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Federal (USV)

Sergeant

Edward Britton

(c. 1834 - 1862)

Home State: New York

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 69th New York Infantry

Before Antietam

In 1860 he was a 26 year old compositor (typesetter) in Brooklyn, NY. He enrolled in New York City to serve three years and mustered as 3rd Sergeant of Company I, 69th New York Infantry on 27 September 1861. He was promoted to First Sergeant on 2 July 1862.

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded in the right arm by "a musket ball [which] shattered the right humerus [upper arm bone] just below the surgical neck and lodged" in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was sent to US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD on 24 September.

The head and three and a half inches of the shaft of the humerus were excised through a linear incision, on September 28th, by A. A. Surgeon J. H. Bartholf, [later 18th New York Infantry]. He died on 27 October 1862, of symptoms of pleuritis and pneumonia.

He was originally buried in Frederick, probably at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

After the War

He was reinterred at the new National Cemetery in about 1867.

References & notes

Basic casualty information from Nelson.1 His service from the Roster 2 with details from McLernon.3 The quotes above from the MSHWR.4 Personal details from the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Ellen (?, c. 1832-) and they had a daughter Susan (b.c. 1854).

Birth

c. 1834 in IRELAND

Death

10/27/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD

Notes

1 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. 142 [AotW citation 16636]

2 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, For the Year 1901, Ser. No. 28, pg. 29 [AotW citation 17977]

3 McLernon, Robert, Casualty List, 69th New York Volunteer Infantry, Meagher's Irish Brigade, Bloody Lane, Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862, Springfield (Va): R. McLernon, 2014, pg. 7 [AotW citation 17978]

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 2, p. 585 [AotW citation 33092]

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