Linus Bascom

From Lafayette, he enlisted in Company A, 7th Wisconsin Infantry on 16 July 1861. He was promoted to Sergeant and First Sergeant, dates not given.

He was seriously wounded in action at Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. He wrote home about his experiences 5 days later, from a hospital in the Lutheran Church in Middletown, MD:

Dear Mother:
I am alive and tolerable well for a man who has seven bullet holes in his hide. The rebels gave me that many button holes last Sunday night. I have no broken bones and shall be all right again in a few weeks. I cannot tell you much about the battle. I had fired 5 or 6 times when I got hit in the face, on the right side of the nose. The wound bled considerable but it is only a scratch. I think it was a buck shot or a small splinter from a shell. It glanced out and it makes my jaws a little sore. As soon as the blood stopped a little I went to firing again. It was then after dark, the gray backs were on our left and front and behind a stone wall. We were in an open plowed field under a heavy cross fire. Our regiment had fallen back a little from where I was firing behind a rock. I dared not get up to go back for fear that our own men would hit me. I had fired only 2 or 3 times after I got the first wound when whack a ball took me in the right leg. I thought that it had knocked the leg off and put my hand down to feel for it. I found two holes and the blood pouring out of them. The ball went in on the back side of the leg just above the knee and came out 4 inches below the groin. It hit the bone but did not break it. It passed through about 12 inches of flesh. I quit firing then. Soon I got hit in the left leg just above the knee, the ball is somewhere in the leg yet. I think that it passed up toward the hip. The leg is swelled a good deal now and pains me severely.

After I got wounded, I managed to get my knapsack and accoutrements off and tied up my legs as well as I could to stop the blood. The firing on both sides was awful and I was between the two. Our men advanced up to where I lay and beyond. Some of them offered to help me back to the rear but I told them to go in and whip the enemy first, and then if I was worth carrying off, they might do it. Some of them were out of ammunition and I gave them mine and my gun. The well ones used all their ammunition and then searched the dead and wounded for more. Our men drove the enemy from behind the stone wall and held the field with their bayonets. Our loss was very heavy but I do not know how many.

The enemy are said to have left as many dead on the field as we lost in killed and wounded. After the firing was about over, two men who were out of ammunition helped me.

He died of his wounds on 31 December 1862 in Middletown.

Basic information from State of Wisconsin1. Further details from Don Strube's excellent research and family genealogists. His gravestone has his date of death as 29 December 1862. The letter quoted above kindly provided by Dan Masters. It was published in the Western Reserve Chronicle of 15 October 1862 - online from the Library of Congress. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of picture, from a photograph contributed by Dennis Skalstad.

07/10/1831; Johnsville, OH

12/31/1862; Middletown, MD; burial in Russell Cemetery, Russell, MA