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Federal (USV)

Captain

Zebulon Blake Blethen

(1827 - 1900)

Home State: Maine

Command Billet: Commanding Detachment

Branch of Service: Cavalry

Unit: 1st Maine Cavalry, Company G

Before Antietam

A 32 year old factory overseer in Lewiston, ME, he enrolled and was commissioned First Lieutenant, Company G, First Maine Cavalry on 31 October 1861. He was injured on being thrown from a horse in April 1862 and was back on duty that summer. He was promoted to Captain on 14 August 1862.

On the Campaign

He commanded his Company as a detachment in Maryland, assigned as headquarters escort, Ninth Army Corps on 7 September 1862. He was with General Reno at his death at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September.

The rest of the War

He was discharged for disability on 1 December 1862. He returned to service, commissioned First Lieutenant, Company H, First District of Columbia Cavalry on 1 June 1863 and saw action around Petersburg, VA in 1864. He was discharged 15 January 1865.

References & notes

Service from the State of Maine1 and his Compiled Service Records via the Historical Data Systems database. Details from a sketch in A.J. Blethen's Genealogy of the Blethen Family (1911). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

Birth

11/13/1827; Lisbon, ME

Death

03/20/1900; burial in North Auburn Cemetery, North Auburn, ME

Notes

1 State of Maine, Adjutant General's Office, and John L. Hodsdon, AG, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Maine for the Year ending December 31, 1862, Augusta: Stevens and Sayward, Printers to the State, 1863 [AotW citation 21104]

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