Thomas W. Chandler
Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress)
In June 1861, Thomas W. Chandler—an English-born resident of Brooklyn, New York—left his job in a shirt factory and joined the 67th New York Infantry as a private. Chandler rose through the Union army ranks as the war unfolded; by 1865, he had switched regiments (to the 65th New York Infantry) and been commissioned as a second lieutenant.
In the final weeks of the conflict, he was at the Battle of Fort Stedman, where Union forces fended off a desperate attack by Confederates trying to break the Siege of Petersburg. Chandler was hit in the left temple by a Confederate bullet, stunning him. A comrade helped him to a field hospital, where his wound was ruled a “scratch to the head.” When Chandler returned home on furlough and consulted a physician, it was determined that the bullet had not just glanced off Chandler’s head, it had penetrated his skull and was imbedded in his brain.
On July 8, 1865, the bullet—by now inside Chandler’s head for more than six weeks—was removed. Chandler (shown here shortly after the surgery) resumed his prewar career, but the wound caused him increasing memory loss and discomfort. In March 1882, at age 52 and nearly 17 years after he was shot, Chandler succumbed, dying from “congestion of the brain.” He was survived by his wife and three children.
