Samuel Emlen Pittman

Home State: Michigan
Command Billet: Assistant-Adjutant General
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 1st Division, XII Corps

Before the Antietam Campaign:
A Detroit bank employee before the War, he entered service as 1st Lieutenant, Company B, 1st Michigan Infantry on 24 September 1861.1,2

In the Antietam Campaign:
He was General Williams' AAG on the Maryland Campaign, and of the XII Corps when the General succeeded to command of it. He is probably best known as the man who authenticated Colonel Chilton's signature on the found copy of General Lee's Special Orders No. 191 on September 13th. Pittman had been a teller with the Michigan State Bank in Detroit, with which Army paymaster Chilton did business before the War.2

The remainder of the War:
He was formally promoted to Captain and AAG on 22 May 1863. He resigned from service on 7 September 1864.1

After the War:
He was cited by Brevet in March 1865 for "meritorious service during the War" to Major and Lieutenant Colonel (Vols.).1 He was an original Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), Michigan Commandery, and they published his paper on The Operations of General Alpheus S. Williams and his Command in the Chancellorsville Campaign in 1893.

In 1912 he was President of the association that raised funds and commissioned a statue to General Williams, which was installed in 1921 at Central & Inselruhe Avenues in Detroit.3

References, Sources, and other notes:
For further information: Dew, Charles B., How Samuel E. Pittman Validated Leeís ëLost Ordersí Prior to Antietam: A Historical Note, Journal of Southern History, Nov 2004, pp. 865-70

Birth State: MI
Burial Place: Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, MI

Notes

1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Pg. 794 [AotW citation 365]

2 Jones, Wilbur D., Jr., Giants in the Cornfield, Shippenburg (Pa.): White Mane Publishers, 1997 [AotW citation 366]

3 Detroit Historical Society, and Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Historical Museums and Society, Published c. 2001, first accessed 05 January 2006, <http://detroithistorical.com/>, Source page: /collections/vewebsite2/exhibit3/e30027b.htm [AotW citation 367]

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