Forgotten Valor - The Lincoln Cemetery

The grave of Henry Gooden, a private in Company C, 127th U.S.C.T.
Photo by the author.

Many of the millions of visitors who come to Gettysburg each year find themselves strolling amidst the semicircle of graves in the National Cemetery while contemplating the meaning of Lincoln's words here. He used his Gettysburg Address not only as a chance to make a "few appropriate remarks" to honor the fallen, but as a call to action:

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

To many in Lincoln's audience that day, and to those who read his words in newspapers in the days and weeks after, the "unfinished work" clearly referenced the end of the war and reunification. Those with keener insight perhaps interpreted "a new birth of freedom" as support for the complete eradication of the system of slavery. Yet the Gettysburg Address lives on in American memory because its message still speaks to us, much like Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Today, while we recognize Jefferson's self-evident truths as the founding principles of our nation, we can always look to Lincoln's address as a call to action to complete the unfinished work remaining to reach those lofty truths.

Gettysburg TimesNovember 13, 1936

While the Civil War ended in 1865, the struggle to achieve a new birth of freedom for African Americans remained a long and arduous task. For those visitors to Gettysburg who would like to dig a bit deeper, evidence of that struggle resides within the very cemetery that Lincoln dedicated on November 19, 1863. In section 13 - a section devoted to U.S. Regulars - you can find the grave of Henry Gooden in the front row, second from the left. Gooden served in the 127th U.S. Colored Troops, which organized at Camp William Penn in the fall of 1864, and consisted of men enlisted and drafted from the State of Pennsylvania. The regiment saw combat only once during its service, at Deep Bottom.

Gooden died on August 3, 1876. Initially buried in the Alms House Cemetery, he was reburied in the National Cemetery on November 8, 1884. His presence there was an anomaly in a period of segregated cemeteries. Though a few black veterans from more recent wars were interred in the National Cemetery, Gooden remained the only black Civil War veteran in the cemetery until 1936, when Charles H. Parker joined him.

Parker served in Company F of the 3rd USCT, and died on July 2, 1876. His remains originally rested at Yellow Hill Cemetery north of Gettysburg, and his grave was rediscovered in the 1930s at the neglected cemetery by Dr. Henry Stewart, who was conducting a graves survey for the Gettysburg camp of the Sons of Union Veterans. Parker was moved to the National Cemetery in November, 1936. Today, Parker and Gooden remain the only black Civil War veterans buried in the National Cemetery.

Lincoln Cemetery. Photo by Author

Yet a small, out-of-the-way cemetery in Gettysburg speaks powerfully to the fact that, despite Lincoln's call for a "new birth of freedom," the country had a long way to go. While two famed cemeteries rested atop Cemetery Hill - the National Cemetery and the Evergreen Cemetery - these two sites largely remained for whites only. In 1867 a society of black men calling themselves the Sons of Good Will purchased a half-acre of land located along Long Lane, and set it aside as a place to bury Gettysburg's African American citizens and Civil War veterans. Called Goodwill Cemetery, this was actually the second black cemetery in the borough. Another cemetery had been located on the east end of town on York Street in 1824. In 1906 the bodies buried in this cemetery were exhumed and moved to Goodwill Cemetery.

Gettysburg Times
May 29, 1933

According an interpretive marker at the site, the Lincoln Lodge of Gettysburg's Black Elks purchased the land along Long Lane in the 1920s, giving the Goodwill Cemetery its modern name, Lincoln Cemetery (though references to the Goodwill Cemetery can be found in Gettysburg newspapers right up to the 1950s). The remains of some forty African American veterans reside at Lincoln Cemetery, including 30 Civil War veterans of the USCT. For many years the cemetery hosted the Memorial Day observances of Gettysburg's African American community. On May 29, 1933 the Gettysburg Times reported on that year's program:

After a creditable parade in which a number of visiting organizations participated, colored residents of Gettysburg paid fitting tribute to the memory of their soldier dead in Goodwill cemetery Sunday afternoon. A threatening rain held off until the exercises were concluded. The principle speaker for the occasion, Edward W. Henry, Philadelphia magistrate, delivered a forceful address in which he called upon colored citizens everywhere to combat the influences of communism, pointing to the results of that system in Russia, Germany, Spain and Mexico. He urged colored residents to live for and by the principles laid down by the constitution of the United States and Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation.

