Always A Colonel

Confederate Colonel John Mercer Brockenbrough resigned his commission on January 21^st 1864.

John Mercer Brockenbrough was born August 1^st 1830 in Richmond County, Virginia, the son of Moore Fauntleroy and Sarah Waller (Smith) Brockenbrough.  He attended and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1850.

Brockenbrough was appointed the Colonel of the 40^th Virginia at the start of the Civil War.  They were a part of Confederate Major General A P Hill’s Light Division.  Brockenbrough led his men during the Seven Days Battles seeing casualties of about 50%.  At the Battle of Chantilly he moved up to Brigade command, and continued there through the battles of Harpers Ferry, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg.  In the early part of the 1863 Confederate Brigadier General Henry Heth replaced Brockenbrough as the brigade commander.  But, when A P Hill was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Heth moved up and Brockenbrough got his brigade back.  His men saw action at Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 1^st 1863, fighting against Union Colonel Roy Stone’s Pennsylvania Buck Tails, and as part of Pickett’s Charge on the 3^rd.

Following a reckless charge on Union troops at the Battle of Falling Waters on July 14^th 1863; a part of the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, Brockenbrough was removed from Brigade command and he resumed command of the 40^th Virginia.  He led the 40^th the Battles of Bristoe and Mine Run, before resigning his command January 21^st 1864 still as a Colonel.

Brockenbrough lived in Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia following the war.  He died August 25^th 1892 in Richmond, Virginia and is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery there.

He Was Shot Four Times

Union Colonel Henry Walter Kingsbury died September 18^th 1862 from a wound he received the day before at the Battle of Antietam.

Henry Walter Kingsbury was born May 25^th 1836 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of United States Major JJB Kingsbury.  He was a May 1861 graduate of the United State Military Academy at West Point; ranking 4^th in his class, and was made a First Lieutenant in command of Battery D of the 5^th United State Artillery.

He saw action with the 5^th during the Seven Days Battles and was attached to the First Division of the V Corps.  In July 1862 Kingsbury received an appointment to Colonel in the 11^th Connecticut Infantry.  The 11^th with Kingsbury leading them made the first assault on the Rohrbach Bridge or Burnside’s Bridge on September 17^th 1862.  After being driven back the 11^th continued to fire on the Confederates from the bank of the Antietam River.  Sometime in the early afternoon during all the shooting Kingsbury was mortally wounded, being hit in the abdomen, foot, leg and shoulder.

He died the next day September 18^th 1862 at the Henry Rohrbach Farm in Sharpsburg, Maryland.  Kingsbury is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC.

A Live Major General Or A Dead Brigadier

Confederate General Abner Monroe Perrin was killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania May 12^th 1864.

Abner Monroe Perrin was born February 2^nd 1827 in Edgefield, South Carolina.  He was a Lieutenant and served in the infantry during the Mexican American War.  After the war was over Perrin studied for and took up a law practice in 1854.

When the Civil War started Perrin joined the 14^th South Carolina as their Captain.  The 14^th was part of Confederate Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg’s Light Division.  He saw action at Seven Days, Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.  Perrin took over command of a brigade just before the Battle of Gettysburg in Confederate Major General William Dorsey Pender’s division.  Perrin was promoted to Brigadier General September 10^th 1863 and given command of an Alabama brigade in Major General Richard H Anderson division.  He fought with this brigade at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864.

When the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House started Perrin said, "I shall come out of this fight a live major general or a dead brigadier."  When Confederate Major General Edward Johnson’s division was overrun at the Mule Shoe the Confederate Third Corps which included Perrin’s brigade was called in.  Perrin led his brigade in a counterattack with his sword in hand.  He was shot from his horse May 12^th 1864, being hit by seven bullets.  He is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Wounded Four Times

Union General Henry Baxter was appointed Brigadier General March 12^th 1863 after being wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Henry Baxter was born September 8^th 1821 in Sidney Plains, Delaware, New York.  His family moved to Jonesville, Michigan in 1831.  When gold fever struck in 1849 Baxter went to California along with 30 other men from the Jonesville area to hunt for the metal.  He returned to Jonesville in 1852 were he settled in and became a miller.  Baxter organized and commanded a militia unit known as the Jonesville Light Guards after moving back.

