Image of Sergeant George McCafferty of the famous 49th PA Infantry (SOLD)

This is a great piece being offered, it is a cabinet card image of Sergeant George W. McCafferty. It is a hard-stock card measuring 4 ¼” x 6 ½” and was taken in a photography studio in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania. The reverse has hand-written information on McCafferty from his descendants.

George enlisted on September 7, 1861 into Company F, 49^th Pennsylvania Infantry and participated in many battles until he mustered out as a lieutenant in Hall’s Hill, Virginia on July 15, 1865. He was at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Appomattox and many others.

We are lying low, and not a word is spoken above a whisper in our ranks,” recalled a member of the 49th Pennsylvania Infantry at Spotsylvania. “We see the duty we are expected to perform, and orders are quietly passed along the line in a whisper.” Moments later, nearly 4,500 Union infantrymen sprang to their feet and sprinted across some 200 yards of no-man’s land toward the fortified Confederate position near Spotsylvania Court House. “Quick as lightning a sheet of flame burst from the rebel line, and the leaden hail swept the ground over which the column was advancing, while the canister from the artillery came crashing through our ranks at every step”.

This would be known as “Upton’s Attack” on the Muleshoe Salient that evening–one of the most famous Union assaults of the war, though it ultimately failed. General Upton perceived the distance as favorable when compared with the mile that Pickett’s troops charged at Gettysburg. From May 6th to May 13th, 1864, including the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, the regiment lost 317, in killed or wounded, out of the 530 who crossed the Rapidan.

Thirteen-year-old Charles King was the youngest soldier killed in the Civil War. Charles enlisted in the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry with the reluctant permission of his father at 12 years old. On September 17, 1862 at the Battle of Antietam he was mortally wounded near or in the area of the East Woods, carried from the field and died three days later.

The 49th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment lost 9 officers and 184 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 168 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War – many of these casualties took place at Spotsylvania.

Obviously, Sergeant McCafferty seen it all – you can actually see it in his eyes. This image is of him after the war, circa 1880s. There are no creases or tears to the card, overall in excellent condition. His records from the Historical Data Systems will be included.