On 16 May 1862, in Petersburg, Virginia, Jefferson enlisted as a private in Company D, 22nd Georgia Infantry Regiment. The Union prisoner of war records show that he was wounded and captured on October 1, 1862 at Antietam. The Union army imprisoned him at Fort McHenry, and he received treatment at U.S.A. General Hospital, Frederick, Maryland. He was then transferred to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, I believe in an exchange of prisoners. Probably in that same exchange, Jefferson was paroled at Sharpsburg, Maryland. I believe that when he was released, he rejoined his company and continued fighting. He was wounded there again on September 17, 1863. Later muster rolls show him absent without leave on 28 February 1865, so it is assumed that he somehow made his way back to Georgia to recuperate. There is no further military record. He carried a minié ball in his hip until he died.
The minie ball theory came from a man named Ray Corbin. He listed this statement on April 8, 2012.
I do not know if this was the case, but I did research on the minie ball. This is the information that I found.
The Minié Ball is a kind of muzzle loading rifle bullet that
was introduced into the Civil War and changed the way we fought war forever. It
was made so that reloading and quick firing was able to be done. The bullet
could go through a soldier and still kill anyone behind him.
Loading the gun was completely different than the normal musket, the soldier would rip open the cartridge with his teeth and ram the bullet into the gun which made firing quick and easy.
The Minié Ball gave victims terrible wounds on the battlefield. When shot the bullet would carve an enormous wound on impact. The bullet
was able to crush through bones and doctors would usually have to cut the limb
off that was wounded, to avoid death. Of around 175,000 wounded - 30,000 would
have to have their wounds amputated. The bullet was named after Claude Etienne
Minié.
