Sun of 27 October 1862.
He married Mary Whorton (b. 1837) in 1856.
More on the Web
See a 1999 article by Dan Fesperman in the Baltimore Sun about his new gravestone.
Birth
1817 in SCOTLAND
Death
10/24/1862; Washington, DC; burial in Baltimore Cemetery, Baltimore, MD
1 Wilmer, L. Allison, and J.H. Jarrett, George H. Vernon, State Commissioners, History and Roster of Maryland Volunteers, War of 1861-5, Baltimore: Press of Guggenheimer, Weil & Co., 1898, Vol. 1, pp. 196 - 199 [AotW citation 14318]
2 Nelson, John H., As Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, Hagerstown: John H. Nelson, 2004, pg. 150 [AotW citation 24555]
