AMOS W. WILLARD -- 16th INFANTRYDIED IN A BAPTIST CHURCH - After the Peninsula Campaign in 1862, where the 16th Infantry suffered over 250 casualties, the regiment needed replacements. Their battle at Gaines' Mill on June 27th produced 231 of the casualties including 41 killed in action, 17 wounded who would later die and 173 wounded who lived. Amos W. Willard, born in Vermont, was one of the new recruits with about 75 recruits who enlisted in Plattsburgh.The regiment had pulled back to Alexandria, VA, to recover from its losses and it was here that the group from Plattsburgh joined them. Almost immediately they set out for Maryland and South Mountain where the battle at Crampton's Gap on September 14th brought them 63 more casualties including 26 more deaths. After going through the Gap, which was littered with enemy wounded, they arrived at Antietam, but were kept in reserve, but still had 3 wounded.In mid-December, the 16th fought at Fredericksburg about 120 miles to the south on the Rappahannock river where they were on picket and guard duty. The 20,000 men of the VI Corps of which the 16th Infantry was a part, stayed across the river at Falmouth for winter quarters. While there, Amos became ill and was taken the White Oak Church which was being used as a hospital on the outskirts east of the city, and he died of spinal meningitis there on April 8, 1863. He was buried in the hospital grounds under a stone marked A. W. Willard and reinterred later in Fredericksburg National Cemetery.In 1866, his father, Barten, started to receive a pension based on Amos' service. It stopped when he died in 1880.The White Oak Church is now a Civil War museumhttps://touchthepast.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/the-white-oak-civil-war-museum/
