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Confederate (CSV)

Captain

H. Bain Ritchie

(c. 1837 - 1862)

Home State: Louisiana

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 6th Louisiana Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

In 1860 he was a 23 year old farmer at Big Cane in St. Landry Parish, LA. He enrolled at Camp Moore in New Orleans on 28 May or 1 June 1861 as 2nd Lieutenant of Company C of the 6th Louisiana Infantry. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 25 or 30 October 1861 and to Captain on 26 May 1862.

On the Campaign

He was senior officer present at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 after the regiment pulled back from the Miller Cornfield to regroup near the Dunker Church about 9 AM, and was briefly in command. He was mortally wounded in action soon afterward when he led them back on to the field about noon, and was captured.

He died the same day at a field hospital on the Grove farm near Sharpsburg and was originally buried "East of J. C. Grove's warehouse, on hill near a new house."

After the War

He was probably reinterred at Hagerstown in about 1874.

References & notes

Burial information from Pruett,1 with basic service data from Booth2 and his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3. His command at Sharpsburg from Gannon,4 citing Captain Ring's Diary.

Birth

c. 1837 in LA

Death

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

Notes

1   Pruett, Samuel, and Poffenberger & Good, Greg Farino and Western Maryland Regional Library (WMRL), Washington Confederate Cemetery, possible burials, Hagerstown (MD): WHILBR, 2010  [AotW citation 4512]

2   Booth, Andrew B., Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands, 3 Volumes, New Orleans: State of Louisiana, 1920, Vol. 3, pg. 331  [AotW citation 5051]

3   US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927  [AotW citation 31902]

4   Gannon, James P., Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers: A History of the 6th Louisiana Volunteers, 1861-1865, Mason City, IA: Savas Publishing, 1998, pg. 137, 139  [AotW citation 27356]