Born about 1830 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Edmund P. Sutton was farming in Aviston, Clinton County, Illinois, when the Civil War began. He enlisted and was mustered into service in Company K, 30th Illinois Infantry at Carlyle, Illinois, on August 28, 1861, as a sergeant. Promoted to second lieutenant in October 1862 and mustered in at that rank in April 1863, Sutton was wounded in the left shoulder on May 26, 1863 at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and resigned on September 19, 1863.

The 30th Illinois fought at Belmont, Missouri, the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee, and through the Vicksburg Campaign.

Sutton returned to Clinton County after the war, and moved to St. Louis between 1880 and 1890. He entered the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at Danville, Illinois, in December 1900. He died there on May 5, 1914, and is buried in the Danville National Cemetery.

Tintype by unknown photographer.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30643