Gallant Officer in the "Bloody Eleventh"

Carte de visite by B.P. Paige of Washington, D.C. Many regiments earned the nom de guerre "bloody" during the Civil War. One of them, the "Bloody Eleventh," hailed from western Pennsylvania. During three years in action, the Keystone State boys sustained the heaviest loss of any in the Pennsylvania Reserves. They also suffered 196 killed in battle, or 16.6 percent, one of the highest of any Union regiment.

One of its members is pictured here: Eli Waugaman, a man described as an officer "as brave a heart and as gallant a hero as ever swallowed hard tack." In 1861, 27-year-old Waugaman left his job as a wagonmaker and joined his local militia, the Washington Blues, as its first lieutenant. The Blues became Company I of the 11th Reserves, which mustered into federal service as the 40th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Conspicuous at just over six-feet tall, he led his command into numerous engagements—and landed on the casualty list three times. During the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, he and most of the regiment fell into enemy hands at Gaines' Mill. Exchanged in late August 1862, he and his comrades fought at Antietam three weeks later. In the brutal combat in the Cornfield, he suffered his first war wound. His second came during the 1864 Overland Campaign at Spotsylvania, when shell fragments hit him in the right knee and foot. Waugaman ended the war as captain of his company and a brevet major.

The 11th had the grim distinction of being named one of the 300 Fighting Regiments by William F. Fox in his post-war statistical study of Union army casualties.

Though forever lame from his shrapnel wounds, he returned to the wagonmakers's trade, married, and started a family that grew to include two children. His youngest, a son, was mentally disabled from childhood. Waugaman died in 1897 at age 63.

I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.

Taken on: November 15, 2022

Tags:

carte de visite

Civil War

reserves

B.P. Paige

Washington

D.C.

antietam

spotsylvania

Gaines' mill

peninsula campaign

overland campaign

1862

1864 « less

Sets appears in: • Identified soldiers

Groups appears in: • Cabinet Portraits, CDV, photos on cardboard • Veterans of the American Civil War more » • Photo Trouvée • Civil War Era Portraits • The 1860s « less

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