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Federal (USV)

Private

William B. Robertson

(c. 1843 - 1862)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 71st Pennsylvania Infantry

Before Antietam

Age 18, from Philadelphia, he enlisted and mustered in Washington, DC on 9 August 1861 as a Private in Company H, First California (afterward 71st Pennsylvania) Infantry.

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862 by a gunshot that penetrated his chest cavity.

The rest of the War

He was admitted to the Master Street Hospital in Philadelphia on 29 September and died there "from exhaustion" on 17 November 1862.

His mother Hannah applied for a pension in October 1864 based on his service; she reported her husband Joseph - "a dissipated and worthless character" - had abandoned them in August 1860.

References & notes

Service basics from Bates1 and the Card File.2 Wound and hospital details from the MSHWR.3 Personal details from Civil War "Widows' Pensions", 1861-1910, online from fold3.

Birth

c. 1843

Death

11/17/1862; Philadelphia, PA

Notes

1 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871 [AotW citation 31526]

2 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17> [AotW citation 31527]

3 Barnes, Joseph K., and US Army, Office of the Surgeon General, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 6 books, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1870-1883, Volume 2, Part 1, p. 535 [AotW citation 31528]

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