Military Images Online: A Wisconsin Sharpshooter’s Changing Face: Portraits and letters trace Pvt. Henry Lye’s wartime life—and loss at Gettysburg

Fellow Sharpshooters,

The November 2025 edition of Military Images features an excellent article by Jeff McArdle about Wisconsin Sharpshooter, Sergeant Henry Lye. What is particularly captivating is the series of seven photographs of Lye, beginning as a youthful civilian (1859), posing with sweetheart, Almira ‘Myra’ Sherrer (1860); then as a recruit at Camp Randall (dressed in Wisconsin gray jacket and cap). The last four images show Henry Lye after he joined the Wisconsin Company G, 1st USSS; his final image taken (between April-May 1863), shortly before the Chancellorsville campaign.

What is striking about the progression of images is the subtle, but striking, transformation of Lye’s facial features. In the last one, Lye’s face is drawn and weary, but his eyes have the penetrating gaze of a veteran who’s “seen the elephant” on too many battlefields. Lye’s letters to Myra mirror his war weariness, expressing hope the fighting would end and he could return to be reunited with her. When Myra writes that a fellow townsman wants Henry to ‘shoot a Rebel for him’, he replied: “Please tell Mr. W. I will not promise to shoot a rebel for him. I do not wish to take the life of any man. Neither do I want to know that I ever have. It is true we came here for that purpose, and when I am in action, I will try and do my duty. Men at home and men in the field do not think alike in this respect. There is not one man in a thousand who can say he shot a rebel and speak the truth.

On June 30th, just south of the Pennsylvania line, Lye scribbled Myra a short letter. He reported that he had marched 145 miles since June 11th, the previous week under a relentless sun that caused nearly one hundred men to fall dead or disabled from heat stroke. In closing, Henry hoped a “kind Maryland woman” would mail his letter. This would be the last Myra would hear from him.

July 2nd found Sgt. Lye and Company G deployed as skirmishers in a cornfield along the western slope below the Emmitsburg Pike. Deployed to their left were 100 Sharpshooters from companies K, H, C, and B; extending from the Rogers farm south to the red brick Sherfy farm and Peach Orchard.

Wisconsin in the Rebellion describes Company G’s actions at Gettysburg: “At eight o'clock on the second day of the battle, the Sharp-shooters were posted on picket in an open field behind a fence, near the Emmitsburg road, the Wisconsin Company and Company B, of New York, under Captain Marble, being at the right of the centre (sic) of the [i]Union lines. Skirmishing immediately commenced, and continued till afternoon, when the action became general. The enemy then advanced from the woods in front, about three hundred yards distant, in line of battle across the plain; but by the accurate and rapid fire of the Sharp-shooters, they were checked, broken, and scattered. Later, a Federal regiment on the left giving way, the foe fell upon the flank and rear of the Sharp-shooters, when they were nearly destitute of ammunition, and they fell back behind the artillery, where, with the aid of reinforcements, the rebels were repulsed… The Wisconsin Company lost nine in killed, wounded, and missing, during the desperate attempt of the enemy to break the Federal centre. William H. Woodruff, of Fox Lake, and Eli J. Fitch were killed, and Sergeant Henry Lye, and Eli S. B. Vincent were mortally wounded. Woodruff had been with the company all its history,,,and was noted for his kind disposition to all. Vincent was an excellent marksman and left the pioneer corps that he might engage in battle. ... Sergeant Henry Lye died the next day (actually, July 4th), John B. Lemmon, Eli S. B. Vincent (died July 16th), Orris D. Hawley, Levi Ingalsbee, John Hauxhurst, Abner Johnson. In Travis W. and John W. Busey's book, Union Casualties at Gettysburg identifies two Badgers taken prisoner; John C. Bergey and Samuel Hall.

On July 28th, Sgt. Isham, wrote Myra a letter of condolence, and described Henry’s final moments; “Being a friend to your lost Henry, and the one that caught him as he received the fatal ball, I thought it not out of my place to send you a few words concerning his death…I was about two paces to the right of Hank when he was hit.. I screamed for help and Levi Ingolsbe came”. The two comrades carried Henry to stretcher bearers before returning to the skirmish line. Isham closed his letter: “He parted this life on the morning of 4th ins. and now sleeps the sleep that knows no wake. May peace be with him and heaven his destination.”

Henry’s death haunted Myra for years after the War. Discovered among his personal effects, Myra had penned a letter (unmailed) to his mother (who had moved to Canada after Henry’s death). Despite the passage of time, Myra still grieved his loss: “I have thought more of him and about him for the last six months than since the first year of his death. It is now nearly eleven years since he bade me “Goodbye,” and he is as fresh in my memory now as the day he left Madison for that cruel war. I have been reading over his letters he wrote me while away. Oh, Mrs. Lye, he was so noble, kind, and true, generous, and always happy”.

Sources:

Busey, Travis W. and John W. Union Casualties at Gettysburg, A Comprehensive Record. McFarland & Co. 2011

Love, William DeLoss, [u]Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion[/u], Church and Goodman, Publishers, Chicago, Illinois 1866.

McArdle, Jeff. A Wisconsin Sharpshooter’s Changing Face: Portraits and letters trace Pvt. Henry Lye’s wartime life—and loss at Gettysburg. Military Images Magazine (November 2025): https://www.militaryimagesmagazine-digital.com/2025/11/22/a-wisconsin-sharpshooters-changing-face-portraits-and-letters-trace-pvt-henry-lyes-wartime-life-and-loss-at-gettysburg/

Smallwood, Richard L. 1st Regt. United States Sharpshooters (Berdan’s), Company G. A Virtual Cemetery.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60593407/henry-lye

Trepp, Caspar. Map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. Caspar Trepp Papers. New York Historical Society (1861-1863).

Bill Skillman
Berdan Sharpshooters Survivors Association