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(1837 - 1862)
Home State: Indiana
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 19th Indiana Infantry
Before Antietam
Originally from Mifflin County, PA, he was a printer's apprentice at the Lewistown (PA) American, then went West in 1857. He was living in Anderson, IN by 1860. He mustered as Private, Company A, 19th Indiana Infantry on 1 December 1861. He was promoted to Sergeant, date not given.
On the Campaign
On the evening of 16 September 1862:
Immediately on crossing the creek we [the 19th Indiana] were advanced in line of battle up the hill in a plowed field which covered the brow of the hill. Lieutenant Colonel Bachman immediately deployed Company A, Sergeant Eager, forward as skirmishers through the corn-field, in order to protect our front and the crossing of our division, which, being accomplished, we were ordered to join the brigade and move farther up to the right.He continued in command of his Company as senior man present until he was mortally wounded by a gunshot to the abdomen in action along the Hagerstown Pike at Antietam on the morning of 17 September 1862. He was taken to the rear but died "almost immediately". He was 25 years and 14 days old.
The rest of the War
He was originally buried on the battlefield.
References & notes
Service information from the Adjutant General.1 Details from the Field Guide to Antietam.2 The quote above from Captain Dudley's Report after the battle. His birth date calculated from his age at death given in an announcement in the Lewistown Gazette of 1 October 1862. His memorial is on Findagrave.
More on the Web
See much more about Ephraim and his brother James (Co. G, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves) in a fine blog post by John Banks.
Birth
09/03/1837 in PA
Death
09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Lind Memorial Cemetery, Lewistown, PA
1 State of Indiana, Adjutant General's Office, and William H.H. Terrell, Adjutant General, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana, 8 volumes, Indianapolis: (various) State Printers, 1865-1869, Vol. 4, pg. 392 [AotW citation 20651]
2 Reardon, Carol, and Tom Vossler, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016 [AotW citation 20652]