When the Civil War started Baxter was elected Captain of Company C of the 7^th Michigan Infantry.  He was wounded during the Seven Days Battle.  By the Battle of Antietam, Baxter was a Lieutenant Colonel.  During this battle he was wounded in the leg when Major General John Sedgwick’s division; of which Baxter was a part, was ambushed.  Baxter recuperated in Michigan.  He returned with the command of a regiment in time for the Battle of Fredericksburg.  At Fredericksburg Baxter’s regiment made an amphibious assault, driving Confederate sharpshooters out of the town.  Baxter was wounded again, this time in the left shoulder.  He received an appointment to Brigadier General March 12^th 1863, and the command of a brigade.   At the Battle of Gettysburg Baxter’s men held the right flank of the Union First Corps on the first day of the battle, his troops wiping out most of Confederate Colonel Alfred Iverson’s men.  When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized in March 1864 Baxter kept the command of his brigade, and was assigned to the 2^nd Division of the V Corps.  While fighting at the Battle of the Wilderness he was shot in the left leg; the bullet passing through the leg and killing his horse.  After recuperating this time he led a brigade in the 3^rd Division of the V Corps during the Siege of Petersburg.  Baxter mustered out of service August 24^th 1865.

After the war ended the United Senate awarded Baxter the brevet rank of Major General.  He worked as the Register of Deeds for the State of Michigan before being appointed by President Ulysses S Grant in 1869 to Minister of Honduras.  He returned to Michigan in 1872 and worked in the lumber business until his death on December 30^th 1873 from pneumonia.  He is buried in the Sunset View Cemetery, Jonesville, Michigan.

A good web site to find more is Henry J. Baxter (1821 – 1873)

A Confederate Yankee

Confederate General Richard Griffith was mortally wounded at the Battle of Savage’s Station June 29th 1862 and died the same day.


Richard Griffith was born January 11th 1814 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and after graduating he moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Griffith served with the 1st Mississippi Rifles during the Mexican-American War, and it was then that he became friends with Jefferson Davis. Following the Mexican-American War he became a United States Marshal, and continued to be a member of the Mississippi state militia where he attained the rank of Brigadier General.

At the beginning of the Civil War Griffith became the Colonel of the 12th Mississippi Infantry. He received a promotion to Brigadier General in November 1861, and took command of a Mississippi brigade, a part Confederate Major General John B Magruder’s division in early 1862. It was during a part of the Seven Days Battles on June 29th 1862 that Griffith was mortally wounded. His men were chasing retreating Union soldiers on the Nine Mile road when they ran into some of Major General Edwin Vose Summer’s Union II Corps. Sumner’s men were guarding the Union retreat near Savage’s Station. Griffith was wounded in the thigh during artillery fire by a shell fragment. It is reported that upon being told that his wound was fatal, Griffith said, "If only I could have led my brigade through this battle, I would have died satisfied."

Griffith was moved to Richmond, Virginia where he died of his wounds June 29th 1862. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Father Of Battlefield Medicine

Jonathan Letterman the “Father of Battlefield Medicine”, a Union surgeon during the Civil war was born December 11th 1824.

Jonathan Letterman was born December 11th 1824 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the son of a surgeon. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1849. That same year Letterman excepted a position as assistant surgeon of the United States Army Medical Department. He served during the Seminole Indian Campaign in Florida, at Fort Ripley, Minnesota, Fort Defiance in the New Mexico Territory, Fort Monroe, Virginia, and in California through 1861.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Letterman was assigned to the Union Army of the Potomac, with the rank of Major. Receiving permission from Major General George B McClellan, Letterman reorganized the Medical Service. The Union Army was grossly inefficient in handling casualties from the Seven Days Battle, and Letterman saw the need for changes. By the Battle of Antietam, he had set up regimental aid stations, the use of triage, field hospitals, and an ambulance corps. The system was so proficient that an Act of Congress in March 1864 established it as the Union Armies medical procedure. The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 left over 20,000 Union and Confederate wounded, and the vast medical encampment set up on the George Wolf farm was named for Letterman.