The procession to the cemetery itself included three bands and a group of African American school children. Upon arriving at the cemetery, the Gettysburg Boys' Band played a dirge, and the school children strewed flowers over the graves. Similar ceremonies continued at least through the 1960s.

Gettysburg Times
June 1, 1992

Very few Gettysburg tourists know anything about the Lincoln Cemetery. I myself spent four years of college in Gettysburg, and did not learn about it until much later. Luckily, strenuous efforts over the past two decades have helped to preserve and fix up the cemetery, and to tell its story. In 1992, a community group called Concerned Neighbors revived the traditional Memorial Day observances at the cemetery. "Braving the bone chilling cold of a gray, rainy day," the June 1, 1992 Gettysburg Times related, '50 people - black, white, hispanic, young, old, veteran, lifelong civilian - marched to the cemetery to pay tribute to 40 men who served their country in various wars and now are buried in the segregation that marked their lives."

 In the years since, community members have continued these remembrances, and have worked hard to keep the cemetery in good condition. The cemetery has been fenced in and the same "Silence and Respect" signs that dot the National Cemetery are now posted.

Today the gates of Lincoln Cemetery are often locked - I have not yet made it inside those gates. Even so, I find that this out-of-the-way spot speaks so strongly to the "unfinished work" of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, and the struggles of the past 150 years (as well as those struggles that continue) for freedom and equality.

More Reviews of the Antietam Anniversary

It's been a busy week for me thus far, and a busy weekend is coming up - but I have been doing some research and I'm starting to pull together my next substantive blog post.

In the meantime I ran across this post today reviewing the NPS program at sunrise in the cornfield on September 17th. This sounds like an unbelievable program. If anyone attended this, or any of the many other programs offered during the 150th, I'd love to hear about your experience!

Great NPR Story

I missed this one with all of the other coverage of the 150th anniversary the other day. It's a great story: Same Camera, Different Story: Capturing Civil War Sites, 150 Years Later.

Stumbling Across Civil War History - Part 2

The gravestone of William H. Shaw, Company E, 32nd
Massachusetts. Photo taken by Sandra Lennox
and accessed on Find A Grave.

A bit over a week ago I wrote a post about private William H. Shaw. I had stumbled upon Shaw's grave while meandering through Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Labor Day, and I wanted to learn more about his life and his service during the Civil War.

I first took interest in Shaw's grave because of the regimental designation on his gravestone: the 32nd Massachusetts. This regiment I knew had an interesting Gettysburg story - it found itself embroiled in the whirlwind of battle in the Wheatfield and its surrounding wood lots on July 2nd. Unfortunately, despite various research efforts I cannot say with certitude that Shaw saw action at Gettysburg without sending away to the National Archives for his compiled military service record. Even then I likely would not have a definitive result. After his wounding at Fredericksburg, Shaw remained on the regiment's rolls until the end of the war, but when he returned to the regiment I cannot say. I can however piece together a picture of what his experience would have looked like if he was present at Gettysburg.

Commanded at Gettysburg by Colonel George L. Prescott,  the 32nd Massachusetts served in Colonel Jacob Sweitzer's 2nd brigade of the 1st division, 5th Corps. The brigade also contained the 4th Michigan, 62nd Pennsylvania, and 9th Massachusetts.

Late on the afternoon of July 2nd the brigade (minus the 9th Massachusetts) arrived in the area of the Wheatfield to reinforce Colonel Régis de Trobriand's forces there. The brigade deployed on a narrow rocky ridge  (today known as the Stony Hill) just to the west of the Wheatfield. Numbering 242 officers and men, the 32nd formed on lower ground at the southern end of the Stony Hill. Colonel Sweitzer did not like the look of the 32nd's position, however, and soon shifted the regiment's alignment to a position at a right angle with the rest of the brigade, giving it the benefit of elevated ground and cover.

The 32nd faced south towards Rose Woods. In the regiment's front a small stream ran through a ravine, with the wood lot looming on the opposite side of the stream. Regimental historian Francis Jewett Parker recalled what happened next:

We were hardly established in our position, such as it was, before the attack came, the enemy piling down in great numbers from the opposite slope and covering themselves partially under the hither bank of the little stream.... The men loaded and fired with great rapidity, some using much judgement and coolness, making every shot tell in the enemy's ranks; others, as is usually the case, excited and firing almost at random.

