Thomas J. Dingler

In 1860 he was a 15 year old living with his widowed mother and 7 siblings on their small farm at Erin in Spalding County, GA. He enlisted in Griffin, GA on 4 March 1862 and mustered as a Private in Company E, 44th Georgia Infantry.

He was with his company in Maryland and mentioned by Brigadier General Doles as having "attracted, in an especial manner, the attention of [his] commander by [his] extraordinary daring."

He was wounded at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863 and was killed at the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 10 May 1864:

...Thomas J. Dingler ... waved the 44th Georgia's flag overhead defiantly. Soldiers in Upton's first line, bayonets flashing, stabbed him fourteen times. He fell still tightly clutching the banner.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, with death detail quoted from Gordon Rhea's Battles for Spotsylvania Court House (2005). The Maryland mention is from D H Hill's after-action report. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860.

c. 1845; Spalding County, GA

05/10/1864; Spotsylvania Court House, VA