Wiliam J. Leahy

He came with his family to America in 1845 and was raised in New York to about 1851, then on a farm in Elk County, PA. He enlisted as a Private in Company C, 2nd US Sharpshooters on 1 October 1861, was promoted to First (Orderly) Sergeant, and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 28 July 1862.

He was wounded by a gunshot to his thigh in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was admitted to US Army General Hospital #6 in Frederick, MD on 27 September and was returned to his Company on 29 December. He resigned his commission and was discharged on 8 January 1863.

He was a building contractor in Clearfield County, PA to about 1875 then farmed in Clinton County. He served a term (1887-90) as Clinton County, PA sheriff and was business agent, real estate investor, and later hotel owner and postmaster, in Falls Creek, PA.

Wound and hospital details from the Patient List,1 as William J. Leahey. His service from Stevens.2 Personal details from a bio sketch in Dr. W.J. McKnight's Jefferson County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People, 1800-1915 (Vol. II, 1917). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married schoolteacher Matilda A. Hewitt (1846-1915) in 1866; they had no children

See a picture of him (c. 1887) in a post over on the blog.

07/10/1840; Dublin, IRELAND

08/13/1918; Dilltown, PA; burial in Saint Mary's Cemetery, Lock Haven, PA