'So much lost potential': For Memorial Day, the Picket asked for individual stories of the Civil War fallen. Here are six

Daisies are gathered for an 1899 observance of Decoration Day (Library of Congress)

The roots of Memorial Day go back to immediately after the Civil War, when it was known as “Decoration Day.” Families and veterans would lay flowers at graves. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan and the Grand Army of the Republic were major proponents of a national observance.

The Civil War Picket asked several people we’ve interviewed over the years to name one person killed in action or died in another way during the Civil War, and why their memory is personally meaningful. We start each of the entries with the name of those who died and end with the name of the contributor. I am grateful for their responses.

Oliver C. Ayers

The memory of 1st Lt. Oliver C. Ayers of the 39^th Iowa Infantry is meaningful. Like me, he worked in newspapers. Ayers (right) was editor and publisher of the Winterset Madisonian. He died in North Georgia on Oct. 5, 1864, during the successful defense of the railroad at Allatoona Pass. A note in his military service record describes his death by a "musket ball passing through the body dying instantly falling on one knee his face toward the enemy." He is buried in Marietta National Cemetery. His newspaper outlived him: The Madisonian continues in publication today.

Ronald S. Coddington, editor and publisher of Military Images magazine

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James Woodworth

Woodworth, 44th New York, husband of Phebe and father of Frankie, from Pen Yan, N.Y., was killed at Spotsylvania in May 1864. He left a diary that includes one of the finest passages I have ever read. I have read it a thousand times, and still it affects me. 

“Should it be my lot to die in the present struggle, let the thought that I die in defense of my country console you. And when peace with its happy train of attendants shall once more visit this land, let it be your greatest joy to teach my child that I was one who loved my country more than life. This is the only legacy I can bequeath to him, but it is one that a prince might well be proud of.”

John Hennessy, retired chief historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and blogger

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Thomas E.G. Ransom

I think of so much lost potential. Perhaps one of the hundreds of thousands who died may have become a medical pioneer or industrialist or a civic leader or a good father.

I choose Thomas E.G. Ransom. He was not a West Pointer, though he graduated from Norwich University, a military school, in 1851. He worked as a civil engineer and real estate speculator. When the war came, he helped recruit the 11^th Illinois Infantry Regiment. He progressed through the officer ranks and was wounded three times within his first year wearing a U.S. uniform. He became brigadier general of volunteers in April 1863. Grant termed him, “ the best man I ever had to send on expeditions.” He was wounded again at Sabine Crossroads during the Red River Campaign but recovered to lead a division, then a corps during the Atlanta Campaign. 

When Sherman abandoned the pursuit of Hood in late October 1864 to prepare for the March to the Sea, Ransom was commanding the 17^th Corps as it headed back to Atlanta. He died en route at age 29 on 29 October 1864 east of Rome, Georgia, from dysentery caused by typhoid fever or salmonella. While serving as commanding general of the U.S. Army after the war, Sherman kept a photo of Ransom on his office wall. Ransom represents lost potential, and he also represents the majority of soldiers who died not from combat but from water-borne disease.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association

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Karl (Charles) Maager

Karl (Charles) Maager was born in Deutsch-Krone, Prussia, on June 7, 1828 but by 1860 he was living in Chicago  with a wife and two children. In June 1863, now the father of three, he enlisted as a 1st lieutenant in Company D, 58th Illinois Infantry, after that unit had been cut up and mostly captured at the Battle of Shiloh.

The unit did garrison duty until March 1864 when it was sent down to Vicksburg, Ms., to participate in the disastrous Red River Campaign. Lt. Maager was killed in a rearguard action at Yellow Bayou, La., on May 18, 1864. He was only 35 years old and left behind a wife and three young children, the oldest being my great-grandfather.

Gene Salecker, author about the sinking of the Sultana

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Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson

He died being a good soldier, riding toward the gunfire.

I lived and worked for years just a few blocks from the monument that marks where he fell during the Battle of Atlanta. I still lead tours there.  A lovely intown neighborhood surrounds it. Grassroots efforts in that neighborhood keep up the little park around it and are working for its long-term restoration.

It serves an ever-present reminder of service and sacrifice and that the past is still among us.

Mary-Elizabeth Ellard, secretary and trustee, Georgia Battlefields Association

Pvt. Henry Lawson Wyatt

The Battle of Big Bethel, 10 June 1861, is often referred to as the Civil War's first land battle. The Union control of Fort Monroe prompted Major Gen. Benjamin Butler to begin a move up the Virginia Peninsula toward Richmond. A small Confederate force commanded by Col. John Bankhead Magruder was positioned at Big Bethel Church.

Henry Lawson Wyatt, 19, of the 1^st North Carolina was among five volunteers who rushed to dislodge Union troops firing from an old house. He was shot in the head and died the next day.

Southerners rejoiced over the victory. The one Confederate killed in the battle achieved martyrdom. Magruder later wrote, "Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the heroic soldier who we lost.”

John Quarstein, author and director emeritus of USS Monitor Center