Richard Henry Brewer

(1834 - 1864)
Home State: Maryland
Command Billet: Brigade Staff Officer
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: Pender's Brigade

Before the Antietam Campaign:
After graduating from West Point (1858) he served as 2nd Lieutenant with the First US Dragoons. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant 26 April 1861, but resigned in May. He was then appointed Lieutenant, CS Cavalry, and assigned to the staff of MGen Polk in October of that year. He commanded "Brewer's Battalion"—originally 4 companies of Mississippi and Alabama cavalry—from December 1861 [ranks of Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and/or Colonel, not verified]. This unit served in Kentucky and Mississippi, and was in Gen Polk's Corps on the Shiloh campaign. He resigned that post in July for health reasons. On 10 August he was accepted as Lieutenant and volunteer aide-de-camp to BGen Pender.

In the Antietam Campaign:
He was on BGen Pender's staff on the Maryland Campaign, and given command of the Brigade while the General was absent during the action at Harpers Ferry. Pender spoke highly of him in his after-action report, and recommended promotion.

The remainder of the War:
In December 1862 Brewer was appointed Major and assistant adjutant-general again to General Polk. In April 1864 he was assigned to Gen Ransom's staff, but was mortally wounded at Piedmont Virginia on 5 June 1864.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Staff service and biographical information from Heitman1 and Krick2; cavalry command from the OR.3

BGen Pender refers to Brewer at least once as "Colonel" on the Campaign—perhaps a reference to his prior service in command of his own Battalion. He is seen as Colonel in a number of reference works on the Maryland Campaign, though he was 1st Lieutenant. It is not clear why Pender selected him to command at Harpers Ferry rather than the senior Colonel in the Brigade, as would have been customary.

Birth Date: 09/22/1834    Place of Birth: Anne Arundel County, MD
College: US Military Academy, West Point, NY    Graduating Year: 1858    Class Rank: 12
Death Date: 06/25/1864

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. 243 [AotW citation 410]

2 Krick, Robert E.L., Staff Officers in Gray; A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pg. 82 [AotW citation 411]

3 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, various cites [AotW citation 412]

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