Existing comment:
Barksdale died in the Hummelbaugh yard before sunrise on July 3rd. Union soldiers looking for souvenirs stripped away most of the gold braid, buttons, and Masonic shirts [sic] studs from his uniform. Hamilton himself preserved a remaining Mississippi coat button and Masonic shirt stud, which can be seen in this exhibit. Barksdale was laid to rest in a temporary grave on the Hummelbaugh Farm and remained their until January 1867, when he was re-interred in Jackson, Mississippi.
General William Barksdale and his Mississippi brigade suffered greatly on July 2nd, sustaining 747 casualties, or approximately 50% of their men. They demonstrated the "firmness, endurance, and vigor" that Hamilton used to described the general on that day -- qualities also embodied by Hamilton himself. Hamilton continued to care for the men of the 148th Pennsylvania for the remainder of the war, even after battling typho-malaria He mustered out of service on June 1, 1865.
These two soldiers, one whose profession was to lead men into battle and the other to save those who suffered the effects of it, met briefly on the battlefield of Gettysburg. The artifacts and objects they left behind are silent witnesses to the tragedy of Civil War and the role that each played in one of the war's most significant battles. |