The attackers were Georgians of Tige Anderson's brigade. The men of the 32nd took advantage of what cover they could find and began loading and firing as swiftly as possible. Meanwhile, Colonel Prescott received a message from Colonel Sweitzer indicating the route of retreat if it became necessary. Full of fighting spirit, he protested. "I am not ready to retire," he responded, "I can hold this place." When Sweitzer clarified that the order only indicated a route of retreat if it became necessary, the 32nd continued to hold its own against the Georgians.

An (extremely) rough sketch of the 32nd Massachusetts first fight in the
Wheatfield using a modern satellite image from Google Maps.

Meanwhile, behind a cluster of large boulders very close to the regimental line, surgeon Z. Boylston Adams set up an advanced aid station. Here Adams provided urgent care for those wounded who could make it back to the cover of the boulders. In tribute to his bravery, in 1895 the veteran association of the regiment placed a plaque on the grouping of boulders that they believed marked the site of his aid station. Today this truly unique marker helps us understand the daring and courage of regimental surgeons serving near the firing line.

Battle smoke soon filled the ravine as the 32nd blazed away at the Georgians, and another message arrived for Prescott - Confederate forces threatened the brigade's western flank. Despite Colonel Prescott's desire to stay, the 32nd received orders to fall back through the woods to the Wheatfield Road. The men retired in good order, and when they reached their new position they saw that reinforcements had arrived - General John C. Caldwell's 2nd Corps division. The forward line in the Wheatfield and on the Stony Hill had collapsed, but Caldwell's men arrived just in time to launch a full scale counterattack, recapturing the abandoned positions on the Stony Hill, and driving Confederate forces back beyond the Wheatfield.

Soon, Caldwell's men required assistance. Colonel Sweitzer reported:

A general officer I had never seen before rode up to me, and said his command was driving the enemy in the woods in front of the wheat-field, that he needed the support of a brigade, and desired to know if I would give him mine.

The officer was none other than Caldwell himself. Sweitzer referred the earnest request to his division commander, General James Barnes, who ordered the brigade to Caldwell's assistance. Barnes rode in front of the men, made "a few patriotic remarks," and soon Sweitzer's three regiments lurched forward into the Wheatfield.

At the very moment that the 32nd Massachusetts moved forward, General Caldwell's division had reached the apex of its successful counterattack. It had driven Confederate forces off the Stony Hill and out of Rose Woods. Yet the situation remained fluid, and in a matter of minutes many things would begin to go wrong. The retreating Confederate brigades would rally in the farmyards of George Rose and George Weikert, and federal positions at the Peach Orchard to the west began to collapse. Colonel Prescott and his men did not know of these developments of course, as they moved directly south across the Wheatfield to support Caldwell's men.

Another rough sketch, using modern satellite images, this one shows the confused
movements taking place as the 32nd Massachusetts reentered the fight.

The 32nd occupied the brigade's left flank in its second advance. As soon as the men got to the southern side of the Wheatfield they plunged down to take cover behind a stone fence that bordered Rose Woods. When they arrived, Anderson's Georgians reentered the woods to resume the attack. Off on the right, the brigades of Semmes and Kershaw joined in the renewed assault, while in the 32nd's right rear along the Wheatfield Road, a new Confederate brigade commanded by Brigadier General William T. Wofford arrived on the scene from the Peach Orchard. Caldwell's division, which had shifted the momentum in the Wheatfield only minutes earlier, began to give way. Suddenly, the 32nd found Anderson's Georgians bearing down upon their position at the stone fence. "The battle waxed hot and furious," Parker recalled, and Colonel Prescott went down with an apparent wound. Supported by two men, Prescott sought out Lieutenant Colonel Luther Stephenson to hand over command. Meanwhile his men clung to the stone fence and slugged it out at close range with the murky shadows in the smoke-filled woods.

