Eldridge Williams

A 22 year old farmer in Lawrence County, he mustered as Private, Company D, 27th Indiana Infantry on 15 August 1862.

He was mortally wounded in the thigh and wrist in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He later wrote:

They finds me under a corn shed wounded. The other boys are all wounded but I think we will get well. I have not the ability to write much. I fired 30 rounds before I fell. The battle was one of the most severe, shell & shot flew thicker than hail. Our line was cut down like grain before the sickle.

He was treated at a hospital in Boonsboro, then, from 26 September, in Frederick, MD. He died of wounds in the Seminary Hospital, Frederick on 13 November 1862.

His service from Brown1 and the Historical Data Systems database. Hospital details from Steve Russell's Roster and the Patient List.2 The quote above from a 20 September letter he wrote to his Uncle Jack; from Jones.3 His gravesite is on Findagrave.

His younger brother Rufus and their cousins Laban and Daniel Williams were also members of Company D during the War. Rufus lived to age 83. Cousin Laban was killed at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July 1863 and Daniel died at age 33 in 1876.

06/02/1839; Lawrence County, IN

11/13/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Old Union Cemetery, Fayetteville, IN