Open main menu
Open main menu
![[no picture yet]](images/none.gif)
[no picture yet]
(c. 1840 - 1862)
Home State: Alabama
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 13th Alabama Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
Son of Wittenburg-native machinist Godfried Rentz, in 1860 he was an unmarried 20 year old clerk living with his parents and 3 siblings in Rehoboth, Wilcox County, AL. He enlisted in Bridgeport, AL on 6 July 1861 and mustered as a Corporal in Company A, 13th Alabama Infantry. He was promoted to Commissary Sergeant of the regiment on 31 August, Sergeant Major on 1 January 1862, and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and Adjutant on 11 August to date from 1 July.
On the Campaign
He was mortally wounded by gunshot to his right leg and captured in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
His leg was amputated and he was treated at US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD. He signed a parole on 5 October but died in the hospital of wounds on 10 October 1862. He was originally buried "along the west side and in [Mt. Olivet] cemetery at Frederick [Maryland]."
His father "Godfrey" filed a claim for his son's final pay in July 1863 which was paid in November 1864.
After the War
John was probably reinterred at Hagerstown in about 1874.
References & notes
Burial information from Pruett,1 who has him as Pvt. J. W. Rintz. His service from the Alabama Archives2 and his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3. Hospital, wound, and death details from the Patient List.4 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His memorials in Frederick and Hagerstown are online from Findagrave.
Birth
c. 1840 in AL
Death
10/10/1862; Frederick, MD; burial in Washington Confederate Cemetery, Hagerstown, MD
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 4928]
2 State of Alabama, Dept. of Archives & History, Alabama Civil War Service Database, Published 2004, first accessed 01 January 2010, <https://archives.alabama.gov/research/CivilWarService.aspx>, Source page: /civilwar/soldier.cfm?id=168820, /civilwar/soldier.cfm?id=16 [AotW citation 20072]
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 32829]
4 National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and Terry Reimer, Frederick Patient List, Published 2018, first accessed 17 September 2018, <http://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/primary-sources/databases/frederickpatient/>, Source page: patient #9.605 [AotW citation 20073]