Henry I Zinn

(1834 - 1862)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 130th Pennsylvania Infantry

see his Battle Report

Before the Antietam Campaign:
A schoolteacher living in Allen, PA before the War, he mustered in the 7th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps/36th Regiment on 28 May 1861 as First Lieutenant, Company H. He was promoted to Captain of the Company on 28 June, but resigned 30 November. He took a commission as Captain of Company F of the 130th Infantry on 16 August 1862 and was appointed Colonel of the regiment the next day.

He saw action with them at Groveton and Chantilly prior to the Maryland Campaign.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He commanded the Regiment in action in the Sunken Road and his horse was killed under him there.

The remainder of the War:
In his after-battle report on Fredericksburg on December 18, 1862, Gen. William H. French (commanding Division) said:

I call to the special notice of the general commanding the gallant conduct of Col. H. I. Zinn, One hundred and thirtieth Pennsylvania Volunteers. This officer, conspicuous for his valor at Antietam, was killed while carrying the colors of his regiment to the front, after the standard-bearer had fallen.1

References, Sources, and other notes:
Military service data is from Bates2, with birth and burial information from genealogist Hugh F. Clifford's Ancestors and Descendants of Conrad Zinn. The photograph here is from a cased photo owned by John D. Hemminger as reproduced in Fredericksburg3.

Birth Date: 12/08/1834 Place of Birth: York County, PA
Death Date: 12/13/1862 Death Place: Fredericksburg, VA Burial Place: Mt. Zion Cemetery, Monroe Twp., Cumberland Co., PA

Notes

1 US War Department, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), 128 vols., Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1880-1901, Series 1, Volume XXI (Ser. 31), pg. 288 [AotW citation 931]

2 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871 [AotW citation 929]

3 Mathless, Paul, editor, Voices of the Civil War: Fredericksburg, Richmond: Time-Life Books, 1997, pg. 91 [AotW citation 930]

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