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(1830 - 1872)
Home State: Texas
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 1st Texas Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
He was a 20 year old farmer on his father's place in Marengo County, AL in 1850. He married in that year and by 1851 he was in Anderson County, TX, where he farmed and raised cattle. He enlisted as Private in Company G, First Texas Infantry on 3 April 1862 in Palestine, TX, age 31.
On the Campaign
He was wounded by gunshot to the arm in action and captured at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
His right arm was amputated. He was treated at a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD from 22 - 25 October 1862 then transferred to Baltimore. He was exchanged, then on wounded furlough to at least May 1863.
After the War
He returned to his farm in Anderson County. He died there of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1872, not yet 42 years old.
References & notes
Service information from Davis,1 who has him as T.J. Watts, and Simpson,2 who says he was was wounded again, at Chickamauga, GA on 19 September 1863 and sent home on furlough on 5 October 1864. This seems unlikely given his amputation. Polley3 agrees that he lost an arm at Sharpsburg. Hospital, wound, and amputation details from the Patient List.4 Personal information from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
Birth
06/02/1830; Sumter District , SC
Death
04/20/1872; burial in Palestine City Cemetery, Palestine, TX
1 Davis, Rev. Nicholas A., The Campaign from Texas to Maryland, Houston: Telegraph Book and Job Establishment, 1863, Pg. 142 [AotW citation 1509]
2 Simpson, Harold Brown, Hood's Texas Brigade: a Compendium, Hillsboro: Hill Junior College Press, 1977, pg. 56 [AotW citation 20955]
3 Polley, Joseph Benjamin, Hood's Texas Brigade, New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1910, pg. 311 [AotW citation 20956]
4 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 #1.194 [AotW citation 20972]