On the brigade's right flank, the situation grew worse. As the other regiments of Sweitzer's brigade arrived at the southern edge of the Wheatfield, Colonel Sweitzer noticed several federal regiments retiring from the Stony Hill in his rear, and noticed an increase in the intensity of the firing in that direction. He continued in his official report:

I observed also that there was considerable firing diagonally toward our rear from these woods, which I then thought were shots from our own troops aimed over us at the enemy in the woods beyond and falling short. They were, however, much too frequent to be pleasant, and my color-bearer, Ed. Martin, remarked, 'Colonel, I'll be ---- if I don't think we are faced the wrong way; the rebs are up there in the woods behind us, on the right.'

Martin surmised correctly - and as Confederate forces drove off the federals positioned on the Stony Hill, they turned their attention to the inviting rear of Sweitzer's battle line. To counter the threat, Sweitzer attempted to turn first the 4th Michigan and then the 62nd Pennsylvania to face the opposite direction. This left the 32nd alone at the stone fence to face Anderson's surging men. Nearly encircled, Sweitzer's right flank began to give way, and Sweitzer's aide-de-camp road up to Lieutenant Colonel Stephenson to order the 32nd to fall back. As the regiment began to retreat once again, Sweitzer himself rushed from the woods on horseback and demanded to know why the regiment was giving way. Parker later attempted to recall the scene:

Indignantly replying that the Regiment was falling back under orders from his staff officer, the Lieutenant Colonel ordered the men to face about and stand their ground. It was a fatal mistake, and one which caused the loss of many brave men. For a few minutes we stood, our enemy on our front, right flank, and nearly in our rear, pouring in a terrible fire, which the men returned with almost desperation, until we were again ordered to fall back, which we did, fighting our way, inch by inch, rebels and Union men inextricably mingled, until we reached the shelter of the woods. Just at this moment, Coloenl Stephenson fell, shot through the face, and Colonel Prescott who appears not to have been wounded at all, soon after again took command.

The monument to the 32nd Massachusetts at Gettysburg, which depicts
a pup tent. Photo by Jen Goellnitz. Creative Commons Licensing.

The regiment limped off the field as the Confederates finally asserted full control over the Wheatfield. Of the 242 men that went into battle, 13 were dead, 62 wounded, and 5 missing in action, a total of 80 casuatlies, or roughly 33 percent of its total force.

In October of 1885, veterans of the 32nd returned to Gettysburg to dedicate a monument on the site of its original position on the Stony Hill. Whether William H. Shaw served with the regiment at Gettysburg or not, he did not attend this dedication. His Civil War had a sad ending.

Several months after Appomattox disaster struck the Shaw family. Death records for Plymouth, Massachusetts show that on July 20, 1865, William's wife Mary Shaw died of Typhoid Fever. Just 17 days later, on August 6, those same death records indicate that William passed away, suffering from Tuberculosis. The couple was buried in Plymouth, and evidently left behind their three children - Alice, William Jr., and Ruth.




 

A bit on baseball and the Civil War

Some of you may know my day job is at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I recently had a chance to dabble in my Civil War hobby for a blog post on the Hall's official blog. You can read it here.

Antietam's 150th commences

This past week has been a busy one for me - hence not a whole lot of time to work on the blog. I would like to wrap up my series on William H. Shaw and the 32nd Massachusetts this weekend, and move on to some other research I am exploring, but we shall see.

It has been quite a busy week in the Civil War community as well. Those of you who follow the Civil War blogosphere closely have probably seen the following links, but for those who do not - please enjoy:

- This week sees the 150th anniversary commemorations of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. The Civil War Trust has released its Antietam Battlefield App. It also has other resources online, including Antietam 360. And, if you would like to understand the battle a bit better, the Trust also has an excellent interactive map presentation. A hat tip to the Student of the American Civil War Blog for these links.

- I've been impressed with Antietam National Battlefield's facebook efforts to promote the anniversary. They have posted videos on their page every day since the start of the Maryland Campaign anniversary. The videos are not very long or detailed, but a great idea to keep the anniversary in everyone's mind throughout the month. If you haven't liked them on facebook, it's well worth the click.

- The exciting news of the week: the release of the trailer for Steven Speilberg's Lincoln.... This. Looks. Awesome. I have long been wary of getting my hopes up over Civil War movies (ever since I saw Gods and Generals), but I cannot help but have high hopes for this one.

