Abraham Alexander Goldsmith

In 1860 he was a 20 year old merchant, probably working with his father Moses, and lived with his parents and 7 siblings in Charleston, SC. He enlisted there on 12 May 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company K of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry on 23 May. He was promoted to 3rd Sergeant by September 1862.

He was wounded by a gunshot to his right arm in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was absent on furlough, "disabled by wounds" to at least February 1864, reduced to Private at his own request, then detailed to the naval iron works at Columbus, GA to at least June 1864, the latest record in his military file.

By 1870 and to at least 1882 he was a prosperous merchant in business with his father as Moses Goldsmith & Son dealing wholesale in "cotton bagging, metals, hides" and other naval stores in Charleston, SC. He was also Commissioner of Markets (1880-83) and Police Commissioner (1883-87) there. In 1900 he was a cotton buyer with his son Momar in Charleston.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, as Ab A. Godsmith. Wound detail from Charles Reznikoff's The Jews of Charleston (2001). Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1900, also as Abram, Barnett A. Elzas' The Jews of South Carolina, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1905), and Sholes' Directory (1882). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Rose Ella Hilzeim (1844-1898) in Augusta, GA in September 1863, and they had 15(!) children.

His brothers Michael Myers and Isaac Goldsmith were killed in Confederate service during the Atlanta campaign of 1864.

04/19/1840; Charleston, SC

08/05/1906; Charleston, SC; burial in Coming Street Cemetery, Charleston, SC