Albert Alanson Drake

He was orphaned at about age 6 in 1849 when his mother Nancy died, and in 1860 was a 16 year old farm laborer on Carlisle Brunson's place at Alburgh, VT. He enlisted at Lewis, NY for three years and mustered as a Private in Company A, 77th New York Infantry on 22 October 1861.

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862

by a minie ball, which penetrated the right natis [buttock] near the ischium [lower pelvis], and, passing forward and inward, traversed the whole length of perineum, cutting, in its course, the urethra at its membranous portion, and finally lodged in the epididymis [tubes around testicle] of the right side ...

He was treated at a field hospital, where he received a catheter, then in a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD, and was finally sent to the Satterlee US Army General Hospital in Philadelphia, PA on 26 September. He had successful surgery on 5 October to remove the bullet and was healing well by 4 December.

On 6 or 8 December 1862 he "left the hospital without permission" and enlisted in Philadelphia as a Private in Battery C, 3rd United States Artillery. He reenlisted, still a Private, at Stevensburg, VA on 16 February 1864 but died "at home" in Lewis, NY on 6 May 1864, cause not given. He was originally charged with desertion from 1 April 1864, but that was removed from his record in 1867.

His service from the Adjutant General1 and the Registers.2 Wound and hospital details from the MSHWR,3 quoted above. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, and New York Town Clerks' Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War in the NY Sate Archives via Ancestry.com. His gravesite is on Findagrave; he's buried next to his maternal uncle Alanson Denton (1803-1874), in whose home he may have died.

12/06/1842; Potsdam, NY

05/07/1864; Lewis, NY; burial in Lewis Cemetery, Lewis, NY