Samuel L Croasdale

(1837 - 1862)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 128th Pennsylvania Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
A lawyer in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, he was in three-month service in Company I of the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteers--the First Defenders--under Captain WWH Davis (later Colonel of the 104th) in April 1861. Afterward, in the summer of 1862, he raised and was Captain of a Company in Doylestown. They mustered into service as Company C, 128th Pennsylvania Infantry on 14 August and Croasdale was appointed Colonel of the Regiment on the 25th. They reported to Washington DC and, with very little training or drill, were almost immediately off on the Maryland Campaign.1,2

In the Antietam Campaign:
"Following his advance through East Woods and into the Cornfield [early on 17 September], and while in the act of giving his orders, and bringing his command into position, Colonel Croasdale was killed instantly, and soon afterward Lt. Colonel Hammersly was severely wounded."2

References, Sources, and other notes:
Image above from a CDV kindly provided by Scott D. Hann, from his collection. Additional biographical and service details from Bates' Martial Deeds.3

More on the Web:
See a short feature on Croasdale and the knoll named for him from Jack Trammell for the Washington Times.

Birth Date: 08/23/1837 Place of Birth: Hartsville, PA
Death Date: 09/17/1862 Death Place: Sharpsburg, MD Burial Place: Doylestown Cemetery, Doylestown, PA

Notes

1 Fiske, John, and James Grant Wilson, editors, Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, 6 vols., New York City: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889, Vol. 2, pg. 11 [AotW citation 437]

2 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871 [AotW citation 438]

3 Bates, Samuel Penniman, Martial Deeds Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia: T. H. Davis & Co., 1876, pg. 440 [AotW citation 696]

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