John S. Hudson

From Elbert County, he mustered as Private, Company C, 15th Georgia Infantry on 27 February 1862. He was appointed 4th Sergeant on 6 August 1862.

He was killed in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September:

I turned aside yesterday in the battle to see how a true soldier can die. He was of twenty two or three summers -- of clear skin and mild blue eyes -- John S. Hudson of Elbert county, Ga. His thigh had been torn off by a shell, and hung only by a thin piece of skin. He was calm and resigned, though his struggles were severe and protracted. Finally, as the dread hour for dissolution approached, he gathered up all his remaining strength, and turning to his brother, who hung over him in dumb agony, he said, "Tell mother I die rejoicing, and die a soldier's death." There was not a dry eye among the dozen spectators who, strangely enough, had stopped to witness the last moments of the youthful hero. May Heaven have mercy upon his soul, and upon our bleeding land!

Burial information from Pruett.1 Service from the Roster 2 via the Historical Data Systems database. The quote above from Peter Wellington Alexander (P.W.A.) in the Southern Recorder, Milledgeville, GA of 7 October 1862; thanks to Laura Elliott for supplying that clipping.

c. 1840

09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Washington Confederate Cemetery, Hagerstown, MD