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Federal (USV)

Private

William Helffenstein

(c. 1826 - ?)

Home State: New York

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 42nd New York Infantry

Before Antietam

Age 35, he enlisted on 25 May 1861 in New York City, and mustered as a Private in Company I, 42nd New York Infantry on 22 June.

On the Campaign

He was wounded by a gunshot to his right leg which broke his tibia (lower leg bone) in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

The rest of the War

He was treated in the field hospital on the Susan Hoffman farm at Sharpsburg and his leg was amputated. He was admitted to US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD on 29 September, transferred to GH#5 on 29 December, and discharged there for disability on 5 January 1863.

References & notes

His service from the State of New York.1 Wound and hospital details from the Patient List 2 and Nelson.3

Birth

c. 1826

Notes

1   State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York [year]: Registers of the [units], 43 Volumes, Albany: James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1893-1905, Issue 23 (for the year 1900)  [AotW citation 8545]

2   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 #631  [AotW citation 30123]

3   Nelson, John H., As Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, Hagerstown: John H. Nelson, 2004, p. 243  [AotW citation 30124]