Thaddeus S. Fleck

In 1860 he was an 18 year old farm hand living with his parents on their small farm in Jerome Township, Union County, OH. He enlisted and mustered as a Private in Company E, 30th Ohio Infantry on 29 August 1861 at Camp Chase near Columbus, OH.

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862

... in three different parts of his body. First the left hand, then in the face, and the last shot in the right thigh where a Minie ball was found embedded and was extracted by the surgeon. A bullet hole was also found in his cap. He fell near the stone fence [above the lower bridge] where the Rebels made their desperate charge as is so well remembered by the boys of the 30th Ohio ...

The Union line being compelled to retreat some distance, he was left on the field and reported by his comrades as dead. But after rallying from the first shock, he made a desperate effort to follow up the slowly retreating lines of his regiment and followed them up about a mile as he supposed. He was then captured by the Rebel cavalry, being taken prisoner by a young boy about 16 years of age who assisted him onto his own horse and carried him back into the Rebel lines. Here, he with others were laid on an old log stable and his young guard did all he could to relieve his suffering. The next day, the Union lines advanced and took possession of this stable, capturing the young Rebel boy at the same time.

He was admitted to the US Army General Hospital at Camp A in Frederick, MD on 3 October and was nursed there by his brother David (1824-1872) who had traveled from Ohio to find him, and later by brother William (1838-1909). He was sent on to Camp Chase on 1 December and was discharged for wounds there on 2 (or 21) December 1862.

He began receiving a US pension for disability in June 1863.

In 1870 he was a carpenter back in Jerome, OH, but by 1874 was at Douglas in Butler County, KS. In 1880 he was a boarder on the Jesse Rony farm in Twin Groves, Jasper County, MO.

A few years [before his death in 1885], he returned to his brother John in Marysville where he had made his home a greater part of the time. He had been failing very rapidly for the last year and died from the effects of the wound in his face from which he has suffered the most intense pain ever since he was wounded on that terrible field of carnage at Antietam. A few days before his death he said to one of the family that he had not had a good night’s rest for more than 20 years.

His service from the Roster1 and Brinkerhoff.2 Wound and hospital details from the Patient List.3 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1880, his pension card, and his grave registration card, the latter two online from fold3. His gravesite is on Findagrave. The quotes above from his obituary titled Answer to the Last Roll Call: Death of a Brave Union Soldier   in the Marysville (OH) Tribune of 18 February 1885; thank you to Dan Masters for kindly sending a transcript of that.

03/24/1843; Jerome, OH

02/05/1885; Marysville, OH; burial in Oakdale Cemetery, Marysville, OH