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Confederate (CSV)

Private

William P. West

(c. 1845 - 1862)

Home State: Georgia

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 51st Georgia Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

Age 17, from Mitchell County, he mustered as Private, Company A, 51st Georgia Infantry on 15 May 1862. They were renamed Company C by June.

On the Campaign

He was mortally wounded by gunshot through his left knee and was captured in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was admitted to a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD three days after he was wounded.

The patient was told at an early stage that his limb ought to be amputated. But he expressed his certainty of recovering and begged off, declaring his readiness and willingness to incur all risks of that course. He was therefore not operated upon.

He was treated without amputation but died of infection and abscess from his wounds on 14 October 1862 and was originally buried "on west side of and in the cemetery [Mt Olivet] at Frederick."

After the War

He was probably reinterred at Hagerstown in about 1874.

References & notes

Burial information from Pruett.1 His service from the Roster 2 and his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3. Wound and hospital details from the Patient List 4 and the MSHWR,5 source of the quote above. He has memorials [via Findagrave] at Mt Olivet in Frederick and may still be buried there.

Birth

c. 1845

Death

10/14/1862; Frederick, 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 5023]

2 Henderson, Lilian, compiler, Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865, 6 vols., Hapeville (GA): Longino & Porter, 1959-1964 [AotW citation 19648]

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 34844]

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 #9.616 [AotW citation 19649]

5 Barnes, Joseph K., and US Army, Office of the Surgeon General, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 6 books, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1870-1883, Volume 2, Part 3, pp. 382-383 [AotW citation 19650]

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