Lt. William Henry Braithwaite, Co. F, 32nd Virginia.

RedRover

Sergeant Major
Joined
Dec 16, 2019
He lived from 1831 to 1893. Here's a pre-war photograph...
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William Henry Braithwaite was born December 13, 1831 in Princess Ann County, Virginia to Thomas and Catherine Braithwaite. By 1860 the local census taker gave his profession as ship’s carpenter. Like so many of his fellow Virginians, William was soon cast into the storm that engulfed the nation in 1861. He subsequently served through the war as a lieutenant in Company F of the 32nd Regiment of Virginia Infantry volunteers, Confederate States Army. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in late 1862, and remained in that grade through the close of the war.


And during the war he spent most of his time sick with various illnesses in hospital, including dysentery, chronic diarrhea, chronic hepatitis, etc. etc.



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He is listed on an army quartermaster "clothing receipt roll" from February, 1863, which might explain his wearing a common "Richmond Clothing Bureau" jacket with wood buttons in that image.

He was paroled at Richmond, May 12, 1865.

And after the war he lived in Williamsburg...
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His health never really improved, and he was wheelchair bound for some time before his death. He died at Williamsburg on August 23, 1893, and is buried at the Cedar Grove Cemetery.

J. Marshall,
Hernando, FL.
 
Wow - three photos and one in uniform. Amazing that you have such a good record.
That must be attributed to his children, and his grandchildren. My uncle recalls seeing the uniformed image in the 1950s or so, when mention was made of the wooden buttons, etc. His sword is also still in the family out west.
They also kept a couple images of his wife, Ms. Adelia Adelaide Churchill (Bucktrout) Braithwaite of Williamsburg, daughter of one of the local undertakers.

I suspect this image is 1860s,

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and the below is backmarked Richmond, by William Bath, who kept a studio there ca. 1870.
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and in later years...

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They met during the war when he was stationed at Willliamsburg; the story is while he was sick she was his nurse. Later in the war she lived at Richmond, and is said to have carried contraband medicine, messages etc. home to Williamsburg, and perhaps intelligence back to Richmond, etc. Also that when the war ended it was said she was among the crowd of people who danced in the streets. They married shortly afterward, and kept a store at Williamsburg.

J. Marshall,
Hernando, FL.
 
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