1st Lieutenant Octavius Augustus Wiggins
The Breakthrough
1st Lieutenant Octavius Augustus Wiggins
Company E, 37th North Carolina
Infantry, Lane’s Brigade,
Wilcox’s Division, Third Corps
Resident: Halifax County, North Carolina
Enlisted: June 1862
Wiggins was wounded near here during the Breakthrough on April 2, 1865: “I received a scalp wound, the muzzle of the gun being in such close proximity to my head as to blow powder into my face, nearly destroying my eyes and knocking me senseless upon the ground. Of course, I was captured.” Wiggins escaped while being taken to a prison at Johnson’s Island, Ohio, and made his way back home.
Marker can be reached from Duncan Road (Virginia Route 670), on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
