Henry Waldrum Addison

After a year at the University of Virginia (1853-54) he studied the law, and in December 1855 was admitted to the bar and opened a practice in Edgefield with William C. Moragne (later Colonel, 19th SC Infantry). On 15 April 1861 he enlisted, and soon after mustered as First Sergeant, Company H, 7th South Carolina Infantry. He was promoted to Captain at the regimental reorganization of 13 May 1862.

He was wounded in the thigh by a canister round at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He later recalled the action there:

If my memory serves correctly (and I think it does) my Regt_ 7th S.C., at Sharpsburg_Sept 17./62., left the Dunkard Church, as we went into Battle, to our left one or two hundred yards. It is hard to say where the Union fire was deadliest: we thought the Union Army had or was retreating, but as we reached the end of the crest, under the declivity, we were confronted with Artillery and any numbers of lines of Infantry that belched forth such destruction that as I had never seen before, though no novice in the business.

I believe we lost, in killed & wounded near 75 percent in twenty minutes. My impression that our destruction was on our left: to the front of us on our right was green standing Corn, & we could not tell how deep was the Fed [Infantry]. It seemed to me w[h]ere the open ground occupied by them & where they joined the standing corn was the most terrific.

I should have said at first that we went up the Turn Pike Road and left it in rear of us, formed & moved facing Fed Army with Church toward our left__ I think there had been considerable fighting before we arrived, from a short distance on the right of the Road, as we passed over dead & wounded before we began firing_ at which time, our impression was that the Enemy was retreating

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I am sorry I cannot be more explicit; but a grape_shot disabled me soon after our firing began...

While he was recovering, he was detailed as Judge Advocate for the Division and then returned to his Company about June 1863. He was wounded again, in the left leg at Chickamauga, GA on 20 September 1863 and his leg was amputated. Afterward, he noted,

I returned to the Army, took command of Regt, but in a very short while an order that Regimental Officers were required to go into battle on foot, this ended my Military Career.

Afterward known as Colonel, he returned home, resumed his very successful law practice, and invested in local real estate.

His service from the Rolls.1 The quotes above from a pair of letters he wrote to Ezra Carman of the Antietam Battlefield Board in July and November 1898, now in the Antietam Studies collection at the National Archives, Washington, DC. Thanks to Jim Buchanan for posting transcriptions of letters one and two on Walking the West Woods. Personal details from family genealogists and a bio sketch by Jean L. Cooper on her Students of the University of Virginia, 1825-1874 blog. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Leila E. Wallace (1844-1906) in May 1871 and they had 2 children.

09/21/1834; Edgefield District, SC

01/10/1909; North Augusta, SC; burial in Magnolia Cemetery, Augusta, SC