William Wirt Bloss

A printer by trade, he had gone West and was in Levenworth, Kansas in about 1854. He was shot and wounded there during the fighting over the issue of slavery and returned to Rochester to recover. He was later editor of the Rochester Evening Express. He helped recruit and was appointed First Lieutenant, Company A, 108th New York Infantry on 24 July 1862.

He was wounded in action on 17 September 1862 at Antietam.

The color guard had been almost annihilated ... Colonel Palmer ordered Bloss to make a detail from Company A and come to the support of the colors ... The colors were steadily advanced until [Sergeant] Goff fell, pierced by a ball in the forehead, and every member of the guard was wounded. Bloss thrust the color lance in the ground, and throwing himself upon his side and leaning upon his left arm, supported the colors with his right.

"Up to this time I had felt no fear of personal danger, but suddenly the conviction was reversed, and this vivid sense of imminent danger was followed by a blinding blow as if ... some one had struck me. When I came to consciousness I was under the shadow of a haystack in rear of our line of battle, amid a crowd of suffering comrades under surgical treatment. Captain Pierce of Company F, as I learned, had taken me from the field ..."

He had received a buckshot wound in the face, destroying the right cartilage of the nose and lacerating the lips and chin. It was followed by severe hemorrhage which proved well nigh fatal. When but partially recovered, Lieutenant Bloss rejoined the regiment on Bolivar Heights.

He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 19 February 1863 (rank from 30 October 1862) but was discharged for wounds on 14 March 1863. He returned to journalism, briefly in New York, then back out in Kansas. In 1864 he was appointed Captain on the staff of General G.W. Deitzler (Kansas Militia) and saw action at the battle of Westport, MO. He was honored by Brevet to Major for his War service.

After the War he operated newspapers in New York, Kansas and, by about 1880, in Chicago, IL.

His service from the State of New York.1 Additional details and the quote above from Washburn2 (probably sourced from Bloss's obituary in the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle of 6 September 1892). His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the Scott D. Hann Collection as published in Military Images (September/October 2002).

He married Louise Kate Skinner (1836-1906) in June 1855 and they had 3 children.

03/25/1831; Rochester, NY

09/03/1892; Woodland Park, IL; burial in Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, IL