The following letter pertains to the search for the body of Lt. Hugh Jones Gaston (1836-1862) of the 48th North Carolina Infantry who was wounded in the shoulder and face and captured in action in the West Woods at the Battle of Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. It would be his first and last battle. He was paroled on 26 September 1862 but died of his wounds about 15 October 1862, probably at a field hospital near the battlefield.

Gaston graduated from Georgetown University in 1855 and was licensed to practice law in 1857. He was in Memphis when the war erupted and served as a private in a Tennessee artillery company before returning to North Carolina, accepting a commission as 1st Lt. and serving as the adjutant of the 48th N. C. Infantry. His Find-A-Grave memorial places his death at Hagerstown and speculates that he was buried in the Washington Confederate Cemetery there.

This letter suggests that Lt. Gaston may have been in a field hospital near Sharpsburg on the property of Peter Grove but I am unable it identity anyone by that name residing there at the time of the battle. The writer may have been referring to the property of Stephen P. Grove near Sharpsburg which was used as a hospital. Neither could I find a Peter Grove living near Hagerstown at the time.

This letter was written by Rev. William Daniel Strobel (1809-1884) who held a Doctor of Divinity and began his missionary work in South Carolina. He was later affiliated with the Maryland Tract Society in Baltimore. He was serving as the pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church in Middletown, Maryland, from 10 April 1863 through June 1867. It was said of him that his “true Christian charity and forbearance in the midst of the alienations produced by divergent political views held the congregation together” during the Civil War.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Middletown [Maryland]
17 February 1864

Dear Col.

I have been trying to find some trace of the body of Lieut. Hugh Gaston who was wounded at the Battle of Antietam, died and was buried on the premises of a Mr. Peter Grove at Sharpsburg. The body cannot be found, and I hear from Sharpsburg that some time last summer, a Mrs. Archer from Baltimore came up there and removed the body of Confederate Lieutenant, which seems to correspond with the one I am seeking. If not too much trouble, would you inquire amongst the Archers of your acquaintance to see if I can gain any information from that quarter.

Yours very truly, — Wm. D. Strobel