Rupert J. Sadler

By 1847, age 5, he'd arrived in America with his parents and a younger sister and in 1850 was living in Lynn, MA, his father Rupert an artist there (as were his father and grandfather before him). Sometime after 1857 young Rupert was acquitted on a charge of manslaughter, defended by Boston lawyer Wider Dwight. On 10 October 1861, then a machinist in Boston, he enlisted, and he mustered as a Private in Company D, 2nd Massachusetts Infantry on 23 October.

He was with his company in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

Firing commenced at 5 A.M. ... Col Dwight took the flag and rode up & down the lines - the men all cheering - & we were congratulating ourselves on an easy victory ... [a] large body of rebels came out of the woods & we had it hot & heavy until 20 men out of our 200 were lying on the ground ...

After we had got out of the reach of the enemy, I went back to see what had become of Col Dwight. I got a canteen full of water ... [a]fter I had looked about for a few moments, I saw a man with his head lying on a rail. I felt that it was the Colonel and hurried to him. It was as I thought. I gave him a drink of water, & asked him where it was he was wounded. He said that his thigh bone was shattered. I saw his arm was bleeding & asked him was it serious. he said that it was a pretty little round. I saw two of our men coming & called them over. The rebels saw them & began firing. After the firing had ceased, Col Dwight wanted us to go back to the regiment.

... I wanted to bind up his wounds, but he said that it was no use. He then gave us directions about carrying him. We lifted him into a cornfield. I then sent one of the men down to the Regiment for Dr. Stone. He came up immediately & we then carried the Col to the Regiment ... He gave me a paper* that he had been trying to write on, & the pencil. The paper was covered with his blood. I gave them all to Col Andrews except the pencil. I have that now.

He was promoted to Corporal on 28 November 1862 and was killed at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July 1863 while carrying the regimental colors.

His service from Soldiers1, also as Sergeant, and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. His birthplace and death details from Quint.3 The quote above from his letter of 24 September 1862 from Sandy Hook, MD, now at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1850. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

* A letter Dwight was writing home. It's in the Massachusetts Historical Society collection.

c. 1842; Dublin, IRELAND

07/03/1863; Gettysburg, PA; burial in Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, PA