Matthew M. Coleman

In 1860 he was a 16 year old farmer on his parents modest place at Swaynsboro (Swainsboro), GA; there were at least three other Coleman farms in the area. He enlisted and mustered on 1 October 1861 in Augusta, GA as a Private in Company C, 38th Georgia Infantry. He was promoted to First Corporal by February 1862 and to 3rd Sergeant to date from 1 August 1862.

He was mortally wounded and captured in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September and died the same day.

He died at the "White House" field hospital on the Line farm at Sharpsburg at 19 years old, and was buried on the grounds there.

2nd Sgt. Joseph L Sherrod of Company H, 48th Georgia Infantry, acting as attorney for Matthew's father Elisha filed for his final pay in December 1862. The claim was probably finally paid in May 1864.

He was probably reinterred at Hagerstown in about 1874.

Burial information from Pruett.1. His service from Henderson,2 as a Corporal, and his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3. Henderson also has him, as Mathew Coleman, in Company H, 48th Georgia Infantry, but there are no other records for him with that unit. Hospital detail from a list in the New York Times of 12 October 1862. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His memorial cenotaph in Swainsville, GA is on Findagrave; it has him as the Mathew in Company H of the 48th Georgia Infantry, probably in error.

His brother John C. Coleman was with Company H of the 48th Georgia at Sharpsburg.

01/12/1843; Emanuel County, GA

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