William Rehberg

William Rehberg

William Rehberg was Richard White's great-great-great uncle.

William Rehberg, the second son of Fred and Sophie Rehberg, served as a private, and later as a corporal, in Co. A, 7th Regiment of Georgia State Troops, which was reorganized for Confederate service on 3 May 1862 and was mustered into Confederate service as Co. A, 59th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, at Bainbridge, Georgia, on 11 May 1862, under the command of Captain B. H. Gee. The first muster roll upon which his name appears, that of 16 June to 31 August, 1862, shows him present, sick in quarters.

Although the Compiled Confederate Service Record of William Rehberg is silent on the subject, a casualty list for the Battle of Gettysburg which was published in the Macon Telegraph on 22 July 1863 under the heading "Casualties in the 59th Regiment at Gettysburg, Pa." included the following information: "Wm Rehberg in arm slightly". So, William Rehberg was wounded at Gettysburg.

He was elected "2 Corporal" on 3 Jun 1864, and was shown as absent, prisoner, on muster rolls dated July 1864 through February 1865. On a list dated March 6, 1865 he is reported as missing, prisoner, at Deep Bottom, 14 August 1864.

William Rehberg was imprisoned in the Union prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, and died there on 13 March 1865. The Union Army's "RECORD OF DEATH AND INTERMENT" indicates that he died of scurvy. This, mind you, occurred only a stone's throw or two from Washington, D.C. He was buried in grave number 1278 of the Confederate cemetery at Point Lookout, Maryland. The Point Lookout prisoner of war camp was situated near the end of a long, thin sand accretion extending from the mouth of the Potomac River into Chesapeake Bay. As a result of coastal erosion at that location, such remains of Confederate prisoners buried at Point Lookout as have not washed out to sea have been twice disinterred and moved. They now lie in a single mass grave under a memorial amidst the facilities in an area highly promoted by the state of Maryland as a state park and recreation site.

The 1860 U.S. Census showed William Rehberg married with two children. He was married to Mary Maxwell in Decatur County, Georgia,on 11 March 1858. They had three children: Martha (born c. 1859), Sophia (born c. 1860), and William, Jr. (born c. 1862). Mary remarried to Jacob R. Rich in Decatur County, Georgia, on 21 November 1869.

I am very indebted to information about casualties in the 59th Georgia Infantry Regiment that was received by e-mail on 17 January 2003 from John R. Adams, editor of the Taylor County Tracer, the newsletter of the Taylor County, Georgia Historical-Genealogical Society Newsletter.