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(1843 - 1862)
Home State: Delaware
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 2nd Delaware Infantry
Before Antietam
He enlisted in Company G, 2nd Delaware Infantry at age 18 on 1 July 1861 in Philadelphia.
On the Campaign
He was mortally wounded by a piece of shell to his right hip in action on 17 September 1862 at Antietam.
The rest of the War
He was treated at a field hospital near the battlefield, then admitted to the US Army General Hospital #3 in the "Old Church" in Frederick, MD on 19 September. He had surgery to remove the shattered head of his femur (thigh bone) on 1 October, but he died of his wound at 3 p.m. on 4 October 1862.
References & notes
Basic information from State of Delaware1, which says he was killed in action at Antietam. A picture of his gravestone is online from Findagrave, thanks to Jen Snoots. It also has his name as Cornelius Callaghan. Wound and hospital details from Nelson,2 the Patient List,3 and the MSHWR.4
More on the Web
See a lovely piece with more about Callahan and his family by Damian Shiels on Irish in the American Civil War.
His medical case is found in some detail in the MSHWR, online from the US National Library of Medicine/NIH.
Birth
08/1843; County Cork, IRELAND
Death
10/04/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Saint John's Cemetery, Frederick, MD
1 State of Delaware, Adjutant General's Office, Civil War Military records for Delaware Units, Published 1861-, first accessed 31 January 2015, <http://archives.delaware.gov/CivilWar/volumes/>, Source page: Muster Out Roll, 2nd Delaware Infantry [AotW citation 14637]
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. 152 [AotW citation 25835]
3 National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and Terry Reimer, Frederick Patient List, Published 2018, first accessed 17 September 2018, <http://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/primary-sources/databases/frederickpatient/>, Source page: patient #141 [AotW citation 25836]
4 Barnes, Joseph K., and US Army, Office of the Surgeon General, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 6 books, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1870-1883, Volume 2, Part 3, pg. 104 [AotW citation 25837]