Stop 6: Paul Kuhl and John Young
Graves #3077 and #2966
The action at the Bloody Angle on May 12,1864 is famous for the 22 hours of close combat that occurred over the trenches along the Confederate line, costing the armies 18,000 casualties. In the middle of the melee, individual stories help us understand the horror of the day.
18 year old John L. Young of the 15th NJ was serving as color corporal when he was severely wounded. He managed to crawl behind a log and died with “his hands clasped in supplication.”
Even more traumatic is the experience of Paul Kuhl, first sergeant in a different company of the 15th NJ. He was shot through the leg and improvised a tourniquet out of his ramrod and handkerchief. The fighting was so severe, however, that he was shot repeatedly and would die on the field. When his friends went to retrieve the body they found he was so riddled with bullets that he was a “veritable sieve.”
Paul Kuhl is buried in grave #3077; John Young is buried in grave #2966.