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Peter F. Rafferty

Residence was not listed; 19 years old.

Enlisted on 10/22/1861 at New York City, NY as a Private.

On 10/22/1861 he mustered into "B" Co. NY 69th Infantry 
He was discharged for wounds on 1/5/1863 at Philadelphia, PA
 (Discharged from Broad & Cherry Streets Hospital)


He was listed as:
* POW 7/1/1862 Malvern Hill, VA
* Wounded 7/1/1862 Malvern Hill, VA (Gunshot wound of face, left side)
* Hospitalized 7/4/1862 Richmond, VA
* Paroled 7/25/1862 Richmond, VA
* Hospitalized 7/29/1862 Philadelphia, PA (Broad & Cherry Streets Hospital)


Other Information:
born 6/12/1845 in County Tyrone, Ireland
died 4/30/1910 
Buried: Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, NY

Medal of Honor Information:
He was awarded the Medal of Honor
for action on 7/1/1862 at Malvern Hill, VA.
(Stayed to fight after being wounded)

Sources used by Historical Data Systems, Inc.:

 - New York:  Report of the Adjutant-General 1893-1906
 - Deeds of Valor.  How our Soldier-heroes won the Medal of Honor
 - Medal of Honor Recipients 1863-1994
 - Congress Medal of Honor Legion of the United States
 - Roll of Honor:  Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the Union
 - The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War
(c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com

PETER RAFFERTY 
Malvern Hill, VA
07/01/62

SEVEN WOUNDS IN SEVEN DAYS

    CAPTAIN RAFFERTY'S story as he tells it, shows, besides an 
extraordinary degree of nerve and pluck, that love of fighting 
which seems to have been characteristic of the members of the 
Irish Brigade.  He writes:

    "I was seventeen years old when I enlisted as a private in 
the Sixty-ninth New York Volunteers.  This was not the Sixty-
ninth Militia, which, in the volunteers, had another number.  
Both regiments, however, were enlisted in New York City, and 
ninety-five per cent of our regiment were Irishmen.  We were 
in the Irish Brigade, and were called into action at Malvern 
Hill, Va., late in the afternoon of the first day of July, 
1862, the last day of the fight before Richmond.  The Sixty-
ninth, Colonel Robert Nugent, and the Eighty-eighth New York 
attempted to check the advance of a powerful column of rebels.  
We were in the lead, and as soon as we had exhausted our sixty 
rounds of cartridges, the Eighty-eighth took our place until 
we could get a fresh supply of ammunition and go into the 
fight again.

    "We had scarcely gotten well warmed up before Colonel 
Nugent saw that a detachment of the enemy had mounted the 
foothills and was bearing down upon our flank.  Nugent charged 
with both regiments, and we had a hand-to-hand encounter with 
the famed Louisiana Tigers.  The 'Terriers' wiped the 'Tigers' 
off the field, but we were pretty well used up ourselves.

    "It was in this part of the fight that I felt a stinging 
sensation in my right thigh and realized that I was hit.  It 
made me limp, but I concluded to stay in the ring-in fact 
there wouldn't have been anywhere else to go-until there 
should have been a lull in the fighting.  After we had 
repulsed the 'Tigers,' our company (B) took stock of the dead 
and wounded.  Captain Thomas Leddy told several of us who had 
been hit, to go to the rear, but there was nothing at the rear 
that could do us any good-no surgeons, no ambulances.  We 
would be among strangers, and, if our army shifted its 
position, it might leave us in the hands of the enemy.

    "'I don't want to go to the rear, captain,' said I, 'I'm 
all right.  I'll stay and fight it out with the boys.'  So 
after some arguing, the captain let all of us come back to the 
company who were able to get around.

    "But the 'Tigers' hadn't had enough, and, at about half-
past eight, they came up to the assault again.  There were a 
thousand men on each side in full view of each other, and for 
ten minutes shooting was good.  Then Colonel Nugent ordered a 
charge, and that was the end of the 'Tigers.'  Their colonel 
was captured and with him a good many men.

    "I didn't come out of this second fight in as good 
condition as the first.  I got two bullets in the mouth and 
the lower part of the jaw, which smashed the bones and carried 
away part of my tongue.  Besides this another went through my 
foot entering at the top and coming out at the sole.

    "I was left on the field for a long time, and two days 
later was captured and sent to Libby, reaching there on the 
Fourth of July.  In those last seven days of fighting I had 
received just seven wounds but as I was rated a good shot in 
my company, and could hit anything I fired at, it is very 
likely that I did not have the worst of the bargain.

    "I was exchanged later, and was discharged in March, 1863, 
on account of my wounds, having served a year and a half.  In 
1864 I had recovered sufficiently to re-enlist in the Sixth 
District of Columbia Volunteers, in which I was lieutenant." 

Source: Deeds of Valor


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