Hartman Sharp Felt
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Biography by Dave Berry
Hartman Sharp Felt, age 25, of Bunker Hill, Mich., enlisted as a corporal in Company B, 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry on Aug. 17, 1861. He was wounded twice at Fair Oaks, Va., once in the head and once in the leg. He was nursed back to health at USA General Hospital in Philadelphia, but must have left without permission to return to his regiment (he was officially listed as deserted by the hospital on Aug. 1, 1862).He was promoted to sergeant Sept. 1, 1862, and was sent to Grass Lake, Michigan as a recruiter. He wrote a letter Sept. 17, 1862 (the day his company fought at Antietam), that "recruiting appears to be dead here at present," and requested that he be allowed to rejoin his unit. He returned to the Seventh on Oct. 20. He was present at the battle of Fredericksburg on Dec. 11, 1862; Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863; and Gettysburg on July 2-3, 1863.
He was promoted to first sergeant on Sept. 1, 1863; contracted scarlet fever Nov. 6-18, 1863; then reenlisted as a veteran volunteer on Dec. 17, 1863. During the early months of 1864 (January and February) he again served as a recruiter back in Michigan, then was on "detached service" in March through June. On July 22, 1864, he was promoted to 2nd lieutenant and attached to Company C of the 7th Michigan Infantry. Twenty-four days later, he was mortally wounded in battle at Deep Bottom, Va., with a gunshot wound to the left arm and left side of the chest. He was taken on the steamer "State of Maine" to Ward K, Armory Square Hospital, Washington, D.C., where he died on Aug. 24, 1864. He was buried in the burial ground that became Arlington National Cemetery, but his parents removed his body to the small cemetery at Grass Lake, Michigan.
e-mail: dvberry@tylerpaper.com
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24 July 2001