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Federal (USV)

Sergeant

John A. O'Brien

(c. 1841 - 1862)

Home State: New York

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 42nd New York Infantry

Before Antietam

He was age 20 when he enlisted at Long Island, and mustered in as Private, Company C, 42nd New York -Intantry on 22 June 1861. He transferred to Company H on 28 June 1861, was promoted to Corporal on 1 November 1861, and Sergeant on 19 February 1862.

On the Campaign

He was probably First Sergeant of his Company when was killed in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

After the War

He was reinterred from his original burial on the field to the new National Cemetery in about 1867.

References & notes

Burial information from the Antietam Cemetery History,1 which lists him as a Private in Company C. Service data from the State of New York.2 His rank at Antietam from a casualty list in the New York Daily Herald of 25 September 1862. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

c. 1841

Death

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD

Notes

1   Antietam National Cemetery, Board of Trustees, History of Antietam National Cemetery, Baltimore: John W. Woods, Steam Printer, 1869  [AotW citation 3989]

2   State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, Issue 23 (for the year 1900), pg. 1044  [AotW citation 8480]