- And finally, sticking with the Maryland Campaign theme on the blog today, the anniversary seems to be producing a good deal of new scholarship on the campaign. Currently I am reading Richard Slotkin's The Long Road to Antietam. Though this blog is primarily focused on Gettysburg - I reserve the right to branch out of course, so I will write up a review for the Library Corner when I finish. I also look forward to the end of this month, and the publication of Scott Hartwig's To Antietam Creek. Hartwig of course serves as the chief historian at Gettysburg National Military Park, and has worked on this project for a very long time. I believe I first heard that he was writing a study of the Maryland Campaign back when I still was at Gettysburg College in the early 2000s. Needless to say, this book will shoot to the top of my reading list.

Library Corner: The Complete Gettysburg Guide

The Complete Gettysburg Guide
By J. David Petruzzi
Maps and Photography by Steven Stanley
Published in  2009
Savas Beatie

I am a huge fan of battlefield resources. Those brave and willing souls whom I have convinced to visit Gettysburg with me know this by now. I don't hit the battlefield without a backpack that contains my own battlefield binder filled with maps and first-person accounts. That backpack also generally contains several guide books of particular locations: Little Round Top, Devils Den, the Wheatfield, Culps Hill, East Cemetery Hill. It's also got general resources like Imhof's Day Two map study and books by Frassanito.

Recently I picked up J. David Petruzzi's The Complete Gettysburg Guide. I haven't yet had a chance to actually use it on the field, but I look forward to doing so when I next have the opportunity. This is truly a unique book. While many detailed guidebooks exist for various areas of the battlefield, I've found no other source that helps visitors explore the battlefield in such comprehensive detail.

The book divides into several separate walking and driving tours, complete with directions and GPS coordinates. One tour allows visitors to explore the first day's battlefield, and another combines the second and third day. The rest of the tours help visitors explore many seldom visited sites, and provide a tremendous amount of detail. The sites included in these tours include the National and Evergreen cemeteries, hospitals, rock carvings, several lesser known battles and skirmishes such as the East Cavalry Field, the Battles of Hunterstown and Fairfield, and the fight on Brinkerhoff's Ridge. Petruzzi does a great job explaining the ins and outs of the battle, making this book a great resource for a beginner. But the level of detail, particularly in the more obscure tours, will please even the most knowledgeable battlefield tourist. The tremendous maps and photographs by Steven Stanley only serve to enhance the book.

Petruzzi is of course most well known for his cavalry expertise. If I had one complaint I would say that the book definitely spends a great deal of time on cavalry operations. At the same time, those same cavalry operations are generally the most ignored and overlooked part of the battle, as well as the most obscure and off the beaten path locations. So, I guess I would classify my complaint as more of a nit-pick. I found the more specific tours of obscure sites more valuable than the general overview tours of the three days of the battle, but new visitors to the battle will find them absolutely necessary.

To sum things up, I think this book will find its way into my backpack as a tremendous battlefield resource, and I look forward to using it on the field someday soon.

Stumbling Across Civil War History - Part 1

The gravestone of William H. Shaw, Company E, 32nd
Massachusetts. Photo taken by Sandra Lennox
and accessed on Find A Grave.

I have learned over the years that you can find Civil War history in places that you least expect.

This Labor Day Weekend my fiancee and I went on a camping trip with some friends of ours to Cape Cod. On Monday morning we decided to head over to Plymouth to potentially visit Plimoth Plantation. We thought that if we got an early start we could get over the bridge and off the Cape before the major traffic hit that afternoon. We failed. When we finally arrived in Plymouth we had enough time to walk around town for 45 minutes or so, grab lunch, and continue our journey home.

We wandered around the water front, visited Plymouth Rock, and then headed up the hill to Leyden Street, where the Pilgrims located their original settlement. We soon found ourselves strolling amidst the graves on Burial Hill. The settlement constructed a fort on this hill in 1621-1622, but by the second half of the 17th century it had become a graveyard.

Burial Hill contains the grave sites of many noted individuals, including William Bradford and William Brewster, and Patriot leader James Warren. Yet, I found myself drawn to the gravestones marked as veterans, and in the brief 15 to 20 minutes we spent I found several Civil War soldiers. I grabbed a notebook and began writing down as much information as I could. I wanted to know more about these individuals, and I found myself drawn in particular to the stone of William H. Shaw. His grave read as follows:

WM. H. SHAW,
Co. E.
32 Mass. Regt.
died Aug. 6, 1865,
aged 35 y'rs.

