William Nathaniel Ledyard

A 26 year old merchant in Mobile, he enlisted as Private, Company A, 3rd Alabama Infantry on 23 April 1861. He was promoted to Sergeant, date not given. Major Sands, then commanding the regiment, cited him for bravery in his report on the battles of 27 June and 1 July 1862 in Virginia.

He was wounded in action near Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

He was commissioned First Lieutenant and was in command of his Company when he was wounded in the right leg at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863 and captured there. His leg was amputated and he was in Federal custody at Fort McHenry in Baltimore to at least April 1864. He may have been among the "Immortal 600" officers sent from Fort Delaware to Charleston in August 1864, and was finally exchanged on 29 January 1865.

He died during the yellow fever epidemic of 1867 in Galveston, TX, just 32 years old.

His service from the State of Alabama.1 His wounding on South Mountain from a casualty list for Rodes' Brigade in the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser of 8 October 1862. Gettysburg rank and wound details from the MSHWR.2 Personal details from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He's not found in Major J.O. Murray's original Immortal 600 (1905) [via the Internet Archive], but is listed in the more recent Biographical Roster of the Immortal 600 (1995) by Mauriel Joslyn.

He married Adelaide Dargan (1839-1896) in October 1856 and they had a son, Edmund (1866-1928).

A brief letter he wrote from Fort McHenry was offered for sale by the Excelsior Brigade.

01/19/1835; Coffeeville, Clarke County, AL

08/14/1867; Galveston, TX; burial in Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, AL