J. Seward
(1835 - 1889)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A 26 year old teamster in Luzerne County, PA, he enlisted at Port Carbon, PA for 90 days and mustered at Harrisburg on 22 April 1861 as a Private in Company C, 6th Pennsylvania Infantry. They had service along the B&O Railroad and in Western Virginia, and he mustered out with them on 17 July at Charlestown, VA. He enlisted again, along with most of the regiment, and mustered as 2nd Sergeant of Company E, 48th Pennsylvania Infantry on 21 September 1861.
On the Campaign
He was slightly wounded in the arm in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862, but remained on the field.
With a bang and a splutter along came that destructive old shell, which filled Douty's eyes with dirt, and bruised his shoulder, tore off Sergeant Seward's leg and left Sergeant Trainer minus one arm ...
The rest of the War
His leg was amputated at the thigh and he was admitted to US Army General Hospital #6 in Frederick, MD (as was his brother Samuel, sick) on 2 October. He was transferred out on 17 January 1863 and discharged for disability, date not given.
After the War
By 1880 he was a grocer in Scranton, PA and was an Alderman there from 1878 to his death in 1889.
References & notes
His service basics from Gould,1 Bates,2 and the Card File,3 the latter two also as John Seaward. The battle quote from Bosbyshell.4 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1880, and his obituary in the Scranton Republican of 6 November 1889. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the US Army Heritage & Education Center; thanks to John Banks and John D Hoptak for the pointers.
He married Mary (?, later Jenkins, 1843-1894) and they had two children (1871, 1879), neither of whom survived him.
Birth
09/29/1835; Fairmount, PA
Death
11/04/1889; burial in Forest Hill Cemetery, Dunmore, PA
1 Gould, Joseph, The Story of the Forty-eighth : a Record of the Campaigns of the Forty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry ..., Philadelphia: Regimental Association, 1908, pp. 82 - 90, 400 - 460 (rosters) [AotW citation 5464]
2 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871, Vol. I, pp. 62, 1218 [AotW citation 31674]
3 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17> [AotW citation 31676]
4 Bosbyshell, Oliver Christian, The 48th in the War: being a Narrative of the Campaigns of the 48th Regiment, Infantry, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, during the War of the Rebellion, Philadelphia: Avil Print. Co., 1895, p. 81 [AotW citation 31675]