Fellow Sharpshooters;

The August 27, 2020 Civil War Talk featured a post by Brian White, presenting his discovery of a CDV of William A. Henderson. Henderson enlisted in Company K 1st USSS, rising to the rank of corporal, until receiving a disabling gunshot wound to his upper right arm at Kelly’s Ford. Treated at a Washington general hospital, Henderson was discharged with a “very good arm”. The prognosis proved to be overly optimistic. Henderson was unable to return to farming, disabled by chronic pain and limited mobility. A second surgery revealed Henderson’s “good arm” contained fractured and splintered bone. An operation called “resectioning” (the surgical procedure where a part of the arm is completely removed because of severe damage caused by a gunshot injury, usually involving significant bone fractures, soft tissue destruction, and potential damage to major nerves and blood vessels, making it impossible to salvage the limb fully), removed 3 inches of bone and left him with a permanently disabled limb.

At the time of his post, Brian was uncertain if William had received a pension, so I reached out to my old friend, John Carey, to see if he had information. Of course he did. John wrote: William applied for a pension in May of 1864 [Cert# 30843] which he received till his death in 1908 at which time his wife (Rosina) receive it (Cert# 644439) till her death in 1922.

The CDV shows Henderson dressed in a full regulation USSS uniform, likely taken after the 1st USSS was transferred to the 3rd Army Corps, in the spring of 1863, (note the square diamond on his cap). Using a lope, Brian detected Henderson added the letters ‘USSS’ on the chinstrap of his cap.

Included is a photo of the Henderson coat as it appears today at the Gettysburg museum.


https://civilwartalk.com/threads/another-berdans-sharpshooter.176733/#google_vignette

Bill Skillman
Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association