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Federal (USV)

Private

William T. Kerr

(1843 - 1929)

Home State: Minnesota

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 2nd United States Sharpshooters

Before Antietam

An 18 year old farmer in Maple Grove, MN, he enlisted as a Private in Company A, 2nd US Sharpshooters on 23 September 1861 at Ft. Snelling.

On the Campaign

He was with his Company in action in Miller's Cornfield at Antietam on 17 September 1862, and retrieved the colors of a Texas regiment there.

The rest of the War

He was wounded by a gunshot to his left hip at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 15 May 1864 and hospitalized in Washington, DC. He was sent to Ft. Snelling in August and mustered out there on 20 September 1864 at the end of his term of service.

After the War

He was a railroad foreman and surveyor in Hennepin County, MN.

References & notes

Service information from Minnesota1 via the Historical Data Systems database, as William S. Kerr. His presence at Antietam from an 1888 speech (pp. 45-46) by William H. Humphrey, a veteran of Company E; text now at the Vermont Historical Society. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

03/06/1843; New Brighton, PA

Death

02/22/1929; Hassan, MN; burial in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, MN

Notes

1   State of Minnesota, Board of Commissioners, Minnesota in the Civil War and Indian Wars 1861-1865, 2 volumes, St. Paul: Pioneer Press Company, 1890-93  [AotW citation 25040]