Everything seemed to be going fine for August during his first year with the Infantry. He was never reported sick or absent from duty until the regiment participated in the battle at Murfreesboro, Tennessee on December 31, 1862. August turned up missing. He had been captured during the battle and was held by the Confederates in prison at Richmond. Through prisoner exchanges and paroles, August returned to his regiment on February 6, 1863. He had spent a little over a month as a guest of the Confederacy.
August remained with the 34th Illinois and continued to serve until November 21, 1863, when he was detailed to the Second Minnesota Battery of Light Artillery. He served as part of the artillery until January 6, 1864, when he went back to his regiment in time to reenlist. The 34th was veteranizing and any man who agreed to reenlist was given a 30 day furlough and a $100 bounty. August decide to reenlist and most likely went home to Illinois with the other men who had signed up for another three years. With travel time, the men were gone from the front until March 7th. They were put into General Sherman's army that was as determined to take the city of Atlanta, Georgia, as the Confederates not to not let them have it. Many battles were fought in the relatively short distance between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. It was during the siege of Atlanta that the Confederates once again invited Private Apple to join them.
August was captured on August 13, 1864, near Atlanta and sent to Salisbury, North Carolina. This time, his stay with Confederate captors was six months long. He was paroled at Akens Lodge, Virginia, on February 24, 1865, but the long spell of captivity took its toll on August's health. He was sent to the U.S. General Hospital at Madison, Indiana, where he died on April 13, 1865. The cause of death was noted as typhoid fever. He was laid to rest in the New Albany National Cemetery in Floyd County, Indiana, grave #1054.
