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Federal (USV)

Private

William Charles Riley

(c. 1835 - ?)

Home State: Indiana

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 27th Indiana Infantry

Before Antietam

A 26 year old farmer in Washington County, he mustered as Private, Company F, 27th Indiana Infantry on 12 September 1861.

On the Campaign

He was hit by a spent ball to the left side of his chest in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He later wrote of it:

I thought it went plum through me, it would not have hurt more if it had. I thought it strange that I did not fall down. I felt for the hole in my breast but found none so I kept on fighting all day. After the battle I examined my breast & found it was black & blue. I never had anything done for it.

The rest of the War

He was wounded again, in action at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863. He mustered out on 12 October 1864 in Indianapolis.

References & notes

His service from Brown1 and the Historical Data Systems database. The quote above from his Pension Request, in Jones.2

Birth

c. 1835

Notes

1   Brown, Edmund Randolph, The Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, Monticello, IN: E.R. Brown, 1899, pg. 601  [AotW citation 18620]

2   Jones, Wilbur D., Jr., Giants in the Cornfield: the 27th Indiana Infantry, Shippenburg (Pa.): White Mane Publishers, 1997, pg. 12  [AotW citation 18823]