When I got home, I began to do some digging. I found that William H. Shaw was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts around 1830. The 1860 Census listed William as a shoemaker living in Plymouth along with his wife Mary and three children: 8 year-old Alice, 5 year-old William H. Jr., and 3 year-old Ruth. In December of 1861, William enlisted as a private in Company E of the 32nd Massachusetts.

The first six companies of the 32nd - including Company E - formed initially in the fall of 1861 as a battalion to protect Boston Harbor. Shaw enlisted on December 2nd. Two other Shaws - Eleazer Shaw of Plymouth and and Robert B. Shaw of Cohasset, also joined up with Company E that December. The three Shaws of Company E were not brothers. I spent several hours of quality time this week with ancestry.com and familysearch.org, but I still cannot say what if any relation these Shaws had to each other. All three enlisted as privates. Eleazer served throughout the war and rose to the rank of Sergeant. Robert B. Shaw suffered wounds on May 5th, 1863 at Chancellorsville and at Bethesda Church on June 4th, 1864 before receiving a discharge that December.

The battalion left for Washington in May of 1862, and moved to the Peninsula, where it joined the Army of the Potomac just after the battle of Malvern Hill. By the summer of 1862, the 32nd would boast a full compliment of ten companies. Assigned to the 5th Corps, the regiment was present on the fields of 2nd Manassas and Antietam, but saw little action. It got its first true test that December.

At about 1 pm on December 13th, 1862, with the Battle of Fredericksburg already raging on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River, Charles Griffin's division, including the 32nd Massachusetts, received orders to cross the pontoon bridges and enter Fredericksburg. The troops arrived in the lower part of the city at about 2 pm, and at 3 received an order from 5th Corps commander Daniel Butterfield to move to the support of troops attacking the southern portions of Marye's Heights. Ordered to push forward and carry the enemy's works, the 32nd and the rest of Colonel Jacob Sweitzer's brigade advanced to the right of the Telegraph Road. Griffin later reported:

Our troops advanced, exposed to a severe enfilading fire from both directions, and from a direct fire of artillery and musketry in front. Our lines moved up to within a few yards of the enemy's infantry, who were protected behind stone walls and in trenches, when the fire became so galling that they were compelled to fall back behind the crest of a knoll.

In 1880 regimental historian Francis Jewett Parker left his account of the fight:

No words can fully convey to a reader's mind the confusion which exists when one is near enough to see and know the details of battle. One reads with interest in the reports of generals, the letters of newspaper correspondents, or in the later histories constructed from those sources, a clear story of what was done; of formations and movements as if they were those of the parade; of attack and repulse - so graphically and carefully described as to doubt whether one who was actively engaged and in the thick of the fight can correctly describe that which occurred about him, or tell with any degree of accuracy the order of events or the time consumed.... To the memory now comes a strange jumble of such situations and occurrences as do not appear in the battles of history or of fiction.... We recall the terrific accession to the roar of battle with which the enemy welcomed each brigade before us as it left the cover of the cut, and with which at last it welcomed us. We remember the rush across that open field where, in ten minutes, every tenth man was killed or wounded.

In the assault the 32nd lost 35 officers and men, 6 of them killed or mortally wounded. According to records, William H. Shaw was among the wounded.

After their failed assault, the men of the 32nd fell back slightly behind a crest of ground for cover, and here the troops remained in their advanced position. Regimental historian Parker continued his account:

Night closed upon a bloody field.... The line of rebel infantry at the stone wall in our front was precisely where it was in the morning. We were not forty yards from it, shielded only by a slight roll of the land from the fire of their riflemen, and so close to the batteries on the higher land that the guns could not be depressed to bear on us. At night our pickets were within ten yards of the enemy.

In this position they would stay until 10 p.m. the following evening. How severely William H. Shaw was wounded, or when he returned to the ranks I can't say without ready access to the monthly muster rolls at the moment. As I continue this series I will take a look at the 32nd's service at the battle of Gettysburg (this is a Gettysburg blog after all), and complete the sad story of William H. Shaw.