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Federal (USV)

Private

William Murdock

(1838 - 1924)

Home State: Connecticut

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 14th Connecticut Infantry

Before Antietam

He came to Middletown, CT in 1855 and he enlisted as a Private in Company B, 14th Connecticut Infantry on 4 August 1862.

On the Campaign

He was slightly wounded by a piece of buckshot over his left eye in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to Corporal on 1 October 1862, to Sergeant on 9 February 1863, and Sergeant Major of the Regiment on 20 October 1863. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of Company A on 28 March 1864 and was wounded 6 May 1864 in the Wilderness, VA. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 5 July 1864 and to Captain of the Company on 14 February 1865. He mustered out with them on 31 May 1865.

After the War

By 1880 he was a machinist in Middletown, CT. He was a machinist and tool maker in Hartford by 1900 and to at least 1910, that year in a linotype factory at age 72, living at 80 Capitol Avenue. He finally retired and was living with his son Robert in 1920. He was probably with his daughter Carrie L Murdock Thacker (b. 1871) at his death of chronic interstitial nephritis (kidney disease) in Springfield, MA in 1924.

References & notes

His service from the Record.1 His wound at Antietam from his recollection of the battle in the Hartford Daily Times of 17 September 1915; thanks to John Banks. His picture from a photograph in the MOLLUS Massachusetts2 collection. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1880-1920. His death date from the Hartford Courant of 1 January 1924. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Ellen C. Loveland (1845-1918) in about 1871 and they had 3 children between 1871 and 1885.

Birth

01/22/1838 in SCOTLAND

Death

04/29/1924; Springfield, MA; burial in Spring Grove Cemetery, Hartford, CT

Notes

1   State of Connecticut, Adjutant General's Office, and AGs Smith, Camp, and Barbour, and AAG White, Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Army and Navy of the United States during the War of the Rebellion, Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, 1889, pp. 552, 553, 557  [AotW citation 27047]

2   US Army, Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)-Massachusetts Photograph Collection, Published 2009, <https://arena.usahec.org/web/arena>, Source page: Vol. 136, pg. 6959  [AotW citation 27048]