Letterman ended his military service as the Inspector of Hospitals, he resigned in December 1864. He moved to San Francisco, California where he was a coroner until 1872. He wrote a memoir in 1866, “Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac”. Following the death his wife, Letterman became quite sick, and died March 15th 1872 in San Francisco, California. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Stonewall And Lee Called For Him

Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, most commonly called AP Hill was born November 9th 1825.

Ambrose Powell “A. P.” Hill was born November 9th 1825 in Culpeper, Virginia. He graduated 15th out of 38 from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1847. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the 1st US Artillery, and served in the Mexican American War. Hill married Kitty Morgan McClung a young widow in 1859, making him the brother-in-law of cavalry Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.

With the coming of the Civil War, Hill resigned his United States Army commission. He accepted an appointment of Colonel in the 13th Virginia Infantry. He showed talent on the field at the Battle of First Manassas. Hill was promoted to Major General following the Battle of Williamsburg. As a division commander in General Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, Hill’s men distinguished themselves at the Battles of Seven Days, Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg. After the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hill took over command of Thomas J Stonewall Jackson’s corps in May 1863 following Jackson’s wounding. After Jackson’s death Hill received a promotion and command of the Third Corp, which he led for the first time at Gettysburg, although he was sick at the time with some unidentified illness.

Seven days before Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, on April 2nd 1865, Hill was shot and killed as he road the Petersburg line possibly by Union Corporal John W Mauck of the 138th Pennsylvania. He is buried in Richmond Virginia.

He Only Had Three Days

General George Gordon Meade was born December 31st 1815 in Cadiz Spain.

George Gordon Meade was born to American parents December 31st 1815 in Cadiz Spain, where his father had run into some legal and financial issues because of the Napoleonic Wars. Meade received an appointment to West Point and graduated in 1835.
He served one year with the 3rd US Artillery, then left to become a civil engineer. Due to a lack of employment and the Mexican American war he rejoined the army in 1842.

At the start of the Civil War Meade was working on a survey of the Great Lakes. The first summer of the war he was assigned to a division of the Pennsylvania Reserves as a Brigadier General, which after training joined the Army of the Potomac. Meade was wounded in action at Frazier’s Farm during the Seven Days Battle. He had recovered and led his brigade at Second Battle of Bull Run. Three days before the Battle of Gettysburg Meade was placed in command of the Army of Potomac. After arriving on the battle field, he moved his troops masterfully to the threaten areas of the field. He however, received disapproval for letting General Robert E Lee slip away taking his surviving Confederate army back into Virginia.

Meade continue to serve after the ending of the war, helping with Reconstruction in the south. He became the commissioner of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia in 1866, the job he held until his death. Meade died November 6th 1872 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania from pneumonia and old wounds received during the war.

Another web site that might interest you about this subject
Biography of General Meade

The First of the Seven Days

The Battle of Oak Grove in Virginia was the first of the Seven Days’ Battles which began on June 25th 1862.

Oak Grove was an important location for the siege of Richmond during the Peninsula campaign. Major General George B McClellan advanced his line on June 25th 1862 along the Williamsburg Road, with the plan being to get his guns in range of Richmond VA. McClellan’s troops attacked over swampy ground, with darkness ending the fight. The battle wasn’t strong enough to stop the Confederate offensive, the next day Robert E Lee attacked at Mechanicville. The Union troops advanced less that a mile at a cost of 626 dead, wounded and missing, with Joseph Hooker’s division baring the brunt of the attack. The Rebel’s loss was 441.