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A. Pleasonton
(1824 - 1897)
Home State: District Of Columbia
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1844;Class Rank: 7th
Command Billet: Commanding Division
Branch of Service: Cavalry
Unit: Cavalry Division
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY in July 1844 and was brevetted 2nd Lieutenant of the First United States Dragoons. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 3 November 1845 and served in the Mexican War, where he earned brevets for gallantry in action at Palo Alto and at Reseca de la Palma. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 30 September 1849 then was on frontier duty. He was regimental adjutant in 1854-55, promoted to Captain on 3 March 1855, and by 1860 was stationed at Fort Vancouver, WA. He was transferred to the new 2nd US Cavalry on 3 August 1861.
Early in the war he was posted to the defenses of Washington, was promoted to Major on 13 February 1862, then was on the Peninsula Campaign. On 16 July 1862 he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers and given command of the 2nd Brigade of the Cavalry Division of the Army of the Potomac.
On the Campaign
He commanded the Federal Cavalry Division in Maryland.
The rest of the War
He continued in command of the Division at Fredericksburg in December, then commanded then the 1st Division of the Cavalry Corps at Chancellorsville in May 1863. In June 1863 he was promoted to Major General of Volunteers, commanding the Cavalry Corps at Brandy Station and on the Gettysburg campaign. He later commanded the Districts of Central Missouri and St Louis (during Price's raid). He was honored by 4 brevets for his Civil War service.
After the War
He mustered out of the Volunteer service on 15 January 1866 and continued in career Army service as a Major until he resigned on 1 January 1868. By 1870 he was a Collector of US Revenue and lived with Colonel Rufus Ingalls and other US officers in New York City. He was later Commissioner of Internal Revenue in Washington, DC. He was placed on the Army retired list in October 1888.
References & notes
His service basics from Warner1 and Heitman.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 & 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress. Thanks to Jim Buchanan for the poke to improve Pleasonton's profile.
His older brother Augustus James Pleasonton, USMA 1826, was a Pennsylvania militia general and commanded the Philadelphia Home Guard during the Civil War.
Birth
07/07/1824; Washington, DC
Death
02/17/1897; Washington, DC; burial in Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC
1 Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue, Lives of the Union Commanders, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, p. 374 [AotW citation 30859]
2 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, p. 795 [AotW citation 30860]