John Peters

From Owen County, IN, he mustered as Private, Company H, 14th Indiana Infantry on 7 June 1861.

He was mortally wounded by a gunshot in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

A ball had entered at the spine of the right scapula [shoulder blade], and emerged just below and posterior to the acromion process of the same side, fracturing the entire spine and comminuting it [crushing into small pieces] to a great extent.

He was admitted to US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD on 28 September and on 14 October had surgery to remove part of his shattered shoulder blade. He appeared to do well and on 2 November his wound was drained, but he began to fail afterward and died on 15 November 1862. An autopsy found "extensive pleurisy" (lung congestion) and infection around the head of his humerus (upper arm bone).

He was reinterred from his original burial in Frederick to the new National Cemetery, grave #3432, in about 1867.

Burial information from the Antietam Cemetery History,1 which has his death on 16 November. Service from the Adjutant General.2 Wound and hospital details from the Patient List,3 which says his femur was fractured, and the MSHWR.4 His gravesite is on Findagrave.

11/15/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, MD